LG UltraWide Ergo monitor review: a high-quality, versatile screen for serious work

The LG UltraWide Ergo monitor is a monitor you're going to come across if you're looking for one of the best ultrawide monitors on the market – though it's important to be aware of one or two weaknesses as well as it's numerous strengths before you make a purchase.

To help you in your shopping, this is the 34WN780 model we're looking at here – you might see some other similarly named monitors while you're browsing the web, not least the LG UltraGear Ergo which is aimed more towards gaming than general purpose computing.

You can game with the LG UltraWide Ergo 34WN780 too, but it's designed to have more of a broad appeal. If you've got any queries about this monitor – such as how easy it is to set up or the sort of picture quality you're going to get – they should be answered in our review.

LG UltraWide Ergo monitor review: design and setup

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We've seen quite a few LG monitors down the years, which means we weren't at all worried about the design aesthetic or the build quality of this LG UltraWide Ergo model. Sure enough, get it out of the box (which is going to take two people unless you want to run the risk of damage to the monitor or your limbs) and it impresses in terms of both its heft and its finish. 

The star of this particular show is the arm mount that clamps to your desk and gives you a great deal of flexibility in terms of the screen position – so much so that you can swing it into view when you need to see the display and then push it away again when you don't. While some users are going to prefer a more traditional stand approach, this mount design is well worth considering, and of course it means it takes up a minimal amount of room on the actual desk itself.

There's some basic cable management built in here, plus a good variety of ports around the back of the screen: two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort socket, one USB-B upstream port and two USB-A downstream ports (so you can use the monitor as a sort of USB hub if you need to). That's plenty of connectivity for your various computers, consoles, media streamers and other devices, and there's a headphone port too if you need it.

Setup is perfectly straightforward, though as we've mentioned you're probably going to want to get a bit of help to get this monitor connected and in position. The on-screen display is fine and functional, giving you control over brightness, contrast, volume and all the other standard settings. For inputs that don't support the 21:9 aspect ratio, you can choose to stretch the picture to fit or leave it at its original dimensions, with black bars down the side.

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LG UltraWide Ergo monitor review: features and picture

The IPS LCD screen is 34 inches corner to corner, and runs at a native resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 pixels – that's a 21:9 aspect ratio. You can comfortably get two applications up side by side, so this widescreen form factor is great for productivity as well as movies. Get videos up alongside websites, or essays up next to social media feeds, or put an image editor and a coding window side by side, or whatever it is you want to do.

If you've never used a widescreen monitor or a dual monitor setup before, you might be surprised at just how helpful it can be to see two programs at once. There's support here for HDR10, and coverage of 99 percent of the sRGB colour gamut, while brightness tops out at 300 nits. The contrast ratio goes up to 1,000:1, there's a response time of 5ms, the refresh rate is 75Hz, and viewing angles go up to 178 degrees.

Those are very respectable specs for the price – they can be beaten, but you'll need to pay more – and overall you get a screen experience that looks sharp, colourful and lag-free. We tested the LG UltraWide Ergo with a variety of Windows applications as well as some games, and the monitor passed with flying colours – while dedicated gamers are going to want something geared a little more in that direction, this is a really good all-rounder that'll handle games as well as creative software.

There are integrated stereo speakers – not always a given on a monitor, and while they're underwhelming in terms of their sound quality, they save you having to install a separate set of speakers when you're using this monitor. We should also mention the dedicated Reader Mode, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted by the screen and gives your eyes an easier ride later on in the evening.

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LG UltraWide Ergo monitor review: price and verdict

Taking everything into consideration, the LG UltraWide Ergo ends up with far more in the positives column than the negatives column. Deciding whether or not this is the monitor upgrade for you is really all about that arm mount – if you want a screen that you can manipulate in just about any direction and move out of the way when needed, then this is one of the best options out there.

There is a bit of a sense here that in trying to cover a lot of bases – from professional creatives to gamers – LG has produced a monitor that doesn't excel in any one particular area, but does okay across the board. Gamers are going to want faster response times, creatives will be looking for colour and contrast that's a step above what this particular model can offer, but if you need a bit of everything then this fits the bill.

It's actually a lot of fun manoeuvring the LG UltraWide Ergo into position. LG has done a great job in terms of the craftsmanship of this particular model, and once you've got the clamp fixed, you can push and pull the screen all over the place to suit what you're doing. You can't rotate the display all the way through 90 degrees to use it in a portrait orientation, but you can do just about everything else.

The price will be crucial as always – check the widgets on this page for the latest online deals for the LG UltraWide Ergo 34WN780, but at the time of writing you can pick it up for around £500 in the UK. That's not bad in terms of what you're getting, though you're paying a slight premium for the rather unusual arm mount that takes the place of a traditional stand. For a lot of people, the extra is going to be worth it.

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