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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Kittihawk - Thursday, June 6, 2013 - link
It's a good screen but another way of looking at it is not that it's ultra-wide but that it's ultra-cropped - sadly my old Apple Cinema 30inch display failed and I go this one to replace - loosing about 1/4 of the screen size.Some really frustrating things you need to know - there is no display port cable in the box. That is really bad because, LG, the money I use to pay you comes from being productive and I lost a day of editing while I figured out that I needed the cable and ordered off Amazon. Additionally I was really confused about not being able to get the full resolution on the VGA connection until I worked out that without a 'display port' cable you will not get the full resolution. Also your graphics card will also need to support the higher resolution sizes and even then it may not fit exactly and you will need secondary software to tweak. That might all be obvious to the computer nerds who make these things but its not to the average end user.
Also the 'really clever cardboard box' quoted by Chris (Chris Heinonen ) was absent - instead the usual polystyrene menace - so I think Chris you were a bit duped at times by LG. In addition there was a strong formaldehyde plastic small from the new monitor - not good in a bedroom, but soon became undetectable.
There was also a dead pixel - never had that with any of the Mac screens I use (I have five).
Despite all that I like it - mainly because the lower height allows me to look out of the window behind and day dream instead of doing my work!
Manub - Friday, July 12, 2013 - link
I just received mine and while checking the service menu it states V1.33.lawrencejob - Monday, July 22, 2013 - link
I bought it on Saturday for £350, Amazon.just came by to thank you: this was an excellent review and instrumental in my purchase.
One thing to add: I wasn't very impressed by the black levels (although I've yet to calibrate it properly) and the device does a remarkable job at looking both too small and enormous at the same time (by my calculations there's only a little between this and a 32" TV with 21:9 content).
lawrencejob - Monday, July 22, 2013 - link
Should probably have proof-read that before sending it.forserum - Thursday, August 1, 2013 - link
LG_Monitor_Software_TCF_Ver2.7.8_SS_ver6.1.On lg site they told me it will get the latest firmware
jezzer - Tuesday, August 27, 2013 - link
how to tell if it is a rev 1.25? anyone knows? thxCDubbs - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
Has anyone seen benchmarks on the 29EA73 or 29EB73 coming out next week? Did they carry over the improvements from this model? It is being released at a lower price point and I am trying to determine where the compromises were made. Newegg has it on pre-order for 499 with a $50 store credit gift card.arijit.ray81 - Wednesday, November 27, 2013 - link
What's the version of DisplayPort on this? Is it 1.2?