LG’s 43-inch 43UD79-B IPS 4K Monitor Supports FreeSync, Costs $697 USD

Earlier this week, we wrote about an impressive new monitor offering from Acer, a 4K beaut that packs in more than we’d expect (even Tobii eye-tracking!). While we don’t know what the Predator X27 is going to cost once it hits etail, our guesstimates put it at over $1,500. For most, that’s going to seem a bit excessive, despite the number of features it packs in.

Well, LG has just announced somewhat of a competitor to that monitor, except that it costs $697. Whether or not it makes the feature cuts in the right areas is going to depend on your perspective, but for its price, the 43UD79-B is alluring. As long as you’re able to handle a 43-inch display sitting on your desk, that is.

A major complaint I’ve had with 4K is that the monitors have been too small. 4K in a 27″ frame is nice, but what’s the point on a monitor so small? If you need to increase the DPI to make it so your eyes don’t bleed, is there really a benefit? 4K @ 150% DPI on a 27″ monitor doesn’t look that different from 1440p on the same sized monitor (a comparison I’ve done in-house before), after all.

What LG has done with its 43UD79-B tackles that complaint, thanks to its 43″ frame. As much as I love seeing a larger 4K monitor, I admit that 43″ might be a little extreme, just because most people are not even going to have desks that support it (remember when 40″ TVs seemed huge?). But for those willing to put up with such a massive monitor, this looks to be a great choice.

Other key 43UD79-B specs include four HDMI ports, a single DisplayPort, mini-HDMI, dual USB 3.0, and a headphone jack. It also includes a very robust picture-in-picture solution, allowing you to configure the screen with up to four segments. With an overall width of 37.05″, running four 1080p feeds in PIP on this monitor would be similar to running 1080p on a 19.5″ monitor, so overall, the image quality is going to be very crisp. And bright, too, with a rating of 350cd/m2.

An important spec to point out is its 8ms gray-to-gray response rate, which is deemed poor by most for gaming monitors, but could be worked around if the rest of the monitor suits your fancy enough. The 60Hz refresh rate might also steer some off, but hitting 60 FPS at 4K in today’s games is hard enough, so I am not so sure the lack of 100Hz (or higher) is a real detriment at this point in time. Overall, though, this is another great 4K choice.