LG 38GL950G UltraGear is the Tom's Guide Awards 2020 pick for best monitor

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From it's curved screen to its killer performance, the LG 38GL950G UltraGear is the best monitor of the year

Best monitor - LG 38GL950G UltraGear
(Image credit: LG/Future)

The LG 38GL950G UltraGear gaming monitor stands head and shoulders above the other monitors we've reviewed thanks to its excellent performance, sophisticated design, and immersive curved display. 

Even running through the specs will leave most gamers impressed: It's a 38-inch curved gaming monitor with QHD+ resolution, 1-millisecond response time and 144Hz refresh rate. And it's got a glowing LED ring that illuminates the back of the monitor with undeniably cool lighting effects.

The ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio of the 38-inch display is gorgeous, giving us sweeping vistas and immersive views in every game. The display's Nano IPS technology — which boosts the display backlight with quantum-dot-like nanoparticles — delivered intense colors and impressive performance. The display boasts an incredible 148.9% of the sRGB color gamut, category leading color accuracy, up to 544 nits of brightness, and it looked amazing whether we were playing Hitman 2 or Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

The fast responsiveness and 144Hz refresh rate are made even more impressive by the option to overclock the display up to 175Hz. And all of this is easy to adjust and control using the monitor's onboard navigation and onscreen menus.

With it's top of the line performance for gaming, the LG 38GL950G UltraGear is also more than ready to take on any other uses, from streaming media to office work. But it's in the fast-paced, high fidelity, no room for errors world of gaming that the LG UltraGear really shines.

It's not a perfect display, but the LG 38GL950G UltraGear gaming monitor blew us away in terms of raw quality and the number of impressive features it had for gamers and everyone else. Compared to even the best monitors and best gaming monitors we've reviewed, it's the clear standout of the year.

Brian Westover
Brian Westover

Brian Westover is currently Lead Analyst, PCs and Hardware at PCMag. Until recently, however, he was Senior Editor at Tom's Guide, where he led the site's TV coverage for several years, reviewing scores of sets and writing about everything from 8K to HDR to HDMI 2.1. He also put his computing knowledge to good use by reviewing many PCs and Mac devices, and also led our router and home networking coverage. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he wrote for TopTenReviews and PCMag.