Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
LG UltraFine 5K - Owners Thread
- Thread starter iBrooker
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I hope my troubleshooting will help other members who probably doesn't realize that it doesn't work as it should.
I've got an early 2015 13" MacBook Pro and decided to take the plunge despite not a lot of info about the 5K display running in 4K mode.
Just got the monitor today.
Happy to say it looks really nice in 4K mode. I've got no complaints at all there. And it's a nice upgrade from my old 25" cinema display from the dark ages. Text is nice and sharp significantly more so than the old cinema display since it's still a resolution upgrade.
However Apple is handling the upsampling it works quite well from an image quality standpoint.
Bad news? It's definitely taxing the Intel Iris 6100 in my machine, there's occasional hiccups when switching desktop views and scrolling big webpages.
It's still usable and I'm still happy with the purchase but I'll be upgrading to a new 15" I think after Apple releases one with 32GBs of ram. Which I planned on doing anyway so no big loss and in the mean time I've got a beautiful display that will work well with my next machine even better than my current.
Also I'm pleasantly surprised at how it looks too. It's not nearly as bad in person as everyone made it out to be. I use some really old human scale monitor arms (the black straight armed ones) and it looks like it was made for them.
Fine as far as I can tell. Seems pretty solid.
Here's a quick vid of my ports. Can anyone tell me if theirs is similar? The USB doesn't pull out easy but is loose to the touch.
Mine are like that too. When I touch the black cable the display flickers and the Mac thinks it has been disconnected.
Good to know they're all like that but seems like poor design, no?
Ive been able to use control+brightness to control it in both clamshell or dual display set up. Though it lags quite a bit.
Ports seem strong, no issues there yet.
I've had my LG Ultrafine 5K since Friday. It came at the end of the working day to my office, so I've really only had one full day with it. Yesterday, I used it alongside my 15" MBP (i7, Radeon Pro 460). That has been my normal setup for years, only before with the Apple Thunderbolt Display.
But I was underwhelmed with the monitor. The display image itself is great. But it bothers me that my Thunderbolt 2 external drive needs to connect directly to the MBP. And it bothers me that the speakers aren't that great. And I kind of miss my Apple display.
I realize these are the pains of progress and using an introductory product, but that price tag is in the back of my mind. Do I need to keep this thing? I keep thinking.
Today, I decided to bring the Apple Thunderbolt Display back out of hiding and try it alongside the new 5K display. I've used multiple monitors before, but not 27" ones. I think I could get used to this setup, though it has some downsides.
For one, the side bezel of the Apple Thunderbolt Display is wider than the LG Display's. It's not a huge deal that they aren't even, but that creates about a 1.75" gap between images and makes it weird to set up my keyboard in the middle of the two.
Perhaps I need more flexibility and I might get an arm or dual arm to try. It might be interesting to try one of them in portrait mode, too. And, I've considered returning the LG 5K and getting the 4K instead. But then I'd be using three monitors on my desk of all different sizes (when you count the MBP), which seems a bit much.
I'd be really interested to see if anyone here uses two 27" displays and how you have your desk set up. How do you deal with placement of your keyboard and the need to look back and forth?
Here are a few photos for anyone who cares. The first shows the LG Display by itself and then the second shows my temporary dual setup, complete with the LG Display on two reams of paper to match the height of the Apple Display. It's a bit messy with cables and such, but worthy of a test.
But I was underwhelmed with the monitor. The display image itself is great. But it bothers me that my Thunderbolt 2 external drive needs to connect directly to the MBP. And it bothers me that the speakers aren't that great. And I kind of miss my Apple display.
I realize these are the pains of progress and using an introductory product, but that price tag is in the back of my mind. Do I need to keep this thing? I keep thinking.
Today, I decided to bring the Apple Thunderbolt Display back out of hiding and try it alongside the new 5K display. I've used multiple monitors before, but not 27" ones. I think I could get used to this setup, though it has some downsides.
For one, the side bezel of the Apple Thunderbolt Display is wider than the LG Display's. It's not a huge deal that they aren't even, but that creates about a 1.75" gap between images and makes it weird to set up my keyboard in the middle of the two.
Perhaps I need more flexibility and I might get an arm or dual arm to try. It might be interesting to try one of them in portrait mode, too. And, I've considered returning the LG 5K and getting the 4K instead. But then I'd be using three monitors on my desk of all different sizes (when you count the MBP), which seems a bit much.
I'd be really interested to see if anyone here uses two 27" displays and how you have your desk set up. How do you deal with placement of your keyboard and the need to look back and forth?
Here are a few photos for anyone who cares. The first shows the LG Display by itself and then the second shows my temporary dual setup, complete with the LG Display on two reams of paper to match the height of the Apple Display. It's a bit messy with cables and such, but worthy of a test.
I initially brought the 5k to replace the Thunderbolt (as I had a the 13inch MBP at first), after swapping the 13inch out for the 15inch, It occurred that I could run the Thunderbolt Display as well, so I setup something similar.
A little bit different, as I'm using the MacBook itself as the keyboard now rather than the magic keyboard, as I want to try and take advantage of the touch bar.
Setup pic below, it won't work for everyone, but as someone who setup exactly like you have (with the MacBook on a stand) before, I've found it quite easy to transition to working this way, and like having the MBP under the LG.
Attachments
That had crossed my mind, but I didn't try it. Maybe I will tomorrow after I've given this one a go for a day. I've never done much on the MBP screen, other than to keep my calendar and Omnifocus to do list off to the side. As a result, I've mainly just had the one screen. So now that I have two 27" side by side, there's a lot of looking back and forth and I'm working to get comfortable with the setup.
AND--now the difference in resolution is very apparent!
Same here, no flicker or disconnection.
I didn't think of that. I guess I could get a USBA to card reader.
I already had a USB-A card reader on hand and most of other cables run off USB-A so having a USB-C to USB-A hub was ideal since the screen only has 3 USB-C ports.
For when I'm traveling, I'm using the Hootoo Shuttle (http://www.hootoo.com/dp/B01B2OYFBM?ref=emc_b_5_i) that has a card reader slot. This worked perfectly when I was travelling during December and used it to transfer all my pictures to LightRoom and connect other USB-A devices. You could always use the Hootoo connected to the 5K screen as well if you don't need more than 3 USBA ports at once. I believe that quite a few other members here have this hub and are quite happy with it. They do have a few different models depending on what ports you need.
I had a similar experience with the cable when I tried to connect the TB3 adapter. It seemed like a very loose connection that you could move sideways - but no flicker.
It didn't feel solid like an older USB connection.
To be honest I have had the same loose feel when plugging an HDMI cable into my nMP.
quick 5k review after less than a day with the 13 3.3/512/16
- tldr; it's going back
- Previous setup was a Dell 4k p2415q.
- Performance with the 13 inch is just not acceptable. resizing windows feels like my Apple IIGS with gs/os 6. If I had a 15 inch, i'm sure the performance would be acceptable.
- As noted by others, gigabit ethernet performance via hub cut in half.
- Speakers are terrible!
- Ergonomically, it's "too tall" for me even at the lowest height (i'm not a tall person).
- I'm going to keep my OWC dock on order and keep the Dell 24inch 4k.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience.
- Performance on my 13" has been pretty great (in clamshell or extended). You could have a faulty TB3 cable which has affected quite a few members here. There seems to definitely be some QA issues @ LG.
- Gigabit ethernet speed appears to be a driver issue. I responded to your post in the issues thread with the solve by another member.
- Can't comment on the speakers... I think most built-in speakers are pretty terrible lol and you don't have to invest a lot these days to get decent desktop monitors (i.e. AudioEngine A2+, A5+, Emotiva Airmotiv 4, 5, etc.)
- I'm surprised my your height issues. I'm also not very tall but found the monitor to be perfect at the lowest setting.
- If you're happy with the Dell 24" 4K, that's awesome. I got the LG screen mainly for the TB3 convenience. Having just 1 cable to my MBP is sweet.
I think maybe you got a dud or a bad cable. I have not seen anybody else post about screen lag near that bad.
Mine LG ports wobble too, but no flicker or disconnect.
I agree on poor design, the USB-C ports on the Macbook don't wobble like that. I'd expect better quality/tolerances for this price.
Thanks. I'm going to go with the OWC TB3 dock and keep the Dell 4k for the one cable solution. Right now i'm using the OWC USB-C dock + usb-c to display port cable to get 1 cable (plus 1 cable) 60hz solution. The USB-C dock is going to another employee with a 12' MacBook as soon as I get the TB3 dock.
Yeah the height thing is a weird confluence of my desk, chair, monitor and me being 5'4".
I wonder when people say 13 inch, do they mean the base model or the TB? They have different GPUs so its quite important to differentiate. Theres at least 10% performance difference between the two which could make all the difference in monitor frame lag.
Anybody concerned about the 1 year warranty on these?
My LG 31MU97-B just died after 2.5 years and it's $350 to get it repaired.... Majorly bummed.
Are they offering anything extended for these?
My LG 31MU97-B just died after 2.5 years and it's $350 to get it repaired.... Majorly bummed.
Are they offering anything extended for these?