Tested: UltraFine Display OLED 32EP950-B | Innovation at a golden price

Agreed, LG’s UltraFine Display OLED monitor delivers an unparalleled image that will delight artists and editors alike. But it is ruinous and its 60 Hz does not even make it a recommendable companion for video games. It is better to wait for the next generations.

Karim Benessaieh
The Press

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Announced with great fanfare at the Consumer Electronics Show, the 32EP950-B OLED monitor (DELO in French, for “organic light-emitting diodes”) is of course a product signed LG, which knows a lot about it with its televisions considered to be the best. .

The secret here is to have only one panel of diodes managing colors and brightness, rather than two panels, one filtering the light emitted by the other. So we have perfect blacks and a contrast rated at 1 million to 1 in the case of the UltraFine Display OLED 32EP950-B monitor. This is the same ratio as another very high-end monitor, the Apple Pro Display XDR. For ordinary mortals, the norm is around 3000 to 1.

So yes, the image projected on the 32-inch screen of the 32EP950-B is magnificent, well chiselled with its 8.3 million pixels and its ability to reproduce 99% of the colors according to the DCI-P3 standard. In the market, monitors under $1000 have a DCI-P3 rating usually between 90-98%.

No doubt, we have before our eyes a very high quality product, obviously HDR10 compatible. In addition to broadcasting films and videos in 4K, the interest of OLED technology for a monitor is obvious for reading and writing black text on a white background. The black, here, is uncompromising and makes the image nicely contrasted.

In terms of design, the 32EP950-B is rather sober, a 16:9 aspect ratio screen with not too intrusive plastic borders, 11 mm on the sides. It stands on a U-leg, can be adjusted in height by 11 cm and can be placed in portrait or landscape mode. The angle of vision, horizontal as vertical, is 178 degrees, in the good average.

As a workmate, the 32EP950-B is rather well equipped, first with a possibility of USB-C connection to broadcast the image of your computer while supplying it with up to a maximum of 90 watts. In the monitor, you can also connect other devices to the HDMI input and the two DisplayPort ports. Finally, three USB-A ports are available for peripherals.

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Let’s start with the cold shower: this monitor costs the tidy sum of $5499.99. Granted, Apple’s 32-inch Pro Display XDR is priced starting at $6299, but the latter is 6K and better in many ways.

The refresh rate of the 32EP950-B is 60 Hz, which is more than enough for ordinary mortals, but will not satisfy video gamers.

Unlike many less expensive monitors, the 32EP950-B does not automatically recognize which input is active. We plugged two laptops into it and 9 out of 10 had to go play through the menus to change ports.

No built-in speakers or webcam here.

One buys ?

With OLED TVs, first appearing in 2007, it took more than a decade to see reasonably priced devices appear. It will likely take less time for OLED monitors to follow the same trend, but we have the same dilemma here. Yes, the image offered by the 32EP950-B is superior to what you’d get from a sub-$1000 monitor, but the difference isn’t as dramatic as the price difference. The improvements are more nuanced and clearly aimed at detail-oriented professionals who will accept — or convince their company — to pay so much.

For others, skip your turn and wait for prices to melt. You can now find excellent 4K monitors, including manufacturers from Samsung, Huawei and even LG, at a fraction of the price.