LG has unveiled the 'world's first 39-inch 5K2K curved OLED' gaming monitor, and it's about as expensive as you think it would be

LG has just two new gaming monitors, for PC gamers with a penny or two in their pocket: the 39-inch UltraGear Evo GX9 OLED at $1,800, and the IPS-based 27-inch UltraGear Evo GM9 at $1,200.

Starting with the GX9, LG notes it is the "World's First 39-inch 5K2K curved OLED" Gaming Monitor. We got a look at the similar Evo 39GX950B at CES this year, and our Jeremy reckons "it might just be the gaming panel I've been waiting for."

With the GX9, you're getting a 0.03 ms response time, a 21:9 ultrawide format for its 5120 x 2160 resolution, and a 1500R curve. That will be notable, especially on a screen that size, but it's certainly not the tightest curve that monitors can get. It also comes with 143 PPI pixel density, and the 4th Gen Primary RGB tandem technology gets a typical brightness of 335 nits.

An interesting feature, and one I'm happy to see even more monitor brands commit to, the GX9 has a dual mode functionality, which means it can swap between 5K2K at 165 Hz and 1440p at 330 Hz, in a similar manner to the very flat and 27-inch Asus ROG XG27JCG we reviewed recently. This, combined with that response time, should make for a competitive-level monitor in a pinch.

Moving over to the GM9, this 27-inch choice uses Hyper Mini LED technology and comes packed with a 5120 x 2880 resolution, like the Asus IPS above. Effectively, Mini LED uses its thousands of small LEDs in the backlight to get better brightness, HDR, and vibrant colours. It also doesn't suffer from burn-in, which has been a sticking point for OLED for a while. OLED, on the other hand, is fast and comes with true blacks, making its contrast superior.

The historical issue with Mini LED technology, however, is that it needs generally far more LED 'zones' than they ship with to actually get rid of the light-bleed issues that accompany the zonal backlighting design. When you think of an OLED of just a 4K resolution having effectively 8.3 million zones because of its self-emissive pixels, however many thousands of zones a Mini LED backlight has it's still not going to be able to compete in terms of raw contrast or HDR.

The LG Ultragear Evo 39GX950B we liked earlier this year. (Image credit: LG)

The strengths of the GM9, though, lie partly in its blazing 1,250 nits peak brightness and its use of VESA Display HDR 1000. It does lag behind the GX9 when it comes to competitive play, though. The GM9's 1 ms response time isn't as impressive as the OLED GX9's, though it does have the same dual mode system, and both monitors support G-Sync and FreeSync variable refresh rate. It's all perfectly acceptable, but you really have to want that pretty Hyper Mini LED tech to go for this one.

LG notes its AI features for both monitors. This includes AI upscaling to get up to that 5K resolution easier (how well it compares to FSR or DLSS is anyone's guess, though), plus AI Sound and AI Scene Optimisation to adjust audio and picture on the fly, without having to manually change settings.

Both are available to preorder, starting today (ending May 3), but you'll have to wait until May 7 to actually get your hands on these panels.

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