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LG 4K First Impressions

C

Cougarcat

macrumors 604
Original poster
Sep 19, 2003
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My LG 4K just arrived. I will be posting my impressions here. For various reasons, I am most likely not going to keep it, but I will give it a good test in the coming days. My rMBP is coming tomorrow, and I'll have more to say then.

--It's not as ugly as the pictures. The bezel is nicer than my dell--all black, much more minimal logo. The stand is uglier than the Dell's, but it's not as bulky as I thought it would be. The power cable flushes nicely into the case, like the iMac.
--The stand can go up and down, but you cannot put the monitor into portrait mode. It supports VESA mounts, though.
--It's glossy. Yuck. I much prefer the finish on my P2415Q. But if you are used to an iMac, it will probably not bother you.
--I think they really mean it with the USB-C Mac system requirements. There's a huge Mac icon on the box, and hooking up the display to a hackintosh (displayport to USB C) with a GTX 970 does not work. I'm still on 10.12.0, though. I'll try updating to .1 later tonight to see if it makes a difference, and see if Windows 10 can pick it up.
--The all-USB C ports (there are four) is a very puzzling decision, especially since Apple billed it as the ultimate dock. If I were to keep it, I'd have USB C to A adapters permanently attacked to the back.
--There's a hole in the top of the bezel that looks like a microphone. Unfortunately, the manual is just a useless kickstart guide, so I don't know what it is.

Any questions, let me know!
 
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"--It's glossy. Yuck. I much prefer the finish on my P2415Q. But if you are used to an iMac, it will probably not bother you."
Click to expand...

Do mean that the panel is glossy not matte? If so, is it fused glass like on the iMacs or glossy plastic film like on other Dell glossy monitors.

Thank you.
 
ra004e said:
Do mean that the panel is glossy not matte? If so, is it fused glass like on the iMacs or glossy plastic film like on other Dell glossy monitors.

Thank you.
Click to expand...

The panel is glossy. I think it's glass but I'm not sure. This is what it looks like:
 

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Thank you for the pic. I too have a Dell P2415Q, but unlike you I'm a big fan of glossy so I'm really happy about that as I can't find any other HiDPI monitor out there that's glossy. I feel the image is much "clearer" especially for text. Anyway as far as look of monitor I'm a bit of a minimalist so I rather like the design, I know it's not apple design but personally I'm ok with what it is. Let us know if you get the hackintosh/Windows to work with it via Display Port would be good to hear about your findings. I have a Intel NUC coming on Wednesday that has a DisplayPort/USB-C port so I'm might go pick one up to see if it works with that until I upgrade my rMBP. I will let everyone know my experience as soon as I do. Thanks again.
 
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Cougarcat said:
My LG 4K just arrived. I will be posting my impressions here. For various reasons, I am most likely not going to keep it, but I will give it a good test in the coming days. My rMBP is coming tomorrow, and I'll have more to say then.

--It's not as ugly as the pictures. The bezel is nicer than my dell--all black, much more minimal logo. The stand is uglier than the Dell's, but it's not as bulky as I thought it would be. The power cable flushes nicely into the case, like the iMac.
--The stand can go up and down, but you cannot put the monitor into portrait mode. It supports VESA mounts, though.
--It's glossy. Yuck. I much prefer the finish on my P2415Q. But if you are used to an iMac, it will probably not bother you.
--I think they really mean it with the USB-C Mac system requirements. There's a huge Mac icon on the box, and hooking up the display to a hackintosh (displayport to USB C) with a GTX 970 does not work. I'm still on 10.12.0, though. I'll try updating to .1 later tonight to see if it makes a difference, and see if Windows 10 can pick it up.
--The all-USB C ports (there are four) is a very puzzling decision, especially since Apple billed it as the ultimate dock. If I were to keep it, I'd have USB C to A adapters permanently attacked to the back.
--There's a hole in the top of the bezel that looks like a microphone. Unfortunately, the manual is just a useless kickstart guide, so I don't know what it is.

Any questions, let me know!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the post. I was hoping to pick up this monitor for my Thunderbolt 3 equipped desktop PC. It's a bummer to hear that mini display port to usb C didn't work with your hackintosh in OS X. I'm curious to know if that connection works in Windows 10. Does your hack have Thunderbolt? I wonder if outputting via Thunderbolt from the pc rather than USB C would make any difference. Also curious whether the nMBP can connect to this monitor via USB C when booted in Windows via boot camp. That would give a big hint about how tied to MacOS this monitor really is.
 
jeffreysousa said:
... Does your hack have Thunderbolt? I wonder if outputting via Thunderbolt from the pc rather than USB C would make any difference. Also curious whether the nMBP can connect to this monitor via USB C when booted in Windows via boot camp. That would give a big hint about how tied to MacOS this monitor really is.
Click to expand...

Not going to make a difference. The Type-C-to-DisplayPort adaptors most likely just work in one direction. [System]Type-C => DisplayPort. The adapter flushing the USB 2 connectively down the drain ( execpt to handshake with the Type-C port to request DisplayPort Alternative mode.). If try to use in the opposite direction the device that wants that USB 2.0 connectivity won't find it. The LG monitor probably can't 'see' it and fails.

The problem's root cause isn't "hackintosh".... probably doesn't work that backwards direction. Thunderbolt isn't going to help either. The LG 4K monitor is not a Thunderbolt device. Video card edge connectors? Nope not Type-C either.

The essential piece is a Type-C port that supports DisplayPort Alternative mode. If don't have that then probably won't work. ( some kind of giant kludge hack could make it work in some corner case, but generally if don't have Type-C with DP out on your system this is the wrong monitor. Period. )
 
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Thanks for the initial impression and photo!

Will you be able to test it with a Thunderbolt equipped Mac other than the new MacBook Pro? I would like to use it with my 5k iMac but have only seen theories that it 'should' work with a Thunderbolt -> USB-C convertor.
 
Fireball Dragon said:
Do you know if it would be possible to connect an HDMI device (i.e. PS4) to this using the HDMI > USB-C connecter?
Click to expand...

Don't think so, if Displayport-->USB C doesn't work.

edrijver said:
Thanks for the initial impression and photo!

Will you be able to test it with a Thunderbolt equipped Mac other than the new MacBook Pro? I would like to use it with my 5k iMac but have only seen theories that it 'should' work with a Thunderbolt -> USB-C convertor.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I just have a hackintosh and a 2010 MBP. No thunderbolt. I think it would work, but the small 21.5" screen might look a bit goofy next to the iMac's.
 
Update: doesn't work in Windows or on my hack under 10.12.1.

Unfortunately I can't test if daisy chaining will work because the DisplayPort on my 1080p monitor is loose inside the case. :/. Trying to figure out how to disassemble it...

Right now it's just displaying grey as migration assistant does its thing.
 
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Has anyone found the online manual for this display? I just want to adjust the brightness down a little.

OK, Apple says control is seamless in MacOS...but I cant find it?

Never mind. Once I re-plugged in the cable, I got the brightness adjustment in the Display portion of System Preferences.
 
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I've got a DELL XPS 15 in the meantime with a Thunderbolt 3 / USB C combo port...do you think it could work with that?
For Windows 10 there should be a driver in the latest Bootcamp package I guess...so why not?!?
 
I love my monitor. I put it on an AmazonBasics arm and that makes it so much more flexible. Brightness only controlled via system preferences, the brightness keys on the keyboard/touch bar only work on the internal monitor.

We tried hooking it to our XPS13. Husband has the developer edition with Ubuntu, and it's the previous 6th generation of hardware, not the one just released. But I believe it's supposed to support TB3 on its USB-c connection

Didn't work. Computer understood it was plugged in, but it messed up the internal display, lost the cursor, and the LG never displayed anything. That was with using the cable that came with the LG. I'm assuming it was the protocols, and I'm sure Ubuntu was a problem as well. Saw a bunch of posts online of others trying to get thunderbolt displays to work with Ubuntu. We're technical but not that technical.
 
andysh said:
I've got a DELL XPS 15 in the meantime with a Thunderbolt 3 / USB C combo port...do you think it could work with that?
For Windows 10 there should be a driver in the latest Bootcamp package I guess...so why not?!?
Click to expand...
I don't think it will work with a windows machine since mac os sierra is a requirement.
 
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Received my 4K today. I love it. The screen is great and the monitor not ugly as some so called journalists claim it to be.
 
Hi, how is the quality of the picture that this monitor produces? Is it equivalent to the imac 4k's screen? That's really all I care about.
 
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