Review: LG UltraGear 45 OLED 45GS96QB gaming monitor — big, beautiful and curved

I own a 38-inch, curved gaming monitor that I bought in a moment of weakness because I needed it.  It is from a good brand and it is really good to use, not just for gaming but also for productivity work.  

Now though I have a new need.  An LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor.  Even before I turned it on I loved the design and the styling of it.  Once turned on, I was blown away and now, much to the dismay of my CFO, I’m going to have to get one. 

Read on to find out why.

Specs and display

As you can see below, the monitor we received to review is stacked.  The OLED display is a 3440 x 1440pixel resolution which some folks have issues with, considering the 39-inch version has the same resolution.  I didn’t have any issues viewing the 45-inch display at this UWQHD resolution.  Sure, it would be nice to be bigger but even getting extremely close to the monitor I was unable to discern specific pixels.

DCI-P3 is 98.5% which is good but not perfect.  Gaming monitors often have a lower value here than phone monitors so you cannot compare the two.  I found the colour reproduction to be incredibly accurate while at the same time having true colours that popped.

There is LG calibration software that your PC will offer to download for you, if you wish to improve how the factory calibration is set.  I have no issues with the calibration and quite like it actually, although I did play around with the gamma a bit to find something that I thought looked better.

Refresh rate is a decent 240Hz which is also not the highest refresh rate around but still pretty good.  I did not have any issues with the refresh rate during any and all games.  It responded perfectly fast enough for me.

The connectivity is another place where this monitor is better than my current monitor.  With 2 x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1 DisplayPort, two downstream USB 3.0 ports and a 4pole headphone out (DTS HP:X) port.  While it is strange that LG has included a USB Type-C port which can recharge connected devices at up to 65W and supports DisplayPort Alt Mode but have declined to make it compliant with Thunderbolt 3 or 4 standards.

My previous LG monitor had Thunderbolt 3 so it is surprising this expensive monitor with so many other ports did not include Thunderbolt.  Sure, Thunderbolt is not all that impressive for gaming, but it is great for productivity uses.  I was able to use the USB-C port for my productivity uses but if you push things harder and use multiple displays etc then you may find this isn’t enough.

Inside the box LG include some good quality cables — 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x USB-C and 1 x DisplayPort. These are long enough to reach most PCs, two metres in this case. The monitor also supports VESA mounting and is actually only 9kg without the stand so most decent mounting brackets should be able to hold it. LG has moved the port locations on this from their productivity monitor locations and as such the mount won’t interfere with the cables.

The LG 45GS96QB does include 2 x 7W speakers which were actually pretty good.  Personally I prefer to use normal headphones or a gaming headset while gaming and listening to music so it means little to me but for a quick solution if you don’t have headphones handy they are pretty good.

Design and hardware

The LG UltraGear OLED 45GS96QB has a very sharp curvature, 800R to be exact.  This means that the centre of focus is close to the display – 800mm to be exact.  This is a very steep curvature but that is deliberate.  

This is a gaming monitor and most people sit fairly close to their PC monitor while gaming and everyone wants an immersive experience, so the curvature is 800R.  It feels like it is wrapping around you and I’m here for it, for gaming.

For gaming it is great as you can really put yourself inside the game and feel fully immersed into it thanks to this curvature.

For productivity you may struggle if you are not at the right eye level etc.  The curvature is so large that sometimes lines can seem a bit crooked but for my type of creativity, some basic image editing and word processing, it is just fine.  I mean, the curve is there but it doesn’t negatively affect your experience.

The next impressive thing about the monitor, aside from the big, beautiful display and vibrant colours, is just how thin it is.  It looks to mostly be about the thickness of a laptop display.  Speaking of laptop displays, the bezels on this monitor are similar to what you’d find on a good laptop.

There is RGB lighting for the button underneath and on the rear of the monitor as well.  LG call this their Hexagon Lighting.  You can change it within the settings to a range of colours LG has selected or have it cycle through all the colours.

Performance

I tested the monitor on a range of games, some of them a bit old now but I’m old so when I find a game I often stick with it for a while: Battlefield 1, Red Dead Redemption 2, Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader, Dakar Desert Rally and Cyberpunk 2077.

Taking into account my slow reflexes, the gaming was astonishing.  The 800R curvature might look very aggressive but when gaming it really puts you within the game extremely well.  I love it.

The refresh rate of 240Hz is easily good enough for me and although there are occasional monitors that have higher refresh rates, none of them are OLEDs with a large, immersive 800R curvature.  The display also has a GTG of just 0.03ms which is really good for  a monitor such as this.

Gaming on this monitor is an experience.

Burn in?

Most people have some ‘burn-in’ concern with OLED monitors and while I can’t dissuade you of this concern from a short two or three week review LG has implemented a couple of features to hopefully prevent that.

Within the settings LG has included an ‘OLED Screen Move’ option which can be set to off (if you don’t believe in screen burn in), Mode 1, 2, 3 and 4 which all “move the screen slightly at regular intervals to prevent the image sticking on the display panel.”

There are also OLED Screen Saver and OLED Image Cleaning options too to help extend the life of the OLED panel.

Final Verdict

Now I can’t say whether this monitor is worth it to anyone, and at a tick under $3,000AUD it is certainly a significant outlay. For me that may be a bit too far but for many, those who are serious about gaming, then it may not be. What I& can speak to is the quality of the monitor.

The LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor is big and bold. The OLED display is bright and extremely colourful — but you can calibrate it to just how you prefer it. It is incredibly thin with a tiny bezel and an extreme 800R curvature. All these result in an extremely immersive gaming experience. It really puts you in the thick of the action with performance to keep you there.

The LG UltraGear 45 OLED (45GS96QB) gaming monitor is available now at LG.com/au and leading retailers for RRP $2,999AU. For more information head on over to the LG website.