LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor review – what is the refresh rate?

Is it flicker free while playing games or usual tasks? The LG 34WK650 boasts a 34-Inch IPS panel with a 2560 x 1080 resolution, 5ms response time, and 75Hz refresh rate. The 300cd/m2 WLED backlight and 1000:1 static contrast ratio. With FreeSync*, gamers can experience seamless, fluid movement throughout hi-res, fast-paced games. FreeSync virtually eliminates screen tearing and stuttering. Find details in LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor review.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• AMD FreeSync up to 75Hz
• HDR support
• IPS panel with crisp image quality
• UltraWide 21:9 aspect ratio
• 99% sRGB coverage and HDR10 support
• Superb gaming performance
• Color accurate
• Gorgeous height-adjustable stand

Cons

• Low pixel density
• HDR grayscale is too blue
• Accepts 4K signal but resolution is limited to Full HD
• Mediocre black levels in dark room viewing
• No adjustments in HDR mode

Specs – LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor

• Screen Size 34-inch
• Aspect Ratio 21:9 (UltraWide)
• Refresh Rate 75Hz
• Resolution 2560×1080 (UWHD)
• Panel Type IPS
• Other Ports Headphone Jack
• Brightness 300 cd/m2
• Response Time 5ms (GtG)
• Adaptive Sync FreeSync (40Hz-75Hz)
• Speakers 2x5W
• Ports DisplayPort, 2x HDMI 2.0
• Contrast Ratio 1000:1 (static)
• Colors 16.7 million (6-bit + FRC)
• VESA Yes (100x100mm)
• HDR Software-enabled HDR10

Compare LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor

LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor review

Design

At the back of the monitor, you will find 100 x 100mm holes for the VESA mount. You can also tilt the screen by -5, 15 degrees, and height adjust it up to 110mm. The LG 34WK650-W boasts a modern design with thin bezels at the sides and at the top. The ‘-W’ suffix stands for the white color of the monitor. The 34WK650 has a flush-mounted bezel that is a bit wider than most: 0.47 inch on the top and sides and 0.83 inch on the bottom. 

Stand

The slim and elegant stand is finished in a silver plastic that looks like brushed aluminum. Adjustments include 4.33-inch height, 15-degree back tilt and 5-degree forward tilt. There is no swivel or portrait mode. Movements are firm and solid without excessive play.

Ports

Inputs are one DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 content protection for your Blu-Rays or the HD streaming service of your choice. There are no USB ports. Analog audio is supported by a single 3.5mm headphone output. The connections are all rear-facing and high on the monitor’s back, making them easy to reach during installation.

Resolution

LG has launched its newest 21:9 UltraWide Full HD (2560×1080) resolution display. The wider screen is designed to give you an even better viewing experience with 33% more screen space than a traditional full HD display. With this new best monitor, you can have multiple windows open at once and view them in one place without having to toggle back and forth between programs.

HDR10

The monitor offers the HDR10 support, which can make the image quality of HDR10-compatible content more lifelike by increasing its brightness, contrast, and color range.

In other words, for HDR content to really stand out, a monitor should at least have a peak brightness of 600 nits and some coverage of the DCI-P3 color space.

In contrast, the LG 34WK650 has only an average 300-nit maximum luminance and only the standard sRGB color gamut.

Ultra HD Blu-rays

When it came to watching movies, the 34WK650 did most things well but missed a couple of items. On the plus side, it handled 24p film cadences (works at 24 frames per second and uses progressive scanning, which draws the lines of each frame in sequence) properly, synced perfectly with our Philips BDP-7501 Ultra HD Blu-ray player, accepted an Ultra HD signal and provided excellent contrast with deep blacks and highlights that popped without being too harsh.

Refresh rate & Response time

The response time of 5ms eliminates most of the ghosting and trailing of fast-moving objects, while the 75Hz refresh rate adds a noticeable boost in motion clarity in comparison to the standard 60Hz monitors.

Additionally, if you connect the monitor to a FreeSync-compatible graphics card or an Xbox One/S/X console, you get a variable refresh rate. By synchronizing the frame rate and refresh rate between the GPU and the monitor, the dynamic refresh rate eliminates all screen tearing and stuttering. The LG 34WK650 FreeSync range is 40-75Hz via both DisplayPort and HDMI.

Panel uniformity

One of the strong suites of the LG 34WK650 is the excellent panel uniformity which is surprising for a budget monitor. We did not record any deviances going beyond 7% from the center, meaning the screen is nicely lit and evenly vibrant. We’ve noticed some degradation in colors on the extreme sides, but this flaw is barely noticeable when the display is in use.

Flicker free

The LG 34WK650-W monitor was designed to provide a comfortable viewing experience with Flicker Safe and Reader Mode features. With the release of this new monitor, users will enjoy their screens without worrying about invisible flickering or eye strain. This is possible by using an Anti-Flicker mode that reduces flickers that cause headaches, dry eyes, and fatigue.

Audio

The LG 34WK650 also includes a pair of 5-Watt speakers which are decent sounding if you consider the price. The output is sufficiently clear for music listening, but pumping up the volume muddles the audio. We still recommend a separate set or headsets, but it’s impressive that LG managed to squeeze the pair in at this price.

LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor Performance review

After unpacking the monitor, initial setup is pretty straightforward. Users simply need to assemble the stand (two pieces, no tools required), attach the panel, connect a PC or other media device, plug in the power, turn on the display, and… that’s pretty much it. 

For general use, the default Custom mode provides a pretty accurate SDR image that should suit most needs. Of course, for users who want to tweak the out-of-box image, there are plenty of picture adjustments and other configuration options available via an overlay menu accessible through the monitor’s integrated directional click button. Menu headings include Power, Input, Settings, and Game. A Picture-in-Picture function is offered as well, along with several different aspect-ratio scaling modes to zoom in the image (useful for displaying 21:9 movies without pillar-boxing or letter-boxing). 

The OSD (On-Screen Display) menu is user-friendly and easily navigated using the joystick placed beneath the screen.

Moving on, the LG 34WK650 also has a feature called ‘HDR Effect,’ which simulates HDR for non-HDR content. There are also a few different HDR presets for HDR content, such as HDR Game, HDR Cinema, etc.

Other exclusive features include ‘On-Screen Control,’ which allows you to adjust most of the OSD settings in a desktop application and ‘Screen Split’ for simplified multitasking.

All users will appreciate the high-quality, IPS (in-plane switching) panel, which offers accurate color, HDR output of 366 nits, a 75Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync for gaming. The latter operates to a minimum frame rate of 56, which is admittedly higher than we’d like to see. This is offset by the fact that the video card you connect it to only has 2.76 megapixels to move about. 

LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor Customer review

GREAT WIDE SCREEN FOR OFFICE

While searching for a 34 wide screen, I read lots of comments saying that 34wk650-w was not a good screen for office tasks, they recommended it to game and movies, but not for office. I decided to take the chance despite the negative comments because the cost benefit (34in for less than than $400). Let me tell you that, the monitor is perfect, I do not perceive any of the resolution problems people reported regarding this screen, it is not a 4K and I do a lot of spread sheets, text and web and I am really happy with that. The speakers are not the best I ever heard, but for lectures and YouTube it works well. The only negative aspect I have to point, is regarding the power cable, often times the screen goes off for a sec or two and comes back. I already checked all the cables and they seems to be in order, my next step will be to contact the warranty/support and ask for help, perhaps it is settings problem instead hardware.

+ Pros: 

Style/Design,

Features/Settings,

Quality

By Adriano de Almeida at lg.com

Alternate of LG 34WK650-W 34 ultrawide IPS HDR monitor

Alienware AW2521HF

The Alienware AW2521HF is by far the best 240Hz monitor we have tested, thanks to its modern Nano IPS panel which combines the traditional strengths of IPS – wide viewing angles and great colour accuracy – with the high refresh rates, quick pixel response times and low input lag (only ~2.5ms!) you’d normally associate with TN panel monitors.

These qualities make the AW2521HF well-suited to fast-paced competitive games like CSGO, Valorant or Call of Duty Warzone, while still being a great choice for slower and more cinematic games. VRR is supported too, with FreeSync for AMD and Xbox users and G-Sync Compatible for users with Nvidia graphics cards. If you’re currently playing on a 60Hz, 120Hz or 144Hz monitor, you will definitely notice the increase in responsiveness when switching to a 240Hz model like this one.

The only real downsides to this monitor are its brightness (~450 nits) and contrast (~1200:1), which can make black tones appear grey, and its lack of HDR support. However, neither are big issues for competitive gaming, which is this monitor’s intended purpose, and SDR content looks just fine thanks to this monitor’s colour accuracy, gray uniformity and wide viewing angles.

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