LG 34UC80-B Review - Quick Verdict
The LG 34UC80-B is a 34″ curved gaming monitor that has a widescreen quad-HD resolution. It comes with a vibrant color profile and covers more than 99% of the sRGB color gamut. The 5M:1 contrast ratio makes this display great for media consumption. Gaming on this is a dream, thanks to the curvature which offers an immersive experience. For the price, the competitors offer far less, and that’s why this LG display is a bang for the buck.
- Vibrant picture quality and covers more than 99% of sRGB color spectrum
- Curvature provides an immersive experience
- More feature-rich than competitors on the same price range
- Price can be a little high for some
Author's Rating
The LG 34UC80-B is one of the most captivating displays you can find on the market. With an impressive 34″ display, this monitor is making itself a grand suitor for gaming. There are not many ultra-wide monitors on the market that are dedicated to gaming. This one here surely wants to fill that space.
The price of this display is slightly high. Being a widescreen QHD display, you should’ve guessed that already. So what does this monitor bring to the table? How good is the performance of this display for gaming, media, and other categories? In this full review, we answer these questions and more.
Design
There is a lot to talk about the design of the LG 34UC80-B.
The first impression of this monitor is excellent. It comes in a lovely shade of black. Certain parts of the monitor are glossier than the other. Overall, you get a very premium-looking display on your hands.
The aluminum stand has a gentle curve to it. It is sturdy and is made of durable aluminum that can last a long time. Even with a bit of a push, you can see that the monitor doesn’t wobble a lot which is pretty good.
Most monitors these days do not come with proper adjustments. But the LG 34UC80-B is not one of them. You can tilt this display forward and backward to a certain degree. You can also adjust the height of the monitor (to about 120mm) to suit your needs.
On the front, you can see that the screen is surrounded by very small bezels. This is good as you can now get a more immersive visual experience. The bezel on the bottom is slightly more prominent as it holds the LG logo in place.
When you look at the monitor from the sides, you can see that this is not a slim display. The LG 34UC80-B comes with dimensions of 32.2 x 9.4 x 22.4 inches and weighs 18.3 pounds. The monitor does take up some space as it is bigger than your average display.
The monitor comes with VESA support, so you can mount this display on your wall if you want to.
LG 34UC80-B Specs and Features
The LG 34UC80-B is a 34″ curved display that comes with a curvature of 1800R. This is a very impressive curve and guarantees you an immersive experience. The widescreen display comes with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 pixels and an aspect ratio of 21:9.
We’ve to talk about this aspect ratio. Gone are the days where they shot movies in 16:9 aspect ratio. Now, most content makers make their films in the 18:9 or 21:9 aspect ratio. When you see those movies on this display, it fills up the whole screen and offers a unique and brilliant visual experience.
The LG 34UC80-B offers a pixel density of 110PPI. For a screen this big, this is a very good pixel density. You are going to look at your screen from a reasonable distance, so this PPI will serve you well. The clarity of the images is excellent, thanks to all the pixels. If you love reading content online, then say hello to crisp text which will spoil you for sure.
The LG 34UC80-B comes with a split screen option that can turn the display into multiple windows at once. You can have two windows or more at the same time with the click of a button. Yes, this can be achieved inside Windows itself, but having this natively also makes it available for other operating systems as well.
Another nice touch here is the inclusion of an on-screen control window. In this window, you can control all the essential stuff like volume, brightness, split screen, picture more presets, and other settings. Instead of meddling with button, you can now use your mouse to set things up which is undoubtedly a move in the right direction.
Performance
With all these fancy specs and features, you’d expect this monitor to perform like a boss out of the box. It does, but there’s more to it. With a max brightness of 300 nits, you get excellent picture quality. Even in a well-lit room, you can easily see what’s going on the screen.
The monitor comes with a contrast ratio of 5000000:1 which is very impressive. With this contrast ratio, the blacks are deep, and you can enjoy various shades of gray which tells you how good the panel is.
Talking about the panel, we have an IPS one here. Being an IPS display, you get fantastic viewing angles. There is a bit of IPS glow on the display, but it doesn’t affect the viewing experience much. You might also notice some backlight bleeding, but that’s negligible at best.
Dead pixels are a common occurrence in gaming monitors. Luckily, we weren’t able to spot any on this display. Even if you find any on the screen, you can ship them for a replacement which is nice on LG’s behalf.
The colors on this display are very accurate as the display supports more the 99% of the sRGB color gamut. With this color accuracy, you can do professional color-oriented work on this display. You can do fashion designing, edit photos and videos, and much more on this display.
Gaming on the LG 34UC80-B
The monitor comes with a refresh rate of 75Hz which is slightly better than the 60Hz most monitors ship with. With this refresh rate, you get a smoother gaming performance on the cards.
The response time on this display is 5ms which is not that great, to be honest. Since we have an IPS panel, we could get away without having a lot of ghosting. In fact, we didn’t notice much motion blur when playing some fast-paced games.
The display also comes with support for AMD FreeSync. With AMD FreeSync, you get a more fluid gaming experience as the refresh rate of both the monitor and the GPU are matched. This feature reduces tearing and any kind of motion blur.
Overall, the gaming performance is pretty good. If you’re a serious gamer, you should be getting good kicks out of this display barring the occasional backlight bleed.
LG 34UC80-B Connectivity
The LG 34UC80-B comes with several connectivity options.
For quickly connecting your desktop or laptop, there are two HDMI ports. There is also a display port which can be handy as well. By their side, you will also find a jack for headphones which is nice to have.
There is a couple of USB 3.0 type A ports. The USB 3.0 quick charge functionality is pretty sweet. With the help of the USB 3.0 quick charge port at the back, you can charge your smartphones and other devices at a remarkable speed. If you don’t have a quick charger lying around, just plug the device at the back of your monitor.
Bottomline
When it comes to gaming monitors, the picture quality is probably the deciding factor. The LG 34UC80-B curved 34″ monitor comes with a widescreen QHD resolution and a 21:9 aspect ratio. Having a 5M:1 contrast ratio gives you deep blacks and bright whites. The ability to provide so many shades of gray is a good thing to have.
The display is not without any cons. Out of the box, the settings are not the best. You don’t get any integrated speakers as well.
For the price, the LG 34UC80-B brings in more features than its competitors. You get 5ms response time, on-screen display, USB 3.0 quick charge, AMD FreeSync, and more. If you’re looking for a reliable gaming monitor that will surpass your expectations, then this one here might be it.