I've reviewed a few monitors in my day, and LG makes some of my favorites on the market. In fact, after reviewing the company's LG UltraWide 49WQ95C a couple of years ago, I ended up splurging and buying it for myself, and it's been my main workstation monitor ever since.

The point is LG makes some interesting monitors, and the LG Smart Monitor Swing is the latest of those. It's monitor you can easily move around, which is why I call it "portable", but it's not meant to leave your house or office. And I have to be honest, I love this thing — even if I don't really know who it's for.

About this article: LG provided a review unit of the Smart Monitor Swing for testing purposes. The company had no input or early access to the contents of this article.

It comes with me everywhere (in the house)

Portable, but not how you think

The main claim to fame with the LG Smart Monitor Swing is its flexibility, and I have to say I absolutely love it. Everything about this monitor is designed so you can use it in all kinds of ways and in different places around your house.

Included with the Smart Monitor Swing is a moving stand, supported by five tiny wheels that let me drag it anywhere around the house. Typically, the monitor has been sitting behind me while I work on my main setup, and I have a laptop connected to it for when I need to do some testing on a secondary computer for an article.

When it's lunch time (and I'm alone at home), I move the monitor to the kitchen with me, and I have it play some YouTube videos while I cook, eat, and do the dishes. And after work, I've been bringing it to my living room, where it sits next to me so I can watch a video while I play games on the big TV (yes, I do sometimes suffer from being unable to do just one thing at a time), or serving as a bigger screen when I need to look something up or talk to someone on a computer.

Moving the monitor to different rooms is just the beginning of its flexibility, though. The stand is even more flexible, allowing you to lift or lower the monitor, suiting desks of different heights, and even making it possible to use the screen while standing up (depending on how tall you are). To help with this, the stand also supports swiveling up to 90 degrees in each direction (in addition to easily rotating the base, if needed), and you can also tilt the screen pretty far back, which really helps me use it while standing. LG's spec sheet doesn't mention angles, but I'd say you can tilt the screen upward to around 60 degrees, which is very impressive.

On top of that, the screen can pivot 90 degrees (though only in one direction), making it vertical, and the monitor's software supports automatic rotation, too. Unfortunately, though, that rotation information doesn't get passed down to a connected PC automatically; you need the LG Switch app on your PC. Smartphones connected via USB-C also don't seem to recognize that the screen is vertical, and that's a bummer since it would make this the perfect doomscrolling screen.

It's a solid screen, too

Big, sharp, and... touch-y

Even though the stand is the biggest standout feature with the LG Smart Monitor Swing is the stand, the screen itself is nothing to scoff at, either. This is a 31.5-inch panel — though, like most panels of this size, it's referred to as a 32-inch monitor — and it comes in 4K resolution, making it big and sharp so you can easily use it for multitasking at work, while also serving as a great media center for rooms that may not have a TV.

Perhaps most surprising to me is that the screen even supports touch, not only for the WebOS interface but also for whatever computer is connected to it. With an OS like Windows 11, which works decently well with touch, this means you can use a computer almost entirely without needing external devices. Though on that note, if you install the LG Switch app on your PC (or Mac), you can actually use a connected keyboard and mouse from your computer to control the WebOS UI, too, so that's pretty cool. Alternatively, you can also pair peripherals directly to the monitor using Bluetooth or the USB-C ports on the back.

The speakers on this monitor are also quite solid. They're rear-facing so you won't get the most immersive audio or anything, but they get the job done more than fine enough and they get decently loud.

But what do I do with it?

I may not be the target audience

As much as I love using the LG Smart Monitor Swing, I have to mention that I also have no idea what to do with it that would really justify a purchase for me. All the uses I've found for it are kind of unnecessary and silly, but they are fun.

I'm on a Discord call most of the day while I work, so I used the monitor to have something animated in the background while I work. When I'm playing games in the living room, having the big screen next to me for things I want to look up, but it does make for a bit of a clunky setup compared to just having my laptop on standby. I almost think there would be some potential here if the stand also included a shelf for a mouse and keyboard, as well as an area to house something like a mini PC. That would make this setup make a lot more sense, but it's something you have to hack together yourself.

In terms of practical uses, though, I've struggled to come up with anything myself. Both my living room and bedroom have large TVs where I can consume content if I want a big screen, so this has mostly been useful in the kitchen, and while I do like the larger screen, most of the time I'm in the kitchen I'll be looking away from it, so I might as well have my laptop or phone play whatever content I want to watch. And for work, the monitor I mentioned at the top is a better fit for me, though a large screen like this would definitely work well for it too.

Maybe that's just the thing, though, I have the privilege of having a pretty tech-packed home where I don't need something like this. But for someone else, this could be a great all-purpose screen that can be used anywhere in the house. Especially because you don't need a computer to use it. It's a smart monitor, meaning it runs WebOS and you can use all the smart TV apps that are also on LG's smart TVs. Your streaming services are all available here, too.

I'm not at all against this concept, and I almost want to have uses for it, because I love this form factor in theory. It's just hard to find practical uses for it in my living situation, though I'd definitely love to hear stories of anyone who did find uses for this kind of product at home.

I love it, but it's hard to recommend

Conceptually, I think the LG Smart Monitor Swing is a very cool product. It's a big, sharp screen with a ton of versatility in how it can be used. You can easily place it anywhere, rotate it, and tilt it to your heart's desire so it fits right into any workspace. Personally, I haven't been able to find a way to make it worth the asking price, but I do have a lot of fun using it and using it for some mundane tasks I'd otherwise do on my laptop.

I can't wholeheartedly recommend it, considering I couldn't find a place for it in my life, but if you see this product and you think it could be helpful to have at home or your office, I'd say there's a good chance you're right about that. But at $1,300, you should be absolutely sure it's something you want.