There are a multitude of gaming monitors on the market, which makes choosing the right monitor for gaming an increasingly difficult task. One of the manufacturers that offers more options in this sector and has established itself as the No. 1 in sales in many countries is LG.
In this review, we want to talk about the LG 27GN880-B gaming monitor from the UltraGear Ergo range, which as we will see now, is a model with very powerful features for the enjoyment of gamers.
If you are a regular gamer and want to get the most out of your games, do not miss our review of the LG 27GN880-B UltraGear Ergo, a gaming monitor that in our opinion is one of the top in its price range.
Some of the most notable strengths of this monitor is that it has a response time of 1 millisecond, support for NVIDIA G-Sync and an ergonomic arm that allows you great versatility in terms of the position of the screen and at the same time allows you to save space on your desk.
LG GN880-B REVIEW
- 1ms response time
- 144 Hz refresh rate
- 1440p resolution
- G-Sync and FreeSync support
- Wide viewing angle
- Ergonomic arm with multiple possibilities
- Low brightness for HDR enjoyment
- No USB-C
- 27-inch display
- 2560 x 1440 resolution
- HDR 10
- Nano IPS panel
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- 1 ms GTG response time
- Refresh rate: 48-144 Hz
- Native contrast of 1,000:1
- Typical brightness of 350 nits
- Peak brightness in HDR: 430 nits
- 10-bit panel
- 100% sRGB / 98% DCI-P3 color space
- 178° viewing angle
- NVIDIA G-Sync
- AMD FreeSync
- Dynamic Action Sync
- On-Screen Control
- Ergonomic arm
- Connections: 2 x USB 3.0, 2 x HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, Headphone Output
Design
Let’s start by talking about design, since it is one of the two strong points of this monitor. Design and comfort is something fundamental in practically any device and in a monitor it means better ergonomics and less fatigue, since it is an element in front of which we are going to spend many, many hours.
When we buy a monitor, if it has VESA support, surely you are interested in hanging it on the wall or on one of those popular articulated arms. This is a great solution, as it not only saves space on your desk, but also allows you to position the monitor in different ways and, ultimately, adjust it to your needs at any given moment.
LG’s UltraGear Ergo 27GN880-B, already comes with one of those arms and it really is fantastic. It is an arm that has a tower that allows you to adjust the height of the monitor very easily, with virtually no force and with a system that gives peace of mind in the day to day.
The assembly of this arm is extremely simple, since it does not require any type of tool. It is simply to fit the tabs of the ball joint of the bracket on the screen and that’s it.
The arm has an articulated intermediate point and can be rotated about 280º, so mobility is assured and the monitor is anchored in a support that has a ball joint.
LG 27GN880-B UltraGear Ergo in portrait mode
This allows you to tilt the screen to adapt it to the height you need and, in the end, the set is fixed at the point where you leave it, without moving, but due to the smoothness of the anchors it is easy to change the angle of any of the components at the time you want.
This arm is designed as we have discussed, to save space on the table and has a compartment along the arm through which you can run the cables so you don’t really have anything hanging. In this sense, it’s a very clever design and saves you from having a mess of cables.
Ergonomic arm with cable grommet LG 27GN880-B
The ergonomic arm of the LG 27GN880-B, allows you a freedom of movement that other monitors do not offer, plus you will save a lot of space on your desk thanks to its support that is anchored to the edge of the table.
You can adjust it in height, move it back and forth, to the sides and even let you put it vertically.
Moving on to the appearance of the screen, we have a classic design of the Korean brand on the back, where we find all the connections, the support piece that is anchored and that is as easy to place as it is to release.
In this back part is placed the logo of the UltraGear range surrounded by a red ring, which gives it a more striking appearance. In this case there is no RGB lighting as it is now so fashionable, but in our opinion, there is no need for it, as it would raise the price and would be placed in another segment.
Rear of LG UltraGear Ergo 27GN880-B monitor
As for the front, we have some frames that seem somewhat pronounced on the sides and at the top. It is not a plastic frame, but the typical black frame. It would have been nice if it were a little narrower to improve the ‘all-screen’ feeling.
At the bottom, there is the joystick-like button that is so common now and that allows you to change all the parameters of brightness, color, image modes, etc.
It is the one we will use to quickly change monitor settings and is much more convenient than the traditional four or five buttons that still come on some monitors.
It is an elegant monitor as a whole and looks good in any room, as it does not draw attention to itself and can be placed at a minimum height so that it is flush with the table.
In addition, as if that were not enough, it allows you to put it vertically, something that is very useful if you use it as a second monitor for social network feeds, office work with text editors or to control a stream.
Connections
The 27GN880-B has two HDMI 2.0 ports, a Display Port 1.4 port, two USB 3.0 ports and a 3.5 mm headphone output. What we miss at this point is a USB-C port.
If a USB-C port had been included we could charge a laptop, send signal and do the same functions as a USB-B, but unfortunately LG has forgotten about this port in favor of the aforementioned USB-B.
Connections 27GN880-B gaming monitor 1440p 144Hz
The power cable is thankfully long so that you can have total freedom of movement and not be limited.
Picture quality and gaming performance
Now let’s take a look at the image performance of this model. Undoubtedly, what stands out most in this monitor is its NanoIPS panel and the refresh rate of up to 144 Hz.
LG 27GN880-B gaming monitor with 144 Hz
The resolution is 2,560 x 1,440p with a 16:9 aspect ratio that boasts a 1 ms gray-to-gray response, 144 Hz refresh and the ability to decode an HDR10 signal, although we’ll talk about this now.
This LG 27GN880-B mounts an IPS panel which as we have discussed on many occasions, tend to be more problematic with light leakage and uniformity, as well as the handling of black tones. The good news is that we have had no problems with leakage or uniformity and in very dark games, movies and other content in which the screen could suffer from this evil, we have not perceived any of this.
Contrast of the 27GN880-B NANO IPS panel
The black tones are acceptable, although obviously inferior to those offered by a VA panel and especially to those we obtained with LG’s OLED 32EP950 monitor, which is the reference monitor in this aspect.
A total of 8 different picture modes are available: Gamer 1, Gamer 2, FPS, RTS, Video, Reader, HDR Effect and sRGB. For video games, it is normal to use one of the first four modes and for a monitor use for browsing, photo editing, etc. you can use the other four.
8 picture modes available on the LG 27GN880-B
It has some interesting features such as Crosshair to put a crosshair in the center of the screen and improve aiming in first-person shooter games, as well as the Black Stabilizer, which allows you to see other players hidden in dark areas earlier.
Gaming features included in LG 27GN880-B UltraGear Ergo
The viewing angles are very good because it is an IPS panel and the colors are correct, although I miss some more contrast. This comes as a shock because the monitor supports HDR signal, but in practice it has 350 nits, which means that it is insufficient to get a big impact with images in high dynamic range.
The LG 27GN880-B does have good maximum brightness with SDR content and is bright enough to provide good visibility in a room where there is plenty of light. Other than that, it has a matte-finished screen that blurs reflections.
The gaming experience with this monitor is really good, thanks to its support for G-Sync, which is something that makes the price increase, but in practice, and if you have an NVIDIA GPU, you will notice a great improvement in both performance and visual quality by having V-Sync without eating too many resources from the graphics card.
Gaming performance LG 27GN880-B monitor
We have been using it for both work and play and the truth is that we have been very comfortable. I would have liked to have a better color gamut and some more contrast, but in the end the experience is very satisfactory.
Final opinion LG 27GN880-B UltraGear Ergo
We reached the end of the review of the LG UltraGear Ergo 27GN880-B and it is a monitor that has left us a very good taste in both its design and the quality of the panel.
It is clear that it is a monitor created for gaming due to specifications focused on that user profile. It has FreeSync and also with G-Sync which is a point in its favor, but so is the panel with 1440p resolution that in its 27 inches leaves us a good pixel per inch ratio, as well as a spectacular response time of 1 ms.
LG 27GN880-B gaming monitor Nano IPS 1440p and 144 Hz opinion
The viewing angles are good and it is also suitable for work thanks to its versatility. The ergonomic arm that lets you adjust the screen as you like is one of the great assets of this model. It leaves you a lot more room on your desk and the possibilities to adjust the height, move it back and forth, and even to put it vertically, is something you won’t find in other competing models in this price range.
The weakest points we have found in this model, is first of all a somewhat insufficient brightness for a monitor that supports HDR. The brightness is more than adequate for SDR, but with HDR content it does not achieve a great impact and the difference is not very noticeable.
We also miss a USB-C port, something that is usually included in new monitors.
In short, our opinion of the LG GN880-B is that it is an ‘ergonomic’ gaming monitor that you should keep an eye on, but if games are not going to be the main content, there are other options.
The panel is IPS and has a resolution of 1440p, so it’s ideal for productivity and the viewing angles are just right for this type of panel. There are no image problems or light leaks, although we would have liked the maximum brightness to be somewhat higher.
If you are looking for a monitor more for work than for gaming and you have space on your desk, take a look at the spectacular LG 49WL95C that we reviewed some time ago and that allows you to enjoy 49 inches in curved format and an aspect ratio of no less than 32:9. Its price is higher, but it’s a delight to work from home and at a price that doesn’t seem exorbitant for everything it offers.
See LG 27GN880-B UltraGear Ergo price
Nano IPS 16:9 Display with Ergo Stand, HDR10, 144Hz, FreeSync - Black
