LG 42 OLED Flex Monitor Review

The LG 42 OLED Flex has a unique design that takes elements from both TVs and monitors. It has a sleek metallic finish, and the robust stand has mechanics normally not seen on displays to make the screen curve. You can set the curve from 0% (flat) to 100% (900R) in increments of 5%. While the screen goes back flat when you turn the display off, it returns to the previously set curvature when you turn it on again. The photo above is with the curve at 100%, and you can also see other examples of it below:

• 0%
• 50%

If you prefer a bendable monitor with manual curving mechanics, so you don't have to worry about adjusting any settings, then check out the Corsair XENEON FLEX 45WQHD240.

The build quality is excellent. The stand is very solid, and the screen doesn't wobble. It also keeps the screen in place when you adjust it, but it takes a bit of force to adjust the screen. The curving mechanism makes noise when it moves as if it's creaking, which can sound concerning the first time you hear it. However, the screen doesn't stay perfectly flat as our unit warps very slightly in the center, as you can see in this video, but this is only noticeable when viewing directly from the sides and isn't a problem when viewing from in front.

You can adjust the LG 42 OLED Flex in a couple of different ways, but its overall ergonomics are unfortunately limited as you can't remove the stand, meaning you can't wall-mount it. The back has a stylish design with a silver and gray finish and RGB lighting. You can remove the covers for cable management, and you can also route cables through the clips on the stand. If you want a curved monitor to be rotated into portrait mode, consider the Samsung Odyssey Ark S55BG970.

The stand is solid and holds the display well. You can see what it looks like from the bottom here. The thickness of the display above is with the screen at its max curvature, and you can also see pictures and the measurements at other curvatures below:

• 0%: 10.1" (25.6 cm)
• 50%: 11.6" (29.5 cm)

You can navigate through the menu with the included LG Magic Remote, whose features you can read about in the TV review. There's also a button underneath the center of the display to turn it on/off, but it has limited capabilities.

• Remote (with 2x AA batteries)
• IR Blaster
• USB-A cable
• User manuals and documentation

The LG 42 OLED Flex has a near-infinite contrast ratio thanks to its OLED panel. This means it displays perfect blacks next to bright highlights.

This display doesn't have a backlight as it uses self-emissive pixels that turn themselves on and off, so it doesn't require a local dimming feature. However, with a near-infinite contrast ratio, there isn't any blooming around bright objects, and it's the equivalent of a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

The SDR brightness isn't bad, but it's limited when the input label is set to 'PC'. It doesn't get bright enough to fight intense glare, so it's better to use it in dark or dim rooms. These results are from after calibration in the 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode and Game Optimizer enabled, with the input label set to 'PC', OLED Pixel Brightness on '100', and Peak Brightness and AI Brightness both disabled.

The main advantage of setting the input label to 'PC' when using it as a monitor is that there's no change in brightness between different scenes caused by the Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL). This means the screen stays at the same brightness when maximizing and minimizing windows. However, you can get a brighter screen outside of PC mode by using the 'Expert (Dark space, night)' Picture Mode with Peak Brightness on 'High'. Using these settings also results in a more aggressive ABL, so using them for watching content is better. You can read more about it in the TV review.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has good HDR brightness. It easily gets bright enough to make small highlights pop, but larger highlights are a lot dimmer. It tracks the EOTF fairly well until it reaches its peak brightness, where a sharp cut-off results in a loss of fine details in bright scenes. These results are with the following settings:

• Input label: PC
• HDR Select Mode: Game Optimizer
• Game Optimizer: On
• OLED Pixel Brightness: 100
• Peak Brightness: High
• Dynamic Tone Mapping: On

The HDR brightness is similar even outside of PC mode, but it tracks the EOTF better, as you can see in the TV review.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has a wide horizontal viewing angle. This means that the image remains consistent when viewing from the sides, and the edges of the screen don't look washed out if you sit too close. These results are with the screen in the flat position, but they're the same even with it curved because we measure from the center of the screen.

The vertical viewing angle is excellent, meaning the image's top and bottom are consistent even if you sit very close to the screen. Because you can't rotate the screen or even take it off the stand, we couldn't measure the vertical viewing angle, but instead, these results are from the LG 42 C2 OLED with a flat screen, and the LG 42 OLED Flex performs the same, even with it curved.

The gray uniformity is excellent. Solid colors across the screen are consistent, and you won't notice dark areas while browsing the web.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has perfect black uniformity thanks to its OLED panel, as there isn't any blooming around bright objects.

The accuracy before calibration in the 'Game Optimizer' Picture Mode is excellent. Leaving Color Gamut to 'Auto Detect' locks the colors well to the sRGB color space, and most colors and the white balance are only slightly inaccurate. The color temperature is close to the 6500K target, but it's a bit on the warm side. Unfortunately, gamma doesn't follow the target sRGB curve, as most scenes are brighter than intended. However, gamma follows the 2.2 target almost perfectly in the 'Expert (Dark space, night)' Picture Mode, as you can see in the TV review.

The LG 42 OLED Flex's accuracy after a 2-point calibration is fantastic. Colors, the white balance, and the color temperature are better, but they aren't perfect. Unfortunately, gamma is worse, as most scenes are too dark now.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It has perfect coverage of the sRGB color gamut used in most web content and has great coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color gamut used in professional content creation, but it doesn't display the full range of greens.

The SDR color volume is outstanding. It displays a wide range of bright and dark colors extremely well.

The HDR color gamut is incredible. It covers the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space nearly perfectly, and the tone mapping is also excellent, but it has more limited coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has great color volume as it displays bright and dark colors well, but colors aren't as vivid as on QD-OLED monitors like the Dell Alienware AW3423DWF.

The reflection handling is exceptional. Compared to the LG 42 C2 OLED, it has a slightly different screen finish that's even better at reducing glare. However, it's best to avoid using this in really bright rooms because it doesn't get bright enough to fight intense glare.

The photos above are with the screen at its max curvature. You can also see the same photos with a flat screen below:

• Screen on
• Screen off - average room
• Screen off - bright room

The text clarity is decent. If you want it to display proper chroma 4:4:4 for the best text clarity, you need to set the label for your input to 'PC'. Text is legible with 100% scaling, but because Windows ClearType doesn't render well with this display's RWBG subpixel layout, there's some color fringing when you enable ClearType. You can also see what ClearType looks like with 125% scaling here, and 150% scaling here.

All four subpixels are never on at the same time, and the image above features the green, red, and white pixels. You can also see other examples of the pixels below:

• White, blue, and green
• Red and blue
• Red only

The gradient handling is excellent. There's some banding in darker shades, but it's also hard to see with most content.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has native FreeSync VRR support and G-SYNC compatibility. However, you need a graphics card that supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth if you want to use the full refresh rate range of the display.

The response time at its max refresh rate of 120Hz is incredible. It has a near-instantaneous response time that results in minimal motion blur, but due to OLED's sample-and-hold method, there's still some persistent blur.

As the max refresh rate is 120Hz, these results are the same as the response time at its max refresh rate.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has a fantastic response time at 60Hz, meaning motion in low-frame-rate games, like on consoles, looks very smooth.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur, but it has limited capabilities, as it only works with a 60Hz flicker. The setting for it is called OLED Motion in the Game Optimizer menu, but you can only enable it with VRR disabled, a fixed 60Hz refresh rate, and Prevent Input Delay set to 'Standard'.

The LG 42 OLED Flex technically isn't flicker-free because there's a slight dip in brightness that corresponds to the 120Hz refresh rate. However, it isn't the same as pulse width modulation because it isn't a full screen on and off, and you won't notice this flicker.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has low input lag for a responsive feel, as long as you have Picture Mode set to 'Game Optimizer', Game Optimizer enabled, and Prevent Input Delay set to 'Boost'. Putting it to 'Standard' increases the input lag, which isn't ideal for competitive gaming but is still low enough for browsing the web. You can see a full list of input lag results with a different combination of settings and resolutions in the TV review here.

Even though it has a 4k resolution, due to its large screen size, it has a similar pixel density as a 27-inch, 1440p display.

The LG 42 OLED Flex works without issue with the PS5 thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.

This display works well with the Xbox Series X|S, but some limitations exist. You need to enable the HDMI override on the Xbox for 1440p @ 60Hz to work, but that also disables VRR, so it's better to leave it on 1440p @ 120Hz with VRR enabled.

The 3.5mm audio output on the right part of the stand serves as a combo jack with both audio out and mic in. As this is a TV, it has inputs most monitors don't have, like a tuner and Optical Digital Audio output, and it also supports eARC. You can read about its audio passthrough in the TV review here.

While the LG 42 OLED Flex doesn't have a USB-B port, it comes with a USB-A to USB-A cable that serves as an upstream cable to pass data to your PC.

The LG 42 OLED Flex works well with macOS, but it doesn't support VRR, and it's limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. Other than that, there aren't any issues, and if you're using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when waking the laptop up from sleep or reopening the lid.

The LG 42 OLED Flex has extra features most TVs have, like smart features, a processor, a built-in mic for hands-free voice control, and speakers on the stand that sound decent. The main feature of this display is its customizable curve that can set the screen from flat to a 900R curve. It also has controllable lights on the back of the stand that can sync with the audio or video on the screen.

While it has a Multi-View feature, it doesn't have real Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture modes that let you view images from two sources simultaneously. This lets you view images from certain built-in apps and one external source. Also, it has a USB port on the right side of the stand that can be used with the TV or a PC, but it isn't the same as a KVM switch because it doesn't work with two separate external sources. It's still convenient as you can plug in a USB headset and listen to content directly from the TV or PC.

The Game Optimizer menu has a few gamer-oriented features, like Prevent Input Delay to minimize the input lag, a Game Dashboard, and a Wide Aspect Ratio setting that changes the aspect ratio to match an ultrawide screen.

Lastly, this is an OLED display that's prone to burn-in with constant exposure to the same static elements over time. It can be a serious concern if you're constantly browsing the web or only working on the display, but it's less a concern for watching content or playing different games. There are a few settings to try to reduce the risk:

• Pixel Cleaning: This corrects individual pixels after the display has been on for a while and may take up to an hour to complete.
• Screen Move: Moves the image by a few pixels to one side to help reduce the risk of burn-in.
• Adjust Logo Brightness: Dims bright static logos, like from a TV channel.

You can see the settings for the display in the TV review here.