When comparing LG 38UC99-W vs LG 25UM58-P, the Slant community recommends LG 25UM58-P for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” LG 25UM58-P is ranked 13th while LG 38UC99-W is ranked 29th. The most important reason people chose LG 25UM58-P is:
You can access the monitor's setting using your keyboard and a mouse because the monitor supports LG's On Screen Control software. Moreover, the software features the Screen Split function which lets you organize the real estate of your monitor according to your needs.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Convenient controls
You can access the monitor's setting using your keyboard and a mouse because the monitor supports LG's On Screen Control software.
Moreover, the software features the Screen Split function which lets you organize the real estate of your monitor according to your needs.
Pro Not power-hungry
On average, running this monitor will cost you $2 because the monitor consumes only around 24 W of electricity.
Pro Accurate colors
The monitor is suitable for media editing applications in the sRGB color space because the 25UM58-P can accurately display 99% the sRGB color gamut. You can use this monitor, for example, in web design since all the web applications use sRGB as a default color space.
Pro Good for widescreen gaming
The monitor's extended field of view can give you some actual advantage in games such as Battlefield 1 and Team Fortress 2 which offer a broader field of view for those running 21:9 monitors.
Pro Can be locked
You can be sure that no one borrows the LG 25UM58-P from your work desk without you knowing it because this monitor has a Kensington lock.
Pro Decent viewing angles
The LG 25UM58-P does look good from an angle because of its high-quality IPS panels. While the exact numbers for the 25UM58-P are still not available, the entire line-up of the LG’s ultrawide monitors from 2016 and 2017 suggests that the maximum, horizontal viewing angle of this monitor should be higher than 40 degrees.
Pro Suitable for casual gaming
High responsiveness and proper motion handling make the LG 25UM58-P a suitable companion for enjoying an occasional CS:GO or Overwatch round.
The monitor feels responsive because of its 9 ms input lag. Only a handful of other general purpose monitors in this price range can match such high responsiveness.
The motion appears clear and almost free from the artificial motion blur effect because even the most rapidly-moving objects leave just some minor trails as the panel's pixels need only 5 ms to change their colors.
Pro Excellent value for money
Priced just a bit above $150, this 25-inch ultra-wide monitor offers a generous amount of on-screen workspace, good picture quality, decent gaming performance, and some premium functions, like LG's On Screen Control and the Split Screen feature. You’ll struggle to find the LG 25UM58-P a matching competitor in its price range.
Pro Lots of on-screen real estate
This monitor has enough workspace for you to edit two Word documents side by side - something you could never do on a 25-inch FHD monitor comfortably.
Additionally, the large workspace does not come at the cost of resolution as the LG 25UM58-P offers 20% higher pixel density compared to the regular 25-inch FHD panel.
Pro Nice for watching media
You won't see the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen while watching media filmed in the widescreen cinema standard because of the monitor's near-cinematic resolution of 2560x1080.
An aspect ratio of 21:9 is currently the de facto standard in the film making industry.
Pro Good picture quality
The monitor's contrast ratio, brightness, and color gamut are on par with what the vast majority of competitors in this price range offer.
The LG 25UM58-P can display rich images, with eye-catching and vivid colors and deep dark spots. The colors look good because of the monitor's peak brightness of 250 nits and the full support of the sRGB color gamut. Dark scenes appear deep thanks to the native contrast ratio of 1000:1, which pushes the monitor's blacks to reasonably intense levels.
Moreover, the LG 25UM58-P produces sharper and more saturated images than the corresponding 25-inch FHD competitors because it has 20% higher pixel density.
Pro Excellent for general usage
The LG 25UM58-P is one of the most versatile monitors in its price range because of its good picture quality, a massive amount of on-screen workspace, and the near-cinematic aspect ratio of 21:9.
Additionally, the monitor is suitable for casual gaming.
Cons
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.
Con Bad for dark rooms
The monitor doesn't look good in dark rooms because its panel can't absorb all the light emitted by the backlight. Such effect is called backlight bleeding. Note that this is a widespread problem for most monitors in this price range.
Con Requires calibration
To pull the monitor's maximum color accuracy, you need to get it calibrated because the LG 25UM58-P lacks factory calibration. The calibration is required only if are going to do some color-critical work in the sRGB color space.
Even though the calibration process itself is not complicated, it’d require you to have the specific testing equipment. The usual rental price of such equipment is around $10 a day.
Con Lacks some adjustability
Setting up an ergonomically correct workspace might cause you a bit of a hassle because the monitor does not have a height or swivel angle adjustment.
Also, there is no way to use this monitor in a portrait mode since its stand does not support it.
Con Can't fight glare
The monitor doesn't look good in overly bright rooms with lots of windows as its backlight can't get bright enough to fight glare and heavy reflections.
Con Has an external power brick
You'll need to find a space for the monitor's PSU because the LG 25UM58-P comes with a bulky external power brick.
