LG has made a preliminary announcement heralding the arrival of a new flagship display: the LG 32UD99. Poised to entice creative professionals, gamers, and prosumers, the LG 32UD99 suggests targeting a more encompassing demographic; a contrast to the fairly recent announcement of LG UltraFine 4K and 5K panels that seemingly left Windows users in the cold. LG plans to demonstrate the 32UD99 at CES next month alongside some other panels. Naturally, many specifications were left undisclosed. Here is what we know so far:
The LG 32UD99 touts a 32” IPS panel at a native resolution of 3840 x 2160, making this a UHD 4K display. The IPS panel is of 10-bit color depth and can reproduce 1.07 billion colors. That’s vs 8-bit with 16.77 million colors. The panel of the LG 32UD99 allegedly saturates 95% of the DCI P3 color space, and LG has reported nothing of other color spaces such as sRGB and Adobe RGB. The LG 32UD99 also supports 3D LUTs (look-up tables), but again, there are no details on the LUTs. As look-up tables are primarily for color enhancement and correction, this is a feature more prepared for users working in digital media.
There are a lot of numbers being listed here, but perhaps the most distinctive is the presence of HDR10 implementation. HDR (High-Dynamic Range) has been more prevalent in TV, and less than common in computer monitors. HDR expands the color gamut and allows for a more dynamic range of color reproduction. The “10” denotes a 10-bit color depth, same as the IPS panel.
We know even less about connectivity options, sans the announced inclusion of the USB 3.1 Type-C connector that will operate via Displayport Alternate Mode. Essentially, this allows for native Displayport signals to be carried over USB, while maintaining other USB functionality. This is aimed at rendering 4K, charging a connected device, and transferring data simultaneously over one cable. If gamers are truly part of the target audience, presumably there will be HDMI 2a (supports HDR) connectivity as consoles such as the Playstation 4, Xbox One S, and nVidia Shield ATV all support HDR; just not in the form of USB Type-C.
Another key question regarding the LG 32UD99 left unanswered is refresh rate. Realistically, we can expect 60Hz -- a possibility likely to resonate unfavorably among some gamers. The 4K market is relatively immature, and that says nothing of the emerging 5K panels. Pixel density and other video assets like GPUs and transmission bandwidth for Displayport haven’t quite evolved in linear fashion. That said, GamersNexus will be at CES next month to cover the show. There, we will be able to ascertain more information about the LG 32UD99, among other new products.
Editorial: Eric Hamilton