LG UltraGear GX9 45GX950A-B Review

Introduction

The LG UltraGear GX9 45GX950A-B is easily one of the biggest and best monitors I’ve ever laid eyes on.

This is yet another world’s first for LG, as they’ve packed a huge 45-inch OLED screen with a 5K2K (5120×2160) resolution, providing oodles of both size and detail right off the bat.

Oh, I should also mention it’s a dual-mode screen, with a 165Hz refresh rate at full resolution. Dialling that resolution back to 2560×1080 can double that refresh rate up to 330Hz, too, for even stronger motion.

All of this power, plus a competent port selection and more, doesn’t come cheap, as LG charges £1799.98/$1999.99 for this screen. That makes it horrendously expensive against other ultrawide OLEDs out there, including LG’s own Ultragear 34GS95QE and more conventional options, including the Alienware AW2725Q.

I’ve been testing this behemoth for the last couple of weeks to see if it’s one of the best monitors we’ve tested.

Design

• Lots of presence on the desk
• Modern looks
• Okay port selection

The GX9 45GX950A-B’s fit and finish are very similar to LG’s other premium monitors and TVs, extending into a more modern and minimalistic space, which looks excellent. Sure, the base of the stand is quite angular, but that’s the only more aggressive styling cue here.

There is also no mention of LG anywhere across the screen with its minimal bezels. For that, you need to go back to the base, and the UltraGear logo on the rear of the panel.

Assembly is nice and simple, with two screws for fastening into the bottom of the stand, and the other end latches into place on the back of the panel. No tools are needed, so it’s easy to be up and running in a matter of moments. As is in-keeping with LG’s recent design changes to monitors, the base of the stand is flat, as opposed to having V-shaped legs, making it easier to stand things on it if you need to – in my case, it’s my Sonos Beam soundbar.

The thing with the  GX9 45GX950A-B is its sheer size, which you most certainly need the space (and a sturdy desk) for – plus room for a huge 300W+ power brick that this panel plugs into. Owing to its huge 45-inch screen, there isn’t too much adjustment on the stand, apart from height adjustment, tilt and swivel, but a wide base keeps it sturdy on the desk in its conventional orientation.

For a monitor at its high end, I would have expected a stronger port selection, though. We’ve got a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4, plus a USB-C with up to 90W of power delivery and display capabilities and a two-port USB-A hub. This is fine for most folks, although I guess I was expecting more options,

Other, more conventional form factor screens can add more USB ports and advanced powers, such as a KVM. The Alienware AW2725QF even has an HDMI eARC port for hooking up a proper soundbar or audio system. 

Image Quality

• Huge, dazzling OLED screen
• Brilliant detail, deep blacks, and great contrast
• Peak SDR brightness is not as strong as other panel types

The star of the show with the GX9 45GX950A-B is its screen, which is a world’s first as a 45-inch OLED screen with a 5120×2160 resolution, otherwise known as 5K2K.

The benefit of this is more vertical space than other ultrawide OLEDs that have traditionally been 5120×1440. For instance, Samsung’s competing Odyssey OLED G9 is a 49-inch screen, so it is wider than this LG option, but not as tall, giving you a more usable 21:9 aspect ratio against Samsung’s 32:9.

With this in mind, this 5K2K OLED screen that LG has cooked up is utterly gorgeous. The detail it provides over such a large area is immense, while its 165Hz refresh rate provides swift and especially smooth motion for both gaming and general computing. You will have to watch with content or games that don’t support the 21:9 aspect ratio, as it will leave borders to the left and right, as opposed to stretching to fill the screen.

Such a large screen, and its deep 800R curve, work best in cinematic and simulation titles where you’ll certainly feel the benefit of the real immersion and detail that this LG panel provides. I loved using it in the likes of Assetto Corsa and Forza Horizon 5 in my testing.

The GX9 45GX950A-B’s large panel isn’t as well-suited for more competitive eSports titles, at least in its default state. You can play them, although you are looking across the screen a lot more than with a smaller, more conventional panel. To this end, LG offers settings in the OSD to turn it into a higher refresh rate panel with half the resolution for even smoother motion, or it can black out as much of the screen as possible to become as small as 24 or 27 inches in a more conventional 16:9 aspect ratio.

In getting out my colorimeter, it also became clear that this screen provides all the usual advantages of an OLED display, such as deep, inky blacks and immense contrast. My colorimeter measured 0.01 for the black level and 18370:1 for contrast, plus its 6600K colour temperature is virtually perfect.

Colour accuracy is great, with perfect 100% coverage of the sRGB gamut alongside 97% DCI-P3 and 89% Adobe RGB. This helps the GX9 45GX950A-B to be especially well-suited to both productivity and increasingly specialist workloads, such as photo or video editing, if you want to engage in that sort of thing across such a large panel.

VRR support is plentiful, with this LG screen supporting Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and even VESA Adaptive-Sync. This means that whatever GPU you’re using, you won’t experience any screen tearing or juddering for a smooth experience. HDR support comes with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400, as opposed to the more advanced Dolby Vision found on rival screens.

As is typical with OLEDs, the only area where this screen isn’t as vibrant is with its peak SDR brightness against Mini LED and some high-end IPS options. My colorimeter measured a peak of 253.3 nits of brightness, where LG quotes a peak of 275 nits. HDR brightness can go as high as 400 nits with the True Black 400 certification, although LG says it can go as high as 1300 nits in supported content in a 1.5% window for impactful highlights.

Software and Features

• Clean, feature-rich OSD
• Reasonable, if unremarkable speakers

The GX9 45GX950A-B’s OSD is accessible through the small joystick in the middle on the bottom side of the display, and provides easy access to a menu for fiddling with the monitor’s settings, game modes and OLED panel care settings.

It’s laid out pleasantly, and there are a lot of options to choose from with modes for different types of games, including FPS and Racing titles. You can add an on-screen crosshair or FPS counter, plus it’s in the OSD where you can change between the dual-mode resolution and refresh rate combos, and make this screen display a smaller, more conventional image. You can also choose colours for the lighting on the rear of the panel in a similar vein to the Ambilight on the Philips Evnia 32M2N8900.

The GX9 45GX950A-B does have speakers built in, unlike a lot of other monitors these days. They have good body and general volume, although they seem a little hollow and lack bass.

Should you buy it?

FAQs