Curated: Monitors
Whether you’re working or playing games, the right kind of monitor matters.
At the start of April, a couple of weeks into the grasp of COVID-19, I wrote a post for some home office essentials in order to make your new work from home reality a bit more comfortable. While I provided some insight into why a monitor is good for both your posture and productivity, I kind of left it at that in order to keep things simple and accessible. However, there’s more to an additional display beyond visual real estate, and depending on your situation and use case, we can start looking into specialized features. So, while I know it’s been a while, here’s my second entry into the Curated series.
I’m going to break this down into 4 personas: the digital content creator, the gamer, the content consumer, & the office worker. As with everything, there are nuances and your own preferences to keep in mind, but from a high level, these are what I believe to be the demographics for consumer electronics. I’ll include my personal overall choice at the end, and will point out any alternatives for different budgets.
The Digital Creator
Content creators like video editors, photographers, graphic designers, etc., are all too familiar with how expensive pro creation equipment is. There’s really no going around this, if you want to produce as high quality content as possible, you have to invest in your tools. Luckily, monitors for said creators are not nearly as expensive as they used to be, but you’ll still be spending more than a serviceable consumer display. The most important thing here is color accuracy and pixel density. Obviously you need something to reproduce an accurate color spectrum, but you also need enough pixels to zoom in on the finer details without losing sight of the bigger picture (get it).
Enter the BenQ 32” 4K monitor. BenQ might not exactly be a household name but don’t let that discourage you. They make high quality displays usually at much more reasonable prices than the big name brands like LG, Acer, or Dell. This monitor will run you about $700, but considering that it’s a 4K IPS panel (meaning you get great viewing angles), covers 100% of the sRGB spectrum, great for high color accuracy for photo & video editing, as well as strong contrast ratios for dark and bright spaces, this one is kind of a no brainer. It’s a popular pick and rightfully so, this is probably the best bang for your buck as it gives you enough pro creation features while remaining relatively budget friendly. Like I said, pro creation equipment isn’t exactly cheap.
Alternative & Budget Pick
This will be a 2 in 1, it’s almost impossible to find “budget” displays in this area that I can actually recommend, but this HP Ultrawide should do the trick if you’re looking to save a little bit of cash ($500), and the ultrawide aspect ratio makes it great for video editors in particular (not that photo editors couldn’t use this). It also includes FreeSync so if you’re running an AMD chip on your PC (most MacBooks are), it should provide with a smooth experience even when your computer is running at full speed.
The Gamer
Ah, the gamer. The endless argument of refresh rate vs graphics. Responsiveness vs pretty to look at images. This is probably the busiest vertical in the computer monitor industry, and it doesn’t help that pretty much any display with a refresh rate higher than 60hz (basically how smooth movement looks) gets slapped with the “GAMING!” label. Well, that’s what we’re here for, to provide you with some recommendations that you can then angrily tweet back at me for not including the one you have. Gamers are fickle (I can say that because I’m a gamer myself, duh). That said, if you’re a gamer looking for monitors, it means you aren’t exactly couch gaming, so you’re either a PC gamer looking to upgrade your experience, OR maybe you’re getting ready for the higher FPS that the PS5 and Xbox Series X are promising. So, yeah, we’re looking for high refresh rates, low latency, and decent contrast ratios (so you don’t complain that you didn’t see the camper up on the dark side of the cliff in Warzone). Which usually means, you’re about to shell out some cash, but let’s try to keep it friendly.
I present to you all the Acer Predator XB271HU. 1440p IPS panel, 144hz refresh rate, 27”, AND G-Sync. All for just under $500. Even without HDR, this is a solid choice. You get a boost up from standard 1080p, a high refresh rate that’s more than enough for 99.9% of gamers (sorry dude, even pro gamers BARELY benefit from cutting edge 240hz displays), and g-sync to provide a silky smooth gaming experience. Most cards should be able to push this bad boy fairly well (ie: a 2060 can push some AAA titles into triple digit fps), and you even get some headroom for future updates to your PC. The only downside is that PS4 and Xbox only run at 1080p (or 900p) or 4k, there’s no 1440p options so image reproduction might not be perfect if you plan on connecting your consoles to this, but it’ll still look better than most TVs. Unless you’ve got a big budget and want to go balls to the wall with a 4K HDR G-Sync 144hz display, this will serve you well.
Alternative & Budget Picks
Another great choice for around the same price is the LG 27GL83A-B. On paper this one actually looks like a better recommendation than the Acer, as it has a shorter response time of 1ms (compared to Acer’s 4ms) and the inclusion of HDR400 for effectively the same price. However, I just don’t think the color is as good and to be honest, HDR400 is not worth it, in my opinion, it just doesn’t look great compared to a true HDR1000 like the Predator X27 I linked above, but that will cost you. And if you’re really strapped for cash, the ViewSonic XG2401 is a great budget play at $180. Freesync, 1ms response, & 144hz refresh rate. However, this is a TN panel so the viewing angles and color accuracy definitely take a hit compared to the other options here, but it’ll give you the performance you need.
The Content Consumer
This one gets a little trickier. If you find yourself in this category, I question why you aren’t looking for something like a TV instead? At the same time, maybe you don’t want a TV or simply consume most of your video content on the internet through your computer. In that case, you’re going to want a flexible option with a display that makes images and video POP while giving you a reliable working display at the same time. We can do that, too.
I like the LG 27UK850 here. It’s got HDR, it’s 4K, good contrast, and it’s under $500. Hell, it’s even got FreeSync in there for the occasional gaming session. Granted, at only 60hz, this isn’t a gaming monitor, but videos, even with fast action, will look great. If you don’t know what HDR does for you, play the John Wick apartment scene with this bad boy, and then you’ll know. It’s a dark scene, but everything looks crisp. Perfect for consuming content, right? Now, you might be wondering why this monitor isn’t listed on the previous 2 categories, it’s got HDR and 4k for $450 after all, right? Well, this is where we get into the TV-esque space of displays. Typically when the price point is here, the monitors don’t have fast built in processing which means you get slower response time on input (5ms AKA the dreaded LAG for gamers), and while the color accuracy isn’t bad, it’s actually pretty good, it doesn’t quite reach pro levels on the contrast side (the BenQ is 100% sRGB compared to 99% here, and the HP has a 10,000,000:1 contrast ratio compared to the 1,000:1 here). Yeah. Even for an HDR display. For YouTube, Netflix, and work, however? Perfect.
Alternative & Budget Pick
The ASUS VA32UQ saves you roughly $80, and you keep 4K & HDR10, but you’re starting to lose some pop in your colors. Unfortunately there really aren’t any standard 1080p monitors with HDR, so the ASUS will have to be another 2 in 1. However, if you really want to go even cheaper…
The Office Worker
You need something that works. No frills, don’t care for bells and whistles, but it’s got to be worth it as well. And I hear you. But I’m not going to sit here and recommend anything less than $100, because even if you’re on that tight a budget, you can go find something used or off a friend, and that honestly won’t even last you as long and you’ll actually end up spending more in the long run. However, I can tell you that none of these monitors will be more expensive than $350, so I’ll work with you here. I know, I know, but these are the cheapest monitors on the whole list.
Listen, I keep hearing more and more about how companies are seriously considering letting their workforces go remote, full time. And while a lot of places are working with their employees to provide proper equipment, I always think it’s better to be prepared in the long run with your own stuff. So here’s the Dell S2719DM. It’s a 27” 1440p monitor so you have more room to multitask compared to a standard 1080p display, it’s very non intrusive, has a minimalist design compared to everything else listed thus far, and it’s pretty thin. It’s exactly what you need for a home office without the frills. Now, this one does include a bell or 2 of HDR and up to 75hz (with HDR off) if you feel so inclined, but the focus is on the quality, price, and simplicity. This is the one to get.
Alternate & Budget Picks
If you truly don’t care, you’re probably not reading this far anyways, but another option is the ViewSonic VX2478. It’s a 24” 1440p monitor for $230 and you can upgrade to a 27” one on that same page if you so choose for $300. If you super duper don’t care and just want the cheapest value possible, ViewSonic has you covered again with the VX2452SM. Truly, it’s $130, 1080p, and it 100% belongs in a cubicle from 2006 but it will get the job done. There’s nothing pretty about this monitor and exists purely for the purpose of being a functioning monitor.
Overall Choice
I’m a gamer, so my needs and wants are going to be geared in that direction. But I also love 4K monitors as a music creator, video editor, and general worker. So for my money, I like the Acer Predator XB271HK. It’s not super cheap at $630, and doesn’t run higher than 60hz. All but the enthusiast grade graphics cards can’t even run most games over 60fps anyways, but I just like how games look at that resolution. I’m not a competitive gamer, so that would get the job done. Now, I say this as an owner of the $1,200 Predator X27 (basically the upgraded 144hz version of this one), but if I was starting from scratch again, this is where I’d go, as I’d be able to game on it, work on it, and consume content on it. This one is purely my biased choice.
Hopefully this helped and you can pick something, and if this is option overload, I’d recommend just choosing something close to your budget.
