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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cheinonen - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
You really don't want this, as while content above 235 is technically not support to exist, some does in the form of specular highlights and other very bright items. Displays or sources that automatically clip this WTW material are possibly losing some image information and shouldn't work that way.name99 - Thursday, February 14, 2013 - link
I don't want to be a dick, but the colors used in the bar charts are truly horrible --- the kind of colors that look like they are bleeding out of the bars.Please revert to the colors you used to use, or ask a designer to choose new colors (or just copy them from any piece of software that has already thought about this issue, eg the default colors used in bar graphs by Mathematica or Numbers).
Spoelie - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
Something must be wrong with your monitor, they look fine to mebjevers - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
I see Fry's has this monitor listed on their website. Is this the US version 1.25?http://www.frys.com/product/7511746
mcfrumpy - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
I saw the same thing so I went to the Fry's by my place that said that had it in stock. The display model had a manufacturing date of Dec 2012 and Rev00 so I'm guessing it's the old one. My bet is the ones they are selling are older since no one else seems to have it in stock.I'll admit looking at the display model I was surprised how small it looked. For as long as it is, the height of the monitor reminds me a 21 or 22 inch monitor.
SpartanGR - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
LG must find a way to fix this. I mean everyone will want the 1.25 version now.Dracusis - Sunday, February 17, 2013 - link
"Disabling the game mode only introduced another 1-2ms of lag, but at the expense of image quality, so I would leave it disabled."Hmm...
I'm guessing you meant something like:
"Enabling the game mode shaved off another 1-2ms of lag, but at the expense of image quality, so I would leave it disabled."
Regardless, what is this "Game mode" what what exactly does it do to the image quality?
The rest of the article was brilliant, so much detail and careful measurement. Then in one line you toss in this randomly subjective opinion and don't even qualify it when an explanation - I feel totally trolled right now.
SpartanGR - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
I've spoken to a local seller in Korea and asked him which version they have. Had my hopes up guys but here 's his answer.Hello. Thank you for your interests
I contacted to LG, there was no official firmware update.
And the product we have in stock is the early released version.
Please feel free to ask if you have any further questions.
Thank you. Have a good day!
Best regards,
- dream-seller
Damn! i guess this is going to take a while
Wesley - Monday, February 18, 2013 - link
As others here have probably pointed out, a monitor like this has the potential to vastly improve the field of view in games, especially with some titles that may already have widescreen or multi-monitor enhancements. The images posted up comparing in-game screenshots were nice (thanks for going into that trouble), but perhaps a video demonstrating how things change on a monitor of this size would be better?For example, playing third-person games would enable a larger field of view but how does this affect the first-person perspective? Racing games all too often stretch the sides of the car when you're playing in cockpit view and the image becomes warped when playing in a multi-monitor environment. Would this screen give RTS players some advantage? Starcraft 2 can run on a MBP with the Retina display at native resolution. As a gamer myself, resolution becomes pretty important and I'm tired of 1920x1080. My only options are sinking cash into a 27" Korean monitor, a 30" monster, or something like this, which isn't that much larger but may be more beneficial.
macin - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - link
It's 4 am and I am half asleep so bare with me here.So LG is so bothered by a review of a $700 monitor that they revise it. Great.
I am happy to hear that a company actually cares enough to seek feedback to make something better.
Why is it that the only company that line calibrates monitors is Apple?
If LG wants to stand out among other panels, why not do this for the customer as well?
Once spoiled to 2650 x 1440 and the color accuracy of Apple monitors, I can't find anything else I like.
I don't own $2k worth of calibration equip and I can't "eye" anything and get it accurate, but I know it when it see it.
I can see the difference between an out of the box pic and a calibrated pic, but I have to have someone tell me what settings they used to get there.
Maybe since you guys test so many monitors, you could add a Calibrated settings to your display page?