Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsI'm so utterly disappointed
Reviewed in Canada on March 18, 2023
I've been in love with the DualUp since it debuted, and after nearly pulling the trigger a few times I finally took advantage of an Amazon Warehouse deal. Alas, it will be going back to Amazon's warehouse. The concept is excellent, but the execution is just really, really lacking.
Let's talk about the clamp stand first. It's extremely solid, and extremely limiting. My desk is 23.5" deep, so the stand has to be clamped to the left or right. Otherwise, the monitor will be right up in my face, because the arm doesn't fold back onto itself. This means that it only fits in one specific spot on my desk, and I had to reconfigure everything else around it. A monitor like this needs a stand that provides far more flexibility.
The display is really impressive--it's just so different having a 16:18 ratio. But I quickly realized that this is a problem, because it's hard to find the "sweet spot". If you position it for the centre to be in your line of sight, the top and bottom of the display are at angles that are difficult to see. Move it up or down, and you just make one end better and the other worse.
I envisioned this being useful for writing and coding, because instead of scrolling up and down I can see EVERYTHING. But in practice, that's just not the case. Instead of scrolling, I'm constantly moving my neck up and down. Turns out that scrolling isn't so bad.
I tried turning the monitor sideways, and that's when I discovered there's no orientation sensor. This means that you have to manually change the display in Windows (or using LG's software). It also means that to use the onscreen controls, you have to turn your head 90 degrees. That is beyond stupid.
And it's too bad, because I really liked the 18:16 orientation. It feels much more natural and logical, like the 4:3 monitors of olden days.
Oh yeah, the auto brightness was turned off by default, and that's probably because it doesn't work. As soon as I toggled it on, the monitor kicked into an eye-searing 100% brightness and stayed there. It only dimmed when I covered the brightness sensor, which they've idiotically put right in the centre where people tend to like mounting their webcams.
Let's talk about the ability to connect two different computers and share USB devices. It works...just not very well. When you swap between computers, the USBs change over effortlessly. The issue is that there's no quick shortcut to do any of this, so you have to press the little control button on the monitor, toggle it left, toggle up or down to choose an input, and then press it again. Again, this is harder to do when the monitor is sideways. All that LG needed to do was set up a hotkey for their Onscreen Controls software, but they can't be bothered.
Speaking of the software, the ability to set up different zones and snap windows to them would be great if it didn't force you to always use those zones. As it is, you're better off using Microsoft's free Fancyzones Powertoy.
Finally, there's the "show two different computers at once" party trick, which is almost totally useless. It just splits into two small monitors, and I'm staring at the space right where they meet. I can control one computer, but I can't control the other unless I go into the onscreen menu and tell it to move the USB devices. It is not at all worth the trouble.
So, now I'm just disappointed that I tried the DualUp. Sure, it's easy enough to send back to Amazon, but if I hadn't tried it then I could have just kept dreaming about what a great idea it is. Instead, I'm writing this review and wishing that someone would make a 27" 4:3 monitor.