LG has announced its next OLED TV, the LG Flex, which is designed to double the large curved 4K screen, and you can choose how much to bend, based on your setup.
The mount includes robotic arms that push the edges of the OLED panel, making it curve forward up to a maximum 800R curve (which is very curved) if you’re sitting directly in front of it at a desk, or back to flat… and with 18 degrees between those two. You can choose your preferred settings, and a dedicated button on the remote control allows you to switch between them at will.
we will the love To show you this through photos or some other kind of visual help, but at the time of writing LG hasn’t provided images of the Flex that we can use, although we’ve seen them in a hypothetical feed.
The OLED panel itself is the same as the 42-inch LG C2, except it has a 25% less reflective layer than that used in the LG C2. LG told us this is used because it’s designed to be a gaming monitor as well as a TV, and the closer you are to the screen, the more angle of reflections you’ll see.
The regular LG C2 is more designed to sit at a comfortable distance from the sofa, which means you get a narrower reflection window. Now we say that having a low-reflection coating on all LG C2 models will still be great, since its brightness is a bit limited, but maybe it will show up on the LG C3.
As far as other gaming features go, the group basically copies the LG C2 in these ways as well. You get plenty of HDMI 2.1 ports to meet your gaming needs at 4K at 120Hz — there’s no DisplayPort connection at all, which may cause anxiety for some gaming PC fans.
It also supports Dolby Vision for gaming (including 120fps) and HGiG, which is a rarity in gaming monitors. There is also built-in support for FreeSync Pro, G-Sync, and HDMI Forum VRR.
There’s no HDR rating (as in ‘HDR400’ or ‘HDR600’), but based on previous testing of the 42-inch LG C2 you can probably expect 600-700 nits of peak brightness, depending on your settings your.
LG’s Gaming Hub interface is great for those who want to fiddle with the settings. You can turn the above features on and off, but you can also access right under the hood image processing options on the LG Alpha 9 chip that power them (another feature brought from the C2).
You can tweak the shadow settings and highlight in great detail, as well as all sorts of other elements that will alter response times, so you can get a balance between image quality and low latency that works for you.
Of course, any use of image processing comes with some inherent lag, so hardcore PC gamers may reject this monitor altogether because it uses a TV chip.
Analysis: Too much TV, not enough screen?
That’s kind of the big question for the LG Flex, really: is it too much TV and not enough screen if it’s going to be sitting at your desk?
The point of having one of the best curved monitors is that when you’re sitting right in the middle of it a short distance away (i.e. at your desk), the curve helps with eye strain in a way that’s especially helpful when gaming. With a flat screen, the edges are a relatively large distance away from your eyes compared to the center – your eye has to make a huge leap in refocusing if you’re moving from looking at the intersection down to the number of ammo in the corner, for example. The same eye movement does not have the same problem of eye strain when looking at a TV across the room, because the angle and center are practically the same relative distance from your eye.
What curved screens do is reduce the distance from the edges of the screen to your eye, which means that the middle of the screen and the edges are roughly further away from you – so when your eye clicks on the corner now, it doesn’t. It is necessary to refocus. This makes them more comfortable over long periods.
The great thing about the LG Flex is that you get the curve, so no matter how you’re going to be sitting from the desk, you can find the perfect exact curve level for your eyes. No quirks here. That’s perfect.
But it’s a 42 inch TV. this is really so far GREAT FOR OFFICE SETUP – Too large to use as a general computer monitor. So the monitor on your desk can’t be replaced for general use, but maybe you can mount it on the wall above your monitor? No – it cannot be wall mounted, because its curved motors are all built into the rack.
So it’s basically designed for a one-person game room setting, really. You probably have it in your room with the PS5 instead of the office you actually work in. You probably live alone and can have it in your living room, but you can sit so close to the curve that it feels worthwhile. These are all good use cases – but they are quite specific. For a lot of people it might be: too big and TV-like to replace the best gaming monitors, but too chunky and niche to buy in place of the best 42-inch TVs.
We think the LG Flex sounds like a genius piece of engineering, though — we’ll find out if it’s functional and cool when we can get it to work.