LG 34UM95 34-Inch Ultra-Wide QHD Monitor Review

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When we looked at 29-inch ultra-wide displays last year, we asked for greater size and more pixels. LG answers that request with its 34UM95, a 34-inch panel with a resolution of 3440x1440. Today we run it through our performance and usability analysis.

Results: Color Gamut And Performance

Color gamut is measured using a saturation sweep that samples the six main colors (red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow) at five saturation levels (20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 percent), yielding a more realistic view of color accuracy.

In Custom mode, the color gamut accuracy is pretty good, except for magenta. That secondary has a noticeable hue error towards blue. All of the others come fairly close to their targets for both hue and saturation. Luminance errors are small too, except for blue, which is as much as 33 percent too bright. The overall error is an average of 2.87 Delta E.

Here’s what happens when you switch to Photo mode:

Magenta is now much closer to its target at all saturation levels. Luminance results, however, are a little higher than before. At least to my eye, Photo mode looks a little more brilliant and colorful, but it does take a small step backward in measured accuracy. The average error is 3.74 Delta E.

The best color accuracy is found after calibration using the RGB controls and the color management system.

Most of the improvement we see is a result of our grayscale calibration. The CMS allows us to tidy up the magenta secondary so it has perfect hue. There are no luminance adjustments available, and blue suffers from that omission. The 34UM95’s gamut result is worthy of a professional-level display.

Now we return to the comparison group:

We’ve only seen six other monitors score better than the 34UM95 for gamut accuracy. Even though it’s not marketed as a professional display, it certainly performs like one. Even without calibration, there are no major issues to report.

Gamut Volume: Adobe RGB 1998 And sRGB

There are basically two categories of displays in use today: those that conform to the sRGB/Rec. 709 standard like HDTVs, and wide-gamut panels that show as much as 100 percent of the Adobe RGB 1998 spec. We use Gamutvision to calculate the gamut volume, based on an ICC profile created from our actual measurements.

With such great gamut results, it’s a pity that the 34UM95 isn’t a wide-gamut monitor. Photographers would love it, given plenty of desktop real estate and ample pixel density (this thing rocks in Photoshop). It falls a tiny bit short of 100-percent sRGB volume due to a slightly under-saturated blue primary.

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • InfinityPixels
    I want this so bad.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    4k gaming is amazing but demand alot from the computer hardware. Just got a dell 3214 and its hard to describe how much better the picture/emersion is with the way higher definition in the picture quality and still came from descent 2560x1600 before that.

    Playing on "full" hd (LD? Low definition) feels like a joke once you get to know uhd/4k
    Reply
  • wtfxxxgp
    Rantoc, what does your comment have to do with the article? Seems to me that you were waiting for an opportunity to brag about your new monitor... Glad you got that out of your system. lol

    With regards to this monitor...I LOVE the looks...very elegant. I think the price tag is fitting as well - it has great resolution and there are still plenty of people who are gaming on 60hz displays that may have just enough GPU power to actually game at this thing's native resolution, albeit with slightly lower settings. GG LG!
    Reply
  • ubercake
    Great to see larger-sized higher-than-HD res monitors.
    Reply
  • Nossy
    For a grand, you can get two Asus PB278Q.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    $1000?

    Next
    Reply
  • xPandaPanda
    I have this monitor. Because of it's cinema format, market age, lower production numbers, and early adoption as competitors haven't offered this yet, it is reasonable to think this monitor would cost this much--a lot.

    It would have been nice to include what revision this is, because LG is aware of uniformity issues, which is why the product was largely on backorder and a Rev.2 is in place (but Rev. 2 didn't fix the problem either). My first one had a glaring Uniformity problem, but LG is cool and offered an advanced exchange. The new one has some uniformity problem, but it is very 'livable' and discrete.

    Overall, I am pleased with this product. I have a single 780 to push this and it works nicely. If I got a 4k monitor, I'd have performance issues as the GPU as a whole sector is behind.

    Reply
  • eklipz330
    as a pc gamer who has been playing for ~15 years, i have to say that this is one of the biggest changes that i've seen on the pc platform. this is a big step towards bringing pc back to relevancy. it's something that will be held to acclaim in productive and gaming environments. in fact, the only thing that i'm surprised that they didn't do is make it curved, simply because when a user sets up a multi-monitor setup, they set the outside monitors at an angle. this makes curved monitor solutions make sense more so than tvs, especially since curved monitors benefit solo users the most. im shocked they didnt make it curved. probably going to cash in next year on that.

    seriously though, pc monitors have been lacking for some years now, falling behind in innovation and technology in general(phones have been jacking up their screen quality year after year, we've been stuck since like 2005). i bet 21:9 screens will have the biggest penetration on PCs.
    Reply
  • josejones
    Why still the old HDMI 1.4 instead of HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.2 instead of the new 1.4 ???
    Reply
  • Jamie Blumenfeld
    Wish this was 1600 pixels tall. Don't get the fascination with XX:9 at all.
    Reply