Customer Reviews & Ratings for LG UltraFine 5K Display

Own a Late 2014 Mac mini using a Asus 2540x1440 display. Hated the picture quality and sound. Forcing to invest on a pair of external speakers, taking desk space.

During the spring, while visiting the Santa Barbara Apple Store, noticed a LG UltraFine 5K Display being hooked up to a Mac mini and was very surprise. Asked if the Mac mini will be able to drive the LG. The answer was, "We'll see." Man, did it drive it. Even the Apple tech was surprised at the picture quality and sound coming out of this set-up. Right there and then, my thoughts was, "I want one!"

Well, it took a few months, but I finally have it and it meets all my needs and expectations. Outstanding display.

The picture and sounds are both outstanding. The speed of moving data onto my external hard devices are just unbelievable. That's using the Thunderbolt 2 that the Mac mini provides. Can't wait for the new 2018 Mac mini with Thunderbolt 3 that HOPEFULLY will be coming out next week!

Honestly, if the new 2018 Mac mini is NOT a giant leap, I may just keep my $$$ and stay with this set-up because how satisfied I am.

5 of 6 people found this useful

I have had nearly all the problems everyone has reported from long time to connect to my MacBook Pro and the screen going black, to the monitor working 50% of the time And, during the time it is working, I hold my breath that the amount of time it flickers is less than the time I need to jam on work. The unit never worked without issue since the get go, and finally 2 days after the year 1-year warranty expired, the combination of a bad cable and a damaged C plug forced me to send it in to LG service. It took several weeks to get back. Fortunately, I could afford to buy another 5K monitor while waiting for the other one to come back. LG replaced the port/plug, but then the replacement cable they sent me went from working to working intermittently to dead over a period of 9 months. I am probably worse off now, as the stiffness and weight of the cable has once again damaged the C port on the monitor; and possibly on my MacBook Pro. Tomorrow, I plan to buy yet another monitor replacement and have an appointment with the Genius Bar to determine whether or not there's port damage on my MacBook Pro. I would not recommend this product, but realize that it is better for my eyes given my heavy use and project demands.

I would love to say I love my LG monitor - the picture quality is amazing!

However, mine appears to have a major flaw and I'm not sure if others are experiencing the same thing. Since installing my monitor next to my MacBook Pro I've been having increasing internet connection problems with my internet freezing. I've been blaming BT and my ISP. I upgraded my router and even tried changing channels on my router and multiple other 'fixes'. Nothing worked and the problems grew progressively worse until it's reached a point where I couldn't work! But here's the weird thing - I realised that the connection problems were isolated to my home office. So I started investigating further. And here's the really weird thing - if I turn off the LG monitor, my internet connection problems are instantly resolved. Nothing else impacts performance - but the second I turn my monitor on, internet crashes. Online support were of no help and just said I'd need to take my MacBook Pro and screen a Genius Bar. It'll be interesting to see what happens...

4 of 5 people found this useful

The display is gorgeous and the functionality is perfect. The fact that a single cable powers your MacBook as well as handling display data is great. You can control brightness for both the LG and the MacBook from your keyboard.

However. The plastic casing that some complained about has proven to be a problem for me. The plastic started to crack and crumble on the bottom right corner after 6 months, and the other corner joined the fray a month or so later. At this eye-watering price level we should expect better hardware.

Kudos to Apple though, I called them this morning and they agreed to a refund with zero hassle.

Picked it up from the Apple Store today. I have the latest 15" MBP, the maxed-out version with i9 and 32gb ram. Pulled it out of the box, plugged it in...my computer was sleeping and it immediately snapped on and has worked absolutely flawlessly in every way ever since. Beautiful picture and extremely simple to use for its primary function, which is what I expect from any Apple product so I'm glad this monitor from LG delivers there.

I'm a software developer by trade and I just had a very productive 8 hour work session on this monitor. I did not experience any drop-outs, interference (I have some high-end audio gear right near the monitor and no issues so far), or light/dark problems like others mentioned (reading documentation on a light background and swiping over to my IDE with a dark background, it works as expected).

I've gone through so many different monitors--the Apple Thunderbolt monitor, a pair of Dell 4K 24" monitors, and a BenQ 32" design monitor. I already love this one more than any of those because it's the perfect size and resolution and fits in really well as an addition to the 2018 MBP.

I'm guessing LG worked out whatever issues the other people here were dealing with, or maybe it wasn't the monitor...

6 of 6 people found this useful

Too many bad reviews. Bought mine end of Jan 2018 for my 2017 MBP with touch bar. LOVE THIS DISPLAY. I have not experienced any of the issues I see in bad reviews. I use mine heavily as a professional photographer. Great crisp colour. All good!

1 of 1 people found this useful

pros

Works fine for me. Connected to touchbar Macbook Pro. Great to have the high resolution (I have 5K) screen.

Vertical position adjustment (a feature which is not important to me, but am including for completeness).


cons

Wobbles. Whenever I bump my desk, the display wobbles and takes about 6 seconds to damp out and stop. Very annoying. Never had this problem with Apple displays (same desk).

Horizontal tilt alignment. Yes, you can adjust, but a solid stand would solve the problem with zero user participation. Again, Apple stands are better on this.

Edge to edge glass Apple display cleaner.

Heavy. Hard to move from side to side to point screen sideways to adjust pointing or show displayed content to others. Easy to do with Apple displays.


summary

I held off getting this, waiting for an Apple design alternative, but finally gave up, suspecting Apple/LG arrangements limited customers to this LG version.

Nice screen display, but wish Apple had continued the Apple display tradition for its superior mount.

Display wobble continues to be annoying.

2 of 2 people found this useful

The stand is not sturdy, the slightest amount of pressure on your desk (e.g typing) and it wobbles like crazy. It's even worse if you raise the height of the monitor even a little bit.

The panel itself looks magnificent (which is why it gets 2 stars instead of 1) but suffers from very bad backlight bleed and image retention. Not something I expect from a £1100 monitor.

I love the idea of a one cable solution, and with this being the only 5k monitor that works reliably, i'll continue to use it. Apple really dropped the ball presenting this their preferred display for the Macbook pro.

I'd avoid this and look at a considerably cheaper 4k monitor (which scales rather well to the native resolution the Ultrafine 5k displays)

4 of 4 people found this useful

Paired with a 2018 MacBook Pro . . . perfect out of the box, superior visual quality and still is.

4 of 4 people found this useful