Iiyama G-Master G4380UHSU: A monitor as big as a TV

Details

Large diagonal monitors are slowly but surely starting to catch on with more users, and the recent rise in popularity is no doubt mainly due to the boom of more OLED models. However, these aren’t the only option and you’ll find a number of IPS and VA models on the market, including the G4380UHSU from iiyama. This gaming monitor is based on a 42″ fast (144Hz) 4K panel. Price? 650 EUR.

Basic parameters

Packaging and equipment

We haven’t had a 42″ montior to test yet, although for me it is not a premiere of this size. I used to use the LG 43UD79-B monitor before I switched to a 55″ OLED, so it’s kind of a deja-vu. But what we can consider a premiere here is the presence of a monitor from iiyama. Right off the bat, the colour-rich box catches the eye, with illustrations showing the gaming theme on one side and the monitor with basic specs on the other.

The contents of the package are relatively plentiful, with the monitor getting a pair of power cables, a pair of video cables – HDMI and DisplayPort, USB cables for connecting to a PC, a remote with batteries, a headphone holder and a couple of pieces of paper documentation.

The large diagonal screen weighing 13 kg will need to be stably supported, which is taken care of by a metal stand in the shape of a squared C.

The design of the rear is quite inconspicuous, all in matte black without any colour or RGB LED elements. Interestingly, the second part of the stand is already attached to the monitor from the factory, so you have less to worry about.

The C-stand is simply screwed to the other part and the installation is complete. There’s also a no-nonsense screw solution, making installation one of the easiest we’ve seen to date. It just takes a bit of strength to erect the monitor afterwards due to its high weight and large dimensions.

The monitor also offers a VESA 200×100 installation option, in case you would like to mount the monitor on a wall, for example.

Another bracket on the back is designed for a silver “peg”, which will be used to hold your headphones, which we will show later.

On the right side we find five control buttons, which I praise and consider to be a definitely better solution than the buttons on the back of the monitor. One problem may be their control when using more than one display, then they would be better placed on the bottom chin or completely replaced by a joystick in the middle of the display, as with the aforementioned piece from LG.

Let’s move on to connectivity, which is mostly located on the underside. Here we find a pair of HDMI 2.0 ports, also DisplayPort 1.4, complemented by an audio jack and on the other side a power connector for the integrated power supply, thanks to which you only need to connect a cable without the usual “brick” as other monitors have. On the left side, then, is a quartet of classic USB Type-A connectors. One of them also supports fast charging. However, you’ll have to connect them to your computer using USB Type-B and unfortunately you’ll be looking for USB-C here in vain, which is a great pity.

When you turn on the monitor, you see a display with an evenly thick bezel on all four sides, and while it’s not overtly thick, it’s not among the thinnest either. The bottom chin bears the manufacturer’s logo and there’s also an LED status indicator underneath, with the model designation again on the top left.

Although I’ve discussed the possible complication of controlling the monitor in a multi-monitor setup, this is purely a hypothetical question, since in practice you’ll be using the included remote anyway. The latter is all plastic and with rubber buttons. A minor problem is that the vast majority of the buttons do nothing, and thus realistically the remote could be significantly smaller if it only offered functional buttons.

Once again, we can take a look at the control buttons on the right side and the USB hub on the left when the monitor is erected.

We also mentioned the bracket on the back of the monitor, which in practice looks like this. I like such “simply clever” solutions. It’s also definitely a better implementation than the pull-out plastic mounts we’ve seen on other monitors.

Backlight bleed of the tested piece shows quite large deviations in the display of black color, which is especially visible on the sides of the display. Displays with VA panels usually do not excel in uniformity, and this one is no exception.

Of course, as always, every panel is different and your piece can be better or worse. We will also measure uniformity with a colorimetric probe in the next chapter.

Large diagonal monitors are slowly but surely starting to catch on with more users, and the recent rise in popularity is no doubt mainly due to the boom of more OLED models. However, these aren’t the only option and you’ll find a number of IPS and VA models on the market, including the G4380UHSU from iiyama. This gaming monitor is based on a 42″ fast (144Hz) 4K panel. Price? 650 EUR.

Range of settings

To control the OSD menu, there are five buttons on the right side, or the remote control, which is definitely the most practical solution for controlling the monitor’s settings.

Quick options allow you to change the volume or directly select a section of settings, such as colour settings.

This is the first time we see iiyama’s OSD menu, but it’s a fairly standard layout. You can control image settings, inputs, audio or choose between saved modes or control colour settings.

You can also adjust the location and time of the OSD menu itself, change the language, control HDR and FreeSync, adjust image sharpness, or reset all settings.

The absence of PiP and PbP modes, which would definitely be useful on such a large screen, is disappointing.

Large diagonal monitors are slowly but surely starting to catch on with more users, and the recent rise in popularity is no doubt mainly due to the boom of more OLED models. However, these aren’t the only option and you’ll find a number of IPS and VA models on the market, including the G4380UHSU from iiyama. This gaming monitor is based on a 42″ fast (144Hz) 4K panel. Price? 650 EUR.

Image properties

We tested the display properties using the Datacolor Spyder5Elite probe. The display has a 42.5-inch VA panel with a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio, 3840×2160 px resolution, glossy finish and even bezels on four sides. An interesting feature of the display is the 144Hz refresh rate combined with FreeSync Premium, but which supports a maximum of 120Hz. You’ll have to use a DisplayPort connection to take advantage of the maximum refresh rate, as the HDMI connection is limited to 60 Hz, which is a great pity… The manufacturer doesn’t give any information on the display’s colour capabilities, but boasts a brightness of 550 nits, a contrast ratio of 4000:1 and a 0.4ms response time at MPRT. It’s also just a 10 bit panel (8 bit + Hi-FRC) with 1.07 billion colors.

We compared the display quality in the basic mode, which is the mode the monitor will be in right out of the box. We measured 100 % sRGB, 85 % AdobeRGB, 96 % DCI-P3 and 84 % NTSC with the probe. These are a hair better numbers than we’ve seen with the 32M1N5800, which is high praise. The brightness has reached an excellent value of 548 nits, which is again better than the aforementioned Philips and is almost identical to the value stated by the manufacturer. The average Delta E colour deviation is also very good with a value of 1.9, but this is slightly worse than the 32M1N5800. As the black display test has already told us, uniformity is not exactly the panel’s strong point and in this case there is no ground for praise. The display offers three gamma modes, corresponding to 1.6, 2.0 and 2.3, all three of which had only a slight variation 0,01. There is a smaller number of colour modes, offering different temperatures from 6900 to 10300 K, but you can always set your own colours to suit your needs. The highest measured contrast at a 100 % brightness was 2200:1 in the basic color mode, where the maximum brightness of 548 nits was also achieved.

Input Lag and Response Time

We also measured the input lag on the monitor in multiple Overdrive modes.

The basic setting with Overdrive turned off achieves a response time of 15.2 ms, which is average. Gradually switching Overdrive through 5 values gets us to a minimum value of 13.9 ms in mode 5, which is a nice improvement, but still not a breathtaking value. The next picture will tell us better which of the Overdrive modes to choose.

On the manufacturer’s website you can find information about 0.4 ms response time MPRT, but then FreeSync is inactive, the brightness is dramatically reduced and can not be controlled. In addition, outside of gaming, this mode is not suitable due to screen flicker, so we will stay with the tests without active MPRT. Overdrive offers 5 options in addition to disabling it. With Overdrive inactive, the ghosting is very noticeable, so I don’t recommend it. 1 and 2 bring a significant improvement and I would therefore recommend using the monitor in these modes. At 3, inverse ghosting slowly starts to appear, which is then very noticeable at 4 and 5.

Large diagonal monitors are slowly but surely starting to catch on with more users, and the recent rise in popularity is no doubt mainly due to the boom of more OLED models. However, these aren’t the only option and you’ll find a number of IPS and VA models on the market, including the G4380UHSU from iiyama. This gaming monitor is based on a 42″ fast (144Hz) 4K panel. Price? 650 EUR.

Conclusion

The Iiyama G-Master G4380UHSU is a monitor for gamers, but also for work. In particular, you will appreciate the ability to take full advantage of 4K resolution without the need for scaling, or with only very slight one (max 125 %). In addition to the large surface area for displaying a lot of content at once, you will also be pleased with the fast 144/120 Hz refresh rate, unfortunately only when using DisplayPort.

The HDMI connection is unfortunately limited to 60Hz, which is a great shame, especially for owners of the new generation of consoles. This makes the monitor more suited for use with PCs than consoles.

Pleasantly surprising was the color rendering and high brightness thanks to which you get a slightly better experience of HDR, which the display supports, but we are still talking about the basic support of VESA HDR 400 without locally dimmed areas.

It’s the VA display backlighting and uniformity that are probably the biggest tangible weakness. It should also be noted that, rather unusually, the display has a glossy finish that may or may not suit you. On the other hand, I can praise the small gadgets like the headphone holder or the remote control, which makes it much easier to control the monitor. The price of around 650 euros is also quite favourable, considering the size and 4K 144 Hz support, which until recently meant an investment of more than 1000 euros.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

• Contents
• Details
• Range of settings
• Image properties
• Conclusion