When comparing iiyama G-Master Gold Phoenix GB2888UHSU-B1 vs LG 38UC99-W, the Slant community recommends LG 38UC99-W for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” LG 38UC99-W is ranked 29th while iiyama G-Master Gold Phoenix GB2888UHSU-B1 is ranked 74th. The most important reason people chose LG 38UC99-W is:
Impressive amount of on-screen real estate, excellent picture quality, exceptional connectivity, and great color accuracy puts the LG 38UC99-W above nearly all competitors in the market.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fast response time, great for gaming
With a response time of just 1ms, the iiyama G-Master Gold Phoenix is one of the fastest monitors on the market. Ideal for fast-paced gaming situations such as first person shooters.
Pro Provides excellent viewing angles for a TN panel
Although the Gold Phoenix monitor uses a TN panel, the viewing angles of this monitor are excellent, especially regarding brightness. The brightness under a horizontal viewing angle of 45° is superior compared to other displays with a reading of 56%. For comparison: similar TN-panels such as G-Master Red Eagle only score about 47% in this brightness test.
Pro All cables included
All connection cables are included with the monitor, including HDMI, DisplayPort, mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort, USB and Audio. No need to purchase any other connectors.
Pro Extremely sharp
The G-Master Gold Phoenix GB2888UHSU-B1 uses a 4K-display with a resolution of 2160 x 3840 pixels, which is four times the amount of pixels of a Full HD display. This results in an extremely sharp image and overall great image quality. In terms of pixel density (measured in pixels per inch), the Gold Phoenix has 157 ppi, while a Full HD screen of the same size has a ppi of 78.
Pro Excellent general purpose monitor
Impressive amount of on-screen real estate, excellent picture quality, exceptional connectivity, and great color accuracy puts the LG 38UC99-W above nearly all competitors in the market.
Pro Supports 85W charging over USB-C
You can charge your laptop and have display output through a single cable thanks to the monitor's USB-C port.
Pro Features On-Screen controls
You can access all the general features of this monitor using your mouse and a keyboard thanks to the LG’s On-Screen Control software.
Additionally, the On-Screen Control offers many screen split presets.
Pro Perfect for multi-tasking
Having enough display real-estate to fit three vertically aligned Google Docs windows comfortably, the LG 38UC99-W is an excellent tool to boost up the productivity in everyday office duties, CAD/CAM applications, and many other fields.
Pro Excellent for watching movies
Acing the near-cinematic aspect ratio of 21:9, the LG 38UC99-W is an excellent companion to watch movies because you won't see the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen when watching most movies.
Pro Has a pair of good speakers
The LG 38UC99-W features a built-in 20 Watt stereo speaker system which sounds fairly well compared to the 4-10 W speakers the competitors at this price point offer.
Pro Exceptional connectivity
This monitor beats most of its premium competitors in terms of connectivity because it features a USB-C downstream port which has multiple parallel functions. First, you can use it to access the monitor's onboard USB hub. Second, it can be used for charging a USB type C compliant laptop. Finally, you can use it to receive video and audio signal from a computer.
Additionally, the LG 38UC99-W has two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, and an inbuilt Bluetooth module.
Pro Supports dual linkup
You can connect this monitor to two computers so that each machine use half of the on-screen area. This might come in handy for those who frequently use a stationary desktop computer and a laptop.
Pro Great picture quality
Only the best monitors can match the LG 38UC99-W's contrast ratio, peak brightness, gamma, and color accuracy, as the monitor features one of the finest IPS panels in the industry.
The LG 38UC99-W displays beautiful pictures, with deep and rich blacks, vibrant and accurate colors, and good-looking intermediate tones. Despite the fact that the monitor's native contrast ratio is only 1000:1, the dark scenes look deep and intense as the backlight of the 38UC99-W can drop below the brightness level of 0.15 nits, which only the best monitors can do. Colors pop and look vivid, as the 38UC99-W can sustain its brightness above the 300 nits mark. The mid-tones look lifelike thanks to the monitor's near perfect gamma value, which is only 1.3% off from the ideal value.
Moreover, the monitor's color inaccuracies can't be seen by the human eye because it only has an average color error dE of 2.12.
Cons
Con Low maximum refresh rate of 60 Hz, less ideal for fast-paced action
Compared to some other gaming monitors, the iiyama G-Master Gold Phoenix GB2888UHSU-B1 isn't as fast as some of its competitors. The maximum refresh rate is limited at 60 Hz, which is the industry standard for all monitors. Some fast-paced games greatly benefit from a higher refresh rate such as 120 or 144 Hz as it increases fluidity.
Con 4K resolution doesn't scale well with all software
Due to the native 4K resolution and the relatively small 28 inch screen size, text can be hard to read in Windows and other non-gaming environments, such as Adobe's software. Not everything scales well in 4K (yet).
Con Color gamut settings need calibration
Out of the box, color settings aren't optimal. The display has some over-saturated green and under-saturated red, while blue has too much of a purple tint. Calibration is needed to improve color gamut.
Con Mediocre luminosity uniformity
The uniformity of the display in terms of luminosity is measured at 78% which isn't a bad result, but other displays with similar panels can certainly do better with scores over 85%. In short, uniformity is a bit flat and might be noticeable.
Con Very expensive
For the same price as this monitor, you can buy three decent 27-inch ultrawide monitors.
Con Bluetooth indicator is inconvenient
The monitor's Bluetooth indicator occupies the on-screen workspace. Unfortunately, there is no way to remove the indicator while using the Bluetooth speaker option.
Con Has an external power brick
The external power supply unit of the LG 38UC99-W might cause inconvenience especially if you want to mount this monitor on a wall since the PSU is quite bulky.
Con Wobbly
The stand isn't rigid, so you might observe some minor wobbling if your work desk is flimsy,
Con OSD is quite messy
The on-screen-display of the LG 38UC99-W does not have any programmable shortcut keys and is quite hard to navigate.
For example, to enable or disable the motion blur reduction feature, you’ll need to press more than 15 keys because the menu goes very deep.
Con Unsuitable for gaming
Gaming just doesn't feel responsive because of the monitor's massive input lag.
