by xoa | 2026-01-20 22:15:22+00:00
I'm sitting behind one of these right now, got it back at the start of last November, attached to an Ergotron monitor arm. It's worth noting that there are a number of screens coming out that seem to be using roughly this panel but with different price points and feature mixes. MacRumors (and no doubt others) maintaining a nice little dedicated thread [0] on 6K screens with info in an easily digestible form. And so on a meta-note, the most exciting thing to me is simply that we're finally seeing a big leap forward all at once in the screen fundamentals (resolution, refresh, color) after a long and frustrating (to me anyway) period of stagnation. Apple did the first iMac 5K iirc in 2014, twelve(!) years ago. And I thought at the time it wouldn't be long before we had a range of higher res options, but instead Apple eventually did a standalone, then long after LG did a release, there were a couple of rando ones from Dell that got dropped... and that was it. Now we've got lots of 5K and 6K options, 8K ones are coming, currently it's 60Hz but CES has seen higher refresh announced, next few years are looking good. While the LG doesn't take advantage of TB5's full bandwidth, but having 120 Gbps on tap means that we also have plenty of headroom for everything, high resolution, high refresh, and higher color bit depths without having to compromise. So that's all pretty nice.

As far as this one specifically, on a physical level it's perfectly decent. I actually like that unlike the previous LG and most screens it seems nowadays, there is no camera at all. The only real irritation about it is the ginormous power brick it has, which is bigger and heavier then a Mac Mini, and on top of that has a fixed cord (a SHORT fixed cord) which I hate. I prefer having power be integrated and just using a normal power cable, but if nothing else it's irritating that even on high end electronics OEMs still don't use GaN and shrink everything a lot.

I'm no longer doing significant graphics work so haven't invested in updating color calibration hardware, none of my old stuff still works with current higher bit-depth/HDR etc screens. I'm mostly doing coding, CAD, light non-print graphics, etc. So my impressions are purely subjective. List in no particular order vs the older 5k and other screens I've used:

• Whether good luck or just (not) bad luck, quality control on the physical parts hasn't been an issue. There isn't any banding, no dead pixels, light/dark patches or the like that other comments report.

• It claims to be cutting edge in terms of IPS displays, "nano ips black" blah blah, but there isn't any significant noticeable contrast increase vs the old. It's definitely excellent for a standard IPS display but OLED/µLED it is not (though conversely I have no concerns about it being on hours a day display static GUI elements).

• Matte instead of glossy doesn't really do anything for me since I'd reoriented my office space long ago due to everything being glossy. There is a slight shimmer if I focus that bothered me a little more than new but I don't notice after a few months. I don't think it's quite as good as Apple's treatment, but for myself I'd probably just go back to glossy given the choice. YMMV based on lighting.

• It claims to be cutting edge in terms of IPS displays, "nano ips black" blah blah, but there isn't any significant noticeable contrast increase vs the old. It's solid for a standard IPS display but OLED/µLED it is not (though conversely I have no concerns about it being on hours a day display static GUI elements).

• Software situation is mediocre. I have not been able to get LG's software to perform a firmware update, it fails with odd error messages, so I haven't been able to experiment at all with some of the modes that it was advertised with. Their software wants a lot of invasive permissions and is wonky. LG support has not been helpful. Newer screens will presumably come with current firmware out of the box at some point but this was disappointing.

• Also on software, at least under macOS 15 the HDR story seems a bit odd. It's the first desktop Mac screen I've used that has an HDR toggle in the System Settings, and enabling it does make HEIC photos and a few other workflows I surveyed work more like an MBP screen. However it also causes the Mac GUI colors to get all washed out and strange, there isn't compensation there with just the toggle. The may be improved in macOS 26, or might be something one of the Studio modes will help with if I can ever get access to them, but it isn't plug-and-play here.

• If I do toggle it on, having the HDR support with true 10-bit is noticeable in working with high bit depth photos, including everything from any iPhone in awhile.

• Having TB bandwidth out of the hub doesn't matter much to me but does work and means the TB5 input isn't totally wasted. Sometimes convenient to have an extra port. This would probably be of more value for someone using a notebook which is clearly the intended use-case.

Anyway, it's fine, I needed a new screen and it gives me a noticeably improved amount of screen space for my aging eyes but is still on the right size (for me) of not being so big that I'd need a curve though it's right on the edge. I've run 2 and 3-screen (1920x1200) primary use (ie, all for regular system use vs having a secondary proof/video screen like I do now) setups in the past, and there are pluses and minuses particularly with having one be vertically oriented, but it's not bad to have so much space all as a single unified thing.

I think most people would be better off waiting, this was clearly not all baked yet when I got it and there is plenty of competition here or coming, but I'm not returning it either. I'm looking forward to hopefully finally seeing screens that will arguably be "done", basically hitting the limits of human visual acuity in all respects (or at least to the many-9s level of diminishing returns) in the next few years. And I'm also kind of curious longer term still about what effects that might have on the industry, for my entire life progress in video, unlike audio, has been constant and there was always clearly more to do. Once resolution and refresh stops and monitors are "finished" I wonder if that might be interesting for media in terms of reducing the technical rat race?

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0: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-complete-list-of-6k...