Sunday 13 November 2016

LG LED IPS 24MP68VQ-P monitor review (sort of)

I thought it was time for a new monitor and a local sale gave me the incentive. The main reason I wanted a new monitor was primarily Freesync for gaming and watching video.

After reading reviews I had a couple of favourites. This LG and a Viewsonic fitted my specs and price.

On the night the LG was there and had quite a hefty discount and I like LG gear.  I think it's the quieter, less flashy (dare I say better?) sibling of Samsung.

Going from a 2009 or so Viewsonic 24 VX monitor to this LG is quite a revelation. I'm not saying the Viewsonic is bad, it's just an LCD panel that is older technology. I would happily buy another Viewsonic.

First off the size. Same viewable size but the LG is barely bigger than the panel. I could have gotten a 27" LG taking the same space as the old monitor.  It's barely 15mm  deep. The base is also smaller as the monitor is lighter hence more desk space returned.

Brightness/contrast:  panel technology has moved on a lot in seven years it seems. It is so much brighter and still black is black, so better contrast.  The colour accuracy, if the included output sheet is to be believed, is a huge improvement as well.

Gaming/video: once I found the freesync switch (see cons later) it makes quite a difference if you have a new AMD video card (CGN 3 and up so RX9 300 +)  Gaming is sharper and watching video (especially fullHD BD etc) no longer tears.  It is just nicer.

The cons: the controls of this monitor are by a little joystick facing down under the panel. This is a bit fiddly and not very descriptive. Settings like Freesync were off and you'd think they would default to on since they won't work unless the video card supports them. So nothing major.

To be fair most new monitors would provide these but I'm quite stunned how for not much money you get what is normal today and is such an improvement over what was OK 5 years ago.  I guess it's like cars.

So if you have an old monitor, go do yourself a favour and find yourself something like this and upgrade.  It's smaller, better to look at and uses less power.


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