Today we are taking a look at the new monitor from LG. The 40WP95C, which is a 40” UltraWide Curved monitor with a 5K2K resolution.
It’s got pretty much everything you need from a productivity monitor, including a 21 by 9 aspect ratio, Thunderbolt 4 ports, picture-by-picture modes and of course a decent picture quality
Today I’ll tell you why I switched to this over the 38” UltraWide I had before. Plus as I work full time from this desk, I wanted a monitor that would be perfect when using both Windows and Mac as well as being decent for productivity.
Ok so the box it comes in, we’ve got all of the usual branding and info on the side. In the Box, First up we’ve got the two part stand. Then there’s the box of accessories which we’ll talk about in a second. Then the screen which is pretty well packaged!
Right, inside the box we’ve got a thunderbolt 4 cable, perfect for connecting and powering my MacBook. Another USB C cable. A DisplayPort cable. An HDMI cable. A cable tidy clip. A power cable. And the manuals and warranty information. That’s it.
Setup
Setting this monitor up takes literally a few minutes and it’s a completely tool free install. You just lay the monitor down on either your desk or the box it came in, line the rear bracket up and click it in. Grab the feet of the stand and attach that to the bracket. Tighten the inbuilt screw and we’re good to go.
So yeh, this one click stand and setup is great. It also means when you want to remove the stand again you just press the little button under the monitor and lift the screen off.
Ports
So first up, I love the white back panel, it looks really clean and fresh. In fact it goes hand in hand with the white cables we have in the box. It’s got quite a few ports on the back which I think are enough for most setups.
There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one in and one out. A DisplayPort, Headphone port, two HDMI 2.0 ports and the power port. Then around the side there are two USB 3.0 ports too. Ideal for connecting your external devices and using this screen as a hub.
One awesome thing about this monitor is the PSU is built in meaning there’s no external power brick to worry about hiding under your desk. This is a huge advantage over the 38” monitor I had before.
Also as the Thunderbolt 4 port has a power delivery of 96 watts, it will easily power your connected laptop or MacBook. That’s how I use it with my 16” MacBook Pro with a one cable setup. Not only does it look clean, but you don’t need two cables going into the Mac.
To keep the cables looking tidy behind the screen, make sure you use the plastic clip. It’ll hide all of the wires out of sight just by hooking them inside.
Screen (size)
So the 40WP95C is a 40” UltraWide Curved monitor, and coming from using a 38” for the last 7 months, it turns out an extra 2” does make a difference. I’m already seeing the increased screen real estate here having used it over the last 2 weeks.
Now I use this setup for everything, practically every single day. And one of the biggest reasons I like using an UltraWide is for the incredible screen real estate we get. Everything just looks better and from a productivity point of view it’s awesome. I’ve tried using two screens side by side, but I keep coming back to UltraWides.
If I’ve got something like Final Cut Pro open while editing videos, I can see the entire timeline in one view. I don’t need to zoom out or scroll left and right as the screen is big enough to view it all.
Not only that, but this is a 5K2K display with a resolution of 5120 by 2160. So the height is the same as you’d get from a 4K monitor meaning we see more than a typical QHD+ display, and it’s actually better quality. The 21 by 9 aspect ratio is also really wide and because there’s more width than height you’re able to snap multiple windows or apps side by side.
Most days I’ll have at least 2 or 3 windows open. That might include Final Cut Pro, a live stream on YouTube and a script or notion. Seeing all of these windows just there makes my day so much easier. It’s always going to be a productivity booster as you can see what you’re working on without having to tab between windows.
The same goes for when I’m recording audio I can have a script open alongside the software I’m using without really compromising on either of them. With a screen this size, there’s always going to be enough space for 2-3 apps.
And if you wanted to know which app I use to snap these windows it’s called Magnet. I did talk about this in last year and it’s something I use every day, even on my MacBook when it’s not connected to this screen. It lets you arrange your windows and change the layout either by dragging them, using keyboard shortcuts or using the layout window at the top.
Screen (quality)
Now it’s not just the screen size and screen real estate that’s impressive with this monitor, it’s the quality too. This is a Nano IPS panel with HDR10 and a wide colour spectrum. This means it’s ideal for creative work where the colours or colour reproduction is important.
I sit and look at this screen for the entire day and it looks great. The image looks detailed, and the colours look accurate and vibrant. Perfect for editing photos with. Also the text sharpness is decent on it, this is where I sit and write my scripts for these weekly videos so text clarity is important.
And as it has an anti-reflective almost matte looking screen, it means that even if you’re using it near a window, like I do, it doesn’t really reflect. There’s some slight glare depending on how bright the room is behind you, but it’s easy enough to watch and will likely reduce eye strain too.
This screen has a typical brightness of 300 nits which on paper doesn’t sound like a lot. But if you’re using it in a dark or light balanced room it’s absolutely fine. In fact I’ve been using this at around 40-50% brightness and that’s more than enough for me and my use. But if you’ve got a really bright room with tons of natural light coming in this could be an issue.
It does have an ambient light sensor built in where it can adjust the brightness of the screen depending on the ambient surroundings. This also helps with eye strain as you’re not blinding yourself at night if you’re sat in a dark room.
Motion on this monitor is maxed out at 72Hz, which is an obvious bump up from 60Hz, but it’s not as high as some other monitors we’ve seen. Saying that if you’re using it for creative work, 60Hz is likely going to be the setting you’d use anway, so 72Hz is fine. Moving around and scrolling at 72Hz is smooth and really is enough for most situations.
Oh one thing to mention, if you want to use the 72Hz option via Thunderbolt 4, make sure you have the Thunderbolt OUT setting on the monitor set to OFF. If you turn it on it will limit your refresh rate to 50Hz, I did this by mistake and it took me ages to work it out.
The viewing angle on it is around 178 degrees, which means you can see the content off centre and you’re not going to lose a great deal of contrast or colour, but most of the time you’ll be sitting straight on like me, so it won’t make a huge difference. Again that curved screen really helps with keeping everything centred to you and in your proefferial vision.
PBP
As mentioned, I literally sit at this desk for 5-10 hours a day as I work from home full time. So this setup isn’t just for show. Most days I will alternate between two machines. A Windows Laptop for my day job in web design and development, and a MacBook Pro for everything else (YouTube work, photo editing, emails and browsing).
Sometimes I’ll switch between the two by toggling the input and sometimes I’ll use the Picture by Picture mode that’s built in. So here I can have both inputs, the Thunderbolt and an HDMI port showing on the screen at the same time.
This is honestly such an awesome feature that means you can either have two separate machines running or a PC and a games console. I’m not sure what the exact dimensions of each screen is here, but it’s like having two monitors on the desk. From my testing the PBP mode limits the HDMI input to 30Hz though, something worth mentioning.
Design + Stand
As for the design, it looks sort of minimal with its virtually borderless edges, and the stand has this nice matte silver look to it. As mentioned earlier the cable management clip means you can’t see anything directly hanging down when you’re looking at it.
The stand has some decent adjustments to allow you to set it up for your needs. So firstly it will move up and down. I’ve got it set to the minimum as I’m using it on a monitor riser anyway. It can tilt so you can point it up or down slightly. You can swivel it left and right, ideal for showing your screen to others. And finally you can very slightly tweak it horizontally in case you need to keep it level.
If you didn’t want to use the provided stand though, you could mount it to a bracket as it does come with VESA compatibility.
Gaming
Technically this works with gaming. It’s got AMD FreeSync to help with stuttering and screen tearing and a 5ms response time. Now this isn’t fast by any means, and playing FPS games will be almost unplayable on here. But for anything else you’re good. It also means if you want a one monitor setup that you’ll use for productivity and the odd game from time to time, this will work well. Especially with that PBP mode if you wanted to connect something via HDMI. But if you’re after a gaming monitor, this isn’t it. Go for something that’s gaming focused like the GP950 or C2 OLED.
Other features
A few other features worth mentioning. If you fancy having two of these 40” monitors in your setup, you can actually daisy-chain them via the thunderbolt 4 port on the rear.
It does have some onscreen controls too where you can personalise the screen for your own viewing experience. Things like changing the picture modes, brightness, contrast and colour temp. You can view and change the input settings and various other things. A couple of things I always disable is the PowerLED to off, as I generally hate seeing LEDs when the setup is off, and the Buzzer to off to prevent a beep when it turns on and off.
Speakers
When listening to music or editing videos I’ll often use some form of headphones. But there are times when I don’t need or want to wear headphones, but also don’t have the space for speakers on my desk. Fortunately this monitor does have 2 x 10W stereo speakers built in. These won’t replace dedicated speakers, but they are perfect for those times you need something for everyone to hear. Maybe having some ambient music on or watching some YouTube videos.
Would I recommend?
So a question you’ll likely want to ask is, is it worth buying? Well coming from the 38” UltraWide it’s only a slight step up in size, but for me the bump in resolution, the extra ports and the adjustable stand is a huge selling point. If you’re after an UltraWide monitor this year I can easily recommend this one with no noticeable downsides. It’s a great all round productivity monitor that works well with Mac and Windows.
Price wise this comes in at £1,500 or $2000. That’s a lot for a monitor BUT it’s comparable to other monitors of the same size, and you are getting a 40” UltraWide here. It’s essentially as good as two or even 3 smaller screens but in one neat package. I’ve put a link below if you want to check it out.