LG 25UM57 25-Inch Screen LED-lit Monitor

Have been using this for years now. screen size is good for games. for multiple windows open at once. resolution is solid. easy to connect. Haven't had any glitches, nor has it had any issues with like... burning image after having screen on for long durations. Would buy again.

I purchased two of these, to use with a Lenovo MiniDock Plus 3 (433835U TP), with a W530 laptop.I'm giving them four stars, for now, as I haven't had the opportunity to thoroughly calibrate the colors/tone/contrast, and I have just two criticisms.TL;DR - This is an excellent monitor, with easy setup, for folks who want extra horizontal screen real estate. For moving between tasks, or having open, ready reference for tasks, side-by-side, the wide, extra space is a boon to productivity. That said, it's marketed as a gaming display, but I think that's a bit far-fetched, considring the limited number of games which can take advantage of a 21:9 aspect ratio (Borderlands, I think, and a handful of others). If you need proportionate/comparable vertical real-estate (coding and writing documents comes to mind), you probably want to move on, to something else, like something with a 21:10 ratio.Worth mentioning, the display comes with an HDMI cable. This is a thoughtful touch, especially in a world, for which, for years, TVs have shipped absent of any video cables, and printers have shipped absent of necessary USB cables, because most manufactures fail, when it comes to thinking about the consumer.Also worth mentioning, to speak of cables, if the device, to which you're connecting this LG wide display, does not have HDMI (i.e., ships with DisplayPort and/or DVI out), you'll need to use an *active* adapter- the usual DisplayPort to HDMI cable will NOT support the 2560x1080 resolution. The highest resolution supported by normal conversion cables (and listed by your OS) will likely be 1920x1080. Because my Lenovo MiniDock has two DisplayPorts for video out, I used 2 Cable Matters Gold Plated Active DisplayPort to HDMI, male to female, adapters, and they worked like a charm, for enabling the full 2560x1080.Let's get the two criticisms out of the way...Criticism One:This display has HDMI connectivity ONLY. As mentioned above, this becomes a HUGE pain in the ass, if your device does not have HDMI, because most adapter/conversion cables will not support the display's 2560x1080 max resolution. Most likely, someone will not realize this until they have tried, found out the hard way, and wasted time on an internet search. Only active adapters will support the max resolution, and HDMI-only seems like an odd choice, for a product obviously targeted toward use with computers.Criticism Two:The power adapter for this monitor has a short, flimsy cable.On the short side, this may not be an issue, for folks who have their desk almost immediately close to a power outlet (such as folks who place their desk directly against a wall, with the outlet directly behind the desk) and don't need to elevate their monitors. But, if you can't be close to a power outlet, or simply don't want to position your workspace according whatever length of power cable is supplied with your display, the length of the cable on this thing will come up VERY short. This problem is magnified, when you're using a VESA mount (which folks who value literal desktop real estate are prone to do).On the flimsy side, it's a cable without much protection. The plastic used to provide that protection is too soft and too thin. This seems odd, considering the adapter, itself, is a full, three-pronged adapter. Do not bend the cable, or even step on it. That's right, I'm wary, even, of accidentally treading on the damend thing. Combine that with being short, and, well, you might want to go ahead and purchase a firm extension cable, and make sure you tuck this thing well out of the way.

In a few words, this is a wonderful monitor. I remember when ultra widescreen monitors first started popping up here on Amazon about 2012 but the prices were far beyond what I could hope to afford. Fast forward to recent times and the prices have started to drop a bit. The prices are still a bit steep but when I saw the LG listed for a bargain from a seller because of being an open box, I bought it.If there is one thing I'll complain about right away, it's that LG is vague about the requirements or trouble shooting for using this monitor. I downloaded the manual and skimmed it, but I didn't see anything outstanding. When I hooked up the monitor to my 2009 Mac Pro with it's original GT 120 graphics card (with an anemic 512 Mb of RAM) it worked... sort of. It only pushed out a maximum of 1080 x 1920, no matter what I tried with both the System Preferences and fiddling in the monitor's menu. (The little toggle switch at the bottom is kind of cool -- I had no problem quickly figuring it out since I knew ahead of time where it was located and how it should work). It was deeply annoying as I knew it should all work.After using it like a standard widescreen (stretching the resolution to "fill" the ultra widescreen distorted everything and was too annoying to put up with) since the day it had arrived, after posting to Apple forums requesting advice and finding out there were others with the same problems and even upgrading the aging graphics card to a much more powerful EVGA Geforce GTX 960 with 4 gb of RAM and still not getting joy, I was almost ready to give up on this monitor. Then, ironically, I tried something stupidly simple: I had one HDMI from the Mac Pro to it, and I plugged in a second and brought that down to the second HDMI port on the LG. Suddenly a heavenly chorus sang and the LG revealed it's promised ultra widescreen glory!I remember reading that part of the functionality of this monitor is that it can be used as a split screen, but nowhere was it mentioned that BOTH HDMI ports on the rear need to be plugged in for the monitor to work correctly (at least in my case). So, anyone with an older Mac thinking about buying this monitor, take my advice. Do it, but know that you will need to hook it up with at least two sources that use the HDMI on it to get the full resolution. If you have an older Macbook, you might be able to get away with just using an active mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter to take advantage of this monitor with only one cord. I don't know for sure but I did read that anecdotally somewhere in the Apple forums.As for new Macs and MacBooks, a single HDMI should be ample. The same proves for Windows users. There is software for both Mac and Windows at LG's website that can be used to turn this LG monitor into a discrete dual monitor with two computers, each using a port. I've not tried that yet.As for the picture, I'm more than thrilled with it. I'd describe it as being somewhere between standard and retina in terms of resolution. It seems a little better, with crisp lettering and great color reproduction. I am very pleased with this LG monitor but only regret that I didn't figure out how to take full advantage of it till two days ago (hence my long delay in posting a review). My Windows buddy has a 27 inch Samsung he purchased just a year ago at Costco, but I can tell he's intrigued with the possibilities that having this monitor presents. Take it from me, it is WORTH IT.