One of the biggest upgrades to your work-from-home experience is a good, decent-sized monitor. Alas, it's often not an option for those staying in small apartments with compact desks. But there's a solution in the form of the LG UltraFine Ergo. This monitor does not have the usual stand, but a desk mount that clamps to the table, and significantly reduces the monitor's footprint. The Ergo also has an excellent range of movement. You can swivel, tilt and extend it to your preferred height and angle. I tested the S$899 27-inch model (27UN880), but LG also sells a 32-inch version (32UN880) for S$1,099.

To install the Ergo, you first have to clamp the monitor arm to your desk before snapping the display to the arm's VESA mount. The desk should have a sufficiently large surface (around 75mm to 95mm in depth depending on the desk's design) for the Ergo's C-Clamp to attach securely. You will need a screwdriver to adjust the clamp from its default setting if your desk is too thin or too thick. The Ergo also works with desks that have a grommet hole. The monitor mount basically sits right on top of the hole. I tried some unconventional tables, from a circular dining table to a foldable desk. They didn't work with the Ergo, but you should have no problem with a standard office table.

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Once installed, it is easy to adjust the Ergo to your desired position. It has up to 280-degree of swivel so you can move it around the desk freely. You can extend the monitor forward if you have a large desk or retract it if your desk is smaller. The height is adjustable (by up to 130mm), and you can also tilt the screen by 25 degrees. For those who deal mostly with lengthy documents and Web pages, Ergo can also pivot to a more useful portrait orientation. Cables can be routed through the arm itself and hidden from view, resulting in a neat minimalist look.

The Ergo's 27-inch screen is crisp, thanks to its 4K resolution. Colours and viewing angles are good, as expected of an IPS display that has been pre-calibrated in the factory. It has a typical brightness of 350 nits — decent, but far from the best at showing HDR movies. There's a good mix of ports and connectors, including both HDMI and DisplayPort. But if your PC supports it, you should stick to using the USB-C port as it can deliver both power (60W) and video. Hence, I just require a single USB-C cable to charge and display my Dell notebook at the same time. Gamers, though, may find the Ergo less than ideal. While it does support AMD FreeSync, its 60Hz refresh rate is not smooth enough.

Is it cheaper to buy a similar 4K monitor, say the Dell P2721Q, and monitor arms like the Prism+ Arc Opus Dual separately? Probably. But the LG UltraFine Ergo merges both into a neat package. It has a great range of movement, saves valuable desk space, and comes with easy cable management. The 4K display itself is not too shabby either, and is suitable for both office workers and content creators. Get it for around S$899 at Shopee, Lazada and Amazon.

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Note: Review unit provided by LG.