LG 29EA93 Ultrawide Display - Rev. 1.09
by Chris Heinonen on December 11, 2012 1:20 AM ESTLG 29EA93—Display Uniformity
Display Uniformity is where I am really worried about the LG 29EA93. It has a wider panel than anything typically produced, which means a whole new backlighting system than has been used before; that can easily lead to irregularities compared to a 16:9 panel. The ANSI uniformity test using a 5x5 grid was truly revealing when looking at the white uniformity on the 29EA93.
With the center set to 200 nits, the average of the surrounding zones was a very nice 200 nits, giving you a far more uniform center of the image than any monitor I’ve used to date. The outside edge has an average light level of 193 nits, making it far brighter than most monitors outside edges. Overall the average brightness for all 25 zones was 195 nits, which is the best result in quite some time. For white uniformity, the 29EA93 is truly a cut above.
Black uniformity is excellent as well, with only a couple spots that are a bit brighter than other zones, but an average result across the display of 0.19 nits with a center of 0.186 nits. The two lower corners have a bit of backlight bleed that is visible when a black screen is up and they measure the worst of anywhere on the screen. Overall, even when the different ratio isn’t accounted for, the 29EA93 scores quite well here.
Contrast uniformity is just excellent on the whole. Only one zone out of 25 falls below 950, and 22 of the zones are above 1000:1. The average contrast ratio for the whole screen is 1046:1 and is a really superb overall number for an IPS panel. I would say that the LG is one of the more uniform panels I’ve tested to date, with contrast ratios that are better than most displays on the whole.
Color Uniformity is also quite good, other than the lower-right corner, which is where there is the most visible backlight bleeding on the display. The average dE across the whole display is a solid 1.87, and the worst corner is only 2.63 as well.
Overall, the LG 29EA93 is the most uniform consumer monitor I have tested to this point and does a remarkable job overall. I was worried at first that the different aspect ratio might lead to worse performance in this area, but it seems that whatever LG had to engineer for this works remarkably well and produces an overall uniform image across the whole display.
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Concillian - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
1) Input lag is too high.This is a great form factor for gaming, but gamers are going to be turned away by the input lag. Even gamers who won't necessarily notice such lag will be scared away just from the reviews. For a monitor of this size and price, I would think it would be necessary to address as much of the market as possible, and they are cutting off a big piece with that input lag.
2) Windows 8 wrecks this as a dual monitor replacement.
The size is reasonable for someone who wants to go from 2x 1280x1024 monitors to one wide monitor. It's very close to the same pixel count as 2 1280x1024 monitors. This would be great for 2 windows side by side using half the screen... if Windows 8 would let you do that..
radbeard - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
this monitor is great for office work. Its ideal for people that work with PDFs, Excel, and Email that all relate to one another and frequently need to display multiple documents at once. I do not see this as a good gaming form factor at all, its not tall enough.Concillian - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
Not a great gaming form factor? 3 screen gaming type immersion without 3 screen pricing, bezel issues and driver issues sounds pretty good to me.1080 vertical isn't tall enough for gaming?
It's great for office work. like you mentioned, but my point was that Windows 8 doesn't let you do what you are talking about doing. It's either docked or maximized, and like it or not, home users are going to be virtually forced to migrate to Win 8 over the years.
peterfares - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - link
Are you really that dumb? Windows 8 has the same desktop UI and Windows which is what you're supposed to use when being productive. Metro is horrible for productivity.bigfire - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
It won't take off. Can't imagine myself playing computer games and looking left and right all the time. And I don't think this monitor is a good one to watch films with. Such a big display requires a definite video resolution (yeah, a high one if you don't want to look at blurry image).radbeard - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
there are no resolution problems. Its 2560x1080. nothing is blurry, there is just lots of horizontal space. I own the dell one and I wouldn't recommend it for games, what its terrific for is office productivity.peterfares - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 - link
How is a 2560x1080 monitor better for office productivity than the similarly priced 27" 2560x1440 screens? How often do you have really wide and short stuff in an office? 30" 2560x1600 is even better.xKeGSx - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
Any word on the 27EA83? Waiting on reviews before I but it or an Asus PB278Q. Thanksdrumhellar - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
"There is still a lot of resentment over the transition from 16:10 to 16:9 displays"I'm still bitter about the transition away from 4:3.
jcm722 - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - link
I just heard where the FCC will now allow cable television providers to scramble all channels. So, having an HDTV with internal tuners is foolish, unless you are watching over-the-air TV. This LG is a great idea as a television, just make it bigger. As a computer monitor for my needs, nope. I don't use all of the horizontal space in my 1366 x 768 screen, and would prefer having the old 1280 x 1024 monitor, but that's just me.