LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved monitor review: a huge screen for power users

Having multiple monitors set up at your desk can boost your productivity enormously – you might not realise how much time you spend switching between browser tabs and apps, time that you can claim back if you can have windows open side by side instead.

Rather than investing in multiple monitors though, you can just invest in the LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved monitor: it gives you a huge amount of display space, enough to easily get three programs up side by side and always in view at a 'normal' full-screen size.

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We've been taking a look at the various selling points of the LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved – from setup to specs – to help you decide whether it's the monitor for you. It comes with a hefty price tag attached, so you'll want to know in advance if it offers value for money.

Of course we're very much talking to power users here: if you just use your computer for a bit of emailing and Netflix watching then this really is overkill. If you spend a lot of time in a lot of programs such as video editing suites however, your interest might be piqued.

LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved: design and setup

Have no doubt about it, the LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved monitor is massive – even the stand on its own is going to take up a significant amount of room on your desk. This is not the monitor to invest in if you're cooped up in a small office cubicle, because it'll probably chop your available space in half.

If you do have room for it though, this monitor isn't particularly difficult to get up and running. We'd recommend getting a friend, family member or work colleague to help you with the heavy lifting though, otherwise you're really going to struggle getting the monitor on the stand that it comes supplied with.

As far as the aesthetics of the LG UltraWide 49WL95C go, it's hard to find anything to complain about: the lines are sleek and understated, the superfluous touches are kept down to a minimum, and the stand is solid and substantial, if a little boring (it gives you plenty of tilt and swivel flexibility, and viewing angles are excellent by the way).

What you've essentially got here is two 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 monitors fused together, and that's as much a feast for the eyes as you might expect. It's operated via a number of buttons around the sides and back, which do the job without being the most intuitive set of monitor controls we've ever used.

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LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved: specs and features

The LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved monitor offers you a gigantic 49-inch, 32:9 aspect ratio, 5,120 x 1,440 pixel resolution curved display that is going to dominate pretty much any room you put it in. It's not the sharpest, but it's more than sharp enough for everyday use, video editing, and a bit of gaming.

Colours are bright, text and images are sharp, and the overall experience of using this monitor is a glorious one – we'd be tempted to get one ourselves, if we could afford it. You can easily fit three programs or windows side by side, and for certain games (like racing and flying ones) it creates another level of immersion too, though the maximum 60Hz refresh rate will put serious gamers off.

The build is solid and premium-feeling, there's support for HDR 10, and you can even connect up two devices to the screen and use half the space for each of them if you want to. You get two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort socket, and a USB-C port as well (which can accept a video input and charge your devices too).

The sound provided by the two 10W speakers is better than you might expect for a monitor that's focused so much on the visuals. Movies and games come across well – even the quiet, hard-to-pick out sounds – and unless you want a seriously superior audio experience you'll be able to get by without investing in any external speakers.

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LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved: price and verdict

The LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved comes with a significant price tag attached – in the region of £1,150-£1,200 – but you do get a lot of monitor for your money. Just make sure that you're actually going to make use of this screen real estate before you invest in the display (in other words, you won't just be looking at a really stretched web browser and nothing else all day).

We can't fault the monitor in terms of how easy it is to set up, how well it's designed, or the sort of pictures you can get from it. Bear in mind that you're going to see some serious black bars at the sides of most videos in full screen mode, but if you need to get several windows up alongside each other – or use applications with complex interfaces, like video editors – then it's ideal.

The 60Hz refresh rate won't be enough for pro gamers but for everyone else the LG UltraWide 49WL95C Curved is going to be an impressive addition to any desk setup. The extras that LG has thrown in here, like the ability to run inputs from two computers side by side, only add to the overall appeal.

Both Dell and Samsung have similar-sized curved ultrawide monitors on the market, with the Dell using an identical panel to this one and the Samsung offering a lower resolution and a higher refresh rate. They might be more suited to you in their design and specs, but there's very little between them.

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