Is bigger always better? That is certainly the question on the minds of prospective owners of the Lenovo Legion R45w-30 ($999.99), a massive 45-inch ultrawide gaming monitor with a 5,440-by-1,440-pixel resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate (170Hz if you overclock). Those specs might sound impressive, but they don’t actually translate to the excellent viewing experience you’d expect. At this extreme width, the 1440p resolution results in an image that’s rather soft and washed-out compared with what stunning big-screen OLED panels like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 or even other VA panels like the LG 49 Curved UltraGear Gaming Monitor can offer. Both of these monitors are even larger than the R45w-30, and they cost roughly the same (in the G9’s case, because of a significant price drop since it was introduced). So that leaves the R45w-30’s otherwise-impressive wingspan and performance translating to a solid—though unremarkable—entry point into the world of ultrawide gaming.
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Design: Wide Eyes, Wider ScreenLarge and in charge, the Lenovo Legion R45w-30 features a massive 44.5-inch panel. Despite the size, the curve here isn’t actually as deep as on other ultrawide monitors we’ve seen, bending rather gently at 1500R. This R-number is the radius measurement in millimeters of a circle that would be created by a hypothetical ring of these monitors placed edge to edge. The lower the millimeter count and the R-number, the tighter the curve is. Ultrawide monitors like these come in a wide range of curvatures. For example, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, a 57-inch ultrawide monitor, boasts a tighter 1000R curve, while the LG 45 UltraGear OLED curves to an even tighter 800R.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
On the screen itself, we’re looking at 5,440 by 1,440 pixels at a 32:9 aspect ratio on a VA panel. Typically, IPS panels are the go-to monitors for gaming, as they offer better color accuracy and improved input lag, while VA panels offer better contrast and deeper black levels. We’ll get into the details later in our benchmarking section, but, as mentioned, the R45w-30 does have a noticeably soft look at its native resolution. Colors seemed washed out while watching videos on YouTube, and even during gaming sessions. I’ve always been an advocate for 1440p screens, and many gamers agree that it’s a sweet spot between 4K and 1080p, but that really only applies to monitors with a more conventional aspect ratio. (A “typical” 1440p panel would have a resolution of 2,560 by 1,440; this model has a smidge more than double that, like two 1440p panels side by side.) The Legion’s extreme width really highlights the blemishes that would otherwise go unnoticed on a 16:9 monitor like the LG 27 UltraGear, which has exceptional performance and panel quality.
As for the R45w-30’s refresh rate, tapping out at 165Hz isn’t bad, but it’s on the lower end of the range that today’s leading gaming monitors offer. Premium gaming monitor refresh rates tend to settle at 240Hz, while cheaper monitors hover below 200Hz and sometimes are capable of variable rates. The $199 ViewSonic Omni VX2728J-2K, for example, offers two refresh rates: 180Hz over DisplayPort and 144Hz over HDMI.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
In some cases, monitors can be overclocked to reach higher refresh rates. The esports-focused Alienware 500Hz Gaming Monitor, for instance, technically supports up to 480Hz, but can be overclocked to reach 500Hz. The R45w-30 offers a similar overclocking capability with an equally small bump, to 170Hz. But this isn’t like the complicated process of overclocking your CPU or GPU. Overclocking the Lenovo Legion R45w-30 is a lot easier than it sounds, as you just need to navigate to the overclock option in the OSD and enable it. Opting to overclock the monitor does hit you with a text box that warns you that the monitor will clock back down if left idle for 30 minutes, so it’s really a party trick that’s not sustainable. Besides, while you might want to overclock the refresh rate if you’re playing competitively, we don’t see much reason to do it for such a meager boost in performance.Turning to the port hub on the back of the monitor, you’ll find two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort, an Ethernet jack, three USB-A ports, one USB-B connector, one USB-C port (able to act as an additional DisplayPort and deliver up to 75 watts of charging power), and a headphone jack. A virtual KVM is also included, as well as two 3-watt W speakers. The speakers can’t handle bass well—par the course for most monitor-internal speakers—but otherwise, they sound pretty good, even at higher volumes.At 13.4 by 42.9 by 20.8 inches (HWD), the monitor unsurprisingly takes up a significant amount of space, but offers height adjustment, swivel, and tilt for minute adjustments.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
In addition to the built-in virtual KVM feature, which is relatively common on premium monitors these days, the ultrawide R45w-30 also offers a function called True Split. This Lenovo-exclusive feature allows you to split your display into two screens using the same source, effectively creating a hardware partition that’s meant to replicate dual-screen workstations with one mega screen. To do so, you must connect your computer via DisplayPort or USB-C, enable True Split in the OSD, and then extend your display (rather than duplicating it). The monitor then splits its screen down the middle, creating either two 2,560-by-1,440-pixel windows, or an uneven split of 3,360 by 1,440 pixels and 1,760 by 1,440 pixels. You can take it a step further by activating the KVM and connecting a second video source so that you’re able to work from two different computers on one screen. All of this is more useful for work productivity than gaming, but it does give the monitor a wide range of use cases.But the Lenovo Legion R45w-30 monitor is meant for gaming first, so let’s see what it’s capable of.Testing the Lenovo Legion R45w-30: Surprising Highs and LowsThe Lenovo Legion R45w-30 has an impressive wingspan, but is the warm glow of its 44.5-inch screen enough of a sell? Our review wouldn’t be complete without a few benchmark tests to figure out color gamut, brightness, color accuracy, and contrast ratio, which we measure using Calman monitor calibration software, a Murideo Six-G signal generator, and a Klein K-10A colorimeter. In our first test, we measure the monitor in its default picture mode with an SDR signal. Under these conditions, we saw an average brightness of 428 nits (candelas per square meter). Meanwhile, in HDR, we measured 407 nits of brightness while using the Standard preset profile with the brightness cranked up to 100%. Taking a look at peak HDR brightness, we saw 409 nits—essentially the same as the sustained measurement, but in line with the monitor’s VESA-certified DisplayHDR 400 rating. We tried changing settings to see if there was any significant difference across modes and found that there wasn’t. (We measure sustained HDR brightness at a 10% window size, but to measure peak brightness, we drop the test size down to 2%).
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Moving on to measure color range, the Lenovo Legion R45w-30 fared well, recording 100% of the sRGB color gamut, 82% of Adobe RGB, and 86% of DCI-P3 in our tests. These numbers are pretty good, especially for a VA panel of this size. For comparison, the LG UltraGear 49, which also uses a VA panel, recorded 100% sRGB, 87% Adobe RGB, and 92% DCI-P3 ratings.Measured color accuracy was surprisingly high given the washed-out look overall. We recorded an excellent Delta E measurement of 0.7 on standard mode. The higher the Delta E, the more colors tend to stray from their intended hue. A 0.7 figure is very good, especially for a consumer gaming monitor.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
After dealing with so many OLED monitors and their incredibly high contrast ratios, it’s almost jarring to come back to earth and measure a contrast ratio that’s only four digits long. The R45w-30 is rated for a contrast ratio of 3,000:1, but we only got 2,010:1 in our testing. Don’t lose your head trying to understand the discrepancy, as this can sometimes happen to monitors because of various factory calibration procedures. The 3,000:1 contrast ratio is common in VA panels, though at this level a monitor doesn’t display blacks as well as higher-contrast monitors like OLEDs. It is especially noticeable when playing darker scenes, as the blacks will show up as gray.Media and Gaming PerformanceColor testing aside, the next (and probably most important) metric to consider is the monitor’s input lag. We typically determine this by measuring the lag with the HDFury Diva HDMI matrix and playing a handful of games from our library. But in this case, we could not get the monitor to detect the Diva for testing, so we had to rely on good-ol’-fashioned game testing.I didn’t perceive any screen tearing while messing around in Returnal and Cyberpunk 2077, but the super widescreen ratio can potentially be taxing on the games you’re playing. You’ll also want to make sure that the games you want to play support the aspect ratio. (You’ll also need a muscular video card to play at the native resolution well; again, this experience is equivalent to powering two ordinary 1440p screens’ worth of pixels.) A big screen is ideal for strategy games and flight simulators, but they’re not always supported by your typical action-adventure game. The monitor’s HDMI 2.1 port is also handy for playing the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 at higher frame rates, but those systems also don’t really support ultrawide monitors. They do work, but they stretch a 16:9 image to fit the screen. To truly indulge in ultrawide gaming as intended, you’ll need to game on the PC.The monitor does make use of AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and Adaptive Sync to prevent tearing and stuttering, and the panel is VESA ClearMR7000 certified. According to VESA, each ClearMR tier represents a range of blur performance based on the ratio of clear pixels versus blurry pixels expressed as a percentage. In this case, ClearMR7000 has between 65 and 75 times (6,500% and 7,500%) more clear pixels than blurry pixels.Verdict: Good and Wide, But You Can Do BetterAt the end of the day, the Lenovo Legion R45w-30 is a solid ultrawide monitor that doesn’t wow us, with its soft, washed-out image and mild contrast ratio compared with similarly priced options. It does offer adequate performance, even if overclocking to 170Hz doesn’t do much. However, for $999, we certainly expect a little more than good enough. We have seen the R45w-30’s price drop to around $799, at which point it’s a much better buy. Otherwise, with the prices of superior widescreen monitors like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 and LG 49 Curved UltraGear Gaming Monitor dropping within striking distance of the Legion’s price, it’s hard to fully recommend the R45w-30 outside of a sale.
The Bottom Line
The Lenovo Legion R45w-30 is a good ultrawide gaming monitor, but a lot of what it does well can be done even better by similarly priced competitors.
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