LG\u2019s UltraFine 5K Display might be a 27-inch monitor with a massive 5,120 x 2,880 resolution \u2013 and a honking price tag to match \u2013 but it\u2019s suffering from a serious bugbear after going on sale last month. Namely, the fact that it doesn\u2019t get along well with nearby Wi-Fi routers.
If the router happens to be within 2 meters distance of the display, then the monitor isn\u2019t so \u00ab\u00a0ultra-fine. \u00a0\u00bb In fact, things aren\u2019t remotely fine, and the peripheral becomes effectively \u00ab\u00a0unusable\u00a0\u00bb, as 9 to 5 Mac reports.
Apparently, users can experience nasty flickering which can turn into a black screen as the router is moved closer, with the tech site noting that the display would keep disconnecting itself from the MacBook Pro it was hooked up to \u2013 even causing the laptop to freeze up at times.
LG\u2019s technical support acknowledged the problem, advising to check whether the monitor is near a router, and saying that this could affect the performance of the display. In further correspondence, the monitor manufacturer said it recommends that any Wi-Fi router is placed at least 2m away from the screen to avoid such interference.
LG also made it clear that this issue only affected its 5K monitors and not other models.
Reviews of the product on the Apple store also complain about this issue, with one buyer writing: \u201cConnecting the MBP [MacBook Pro] to the display causes the MBP to freeze frequently, or not respond at all. Connected keyboards (with required USB adaptors, naturally) constantly need to be unplugged and plugged in again to work\u2026\u201d
We’ve contacted Apple to see if the company has any comment on this matter, and will update this story with any response we receive.
At any rate, if you\u2019ve been tearing your hair out due to similar problems with your shiny new 5K display, and there\u2019s a nearby Wi-Fi router, you\u2019ll just have to shift the latter a bit further out of the way to resolve any issues (hopefully). But of course this does not reflect particularly well on the build quality of such an expensive display.<\/p>\n