LG 27G850A Review: 4K 240Hz IPS Black Monitor With 1080p 480Hz Dual Mode

The LG 27G850A is the first 27″ 4K 240Hz LED-backlit monitor available. It features an IPS Black panel, DisplayHDR 600, hardware calibration support, 1080p 480Hz Dual Mode and more!

Image Quality

The LG UltraGear 27G850A is based on a Nano IPS Black panel, which boasts a static contrast ratio of 2,000:1, providing you with noticeably deeper blacks than that of typical IPS monitors with around 1,000:1 contrast ratio.

IPS glow, however, is still present. It’s an expected drawback of all IPS panels characterized as visible glowing around the corners of the screen at certain viewing angles. Luckily, it’s mainly noticeable when viewing dark content in a dark room, so it’s manageable.

The panel boasts 178° wide viewing angles, ensuring that the image remains consistent and accurate regardless of the angle you’re looking at the screen.

Further, it supports 10-bit color depth via dithering (8-bit + 2-bit FRC) for smooth gradients without banding, and has an exceptional 99% DCI-P3 gamut coverage for vibrant colors.

You’ll also find dedicated sRGB and DCI-P3 color modes with excellent factory calibration, which makes the monitor fit for professional color-critical work right out of the box. While there’s no dedicated Adobe RGB mode, the display does cover 90 – 95% of that color space, so it’s suitable for print work after calibration.

Hardware calibration is supported as well, in case you want to fine-tune the screen’s accuracy using a colorimeter and store the corrections on the monitor itself instead on an ICC profile.

Moving on, the LG 27G850A monitor supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) and has VESA’s DisplayHDR 600 certification.

While it can get very bright (450-nits in SDR, 750-nits in HDR), it has only 8 dimming zones, which aren’t effective at creating a proper HDR image. In comparison, some 27″ 4K monitors that offer a true HDR viewing experience have a mini LED backlight with FALD (full-array local dimming) and 576 or 1152 dimming zones.

So, even though HDR content can benefit from the increased brightness, color depth and proper color gamut mapping, details in shadows and highlights of most scenes will be lost. Therefore, you may prefer to have HDR disabled.

The 4K UHD resolution on the 27″ viewable screen of the monitor provides you with a high pixel density of 163 PPI (pixels per inch). As a result, you get incredibly sharp details and text. However, it is also quite demanding on the GPU, so you’ll need a decent graphics card for high frame rates in video games.

Performance

The LG 27G850A has a maximum refresh rate of 240Hz at 4K UHD and 480Hz at 1920×1080. By pressing the button beneath the bottom bezel of the screen, you can switch between the two modes.

Now, while the 480Hz refresh rate provides you with smoother motion and lower input latency (~2.5ms at 240Hz, ~1.5ms at 480Hz), the monitor’s pixel response time speed isn’t quite fast enough to keep up with such a high refresh rate as there’s minor ghosting behind fast-moving objects.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the 1080p resolution results in a lower pixel density and the image is a bit blurry since the monitor isn’t displaying its native resolution.

At 240Hz, on the other hand, the pixels are fast enough, so there’s no ghosting in fast-paced games.

So, if you’re not too sensitive to ghosting, the 480Hz mode can still be very useful due to the lower input lag and more fluid motion. For those who can’t tolerate ghosting but want a 480Hz refresh rate, they should consider an OLED or an eSports TN monitor instead.

There are four response time overdrive modes: Off, Normal, Faster and Fastest. We recommend sticking with the Faster mode at both 240Hz and 480Hz for optimal performance.

The monitor also supports variable refresh rate for tear-free gameplay up to 240FPS at 4K or 480FPS at 1080p. It has both NVIDIA’s G-SYNC Compatible and AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro certifications, as well as HDMI 2.1 VRR support.

Thanks to its IPS panel, VRR performance is stable without any brightness flickering issues that are usually associated with VA and OLED panels.

Features

At the back of the monitor, there’s a directional joystick for quick and easy navigation through the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu.

Apart from the typical image adjustment tools, such as brightness and contrast, the LG 27G850A offers some advanced settings, including 6-axis hue and saturation, color temperature fine-tuning in 500K increments, sharpness, automatic input detection and four gamma modes.

Useful gaming features include Black Stabilizer (improves visibility in dark scenes), crosshair overlays, a refresh rate tracker and aspect ratio control (full wide, original, just scan and a 24″ simulation mode).

You can also use LG’s Switch desktop application to adjust all OSD-related settings using your mouse and keyboard.

The monitor also supports LG’s Dual Controller application, allowing you to control two PCs connected to the monitor via one set of keyboard and mouse, but both PCs must be connected to the same network and have the app installed.

Design & Connectivity

The stand of the monitor is robust and offers height adjustment up to 110mm, +/- 30° swivel, 90° pivot, -5°/15° tilt and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility.

The screen has a matte anti-glare coating that’s efficient at diffusing reflections but adds a bit of graininess to the image, and there’s customizable RGB lighting at the back of the monitor.

Connectivity options include DisplayPort 2.1 (with UHBR 13.5 Transmission Mode, so DSC is required regardless if you have DP 2.1 or DP 1.4 on your GPU), two HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps bandwidth, a headphone jack with DTS Headphone: X support and a dual-USB 3.0 hub (two downstream and one upstream).

The monitor also supports the 4K 120Hz mode with HDR and VRR on the PS5 and compatible Xbox consoles.

Price & Similar Monitors

The LG 27G850A goes for $730, which is reasonable considering it’s the only monitor available with these specifications.

However, we find it a bit too expensive considering that it doesn’t offer proper HDR image quality yet you can find mini LED and OLED monitors in this price range.

Therefore, we can only recommend the LG 27G850A if you’re not interested in HDR but just want an excellent SDR display.

Visit our comprehensive and always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide for more options and information.

Conclusion

Overall, the LG 27G850A is an excellent premium SDR monitor thanks to its Nano IPS Black panel, high refresh rate, fast response time, smooth VRR performance and plenty of useful features.

It’s a bit expensive given that it doesn’t have proper HDR support, so if you want to enjoy HDR content, you should consider a mini LED or an OLED display in this price range instead.

Specifications

Screen Size	27-inch
Resolution	3840×2160 (Ultra HD)
Panel Type	IPS Black
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	4K 240Hz, 1080p 480Hz
Response Time	1ms (GtG)
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync Premium Pro, G-SYNC Compatible, HDMI 2.1 VRR (48-240Hz, 48-480Hz)
Ports	DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR 13.5), 2x HDMI 2.1 (48 Gbps
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, 2x USB-A 3.0, USB-B
Brightness	450 cd/m²
Brightness (HDR)	750 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	2000:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC) 99% DCI-P3
HDR	VESA DisplayHDR 600
Local Dimming	Edge-lit 8 zones
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)