LG has introduced its subsequent OLED TV, the LG Flex, which is designed to double up as a giant curved 4K monitor, and you may select how a lot it curves, primarily based in your setup.
The stand contains motorized arms that push the sides of the OLED panel, curving them ahead as much as a most curve of 800R (which is very curved) for in the event you’re sitting proper in entrance of it at a desk, or again to flat… and with 18 steps in between these two. You possibly can select your favourite settings, and a devoted button on the distant enables you to change between them at will.
We’d love to display this to you thru footage or another sort of visible assist, however on the time of writing, LG had not offered footage of the Flex that we are able to use, although we’ve seen it in a digital briefing.
The OLED panel itself is basically the identical as within the 42-inch LG C2, with the exception that it features a coating that’s 25% much less reflective than the one used within the LG C2. LG informed us that that is used as a result of that is designed to be a gaming monitor in addition to a TV, and the nearer you sit to a display screen, the broader the angle of reflections you see.
The common LG C2 is extra designed for sitting at a snug distance out of your couch, which suggests you get a narrower window of reflections. Now we’d say that having a lower-reflection coating on all fashions of LG C2 would nonetheless be good, since its brightness is a bit restricted, however possibly it’ll seem on the LG C3.
So far as different gaming options go, the set basically copies the LG C2 in these methods as properly. You get a number of HDMI 2.1 ports in your 4K 120Hz gaming wants – there’s no DisplayPort connectivity in any respect, which can trigger consternation with some gaming PC followers.
It additionally helps Dolby Imaginative and prescient for gaming (together with at 120fps) and HGiG, which is uncommon in gaming screens. There’s FreeSync Professional, G-Sync and HDMI Discussion board VRR help built-in too.
There isn’t any HDR-rating (as in ‘HDR400’ or ‘HDR600’), however primarily based on earlier testing of the LG C2 42-inch, you possibly can most likely count on 600-700 nits of peak brightness, relying in your settings.
LG’s Gaming Hub interface is nice for many who need to tinker with settings. You possibly can flip the options talked about above on and off, however you too can get proper below the hood of the image processing choices within the LG Alpha 9 chip that powers it (one other function introduced over from the C2).
You possibly can tweak shadow and spotlight settings in nice element, in addition to all types of different components that can change the response instances, so you may get a steadiness of image high quality and low latency that fits you.
After all, any use of image processing comes with some inherent lag, so hardcore PC avid gamers may simply reject this display screen outright as a result of it makes use of a TV chip.
Evaluation: An excessive amount of TV, not sufficient monitor?
That’s sort of the large query for the LG Flex, actually: is it an excessive amount of of a TV and never sufficient of a monitor if it’s going to take a seat in your desk?
The purpose of getting probably the greatest curved screens is that whenever you’re sitting proper on the middle of it at a brief distance (ie, in your desk), the curve helps with eyestrain in a approach that’s particularly helpful when gaming. Utilizing a flat display screen, the sides are a big relative distance away out of your eyes in comparison with the middle – your eye has to do fairly a leap in refocusing in the event you’re flicking from trying on the crosshair as much as an ammo rely within the nook, for instance. The identical eye flick doesn’t have the identical eye-strain problem when a TV throughout the room, as a result of the nook and the middle are virtually the identical relative distance out of your eye.
What curved screens do is scale back the gap from the sides of the display screen to your eye, which means that the center of the display screen and the sides are roughly the identical distance away from you – so when your eye flicks to the nook now, it doesn’t should refocus. That makes them way more snug over lengthy durations.
The beauty of the LG Flex is that you simply get the select the curve, so nonetheless far you’re going to take a seat from the desk, you’ll find the precise curve stage that’s excellent in your eyes. No quibbles right here; that’s wonderful.
However it’s a 42-inch TV. That’s actually fairly massive for desk setup – too large to make use of as a basic laptop monitor. So it might’t substitute the monitor at your desk for basic use, however possibly you would wall mount it above your monitor? Nope – it might’t be wall mounted, as a result of its curving motors are all constructed into the stand.
So it’s principally designed for a one-person gaming room setup, actually. Perhaps you might have it in your room along with your PS5 as an alternative of a desk you really work at. Perhaps you reside alone and might have it in your front room, however you possibly can sit shut sufficient for the curve to really feel worthwhile. These are all good use instances – however they’re fairly particular. It might be that falls down the cracks for lots of people: too large and TV-like to switch the perfect gaming screens, however too chunky and specialist to purchase as an alternative of the perfect 42-inch TVs.
We expect the LG Flex seems to be like a genius little bit of engineering, nonetheless – we’ll discover out whether or not it’s sensible in addition to cool after we can get our palms on it.
