LG 49 UltraGear gaming monitor review: Ultrawide nirvana

In many ways, the 49-inch Ultragear is emblematic of PC gaming itself: Owning one puts you right on the bleeding edge, but the experience isn't always perfect. Incompatibility risks and other issues are simply a fact of life if you want a screen that can completely consume your peripheral vision. And to its credit, the Ultragear still looks and feels like a typical gaming display. Setting it up was just a matter of assembling the sturdy stand and slapping the screen on the rear mount. The stand also supports vertical, swiveling and tilting adjustments, letting you dial in just the right viewing angle.

Compared to Samsung's monstrous 55-inch Odyssey Ark, the 49-inch UltraGear is far easier to use for both gaming and regular productivity tasks. Sure, it can't rotate to be completely vertical, but that feature always felt like a gimmick on Samsung's screen. Instead, I appreciated the simple things, like being able to have two browser windows opened up alongside Slack while I was doing research. While recording podcasts, I could simultaneously keep an eye on my audio timeline, as well as have windows dedicated to a video chat with my cohosts, a Google Doc with shownotes and a browser for research.

For the multitasker who demands as much usable screen space as possible, the 49-inch UltraGear is heaven. Just be prepared to stretch your neck more than usual to see the extreme edges. You could always push the monitor back a bit to avoid that, but that also hurts immersion, which is the whole point of buying this thing.

Based on several hours of gameplay, as well as watching clips from 4K HDR films and plenty of other video content, the 49-inch UltraGear was just as bright and bold as I'd expect from a modern monitor. It can reach up to 1,000 nits of peak HDR brightness, and it covers 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. While the images didn't exactly leap off the screen as they did with Alienware's phenomenal QD-OLED display, a more expensive 34-inch screen, the sheer size of the 49-inch UltraGear made me feel like I was actually driving around Night City in Cyberpunk 2077, or exploring alien planets in No Man's Sky. 

While the screen doesn’t really give you an advantage in FPS titles like Halo Infinite, since your view is basically cropped from what 16:9 players see, I still enjoyed having an extra wide view of every match. You may have to tweak field-of-view settings in some titles though, as the monitor's large 1000R curve can lead to distortions along the edges of the frame. (This could also be a problem when it comes to photo editing, or any task requires exact measurements.)

While I reveled in having such a vast amount of screen space available, using the 49-inchUltraGear led to some awkward adjustments outside of the screen. To record podcasts, I had to push it down to its lowest position and maneuver my rear desk-mounted microphone over the display. With my own 34-inch ultrawide monitor, there was enough room for the microphone to fit along the right side of the screen. I also had to push my large desktop speakers even further away to fit the 49-inch UltraGear on my desk. If you're actually considering this screen, it's worth thinking seriously about how it will fit in your space and alongside your other accessories. (You could also attach it to a wall or a monitor arm that fits a 100 x 100 mm VESA mount.)

The 49-inch UltraGear is clearly a gaming focused monitor: it includes features like a built-in crosshair, FPS counter and requisite RGB LED lighting. There aren’t any speakers attached (because really, who uses those?) but you can plug in headphones for DTS HP:X virtual surround sound. (That sounded fine in my testing, but I stuck with Windows’ Dolby Atmos upmixing while playing with the Arctis Nova Pro headset.) There are also 2 USB 3.0 ports along the rear for accessories, but for a monitor in this price range I expected even more connectivity.

Given that 27-inch 5K screens like Apple’s Studio Display sell for $1,599, the 49-inch UltraGear’s $1,300 retail pricedoesn’t seem so bad. But with great 16:9 gaming monitors going for around $300, it’s still a hefty price to stomach. And if you’re ready to pay more than $1,000 for a monitor, it may be worth holding out for an OLED screen that can deliver better contrast. (The Alienware 34-inch QD-OLED is now available for $900 with AMD’s FreeSync Pro, while LG’s UltraGear 45 ultrawide OLED goes for a whopping $1,700.)

Few people actually need a 49-inch monitor. But LG has built one that’s laser-targeted at the people who demand that much screen. It does everything you want a gaming monitor to do: It’s bright, colorful and can play titles at incredibly high frame rates. And it does it all while consuming your entire field of view. When it comes to sheer immersion, the UltraGear 49 is the next best thing to putting on a VR headset.