We were excited nearly testing today's monitor because the product falls into one of our favorite categories: affordable just decent gaming monitors. Lots of companies try and target this market segment but information technology'due south hard to come up away with a winner, but we think LG might accept simply managed it with the 32GK650F.

This 32-inch monitor packs a 1440p resolution with a 144 Hz refresh rate, so it falls into that gilded zone for modern gaming. Just on peak of that, it uses VA engineering science which is pop with gamers and perhaps the best for this type of brandish. Crucially, it's also flat, which volition delight the curved display haters. LG hasn't bothered with any HDR stuff, this is your standard 1440p high-refresh monitor, and equally a result information technology'due south retailing right now for but $350.

This doesn't make it the cheapest 1440p 144Hz display on the market, you tin can often notice others for effectually the $320, maybe $330 like the Viotek GN27DB and GN32DB. But in that location is genuinely lots to like almost the LG 32GK650F which we'll go to in the performance section.

The 32GK650F uses LG'southward electric current UltraGear way, which includes a elementary V-shaped stand up made from black plastic, a basic forepart console design with slim bezels on iii sides, and again a simple black plastic rear that we recollect looks good. In that location are a few red highlights giving the design a bit of additional involvement and there's no RGB LEDs which we kind of appreciate.

Despite its unproblematic design, LG has included a lot of functionality. The stand is fully height adaptable and supports tilting, swivelling and even pivoting so you can utilize this monitor in a portrait orientation. The sturdiness of the stand is average just unlike a lot of other budget monitors in this form, it really supports a good range of motion. The ports are hands accessible on the rear console although cable management can be a little catchy. The main ports are DisplayPort and ii HDMI ports plus a headphone jack. No USB hub here and the monitor does require an external power brick.

LG's UltraGear line seems to generally use directional toggles for controlling the on-screen carte du jour which is an advantage over some alternatives. In that location'southward as well a few handy features to be plant within, like a "motion mistiness reduction" mode that'due south basically blackness frame insertion or backlight strobing option. There'southward also some cheat features similar crosshairs and black level adjustments.

For gamers, this monitor has a groovy feature set headlined by a 2560 x 1440 resolution and a maximum refresh charge per unit of 144 Hz. It also has FreeSync back up with low framerate compensation and it'south uniform with Nvidia GPUs. Some of the accented cheapest monitors with these specs do non include adaptive sync, and then having it here is not only welcome but a requirement for any mod gaming brandish.

Performance

Response times for a VA panel are better than average. At that place are several response time modes merely the default Fast option is the best, with Faster introducing a fleck too much overshoot. Notwithstanding, with the Fast mode we're looking at a grey to gray average response of six.50ms, which is faster than the required 6.94ms transition to fully support a 144 Hz refresh rate. Bated from a few especially slow transitions, this panel is properly capable of a 144 Hz refresh around 80% of the time which is better than average for a VA display.

In fact, when looking over the charts you tin see that of the 32-inch 1440p 144Hz VA monitors we've reviewed - and in that location have been a few, it'due south a pop production type - the 32GK650F is the fastest. The average response time for this type is 7.7ms and then nosotros're nigh 1ms faster than expected. It's a great result for a VA and puts it within IPS territory.

Input lag is as well decent, coming in at 3.3ms which is inside the normal bracket we see for gaming monitors. This gives an overall latency of below 10ms which is what we like to see.

LG lists a typical dissimilarity ratio for this display of 3000:i although in our testing nosotros recorded something closer to 2400:one, which is a off-white flake lower but not unusual for this sort of VA. With this result it nevertheless sits around its competitors; marks which all slot below 3000:1 likewise. Even at 2400:1 the contrast ratio is at least double a typical IPS and will however give you the contrast benefits of this technology. As for effulgence, 320 nits is fine for most viewers, particularly as in that location's no HDR back up.

Equally for colour reproduction, this is just your standard sRGB complaint panel with no wide gamut back up. Although that does make it easier to work with in almost cases outside of HDR modes, your standard content is mastered for sRGB so to avoid oversaturation you do desire an sRGB monitor.

Default out of the box functioning isn't bang-up though, and that'due south largely down to wrong greyscale performance. A white point of 7840K, which balloons out to an average of 8120K over the greyscale range, means this monitor ships with a cold, blue tint. Some users similar this, but for it to be right y'all actually want a warmer 6500K white bespeak. So a greyscale deltaE average of 5.05 isn't surprising here.

Default Calibration

It's a similar story with saturation performance, with a common cold white point you tin meet that the residuum of the color points have been translated, so everything has been dragged colder than expected. We become a deltaE boilerplate here of 3.26 with particularly poor bluish, cyan and magenta performance. And you'll meet similar numbers with ColorChecker.

Luckily, the wrong white point can be corrected through a few tweaks in the on-screen menu. For my unit, I prepare the user color controls to Red 50, Green 43 and Blueish 34 forth with a Brightness of 61 for approximately 200 nits. These settings may not apply perfectly to every 32GK650F due to panel variance but it should bring things a lot closer to accurate.

With these settings applied and no formal scale, the CCT curve drastically improved to an boilerplate of 6855K which led to a greyscale deltaE average of but ane.66 which is pretty darn accurate for merely a few setting tweaks. This helped out a lot with saturation, leading to a deltaE boilerplate of one.39, and ColorChecker improvements to 1.53. With averages below two.0 across the board, this sort of performance is very accurate.

Later OSD Settings Tweak

From here y'all could go and perform a proper calibration which tightens things upwards further. It sets fifty-fifty better gamma, but for most users we think these bones tweaks volition suffice, peculiarly if your model has shipped with a noticeable blue tint.

After Calibration

Lastly nosotros take uniformity which as expected for a VA console is a touch on the mediocre side. The centre channel is good enough but equally you wait to either edge there's a scrap of a deviance relative to the center. Zip drastic, it is somewhat noticeable only for gaming it'due south not a big bargain and you won't go much meliorate from a competing monitor.

Conclusion

All upwardly, the LG 32GK650F is our new favorite affordable high-refresh gaming monitor, and that's non a crown that we give out lightly or easily.

Nosotros've spoken before about how 1440p 144Hz is our favorite display hardware for gaming correct now - it's that slap-up combination of resolution and refresh rate that'south achievable with modern GPU tech - and the 32GK650F delivers that with the all-time characteristic set at a bang-up toll.

Previously nosotros accept recommended monitors like the Viotek GN32DB or the Pixio PX329 in this category. The Viotek option is curved and nigh $330, while the Pixio is flat and $350. But with the LG 32GK650F likewise slotting in at $350, information technology merely offers more than than the alternatives at a matching price bespeak.

Specifically, the 32GK650F has faster response times, which reduces mistiness and provides a true 144Hz feel, different the Pixio which is advertised equally 165Hz merely really can't deliver true 144Hz. The LG remains a large 32-inch flat VA with good dissimilarity which we feel is better than curved alternatives and it comes with a ameliorate stand that'due south elevation and pin adjustable, neither of which the Viotek nor Pixio offering. Crucially, this monitor is also much easier to find in retailers worldwide although pricing volition vary depending on the region.

Once again, for the price, LG brings no glaring flaws and the best value proposition for 1440p gaming. The 32GK650F is like shooting fish in a barrel to recommend.

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