When comparing LG 27UD88-W vs LG 38UC99-W, the Slant community recommends LG 27UD88-W for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” LG 27UD88-W is ranked 24th while LG 38UC99-W is ranked 29th. The most important reason people chose LG 27UD88-W is:
The screen can be very bright, at 320 nits, above the industry average of 240 nits. This means it can be used with no problems in well lit rooms. The screen is coated with a matte finish, preventing errant glare and reflections.
Specs
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Pros
Pro No issues on bright settings
The screen can be very bright, at 320 nits, above the industry average of 240 nits. This means it can be used with no problems in well lit rooms. The screen is coated with a matte finish, preventing errant glare and reflections.
Pro The screen seems bigger than its actual size
The bezel is barely visible, except for the bottom part of the screen, resulting in an elegant look and an illusion that the screen is bigger than it actually is.
Pro Easy and intuitive settings navigation
The settings of the monitor are adjusted using a joystick at the bottom of the monitor. It's easy to reach, precise and all the controls are displayed on the screen. The OSD menu is clear and understandable.
Pro Varied connectivity options
The LG 27UD88 offers a wide choice of connectivity options. It includes two HDMI 2.0 ports, one Display port 1.2 and USB-C port that can be used as a video input port as well. There are also two USB 3.0 ports for external hardware or media devices.
Pro Sturdy and pleasant design
It is made from plastic, but feels robust and solid. The back is white and the foot has a silver metallic finish. The stand has a large footprint, but should fit on most of the tables and still feel stable. Overall it looks premium more expensive than it actually is.
Pro Flexible
Height and tilt adjustment can be made on this screen, although the height adjustment interval is rather small. Pivot is also available, so it can be used in portrait mode, when needed.
Pro Fantastic display quality
The monitor has outstanding sharpness, brightness, color accuracy and an almost perfect sRGB color coverage. It comes factory pre-calibrated that will satisfy most users, but there are also plenty of calibration options if needed. The viewing angles are excellent at nearly 180 degrees, meaning pictures will look good even from extreme angles, without any noticeable color distortion.
Pro Great for multi-monitor setups
This screen suits multi monitor setups particularly well, since it has almost no visible bezels.
Pro Multiple display presets and modes
Users will be able to find the best preset for their specific use of the monitor as it comes with 14 different ones. These include an sRGB preset, a preset for eased reading, for color blindness, multiple broadcasting standards and gaming presets. There are also several picture-by-picture presets, but only for two inputs at once. You can make your own presets as well and switching between them is quick and easy using the joystick at the bottom of the screen.
Pro Has a versatile USB type-C port
Laptop users with USB type-C connector can transmit video signals directly to the monitor. When connected, you can also use the monitor as a USB port for data transfer as well as charge your laptop if it supports type-C charging. All of this can be done simultaneously through just one wire.
Pro Great colors
The screen can produce 1.07 billion colours and covers 99% of the sRGB color spectrum. This means great performance in nearly every situation, from gaming to professional photo/video color correcting and post-processing. Color accuracy is one the best among its competitors, and is on par with more expensive monitors. This monitor comes factory calibrated for accurate color accuracy, but can be further adjusted with LG’s True Color Pro calibration software.
Pro Excellent input lag and great response
Even the most experienced gamers will like this monitor as27UD88 has one of the lowest input lags currently available for 4K display, measuring only at 9,8ms, making it ideal for virtually lag free gaming. The pixel response time measures at 5ms that is not the best result, but still is really good and should not cause any noticeable problems for majority of the users.
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 Impossible to swivel
The monitor cannot be swiveled, since its stand is static. However, given that the screen has a really wide viewing angle, there should be no necessity to swivel the screen.
Con USB 3.0 ports are difficult to access
This screen's two USB 3.0 ports are located on the back of the monitor, facing directly away from its body, so it may not be always easy to access them.
Con The stand may be too big to fit some tables
This monitor's stand is quite big, so it may be too big to fit properly on some tables.
Con No picture-in-picture option
Unfortunately, there is no picture-in-picture option, which is quite a common feature on competitors of this price range.
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.