LG 29EA93 Monitor Review - Rev. 1.25
by Chris Heinonen on February 12, 2013 8:49 PM ESTAnyone that read my initial review knows I was disappointed with the performance of the LG 29EA93. I’m a big fan of the aspect ratio, but I wasn’t a fan of the performance numbers that I saw from it. Well, it seems that LG wasn’t a fan either and went back to fix it, returning with a display that puts out some of the best numbers that I have ever seen. There isn’t a single issue that I found that LG didn’t address in full and add into their QA workflow to prevent the same issues from happening again. It really feels like someone gave me a totally different monitor to review than before.
While I think LG probably would prefer that every product they put out be perfect, to me this was actually a good thing to have happen. I’ve reviewed many things that I’ve given poor reviews in my life, and this is the first time I’ve had a response like this. LG wasn’t content to have a bad review out there, or to have flaws in their product, and worked hard to address those issues. Seeing that commitment from a company said a bit more to me than seeing a company put out a good monitor does.
If I were reviewing the LG 29EA93 from scratch, I’d say it’s a fantastic monitor. It has incredible uniformity, the highest contrast ratio I’ve seen in a long, long time, and after calibration it’s almost totally flawless on all our tests. The CMS for video works fantastic, and watching 2.35:1 movies on it is a really nice visual treat. The lag response is very low and for gaming it will work well and offer a very nice field-of-view in games. It really is an incredibly well made, and unique, monitor in the marketplace today.
Because of my prior review I’m even more impressed. Coaxing this performance out of what I had before is a huge improvement, and I believe that because of this experience in improving their monitor quality, it will help LG to develop better monitors down the road. As it is, I can easily recommend people look at the 29EA93 if they get a chance. It offers fantastic performance that can compete with almost any display I have used to date, and really impressed me the second time around.
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SpartanGR - Friday, April 5, 2013 - link
No there is no way of knowing. i'll buy this monitor 6 months from now just to be sure.sant2468 - Friday, April 12, 2013 - link
To get the service menu up, first switch off the monitor, then while holding down the menu key simultaneously press and hold the power button, keep holding both buttons until the monitor powers up then release them. Press the menu button once and up pops the menu. To revert back to the OSD menu, turn the monitor off then back on again.Ubercake - Wednesday, April 17, 2013 - link
If they can get this to operate at 120Hz, I'd buy it tomorrow.sant2468 - Friday, April 19, 2013 - link
i have to say. i went for the dell version and it clocks to 75 hz. haven't tried to overclock this any further and it runs so sweat.All games run very nice at 75 fps.
zewolf5 - Monday, April 22, 2013 - link
I asked dustinhome if they knew what revision they had for sale. Got this answer: " ...there is new firmwares released now and then. And there shouldn’t be any other difference than the firmware between these revisions, if there is something wrong with the firmware in a product then the customer can contact LG and they will decide if a firmware upgrade can solve the problem. For this product it isn’t possible to upgrade the firmware as a user, it needs to be done by LG Service. And we don’t get any information about which revision we get delivered, since it is delivered on the same part number."Big_Lund! - Monday, April 29, 2013 - link
Just bought a LG 29EA93-P from Fry's this week (San Jose CA). Mgr date is Feb 13 2013 Rev-01 which is version 1.25. The way to verify is to Hold the power & Menu button's together and you will see the version number on the top left corner! Once calibrated the best monitor to date! Great for games, movies & editing photos.noknowsu - Wednesday, May 22, 2013 - link
I bought this led monitor because of this new update on the monitor . im am so happy you did this review because it made my decision to buy!! i also got the new revision model 1.25 and bought it off newegg at $540 total they had a special . Thanks anandtech!!MacDavePro - Thursday, May 23, 2013 - link
Why does the review author continue to be evasive regarding identification of units shipping with the tested firmware revision? Just review a damned retail unit and restore the reputation of AnandTech as a legitimate reviewer. Otherwise this whole review is just a joke. Chris has basically reviewed a mythical, maybe never to be released, one-off that may or may not bear any resemblance to a display of the same name which is available for sale. If I reviewed a Chevrolet stock car as representative of a showroom model you'd laugh me off the web. Joke.retlaps - Monday, June 3, 2013 - link
i just got mine today, the setting show this:http://i39.tinypic.com/1ij43l.jpgDoes this mean there is now a Rev 1.31??
VooDooAddict - Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - link
Any idea if the LG 29EB93-P has these updates as well? I'm trying to decide between the LG 29EA93 and the 29EB93-P I would much prefer the nice stand and more professional look of the 29EB93-P but not at the loss of these nessesary updates.