Consumers want top-tier image quality, even as screen sizes grow—especially with high-end OLED models. LG Display responded by introducing a 45-inch W-OLED panel in a 21:9 format, offering a resolution of 5120 x 2160 (5K2K) and a pixel density of 125 ppi. This LG 45GX950A review breaks down how that panel performs in real-world use and whether it meets the mark for serious users.
The first information about the monitor appeared online at the end of 2024, and the official announcement took place at the CES 2025 exhibition, which took place in early January of this year. The start of sales was scheduled for the end of March; the official recommended price of the new gaming monitor is $1,999.
As for competitors, the LG 45GX950A currently has none — LG will be “skimming all the cream” itself in the next six months to a year. Therefore, if you are eager to get acquainted with a display of this size, then there are simply no alternatives.
LG 45GX950A Review
Unboxing
Our LG 45GX950A review unit arrives in a large cardboard box devoid of any special visual frills. There is no plastic carrying handle; instead, there is a special cutout on both sides. Together with the packaging, the monitor weighs almost 20 kg – for unpacking, assembly, and installation, it would not hurt to have a “friend’s help.”
The package includes the following items:
- External power adapter
- Power cord
- HDMI 2.1 cable
- DisplayPort 2.1 cable
- USB Type-C to Type-C cable
- Warranty information booklet
- Power supply configuration guide for different regions
- Safety instructions manual
The set is more than sufficient – it contains everything you need to reveal the monitor’s full potential without introducing obvious limitations. The primary concern in this case is to verify the capabilities of the GPU used in the PC or laptop and be aware of the manufacturer’s limits for each installed interface.
Design and Ergonomics
The LG 45GX950A monitor features a 45-inch curved OLED screen with an 800R curvature, providing users with an impressive display. The overall style is a premium minimalist approach with a distinct gaming DNA.
The design is relatively new; from the front, the monitor bears a partial resemblance to Samsung’s Odyssey solutions due to the shape of its stand. However, the device’s appearance is deliberately restrained, featuring a frameless design on all four sides, which distinguishes LG’s W-OLED solutions from other representatives of the OLED camp.
Due to the use of a curved panel, the manufacturer has abandoned the ultra-thin case for safety reasons. The solution is thinner than some curved LCDs, but by OLED standards, it is significant. The plastic cover on the back conceals all the control electronics, connection interfaces, and elements of the quick-release mount for the stand or VESA-compatible bracket, featuring 100×100 mm standard fasteners.
The monitor is mounted on a small, figuredstand made of painted metal. The central column is larger, and a slot with a purple insert is made in it for the cable routing system.
Additionally, a plastic cover is used for the cable routing system, closing direct access to the interface connectors. Its effectiveness is low, but it completes the visual image of the monitor.
The mouse wire holder is the already familiar plastic element from the delivery set, which is quickly attached to the bottom edge of the case on one of the two sides.
Due to its dimensions, adjustment is only available for the screen tilt angle in the range from -5 to +15°, for height in the range of 120 mm, and rotation is possible by 10° in both directions. Rotation of the screen to portrait mode (Pivot) is not available, which is normal for such a large 21:9 format monitor.
All retaining elements, the insides of the fastening mechanisms, and the base of the stand are made of metal. The latter uses four small rubber feet for better grip on the work surface. No additional tools are required to assemble the monitor.
The LG monitor case is not subject to twisting and practically does not creak or crunch under adequate physical impact. The processing of the edges of plastic and metal elements does not cause any complaints. All parts are connected precisely, with minimal gaps along the entire length of the joints.
There is no backlash, and the monitor hardly wobbles. The cooling system is passive. So you don’t have to worry about the noise from the 45GX950A – there is none.
The body elements are well-painted, with some pieces crafted in a brushed metal style. Glossy parts are not used, while others are distinguished by increased practicality and wear resistance. As a result, if you have no complaints about the appearance of the LG UltraGear OLED 45GX950A, then you definitely can not worry about the quality of materials and assembly.
All primary connection interfaces are located at the back of the monitor and are oriented downwards. An additional 3.5 mm audio interface with DTS protocol support is located on the bottom edge of the case, positioned almost in the center, for maximum convenience when connecting headphones.
The monitor’s built-in sound system consists of two 10-watt speakers located behind the ventilation slots, and the sound quality is very decent. The case does not rattle and resonates at specific frequencies during audio stream playback.
We should also note the Hexagon Lighting external lighting system. In its shape, it resembles the stand of the device and is “drawn” with a relatively thin line on the back surface of the case around the mounting area of the central stand.
The system appears harmonious in light of the visual changes to the device body itself and is distinguished by an average (for many, clearly insufficient) glow power. The result may look impressive, but in sporadic cases, and when installing the device body very close to the wall or any other light-reflecting object or element within the interior, it may not be as effective. When setting up, you can select the glow color, as well as several illumination effects.
Menu and Control
The LG UltraGear OLED 45GX950A gaming monitor is controlled by a single 5-position joystick located at the rear of the case, in its lower area. It also functions as a power button. We did not notice the power indicator. The joystick itself, unlike that used in other LG representatives, is made more roughly; moving it to one position or another results in audible crunching.
Pressing the joystick brings up the familiar animated on-screen display (OSD) menu, which features five icons. They allow you to access the main menu, select a signal source, activate game settings (opens a submenu), turn off the monitor, and remove the menu.
By moving the joystick left and right or up and down, you can access quick settings for the brightness and volume level of the connected headphones or audio system.
The play of colors, the fade-in and fade-out effects, and the absence of glaring red wherever possible. Sure, the menus aren’t as smooth and fast as we’d like, but otherwise, this is one of the best (and most impressive) implementations of a gaming monitor OSD we’ve seen.
The menu is split into five sections:
- Game Adjust – Includes gaming presets, color space emulation, internal LUT profiles, and user-defined modes via LG’s software. Dual-mode settings offer scaling options and higher refresh rates, although image quality suffers due to interpolation. Also here: Adaptive-Sync toggle, Black Stabilizer, crosshair, FPS readout (shows refresh rate), and reset.
- Picture Adjust – Controls for brightness, contrast, gamma, color temperature, RGB balance, 6-axis color, black level (HDMI), Peak Brightness, sharpness, and reset.
- Sound – Volume, audio source, and DTS Headphone:X settings for headphones.
- Input – Source selection, aspect ratio, PiP/PbP modes, and basic scaler options.
- General – Language, OLED protection, USB-C mode, Hexagon backlight setup, quick key mapping, test patterns, menu lock, buzzer, and system info.
Some settings are locked depending on the active mode or feature.
LG 45GX950A review test
Color Gamut
The monitor utilizes a new 44.5-inch W-OLED panel from LG Display, featuring an extended color gamut that is close to the full DCI-P3 (98.5%), according to the manufacturer. Let’s check the panel’s capabilities on our random LG 45GX950A review sample:
The screenshots show that two of the three reference points are noticeably shifted in space relative to the standard sRGB color standard, surpassing it in many areas. In comparison with the even wider DCI-P3, the monitor slightly loses to it only in green halftones, which is the norm for a monitor on a modern W-OLED panel from LG Display of almost any generation.
It should be noted that in the absence of a profile and software supporting the color management system, all familiar pictures, photos, and videos will exhibit increased color saturation. Some people will like it, while others will be disappointed.
After setting up and calibrating, with the receipt of an individual device profile, this problem is solved, but not always completely (some applications, and especially games, do not use a full-fledged color management system). At the same time, the color gamut is slightly reduced, resulting in 94.2% coverage of the DCI-P3 space—a very decent and expected result.
To quickly reduce color saturation, you can use the built-in sRGB emulation mode. The quality of its settings is average – the color gamut is cut to 88.5% sRGB – they “cut” more than necessary.
As for the preset DCI-P3 mode, it makes no sense for most consumers – the color gamut remains at the original level, and other parameters responsible for color rendering are subject to change.
After switching to the Reader eye strain reduction mode, the color gamut narrows to 92.8% sRGB compliance and 114.3% of its volume. Visual saturation decreases, the black point is “raised to the skies,” and the picture becomes a pronounced warm halftone. Considering that the preset is not intended for working with color, there can be no unnecessary questions here.
Brightness, Contrast, and Casic Color Accuracy
The monitor under review features a large number of preset modes, of which we have chosen to familiarize ourselves with only the four most interesting ones.
Out of the box, the LG 45GX950A-B monitor is set to Gamer 1 mode with these factory settings:
- Brightness: 100
- Contrast: 70
- Peak Brightness: Off
- Color Temperature: Warm/Custom
- Gamma: Mode 2
- Black Stabilizer: 50
To achieve 100 nits brightness, a 6500K white point, and other enhancements, the following settings were applied:
- Brightness: 57
- Contrast: 70
- Peak Brightness: Off
- Color Temperature: Custom RGB (48/48/49)
- Gamma: Mode 4
- Black Stabilizer: 50
The main changes were made by reducing brightness, adjusting RGB Gain values, and changing the gamma mode. The monitor does not need to adjust contrast levels or a black stabilizer – you will only make it worse.
Let’s dive into the data collected, summarized in the table below:
After turning off the Peak Brightness function, the monitor will not spoil you with high brightness. However, it will be much more comfortable – the brightness will not change with each change in the picture on the screen because the ABL brightness limitation function built into the panel firmware will practically cease to be noticeable. In this case, even after setting the brightness to 100%, the actual value does not exceed 267-270 nits, which will be more than enough for most working conditions.
In sRGB mode, the brightness is set at 72%, but it can be adjusted manually. Reader mode displays even lower brightness, along with a low black level of almost 1.25 nits, which results in a contrast ratio of 85:1. In all other cases, the ratio tends to infinity, as it cannot be otherwise for W-OLED.
The white point in the two main emulation modes is close to the reference; in the factory Gamer 1, it is slightly further away, and Reader demonstrated a noticeably warm “picture” at 5600 K.
The average gamma value in the studied modes suggests that LG did not focus on maximum contrast, except in the DCI-P3 mode, for which a curve with a value close to the base 2.6 for this standard was used. The remaining modes have an average gamma from 1.82 to 2.08.
The LG monitor’s grayscale stability is average, but results deteriorate as the base brightness is reduced.
The LG 45GX950A, with default settings, demonstrates sufficient visibility of deep shadows, increased brightness of mid-tones, the absence of obvious RGB imbalance, as well as reduced overall contrast, which is unusual to see among OLED solutions.
The created correction curves and the transition to gamma number 4 led to the contrast changing dramatically – it increased to the norm, and the shadows became less distinguishable (which had a positive effect on the picture). The stability of color rendering was at a reasonable level.
In sRGB emulation mode, the results are very similar to those we achieved in the standard Gamer 1. The problems are visible and are illustrated in the pictures above.
The special DCI-P3 mode does not change the color gamut of the model but can offer a reasonably accurate match to this color standard with a gamma of 2.6 – purely for “artistic matters.”
Switching to Reader results in the dots moving to the “warm zone” with a slight greenish parasitic tint. The balance of the grayscale CG slightly deteriorates, and the gamma curves show a sharp rise in deep and medium shadows; the black point, instead of absolute zero, reaches 1.25 nits, which reduces the strain on the eyes when working at a monitor with low levels of external lighting.
Color Temperature Modes
Now, let’s examine the results of the special Color Temp modes. Let’s recall that, by default, the manufacturer has set the Custom preset with RGB values of 50/50/50. Therefore, it is worth considering that the values of its column coincide entirely with the results of the Gamer 1 mode from the first table of this testing subsection. It remains only to talk about the remaining CT presets with different values and the advanced white point settings from the Instruction subsection:
Here’s what the results reveal:
- The Warm and Custom modes are identical.
- In contrast, the Medium mode lives up to its name, providing a balanced performance with stable gray wedge accuracy.
- The Cool mode and the extended C10 aim for the 10,000K temperature mark but at the cost of noticeably less stable gray wedge performance.
- You can further tweak the color temperature range by fine-tuning the white point in the Instruction subsection, where 10 cold and 8 warm presets are available—extending the lower temperature limit down to 4400K.
The final advice is: if you do not have measuring devices for adjustment, then you can stop at the factory settings for a slightly higher brightness or immediately switch to the “Warm” mode, as this is the most suitable for long-term use. In other cases, use the mode that is visually more suitable for you or adjust the RGB values manually or under the supervision of measuring equipment.
Gradients Uniformity
The 10-bit OLED panel (with or without FRC, as we can only speculate) in the LG 45GX950A demonstrated exceptionally high-quality gradients in terms of uniformity in most tested modes, but only at high levels of set brightness and considering the screen size.
After its reduction to ~60-75% and below, the quality of gradients decreases, a large number of sharp transitions with various parasitic shades appear, and the picture becomes somewhat dirty, with visual defects over most of the screen surface (various vertical and horizontal stripes, weakly expressed spots appear), the color temperature changes – the picture acquires a pronounced parasitic shade (greenish-yellow). This happens right before your eyes, and the reason for this, in all likelihood, is the limitation of the dynamic range during the adjustment of the Brightness value rather than the highest stability of the operating characteristics of organic LEDs when the voltage on them changes.
This is the case when you can do without an additional correction profile created during the calibration process – it will only make things worse, as happened during our LG 45GX950A review testing. Moreover, the LG monitor is unlikely to be suitable for precise work with color. It was created for content consumption and games, and there are entirely different monitors for professionals.
A phenomenon familiar to many owners of OLED TVs and monitors — the loss of visibility in deep, dark shades — is also present in this LG 45GX950A review model. With specific color settings, the model likes to paint the extreme dark areas in solid black or a shade close to it, thereby increasing or sharply reducing the overall contrast of the scene. At low brightness levels, the width of the zone with a single color rises sharply.
This feature, which is evident even at factory settings with a high brightness value, can be slightly corrected by adjusting the Black Stabilizer parameter in the model menu. Still, at specific parameter values, you will find yourself in a situation where the monitor’s ability to reproduce deep shadows is compromised. It’s up to you to decide what’s best for you. There is no ideal option here.
Contrast and White point stability, Brightness range
To study the stability of contrast and the range of brightness changes, the Gamer 1 mode was set. The Brightness value was changed from 100 to 0% in 10-unit increments. The Peak Brightness function was forcibly disabled.
All brightness values were obtained at 100% screen coverage (APL). The range of 20-270 nits is comparable to the best representatives of the W-OLED segment. They almost reached the 275 nits declared in the TX – that’s good.
Changing the APL level to 2-3% alters the situation slightly – the range expands to 20-277 nits; however, there is nothing to celebrate here, as the color temperature across the entire brightness adjustment range changes by more than 1100K.
Regarding the maximum capabilities of the LG 45GX950A, when activating HDR with default settings at peak and 1-2% APL, the monitor demonstrated a brightness of up to 1330 nits, which corresponds to the declared 1300 nits. A comprehensive check of the stabilized brightness revealed that the LG monitor, in several modes of the Peak Brightness function (PB in the table above), is capable of maintaining a fixed brightness level of 626-628 nits with partial screen filling and remaining at a single brightness level regardless of the APL level.
Response time and Refresh rate
For the LG 45GX950A, the manufacturer has declared a standard 0.03 ms (GtG) response time, as well as a maximum vertical refresh rate of 165 Hz, without the need to activate additional overclocking, for the native resolution of the panel. When switching to WFHD and FHD, you can set the refresh rate to 330 Hz, but the picture quality suffers visually. Therefore, a logical question arises: who wants to see poor picture quality on a monitor for $2,000?
Additionally, we note that the monitor, like all OLEDs, does not utilize the controlled Overdrive acceleration technology, nor does it feature a “black frame insertion” system, which is quite effective in the case of OLEDs with a refresh rate of up to 240 Hz. Thus, the user has no options for adjusting either the response time or their visual sensations thanks to additional technologies (MPRT, BFI, etc.).
The response time testing in this LG 45GX950A review was conducted not only using the familiar visual tests (like the TestUFO results presented above) but also utilizing the OSRTT hardware and software complex.
Having conducted a visual check of the monitor at frequencies of 100 and 165 Hz, we concluded that the clarity of the moving image on the new OLED gaming monitor fully meets the declared level and exceeds the indicators of popular gaming IPS solutions with refresh rates of 144-180 Hz from various segments.
The display shows minimal blurring and no visually noticeable artifacts. Increasing the frequency from the 100 Hz available in the driver settings to a full 165 Hz results in improved smoothness and clarity of the picture, as demonstrated in the comparative image above.
The LG 45GX950A-B also has no issues with frame skipping at the maximum vertical refresh rate – 165 Hz, which is honest, without skipping.
Viewing Angles
The LG 45GX950A monitor is another OLED monitor we have tested, which has proven that in terms of viewing angles and overall picture stability, OLED technology has no competitors.
The image above shows everything perfectly. When changing the viewing angle over a wide range, the color and brightness of the picture on the LG 45GX950A review sample’s screen change slightly but remain at a high level.
Brightness and Color temperature Uniformity
The uniformity of the monitor brightness and color temperature across the screen field was tested at 35 points, with the monitor brightness set to ~100 nits with the test field displayed on the entire screen (100% APL). All calculations (deviations) were based on data from the central point. The Peak Brightness system was turned off during the LG 45GX950A review testing.
With the brightness set, the average deviation from the center point was 6.3%, and the maximum was 18.8%. For this class of devices, the result is simply good.
The presented diagram of the surface clearly shows how the brightness level is concentrated across the panel field. The right edge of the panel showed the worst results, clearly differing from the central part of the panel and the left zone.
The photo above shows a white field with minimal corrections in a graphics editor to more clearly represent what is happening on the screen in terms of the uniformity of the light field.
Problems can be demonstrated much more clearly by darker gray fills. The darker the gray field, the more pronounced the features and defects of surface uniformity become. Various vertical and horizontal stripes become visible (especially if you haven’t “cleaned the screen” for a long time), and dynamic noise appears across the entire surface of the panel.
It doesn’t look perfect, and you will have to deal with something like this constantly while working on the monitor. This feature does not depend on the instance. You can temporarily remove some of the “artifacts” by running 1-3 iterations of the built-in “screen cleaning” feature. We warn you – that artifacts may be immediately after unpacking the monitor – no big deal, do a couple of “cleanings.”
Regarding the uniformity of color temperature, the results were as follows: the average deviation from the center is 1.1%, with a maximum deviation of 2.4%. The difference between the minimum and maximum was slightly more than 300K. For a large and rare W-OLED, the result is excellent; however, it is still possible to notice the difference between the parts, which is quite noticeable.
Since we have an OLED display in front of us, there can be no problems with the black field. When displaying black, the pixels on the screen turn off, leaving only a small area with an inscription in the upper left corner of the screen.
Final Line
The LG UltraGear OLED 45GX950A — is an expected and long-awaited addition to the manufacturer’s lineup. The monitor is an excellent replacement for solutions with a similar diagonal but with a lower working resolution. With this LG 45GX950A review, you will not only be fully immersed in what is happening on the screen due to its pronounced bend but also be able to examine the rendering of small details without unnecessary tremors of the body’s nerve cells — because now everything is in order with the PPI level.
Utilizing the latest developments in the field of W-OLED, now available in mass production, LG achieved a peak brightness of over 1300 nits; however, the color gamut showed no improvement in the right direction. The manufacturer set an adequate level of scanning for the native resolution of 165 Hz but decided to surprise with 330 Hz, thanks to the promoted Dual-Mode approach. However, with all this, he forgot to specify that the image quality would be reduced due to the internal image interpolation that was used.
The LG 45GX950A is now available for purchase on Amazon.com for $1,999.99, and customers in the UK can find it on Amazon.co.uk for £1,854.97.
