LG's new 45-inch 5K2K uber OLED monitor goes into mass production and will land soon on a desk near you. For $2,000
Back at CES, we reported on the new LG UltraGear 45GX950A. It's a 45-inch OLED gaming monitor with a 5K2K resolution that promises much better pixel density than previous large-scale ultrawide gaming monitors based on LG's OLED panel tech.
Now LG has announced the UltraGear 45GX950A has gone into mass production. While there's no news on a precise availability date, it's good to hear the monitor is now being built at scale. There's been a tendency in recent years for large time delays between new high-end monitor announcements and actual on-sale dates, but it seems like this won't be the case for the 45GX950A.
As for specs, LG still hasn't dished all of the details. Our last report covered the 5,120 by 2,160 pixel resolution and 125 DPI pixel density. That's much better than a 108 DPI 1440p 27 incher, but not quite on par with, say, a 32-inch 4K monitor, the latter coming in at around 140 DPI. Meanwhile, it's miles better than the awful 80 DPI of existing 45-inch ultrawide OLEDs with 3,440 by 1,440 pixels.
LG also mentioned the usual 0.03 ms response at CES, along with 165 Hz refresh. To that we can now add 1,300 nits peak brightness, presumably on a three percent window. LG added that the monitor will also offer a 330 Hz FHD mode. That actually means 2,560 by 1,080 and thus no black bars either side of the panel.
Frustratingly, LG still isn't quoting full-screen brightness or expanding on the generation of OLED panel in the 45GX950A. If the monitor used fancy new tech with much improved full-screen brightness, we suspect LG would be shouting about it. For that reason, we suspect it will make do with LG's existing 3rd Gen WOLED rather than the new, much brighter panel tech announced at CES.
LG has said that this new technology, known as Primary RGB Tandem, "will gradually be applied to monitors," but didn't put a time frame on that process. Primary RGB Tandem reorganizes the existing 3-Stack structure of two blue layers and a single red, green, and yellow layer in existing WOLED panels into a 4-Stack structure made up of four layers featuring two blue elements and independent layers of red and green elements.
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LG claims, "this significantly improves screen brightness, color reproduction, and energy efficiency." Again, it's not absolutely clear that the new 5K2K LG UltraGear 45GX950A doesn't benefit from this, but sadly we do not believe that to be the case.
Nevertheless, the 5K2K 45-inch form factor sounds like a fantastic high-end solution for both gaming and general computing. So, we can't wait to get our hands on one. Watch this space.
As for the sordid matter of money, the fixed-curve 45GX950A has an MSRP of $1,999. There's also a bendable 45GX990A model that hasn't been priced up. But that sports motors to adjust the panel curve between flat and a tight 900R, so bet on something like $2,500.
Best gaming monitor: Pixel-perfect panels.Best high refresh rate monitor: Screaming quick.Best 4K monitor for gaming: High-res only.Best 4K TV for gaming: Big-screen 4K PC gaming.
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