For a long time that I wanted to have a “retina” screen on my desktop but as I work from multiple locations (and needed to buy more than one monitor) I wanted a solution that was not expensive and where I could plug and play from a Macbook or Mac Mini.
I knew I needed to go 4K or 5K to get the crisp text and high resolution images but the cheaper monitors use TN or VA panels and those suck in terms of color accuracy, viewing angles and general brightness. So, I knew I had to go with ISP (or OLED but currently OLED monitors are rare and very expensive).
After multiple searches I decided that the LG 27UK850-W (ISP 27 inches 4K) monitor would be a good solution. It had good color accuracy (with some configuration), little distortion from different angles and USB-C that allowed for single cable setup with a MacBook (charge+image+passthrough for USB hub).
Still, this was not cheap and when I finally decided to buy a second monitor for another location, I went with the LG 27UL550-W (ISP 27 inches 4K). The panel is vey similar. The 550 loses some peak brightness, it also loses USB-C + the USB hub and it has “uglier” bezels but I don’t notice any difference in image quality from one to the other and it cost me almost 3 times less (in a promo).
I think that the LG 27UL550-W is a great value for money if you want a 4K display for productivity work.
