Introduction
Just a few years ago, a monitor was nothing more than an item essential for all your computing needs. Without one, you wouldn’t be able to surf the web or even access any of your files. But with PC sales on the decline, monitors are now becoming more of a luxury item than a necessity.
Even so, when it is time to buy that shiny new display, how do you decide which one to purchase? Having to take in consideration screen resolution, response time and even panel weight, shopping for a new monitor can be an arduous process. Luckily, we’ve rounded up the 10 of the best monitors on the market to help you determine which is right for you.
1. Philips Brilliance BDM3490UC
Screen size: 34-inch | Aspect ratio: 21:9 | Resolution: 3440 x 1440 Brightness: 340 cd/m2 | Response time: 14ms | Viewing angle: 172/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 7.9kg
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Super build quality Great picture Relatively good value No G-Sync or FreeSync
Philips’ Brilliance BDM3490UC should be your top pick if you’re looking to watch movies or work from home. Its IPS display is bright and inviting, effectively emulating the movie theater experiencing (just make sure you bring the popcorn and close the curtains). The 21:9 curved display can be a bit disorienting, however, if you’re accustomed to standard flat screen displays. Still, this one takes the cake for gaming. In the absence of both G-Sync and FreeSync, though, don’t forget to tick the vertical sync box in all your games. Plus, as long as you’re set on a 21:9 cinematic panel, the Brilliance is competitively priced as well.
2. Acer Predator X34
A gaming monitor with attitude
Screen size: 34-inch | Aspect ratio: 21:9 | Resolution: 3440 x 1440 Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 4ms G2G (grey-to-grey) | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 100 million:1 | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 9.9kg
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Aggressive design Perfect color accuracy Limited port selection Underpowered speakers
Cinematic monitors are a great alternative to 4K ones when it comes to gaming. In fact, you might say they’re even better due to their ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio. The Acer Predator X34 certainly looks the part, featuring an eye-catching aluminium bezel and angular, crow’s foot-shape stand. It comes with a number of gaming mod cons in tow, including Nvidia’s G-Sync frame-smoothing tech, an immersion-boosting curved shape and fantastic color reproduction that brings games to life. Short of strapping on a virtual reality headset, the Predator X34 is about as immersive as gaming gets.
3. Philips 258B6QJEB
Thin bezels feature on this well-connected QHD monitor
Screen size: 25-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 2,560 x 1,440 | Brightness: 350 cd/m2 | Response time: 14ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 87% | Weight: 15.4 pounds
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Image quality Adjustability Small footprint High response time Tinny speakers
In terms of price, size and sharpness, QHD often hits the sweet spot, and Philips’ 258B6QJEB is one of the most stylish 25-inch models arouund. Packing a pixel-resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, it provides more than enough room on the desktop to get productive, and because the monitor is compact it won’t take up much room on your desk. It’s versatile too thanks to its built-in rotate and height adjustability
Philips loaded the 258B6QJEB with an abundance of connectivity options that include two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports (one with a high-current output), VGA, DVI-D, DisplayPort, HDMI, a 3.5mm audio-in and headphone output sockets.
4. Samsung UD970
Get ready for ultra high-def on your desktop
Screen size: 31.5-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3840 x 2160 | Brightness: 280 cd/m2 | Response time: 8ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 30.14 pounds
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Colour accuracy Landscape/portrait rotation Hardware button menu navigation Cost
A 4K display that’s factory-calibrated for great colour accuracy and image quality, which makes it ideal for digital designers, CAD/CAM engineers or videographers who aren’t put off by the high-price tag.
5. LG UltraWide 34UC97
Great for work, games, and movies – but it’s costly
Screen size: 34-inch | Aspect ratio: 21:9 | Resolution: 3440×1440 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 5ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 99% | Weight: 19.8 pounds
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Good speakers with bass Great contrast and colour reproduction Expensive
The LG’s curved design, high resolution and huge diagonal make it a high quality replacement for single 4K panels or a pair of 1080p screens, and the form factor means it’s tempting for work, games and movies.
6. Acer S277HK
A bezel-less beauty
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3840 x 2160 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 4ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 100,000,000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 11.9 pounds
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Bezel-less design Refresh rate No USB ports Height not adjustable
A gorgeous IPS screen and bezel-free design make the S227HK a stunning display by itself or an even more impressive and immersive member of a multi-monitor setup.
7. Viewsonic VP2772
What this professional monitor lacks in style it makes up with exceptional picture quality
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 2560 x 1440 | Brightness: 350 cd/m2 | Response time: 12ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 18.8 pounds
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Bezel-less design Refresh rate No USB ports Height not adjustable
A rich set of features, great picture quality out of the box and hassle-free setup make the VP2772 an attractive monitor.
8. Dell UltraSharp UP2414Q
A superb display, but you’re paying through the nose for a mere 24-inches
Screen size: 24-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3840 x 2160 | Brightness: 350 cd/m2 | Response time: 8ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 100%; Adobe RGB 99% | Weight: 10.58 pounds
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Super display Great features Very expensive Just 24-inches
A fantastic monitor that’s a little ahead of its time in terms of GPU and operating system support.
9. Viewsonic VX2776
An almost bezel-less beauty
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 1,920 x 1,080 | Brightness: 300 cd/m2 | Response time: 4ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1M:1 (DFC) | Colour support: SRGB 100% | Weight: 7.2 pounds
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Stylish design Good picture quality Lacks VESA mount No swivel functionality
Whether it’s laptops, monitors or smartphones, bezels just aren’t fashionable anymore. Viewsonic’s VX2776 is an eye-catching 27-inch monitor with a bezel that measures just millimeters along the top and sides. This helps anything you’re doing with it – from watching movies to playing games or viewing photos – really ‘pop’ out of the frame. It’s all helped by impressive color accuracy.
On the downside, the VX2776 isn’t as feature-packed as other 1080p panels in its price bracket, so don’t expect adaptive frame syncing tech, or even a VESA wall mount. But if you’re simply after a monitor that’s rocking a thin design with minimal bezels and offers solid picture quality, the VX2776 is worthy of your consideration.
10. BenQ BL2710PT
Aimed at CAD/CAM professionals, this feature-packed 27-inch monitor delivers
Screen size: 27-inch | Aspect ratio: 16:9 | Resolution: 3440×1440 | Brightness: 350 cd/m2 | Response time: 12ms | Viewing angle: 178/178 | Contrast ratio: 1000:1 | Colour support: SRGB 99% | Weight: 23.8 pounds
See the best BenQ BL2710PT deals
Port selection Flicker-free backlight Design Touch controls
A feature-packed and well-connected monitor that offers plenty for the asking price. It may not be exciting to look at and the menu controls suffer from a lack of labeling, but these are minor caveats that don’t detract from an overall worthy investment.
Source: techradar.com
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Does these gaming monitors also have a webcam bulit in? I have a LG
2MP55 21,5'' 1080P(2014 mid range 1080p monitors) but n the future when
economics bexome better i will consider bying a gaming one. But i would
prefer one with webcam included so i can use skype to talk with people
instead of connecting a
I use my pc mainly for gaming i play all fps, tps,action rpg fighters platformers evrything that comes evry month on pc that is in these genres mentinoned.
Maybe people who use the computer for professional purposes… WORK, did you ever hear this word?
And numbers 1 and 2 don't even have prices available, so they must be well out of date. Cheap "journalism", sadly very common nowadays.
You assume everyone wants monitors for gaming.
I just bought an 23 inch Acer G-SYNC 3D VISION the monitor pairs up with Nvidia cards.. dang what a difference the monitor makes.. my 980 really performs now..
Looking for TVs sold like monitors. Cheap TVs.
Are these the top monitors for people who never play a game or something? Who's gonna spend £500+ on a monitor if they don't game!? WHERE'S THE G-SYNC/FREESYNC AT?
They are good for office workers and those that maybe use an xbox on the monitor and want a way to route the audio.
Not disputing the quality of the Samsung 40", but 21ms latency is not astounding. In fact, it's really bad. 8ms is probably the minimum I'd consider "okay", and there are many 1ms monitors available.
no mention of win10? or touch. what is this? 2007?
Best monitors of 2016 and comments from 3 years ago. Way to be discreet about your click-bait.
Some of the comments here are two years old. All they seem to do is change the year in the title of the article to get more clicks.
Contrast ratio:100,000,000:1
idiots
Worst list i've ever seen.
Good list. If you're looking for 144Hz monitors this guide is great.
http://120hzmonitors.com/144hz…
What about 34 inch Samsung?
One thing that never seems to get mentioned in these articles, but in my view is really important is to pick a screen with international standard VESA mountings so you can buy and fit one of the many monitor arms on the market. A monitor arm gives you easy height, swivel, angle and tilt adjustment as well as saving the space on your desk that the bog standard monitor stand supplied with the screen would take up. All monitor arms have “VESA heads” i.e. the plate where the monitor screen attaches by screws to the monitor arm. VESA is an international standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… to enable monitor arms and brackets to be….well…. standard!
Most screens up to 27" are either 75mm or 100mm VESA spacing- all standard monitor arms accommodate both these. Bigger TV’s have various other standard spacings designed for larger wall mounted brackets.
Most monitor screens do have it but there has been a bit of a spate of screens from Samsung, Asus and others without them recently so it pays to check.
Since I started using an arm I would never go back – they last for ever and are a fairly small investment – particularly important if you are a twin screen guy like me to get their relative positions nice.
The Dell u2515h should be in this list.
My Asus VG248 Full HD 24 inch and 144hz 1ms 3D Vision Nvidia. Is the best monitor
CRT tubes still are better in terms of picture quality than LCD-LEDs. Now if there was a 3840×2160 CRT display, that would be drop dead gorgeous.
How you can write an article about gaming monitors and not list refresh rate with the specs is beyond me…
I got the LG 34UM95-C without the thunderbolt port for $500 on eBay. I got it at a Cyber Monday special.
Uninteresting – Give us an 40-48" – 4K 60hz 4:4:4, DP1.2/HDMI 2.0, arced monitor. Then we truley could explore true 4k desktop real estate. Before this monitors comes as IPS or same quality I would have to wait.
What makes a good monitor? I understand the simple specifications such as resolutions, types of LCD, response time.. etc.. but I want to know what makes the visual, real word differences between two monitors with almost identical specs but with a big price difference? for example, I found that my outdated, mid-end HP 2510i way better than my brand new low-end BenQ RL2455HM monitor..
I agree. It's a fantastic display, 2560×1440, adjustable height, can rotate vertically, DisplayPort 1.2 for DaisyChaining…all for around £240.