LG 23MP68VQ review

The best budget monitor you can buy

LG 23MP68VQ review

The LG 23MP68VQ is perhaps the ultimate budget monitor. Costing just £130, this 23in display has an IPS panel, 1080p resolution, 75Hz refresh rate, Freesync and it has an elegant, slim bezelled design.

Starting with that design, it’s nothing fancy, with glossy black plastic used throughout, but it’s simple and effective, and that slim bezel really adds to the sleek feel. Peer closely and test the wobbliness of the stand and it’s clear where savings have been made but for the price it’s more than acceptable.

Potentially more of an issue is the lack of adjustability in the stand. You can’t change the height or rotate the display, plus there’s no VESA mount so can’t use this display with an alternative monitor stand. All you get is a few degrees of tilt adjustment, to allow for a slightly better viewing angle.

LG 23MP68VQ video review

Again, though, this is to be expected at this price, and you’ll be looking at paying £100 more to get a display of this quality with a fully adjustable stand.

Connectivity, meanwhile, is decent if a little backwards looking. The presence of DVI and VGA make this ideal for businesses buying monitors for use with old computers but the presence of just one HDMI means you won’t be able to plug in a PC and a games console at the same time, for instance. As you’d expect, there’s no USB hub here but you do get an audio output, which makes plugging in your headphones a bit more convenient.

Also, like many cheaper displays this LG has an external power supply which means you have a bulky plug to contend with, though again it’s entirely typical for this calibre of monitor.

As for setting up the display, it’s pretty simple. You need a screwdriver to attach the base, but the panel just clips into place on the stand. Otherwise it’s just a case of finding something appropriately tall and sturdy to place the monitor on if you need the extra height.

Apart from needing to switch the black level mode from high to low, out of the box image quality is good enough that there’s very little need to jump into the onscreen menus, but if you do need to then you should have few headaches as the joystick control system and menu layout are quick and easy to use.

You also get a couple of interesting extra modes. Colour weakness mode aims to help those with colour blindness better distinguish between colours while black equalizer makes for an easy way to adjust the screen’s gamma curve so that dark areas in games are easier to see.

Plus, of course, there’s freesync. Combined with the 75Hz refresh rate this makes for a marked improvement over your typical 60Hz IPS display when it comes to gaming. It’s certainly not revolutionary and the step up in responsive feel when moving to a 144Hz TN monitor is still very pronounced but it’s still nice addition. Meanwhile, input lag is decent for an IPS display, at just 9.6ms.

All of which brings us to overall image quality, which is very good for a panel of this price. For a start, the 1080p resolution on a 23in panel is actually slightly better than on 24in panels, as the pixel pitch is just a bit tighter, making the image look less grainy. Plus of course the IPS panel means viewing angles are excellent while contrast and overall colour reproduction are very good.

Where the display trails the best panels, which all tend to be 24in rather than 23in, is in that last 10% or so of colour accuracy. It can’t quite reach 90% sRGB colour space coverage and its maximum Delta E in particular is a touch high, showing that it isn’t quite as good as others at distinguishing between the finest colour differences.

Also, this display is a smidge worse than some other IPS displays for IPS glow, though as always, it’s only really noticeable when viewing particularly dark images.

So, clearly the 23MP68VQ isn’t without compromise but at its current price it’s still an absolute steal.

LG 23MP68VQ Specs:

Size(Inch / cm)     23″/ 58.42cm
Panel Type     IPS (Neo blade I)
Color Gamut (CIE1931)     72%
Color Depth(Number of Colors)     16.7M colors
Pixel Pitch (mm)     0.2652 x 0.2652
Aspect Ratio     16:9
Resolution     1920 x 1080
Brightness(Typ.)     250cd/m2
Contrast Ratio(Original)     1000:1
(DFC)     Mega
(GTG)     5ms
Viewing Angle(CR≥10)     178/178
Surface Treatment     Anti glare ,3H
Weight (Kg) Set (with Stand)     3.1
Set (without Stand)     2.7
Box     4.3
Stuffing Individual(20ft/40ft/40ft HC)     864 / 1920 / 2280
Pallet(20ft/40ft/40ft HC)     675 / 1575 / 1785
Jack Input / Output D-Sub     Yes
DVI-D     Yes
HDMI     Yes
[ Jack Location ]     Back
Headphone Out     Yes
Power Type     Adapter
Input     100-240Vac, 50/60Hz
Normal On(typ.)     19.1W
Sleep Mode(Max)     Under 0.3W
DC Off(Max)     Under 0.3W
Frequency D-sub(H-Frequency)     30kHz~83kHz
D-sub(V-Frequency)     56Hz~75Hz
HDMI(H-Frequency)     30~83kHz
HDMI(V-Frequency)     56~75Hz
Resolution PC(D-sub)     1920 x 1080
Digital (DVI-D / HDMI)     1920 x 1080
Video(HDMI)     1080P