But at what cost... - LG GX7

Quick Overview

The LG UltraGear GX7 27-inch 1440p 280Hz OLED monitor delivers incredible gaming performance with a measured 2.4ms latency at 280Hz and 6.7ms latency at 120Hz, along with excellent color coverage, achieving 84.2% of the BT.2020 color space in HDR mode, though the high peak brightness is only sustained for small windows.

Key Points: The LG UltraGear GX7 is a 27-inch, 1440p, 280Hz OLED gaming monitor featuring VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500. Measured latency is extremely low: 2.4ms at 280Hz and 6.7ms at 120Hz, which is slightly over the theoretical perfect latency. Color accuracy in sRGB mode (100% coverage) shows an average dE2000 of 1.55, which is very respectable. HDR color coverage is strong, achieving 84.2% of the BT.2020 color space (and 99.5% P3 coverage). Peak luminance reached 1744 nits in a 1% window, but sustained full-screen brightness dropped to around 400 nits. The monitor includes 2x HDMI 2.1 ports, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, and USB 3.0 Type-B/Type-A ports, plus a mic/headphone combo jack. The stand features a sleek, razor-thin design with 110mm of height adjustment and 90 degrees of pivot rotation (counter-clockwise only).

Context: This video presents an unboxing and initial impressions review of the LG UltraGear GX7, a high-refresh-rate OLED gaming monitor, focusing on its physical setup, included accessories, color accuracy metrics, and input latency performance during gaming tests, while also noting the monitor's high peak brightness capability in HDR.

Detailed Analysis

The video begins with the unboxing of the LG UltraGear GX7 monitor, noting the large, fragile packaging and identifying the included accessories: a heavy, solid metal stand with a flat base, a C8 power brick (not C13), a USB Type-B to Type-A cable, an HDMI 2.1 cable, and a DisplayPort 1.4 cable. The host praises the stand's solid build and sleek design, mentioning it allows for 110mm of height adjustment and 90 degrees of counter-clockwise pivot, but critiques the external power brick and the lack of speakers. Once set up, the monitor is tested for performance, showing excellent response times with a 0.03ms Gray-to-Gray (GtG) rating and measured latency of 2.4ms at 280Hz and 6.7ms at 120Hz, making it excellent for fast-paced games like CS:GO. Color testing in sRGB mode at 100% brightness yielded a very good average dE2000 of 1.55. In HDR testing, the monitor achieved 1744 nits peak brightness in a 1% window, but sustained brightness dropped significantly to about 400 nits for full-screen content, which is typical for OLEDs. The monitor covers 99.7% of P3 and 84.2% of BT.2020 color space. The host concludes that despite the pricing, the performance is impressive for an OLED panel.