LG 27UL850 UHD Monitor white uniformity issue?

[Nixir]

First time buying an IPS monitor, been using cheap 1080p TN panels till now, happy with everything except the uneven whiteness across the screen:





Read a lot about "IPS lottery", wondering if I should settle for this copy or keep trying?

Thanks.

 

[Austinian]

First time buying an IPS monitor, been using cheap 1080p TN panels till now, happy with everything except the uneven whiteness across the screen:



Read a lot about "IPS lottery", wondering if I should settle for this copy or keep trying?

I think that to some extent buying any monitor except perhaps the fanciest will be a 'panel lottery', whether VA, IPS, or TN.

Having said that, my LG 27UL600 set to a pure white background looked a lot more uniform than that.

Is there any chance that part of your image is blown by overexposure? Looking at the DPR image, it doesn't appear to be.

And what brightness is the monitor set at? Mine's about 80 cd/m2.

 

[Nixir]

Everything is at the default factory setting with the Rec.709 picture mode, output from a Macbook Pro over USB-C, with the default LG HDR 4K color setting.

This is my first "serious" external monitor purchase, been doing most of my photography/graphics work on the MBP and only decided to upgrade due to being stuck home nowadays...

Just unsure if it's worth the effort to play the "lottery", been reading quite a few stories (on this forum and others) of the (potentially) long and stressful journeys some people went through.

First time buying an IPS monitor, been using cheap 1080p TN panels till now, happy with everything except the uneven whiteness across the screen:



Read a lot about "IPS lottery", wondering if I should settle for this copy or keep trying?

I think that to some extent buying any monitor except perhaps the fanciest will be a 'panel lottery', whether VA, IPS, or TN.

Having said that, my LG 27UL600 set to a pure white background looked a lot more uniform than that.

Is there any chance that part of your image is blown by overexposure? And what brightness is the monitor set at? Mine's about 80 cd/m2.

 

[Simon Garrett]

First time buying an IPS monitor, been using cheap 1080p TN panels till now, happy with everything except the uneven whiteness across the screen:



Read a lot about "IPS lottery", wondering if I should settle for this copy or keep trying?

I think that to some extent buying any monitor except perhaps the fanciest will be a 'panel lottery', whether VA, IPS, or TN.

Having said that, my LG 27UL600 set to a pure white background looked a lot more uniform than that.

Is there any chance that part of your image is blown by overexposure? And what brightness is the monitor set at? Mine's about 80 cd/m2.

One can obsess a bit about such things.

I have an Eizo C2420 which is very uniform, and a Benq SW271 which, with a white display as you show, next to the Eizo is visibly less uniform, and yes, I can measure that it's less uniform with my colorimiter.

However, I have tried comparing probably 50 or 60 images side-by-side on the two monitors and on not one could I detect the greater non-uniformity on the Benq, even on images with large areas of plain blue sky.

If you have the chance to look at a range of typical images, that might be a better test than plain white screens of whether the non uniformity is an issue for you.

--
Simon

 

[Nixir]

*nods*

Tbh I didn't even notice this white uniformity issue till the 2nd week of owning this monitor, but now that I know it's there I see it all the time on websites, or when working with text documents...

I think what's really bugging me, psychologically, is the fact that my old 24 inch Dell has better uniformity, and costed about 1/3 the price... albeit it's a downgrade is every other aspect, is a TN panel and has much thicker bezels.

First time buying an IPS monitor, been using cheap 1080p TN panels till now, happy with everything except the uneven whiteness across the screen:



Read a lot about "IPS lottery", wondering if I should settle for this copy or keep trying?

I think that to some extent buying any monitor except perhaps the fanciest will be a 'panel lottery', whether VA, IPS, or TN.

Having said that, my LG 27UL600 set to a pure white background looked a lot more uniform than that.

Is there any chance that part of your image is blown by overexposure? And what brightness is the monitor set at? Mine's about 80 cd/m2.

One can obsess a bit about such things.

I have an Eizo C2420 which is very uniform, and a Benq SW271 which, with a white display as you show, next to the Eizo is visibly less uniform, and yes, I can measure that it's less uniform with my colorimiter.

However, I have tried comparing probably 50 or 60 images side-by-side on the two monitors and on not one could I detect the greater non-uniformity on the Benq, even on images with large areas of plain blue sky.

If you have the chance to look at a range of typical images, that might be a better test than plain white screens of whether the non uniformity is an issue for you.

 

[Nixir]

There was no visible damage on the packaging and everything looked fine...

I'm retiring my old Dell and will be using this as my primary screen, the un-uniformity is def noticeable when browsing web (it's what lead me to this "research" in the first place), guess it's ips-lottery time after all...

*nods*

Tbh I didn't even notice this white uniformity issue till the 2nd week of owning this monitor, but now that I know it's there I see it all the time on websites, or when working with text documents...

I think what's really bugging me, psychologically, is the fact that my old 24 inch Dell has better uniformity, and costed about 1/3 the price... albeit it's a downgrade is every other aspect, is a TN panel and has much thicker bezels.

First time buying an IPS monitor, been using cheap 1080p TN panels till now, happy with everything except the uneven whiteness across the screen:



Read a lot about "IPS lottery", wondering if I should settle for this copy or keep trying?

I think that to some extent buying any monitor except perhaps the fanciest will be a 'panel lottery', whether VA, IPS, or TN.

Having said that, my LG 27UL600 set to a pure white background looked a lot more uniform than that.

Is there any chance that part of your image is blown by overexposure? And what brightness is the monitor set at? Mine's about 80 cd/m2.

One can obsess a bit about such things.

I have an Eizo C2420 which is very uniform, and a Benq SW271 which, with a white display as you show, next to the Eizo is visibly less uniform, and yes, I can measure that it's less uniform with my colorimiter.

However, I have tried comparing probably 50 or 60 images side-by-side on the two monitors and on not one could I detect the greater non-uniformity on the Benq, even on images with large areas of plain blue sky.

If you have the chance to look at a range of typical images, that might be a better test than plain white screens of whether the non uniformity is an issue for you.

 

[Nixir]

Thanks for the input guys.

After spending this whole day trying to ignore it, and failing, I decided to go for an exchange and get into the "lottery" game.

I know it's probably psychological (since I haven't noticed it till last night), but now my eyes/brain simply can't unsee it... It's not visible at all when doing photo editing, but since it's my primary monitor now, I also need my webrowser/word docs background to look "evenly white-ish" as much as possible.

 

[Austinian]

Thanks for the input guys.

After spending this whole day trying to ignore it, and failing, I decided to go for an exchange and get into the "lottery" game.

I know it's probably psychological (since I haven't noticed it till last night), but now my eyes/brain simply can't unsee it... It's not visible at all when doing photo editing, but since it's my primary monitor now, I also need my webrowser/word docs background to look "evenly white-ish" as much as possible.

If you can't ignore it, that's the right thing to do. You'll always keep being annoyed, and a good monitor is likely to last a long time. I'm like that with dead/stuck pixels; even if they're hard to see at most times, I know they're there and it bothers me.

Good luck with your next monitor.

 

[CW2]

Hello - sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I have just received my 27UL850 and I'm suffering from similar white uniformity issues.



Can I please ask whether you eventually had success with this model or went for something else?

 

[CAcreeks]

Doesn't look too bad to me.

How did you get a picture of a white cow in a snowstorm?

I tried this with a gray background. Is it worse with white? My cellphone (Motorola One) made it look worse than it does to my eyes. It'd be a waste to post. Similar to yours but not quite as non-uniform.

 

[Austinian]

Hello - sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I have just received my 27UL850 and I'm suffering from similar white uniformity issues.



Can I please ask whether you eventually had success with this model or went for something else?

Really good uniformity generally requires a pricey monitor, a uniformity compensation function (which can reduce contrast ratio) and/or good luck in the 'panel lottery'.

Does this have a noticeable effect on your real-world images? If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Simon Garrett]

Doesn't look too bad to me.

How did you get a picture of a white cow in a snowstorm?

I thought it was a black cat in a coal cellar, and then inverted.

As Austinian said (and I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread), a degree of lack of uniformity doesn't matter in real images. Try looking at images with plain areas such as blue sky and see if you can see the same lack of uniformity that you get in the white-cow-in-a-snowstorm image. If not, no problem. If it's still a problem, you might have to pay more for your monitor.

 

[Austinian]

Hello - sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I have just received my 27UL850 and I'm suffering from similar white uniformity issues.



Can I please ask whether you eventually had success with this model or went for something else?

Another thing I should mention is that even IPS monitors don't have perfect viewing angles; if your photo was taken close-up, the effective 'viewing angle' of the sides of the monitor will be more than the central view.

My LG 32UD89-W with pure white background has no noticeable-to-me nonuniformity from my normal viewing distance, but close-up it shows darkening on the sides.

 

[Jayzh]

Just purchased an Acer CB282K. The uniformity with pure white screen decreases when the brightness decreases. Noticeable around 28% (eco mode) and lower. It is more like four slight blue and yellow vertical tint variations spread on the screen.

Found one "workaround" for this. Set the brightness to the maxium locally or with ClickMonitorDDC - these two methods will actually affect power consumption, then use another app like CareUeyes to dim the monitor. This way the monitor will achieve more uniformity even after being dimmed to 25% or less. The downside is the hydro bill.

Still hesitating about exchange. Will wait for another PC with 4k capability to arrive to test again. But I guess it is the characteristic of the panel itself.

 

[Jayzh]

Does this report look fine in terms of color/brightness uniformity? I don't know anything about caliberation and don't know if I should trust my own eyes, which may be too dull or too picky....

 

[Pugilares]

Hello - sorry to resurrect such an old thread but I have just received my 27UL850 and I'm suffering from similar white uniformity issues.



Can I please ask whether you eventually had success with this model or went for something else?

What I see here is brighter center, darker sides. Color around the center is a bit pinky and more yellowish-brownish towards botch sides. BUT it seems to me that there is good symmetry. I believe you will not find better panel I would accept this one and happy. What I get all the time is blueish left side, yellowish right side and also typically towards the right edge its much darker than toward the left side. Thas is annoying. If it's symmetrical then is normal for my taste.