LG Flatron W3000H review

LG’s W3000H doesn’t look as luxurious as Dell’s Ultrasharp 3008WFP, and it isn’t even as smart as the 26in Samsung 2693HM.

It has a matt black bezel and a silver strip along the bottom of the screen that houses touch-sensitive controls for brightness, a control to turn off the beeps when you press the brightness controls and another control to turn off the light on the power button. We would have preferred some controls to change picture quality while playing games, for example, to these cosmetic fripperies.

The W3000H is the only monitor here that requires software to manage picture quality settings. Although this removes the need to work with fiddly onscreen controls, it also limits your ability to change picture settings while playing games or watching movies, as you’ll need to interrupt what you’re doing to switch back to Windows.

Unfortunately, the model we were sent didn’t have the software, and it wasn’t on LG’s site. However, we have been assured that the software will ship with the monitor and be available online by the time you read this.

Picture quality out of the box was good and compared well in our initial comparison with Dell’s 3008WFP. Colours were cool and natural, with excellent contrast, neutral flesh tones and clear Windows text. However, a slight green tinge to whites dulled the picture and made it less vibrant than the 3008WFP’s. Although it appeared brighter than the 3008WFP under Windows, in our gaming test it was distinctly dark, but movement was smooth.

Both 30in models here require a dual-link DVI cable to work at their full 2,560×1,600 resolution. A desktop this size is a revelation, even if you’re used to working with two monitors, as being able to work on two documents side-by-side on a single screen is a real boost to productivity. The downside is the massive cost: for this amount of money you could buy three of Samsung’s 26in monitors.