Late last year, I launched a giant 48-inch OLED TV on my desk in search of a single screen to control everyone. It was fantastic, with amazing colors, ink black, G-Sync and FreeSync Premium on a 120Hz panel – but it wasn’t exactly right for the perfect computer screen. Now LG is adapting its TV a bit more for desktop use with the new LG UltraGear 48GQ900, which adds some of the features I wanted to have in this review.
Chief among them: the stand. While the LG C1 48 and LG CX 48 feature a wide, wide base that discourages any attempt to manage desktop cables and blocks the rest of your desk from view, the new UltraGear monitor has a more traditional V-foot that lifts the whole screen off the table.
The remote control. Image: LG
It has a built-in dual-port USB 3.0 hub, an easily accessible 3.5mm four-pole headphone jack if you don’t want to rely on its built-in 20W stereo speakers and a remote control, which may actually make sense for special gaming use. It has a large signal dial and easy buttons to change video inputs, audio outputs, mute, power and switch for LG game mode. (The TVs had, well, a TV remote and there was no button at the bottom to navigate the menus.)
There is a headphone jack that supports DTS X headphones. Image: LG
The Korean company’s Chinese product page also shows that you will be able to call up a cross counter and FPS, if you wish, which are the bets on the table for high-end gaming monitors these days. You can also increase the screen frequency to 138Hz, although I’m not immediately sure why you would want to.
What is not said in the company’s press release, unfortunately, is whether LG has made its algorithms to automatically limit the brightness less aggressive, which is what prevents these giant OLED screens from being amazing computer monitors for making everything in the past. Although I found the LG C1 48 to be excellent for computer gaming, it was a pain to have a constant dimming of the screen while trying to scroll through documents and websites.
There is no mention of an ASBL correction, not that we would expect it in a press release
Limiters protect your OLED screen from burning, but they are a bit excessive and other companies that have built game monitors around LG’s OLED screens have not figured out a way to deal with it. LG has also not significantly improved it in its latest panels: Rtings writes that the new smaller 42-inch LG C2 still has a distracting problem with the brightness limiter. We asked LG about this and we will let you know what we hear.
The other big question is the price: one of the reasons you choose an LG OLED TV over a giant gaming monitor is that you can sometimes find them around, or just a few hundred north of the $ 1,000 brand. If LG charges a premium for the monitor version, it would be harder to sell.
Currently, the world’s leading gaming monitor is probably this Alienware QD-OLED. But if you’re curious what it’s like to live with a giant LG OLED screen, I’ll describe it in detail in my review!
The new LG 48GQ900 “will be available this month in Japan, following key markets in North America, Europe and Asia,” according to the company. You can also read about a pair of new 32-inch monitors, one with DisplayHDR 1000 and the other with a refresh rate of 240Hz, in the company’s press release.
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