Ludicrously, Ebay USA's Back To School sale includes 20% off this $999 LG OLED 240Hz gaming monitor
When I was a kid growing up in rural New Mexico, I dreaded the first day of school. I had to give up whole days of biking in the desert with my brother and playing video games, sure, but the real problem was school supplies. My poor mom had to track down a huge list of supplies the school said we needed, from pencils and paper to expensive binders and calculators. Sure, back to school sales took the sting out of these mandatory purchases, but it was often a real stretch to get everything I needed, and I'd need to make friends quickly to borrow anything I didn't manage to come to school with.
LG 27GR95QE specs Panel: 27-inch OLED
27-inch OLED Resolution: 2560x1440
2560x1440 Refresh Rate: 240Hz
240Hz Features: G-Sync, FreeSync, HDMI 2.1
G-Sync, FreeSync, HDMI 2.1 MSRP : $999
: $999 Deal price: $718
That's why I was particularly amused, a decade and a bit later, to find out that Ebay is offering 20% off back to school purchases in the US, and that category of products includes a $999 LG OLED gaming monitor. Even for a university student, that's one heck of an upgrade for the new school year - but a darn good deal if you're considering this kind of ultra-premium gaming monitor.
Simply use the code SAVE4SCHOOL at the checkout, and you can bring this $999 monitor down to a cool $717.59. Still slightly above what my parents paid for every computer I ever had in the eighteen years I lived with them, but certainly a good value if you want one of the best gaming monitors on the planet. In fact, this is the cheapest this monitor has ever been, beating the next-lowest price of $800 by a reasonable amount.
I've been privileged enough to test this monitor (and two other ultra-premium OLED options) myself for Digital Foundry, and I'm happy to report that it is indeed an incredible experience for gaming, from the impressive HDR that only an OLED can provide - think perfect blacks, infinite contrast, gorgeous colours and wide viewing angles - to best-in-class motion handling, with the 240Hz refresh rate combining with OLED's signature near-instant pixel response times. This combination makes this 27-inch monitor an absolute monster for basically any gaming genre, from fast-paced esports titles to immersive single-player games, and of course it's brilliant for watching TV and movies too.
The downside? This monitor isn't a great all-rounder, with a non-standard triangular RGB subpixel layout resulting in text fringing, and the potential for burn-in if you keep static elements on-screen for hours on end - think the toolbar in Photoshop or the taskbar in Windows. Both of these points are complete non-issues for gaming or media consumption, but if you want a great monitor for writing your college essays, this probably isn't it. Of course, if you can afford this monitor in the first place, you can probably also afford a standard LCD monitor for that kind of work. Brightness is also not great, peaking at around 200 nits, making it less suitable for very bright rooms.
In any case, I'd encourage you to read my full impressions via the link above, but this is an awesome price for one of the very best gaming monitors on the market - and given how inappropriate it is for a back to school sale, perhaps it's best to jump on it while you can.
Source: Rock Paper Shotgun
