Wi-Fi Signals Cripple LG's 5K Display Sold by Apple

After Apple discontinued its Thunderbolt Display, the company collaborated with LG on the design of the UltraFine 5K Display ($974), which the Mac-maker promoted as a great companion for last October's new MacBooks.

Unfortunately, this desktop display may not be ready for prime time, as a new report shows it can become unusable and even freeze the notebooks it's connected to.

LG's UltraFine 5K monitor is allergic to Wi-Fi routers. Credit: Apple
LG's UltraFine 5K monitor is allergic to Wi-Fi routers. Credit: Apple

LG's UltraFine 5K monitor is allergic to Wi-Fi routers. Credit: Apple

This sour news comes via a report from 9to5Mac, which shows that the panel flickers terribly when it's within 6.5 feet of a Wi-Fi router, turn to black if it's very close and even cause your notebook to freeze.

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This is a pretty serious problem when you consider how expensive the display is, that many cannot control where their router sits (thanks to where the cabling comes into their apartments) and that some may have places their equipment near it for convenient access.

Multiple 1-star reviews on the online Apple store page for the UltraFine 5K display verify that the issue is widespread, and that it might suffer from other issues, including poor sound quality. When reached for comment, an LG Support rep admitted that the router is indeed the issue, and asked that the customer simply "keep the monitor away from the router so we can isolate the issue."

In a follow-up email, LG support claimed that this issue is limited to only its 5K monitors, and advised that the router be "placed at least 2 meters away from the monitor." That may work, but if that's all LG is going to do to fix this issue, we'd have a hard time recommending the display.

We've reached out to Apple and LG for comment regarding this issue, and will update this story if we receive a response.

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