LG UltraWide 38WN95C review: A star screen

While most curved panels use VA technology, LG opts for IPS with this 37.5in display. More importantly, some digging in diagnostic utilities revealed that the LG’s panel was manufactured earlier this year. As a result, it benefits from a number of upgrades that older panels won’t be able to take advantage of.

Top of the list is a 144Hz refresh rate, which will naturally make a big difference in games compared to rivals’ peaks of 60Hz – if you have a graphics card powerful enough to feed 3,840 x 1,600 pixels. Add a 1ms response time, and adaptive sync support for both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, and you have a superb gaming display.

Our tests also show this panel can hit 543cd/m2 in general use, notably above LG’s stated peak of 450cd/m2, which explains why it passed VESA’s tough certification process to earn a DisplayHDR 600 rating. This is immediately noticeable if you activate the screen’s HDR Effect mode, which revealed details that are lost on other monitors.

This panel also offers a much wider colour gamut than other competitors, and LG makes the most of it by including both sRGB and DCI-P3 presets. Testing at 120cd/m2, the sRGB mode covered 97.8% of the sRGB volume with 102.7% volume, while at peak brightness in the DCI-P3 preset it covered 94.2% of the DCI-P3 gamut with 97.9% volume. Truly excellent figures, especially when backed with an average Delta E of 0.91. Aside from the very top left, it proved to be a uniformly bright panel too.

One advantage of IPS curved panels over their VA rivals is viewing angles, with less obvious drop-off as you look across the screen. The disadvantage is the amount of curvature. While LG doesn’t state an official figure, we believe this is a 2300R panel and that means it’s a far gentler curve. As a result, you don’t get the same level of immersion; indeed, when you’re sitting in front of the LG you barely notice any curve at all.

What you do notice is the astonishing amount of desktop space available. You can easily view three windows side by side, and we recommend Microsoft Power Toys’ FancyZones to help keep them organised as LG doesn’t supply a screen-management utility. A pixel density of 111ppi ensures that text looks sharp from normal viewing distances too; there’s no grain here.

We’re pleased to see that LG supplies a more flexible stand than most, and coupled with a lighter weight this is a surprisingly easy monitor to move around. It’s as compact as it can realistically be, so you can push it back quite far on your desk, and note that it offers height adjustment of 110mm along with 30° of swivel.

LG keeps things neat at the rear, with the standard two HDMI inputs, DisplayPort and a Thunderbolt USB-C port that can supply a reassuring 94W of power to your laptop. There are also two USB ports, again at the rear, but with no USB-B input you can’t use these with connections other than USB-C (and consequently you can’t share a keyboard and mouse between two systems hooked up to the screen). LG doesn’t supply a ports cover, instead relying on its supplied white cables to blend in – which is useful if you were thinking of placing this monitor front of house. That all-white theme extends to the external power supply too.

There’s no need for separate speakers as the pair of 5W units here do an excellent job with music and films alike, but that’s it for “extras”. That’s fine by us: LG has ploughed its money into the panel and the electronics that power it – with tangible results. We’re even fans of the OSD, which is so quick and easy to understand that you’ll be navigating through its options in no time at all (once you find it, as the mini joystick control is tucked beneath the LG logo).

While the LG UltraWide 38WN95C costs substantially more than other monitors of this size, it’s worth the added investment. If you buy the LG UltraWide 38WN95C then your eyes will thank you for many years to come – and its width should bring productivity benefits too.

LG UltraWide 38WN95C specifications