LG UltraGear OLED 27 review: the OLED revolution is here

For years, the best gaming monitors have leaned on one type of panel: traditional LCD. But that’s starting to change, and LG is leading the charge. The UltraGear OLED 27 (27GR95QE-B) is the first 27-inch OLED gaming monitor, finally offering the vibrant HDR, true blacks, and astounding motion clarity of OLED in a monitor form factor that makes sense. And it delivers on all fronts.

There are some issues, most notably the cumbersome remote and high price for a 1440p display, but those immediately fade into the background when the UltraGear OLED 27 comes to life. Perfect pixel density meets vibrant colors meets a high refresh rate capable of excellent motion clarity, adding up to a display that’s not only one of the best gaming monitors, but one of the best monitors period.

LG UltraGear OLED 27 (27GR95QE-B) specs

Striking design, half-baked execution

The first thing that stands out about the UltraGear OLED 27 is how thin it is. There’s a chunky back panel that houses the connection ports and active (but silent) cooling, but the panel itself is only a fraction-of-an-inch thick.

On the back, there’s some bright LED lighting that you can set to one of our static colors or cycle through a spectrum. The color matches a smaller underglow light that shines down through the control button. Yes, that’s just a single button to control the monitor, which is where the UltraGear OLED 27 starts to run into problems.

I’m a big fan of LG’s on-screen display (read my UltraGear OLED 48 review for more on that), but it’s just a pain to access on the OLED 27. The singular control button doesn’t let you access the full menu, instead asking you to do a single press to cycle through a quick access menu or a long press to select a setting. This leads to situations where turning down the brightness requires pressing the button 100 times to go from the brightest settings to the dimmest.

You’re meant to control the monitor with the included remote, but even with that, the UltraGear OLED 27 runs into issues. For starters, the battery slot on the remote requires a screwdriver to get open, and LG doesn’t include the coin battery you need to power the remote. This wouldn’t be a problem if you could control the on-screen display with the button on the monitor, or if LG had included the battery, which very few people are likely to have laying around, but neither of those things are true.

That’s annoying, but it’s an easy problem to solve. What the UltraGear OLED 27 gets right is adjustment. Ironically, you don’t need a screwdriver to set up the sturdy stand, and it enables just shy of four-and-a-half inches of height adjustment, 20 degrees of swivel, 20 degrees of tilt, and the ability to turn the monitor vertically.

It also has great port selection. You get two USB 3.0 passthroughs on the back, as well as a headphone/microphone jack on the bottom of the display. This port even supports DTS Headphone:X for virtual 3D audio, offering a high-end audio experience right under the front of the display.

Beautiful, vibrant OLED

What makes the UltraGear OLED 27 special is right in the name: OLED. Self-dimming pixels mean you get true black levels and a theoretically infinite contrast ratio. It’s the antidote for the embarrassing state of HDR with most gaming monitors.

Brightness isn’t the main draw here, though. It’s contrast. LG claims the monitor can reach peak brightness of 1,000 nits, but only for 3% of the screen. I measured a max brightness of 600 nits, but that was with HDR cranked. That sounds high, but the monitor won’t normally get that bright. In SDR, it topped out at just over 250 nits, which is fairly dim for a monitor released in 2023.

It’s not as bright in HDR as LG says, but brightness was never a big issue for me. In SDR, the contrast ratio was over 250,000:1, and in HDR, there’s an infinite contrast ratio. Colors absolutely pop off the screen, and even regular websites look vibrant. That’s despite the matte finish on the display. Unlike the Dough Spectrum Glossy, the UltraGear OLED 27 comes with a matte finish on the screen. It never became an issue, dealing with reflections while still letting the vibrant color of the panel shine through.

And that color is vibrant. I measured 100% coverage of the sRGB color space, as well as 97% coverage of DCI-P3. Color accuracy was excellent out of the box, too, with a color error of 1.5 (less than 2 is ideal for video and photo editing). You could easily jump in and start editing a video on the UltraGear OLED 27 without any adjustments to the color.

That’s only in SDR, though. HDR is a different beast. The UltraGear OLED 27 has a WRGB subpixel layout, which means there’s a white subpixel alongside the standard red, green, and blue ones. This addition is what helps the UltraGear OLED 27 get brighter than similar OLEDs, but it comes with a trade-off. Since the display has to lean on the white subpixel to get bright in HDR, colors start to lose saturation as you turn the brightness up.

I measured a color error of above 6 in HDR, and that was only at 75% brightness. The UltraGear OLED 27 is great for color work when it’s in SDR, but HDR is exclusively for playing games, watching movies, and browsing the internet.

OLED doesn’t come free on concerns, either. Burn-in is an omnipresent issue, as static elements will fade into the display over time. LG includes some features like an automatic screen saver and pixel shifting, and burn-in is less of an issue on OLED today than it was in years past. But it’s still a relevant concern to bring up if you plan on using the UltraGear OLED 27 for daily use outside of gaming.

Perfect pixel density

I was a little taken back when I heard the LG OLED 27 was a 1440p monitor. It’s $1,000, which is tough to swallow when even premium 4K gaming monitors like the Sony InZone M9 are several hundred dollars cheaper. It’s not always about raw resolution, though.

At 27 inches, the pixel density is excellent on the UltraGear OLED 27. Text looks super sharp, and images look vibrant thanks to the OLED panel. You’re spending more for fewer pixels, but that’s not really important once you sit down and look at the monitor.

It’s not a crazy price, either. Alienware’s 34 QD-OLED is anywhere from $1,100 to $1,300. It has a higher resolution, but only because it uses an ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio. The UltraGear OLED 27 is basically that same monitor pixel-wise, just with the ultrawide wings cut off.

But I mainly appreciate the resolution because of the refresh rate. This is a 240Hz panel, and while it’s hard to recommend such a high refresh rate on a 4K monitor like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8, it’s a perfect fit for 1440p. As long as you have a powerful gaming PC, you’ll easily be able to push frame rates capable of driving the full 240Hz.

Given how great the OLED panel looks, the UltraGear OLED 27 makes a very strong argument that more resolution isn’t always better. And paired with the high refresh rate, it looks fantastic.

The only concern for text clarity is the WRGB subpixel structure, which is an issue we saw on the first batch of QD-OLED monitors. There’s some blurring around text as you sit close to the monitor, but I never found it distracting while using the display. You have to get very close to the screen to notice, so although text clarity is a problem compared to a traditional LCD monitor, it’s far from a deal breaker.

Superb gaming

You should already know the UltraGear OLED 27 is a great gaming monitor. A 240Hz refresh rate, response times below 0.1 millisecond, FreeSync certification and G-Sync support, and stunning HDR — it’s a winning combination.

It’s that combination that makes the UltraGear OLED 27 so striking. The 240Hz refresh rate is easily beaten out by the recent barrage of 360Hz screens we’ve seen, like the Asus PG27AQN, but it’s still much higher than you see on a typical gaming monitor. Combined with the response time, motion clarity can reach the levels of a 360Hz panel, making it a great option for competitive games like Overwatch 2, Rainbow Six Siege, and Valorant. 

The UltraGear OLED 27 has competitive games down, but it also has cinematic games nailed. OLED and the stellar HDR experience it brings means you can enjoy games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Horizon Zero Dawn without missing out.

And that’s the problem most gaming monitors have — you have to choose between competitive motion clarity or stunning, cinematic images. The UltraGear OLED 27 provides the best of both worlds. I jumped back and forth between Overwatch 2, Destiny 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and at least a dozen other games without adjusting a single setting on the monitor. Each time, it felt like I was getting the best experience.

Should you buy the LG UltraGear OLED 27?

I’ve never encountered a monitor that makes perfect sense like the UltraGear OLED 27 does. It doesn’t always hold up on the spec sheet, but sitting down in front of the monitor consistently reinforced one idea: this is one of the best gaming experiences you can have right now.

It isn’t perfect, particularly for desktop use where OLED burn-in and text clarity are more pressing issues, but those problems are easy to overlook. What you’re getting is excellent motion clarity, response time, HDR, and pixel density in a package that, although expensive, is reasonably priced compared to other options on the market.

The main competition it has is the Alienware 34 QD-OLED, which says a lot about how excellent the UltraGear OLED 27 really is. LG’s advantage here is a slightly lower price and much higher refresh rate, finally bringing competitive and cinematic gaming experiences in balance.

Editors' Recommendations