The Best 27-Inch Monitor

Dave Gershgorn has reviewed and covered technology since 2015 at publications such as Popular Science, Quartz, Medium, and now Wirecutter. He covers all computer displays for Wirecutter and is a certified display calibrator through the Imaging Science Foundation.

If you have room on your desk, a 27-inch monitor is an ideal size. If you use lots of apps at once and have good eyesight, a 27-inch monitor fits a lot more information than smaller screens do. If you have poor eyesight, you can scale up the size of text and images and still have a usable amount of desktop space.

We think most people will find a monitor that has a 2560×1440 resolution (also known as Quad HD, QHD, 2K, or 1440p) for their desktop or laptop computer will meet all of their needs for office work and even gaming. These monitors aren’t as sharp as 4K screens, but they’re usually cheaper and easier to power with any type of computer. And it’s easy to find models with plenty of ports, excellent adjustable stands, and great picture quality. QHD monitors are also great for playing PC games, since all but the fastest, most expensive graphics cards struggle to play modern titles at 4K resolutions.

On the other hand, if you edit photos or video for a living, or if you just want sharper text and more detailed images, a 4K monitor might be worth the extra money. A 27-inch 4K monitor has a 3840×2160-pixel resolution, 2.25 times as many pixels as a QHD monitor has. Our full guide to 4K monitors has more picks for people who need a larger or cheaper 4K screen.

If you don’t have enough space on your desk for a 27-inch monitor, one of our 24-inch monitor picks might be better (or you could check out some space-saving monitor arms). If you’re looking for the cheapest good monitor you can buy, consider a 1080p budget monitor. If you work with lots of big spreadsheets or databases (or multiple apps side by side) and don’t want a multi-monitor setup—either because you don’t have the space for them or you want one large, continuous workspace—read our guide to ultrawide monitors.

These are the features we consider the most important to look for in a 27-inch monitor:

• Display technology: We test only those monitors that use IPS display panels, not TN (or VA) technology, because IPS panels provide far better viewing angles and color reproduction.
• Resolution: The three most common monitor resolutions that we test across all our guides are 1080p, or 1920×1080; Quad HD/QHD, or 2560×1440; and 4K, or 3840×2160. For a 27-inch monitor, 1080p is too low a resolution—text and images are likely to be visibly pixelated or blocky. And 4K monitors, while excellent for discerning eyes and pro media, are more expensive—this is part of the reason we have a separate guide for them. For most people, QHD monitors offer the best combination of detail, usable desktop space, and price.
• Ports: Since most computers have either an HDMI port or a DisplayPort connection, having both is a requirement for any good monitor, and the best models also include a USB-C port that can receive a display signal and charge a connected laptop at the same time. Great monitors should also include a USB 3.0 hub so you can connect peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and webcams, as modern laptops come with fewer and fewer ports of their own.
• Contrast ratio: A good contrast ratio makes the dark areas of a screen easier to see when you’re watching a movie or playing a game. A contrast ratio of 1000:1 or higher (note that higher is better) is typical of IPS panels. Having a good contrast ratio is a little more important than having accurate color—you can often fix inaccurate color after the fact by calibrating the monitor yourself, but a poor contrast ratio is harder to address.
• Color accuracy and color gamut: For everyday use, you just need color to be accurate enough that web pages, photos, or movies don’t look off because of overly saturated colors or weird color tints. Monitors that have been calibrated by their manufacturers offer better color accuracy than monitors that haven’t. For the best image quality, your monitor should also cover as much of the sRGB color gamut as possible; the more gamut coverage a monitor provides, the wider the range of colors it can accurately represent. Coverage of the wider DCI-P3 color gamut is also a plus.
• Stands and VESA-mount support: If your monitor doesn’t allow you to properly align it for correct posture, your body can pay the price. The most ergonomic option, and a requirement for our picks, is a monitor’s ability to attach to a monitor arm via a VESA mount (simply a standardized set of screw holes on the back). Our recommendations prioritize monitors with stands that can slide up and down, tilt front to back, swivel side to side, and pivot into portrait mode.
• Warranty: We looked only at monitors that came with warranties lasting one year or longer. A good dead-pixel policy that protects your purchase from bright and dark pixel defects is also important.
• Refresh rate: The faster a monitor can update the image on screen, the smoother and more fluid motions such as scrolling and 3D games will look. Most monitor, laptop, phone, and tablet screens update 60 times per second—on a spec sheet, that number is reported in hertz (Hz)—and the higher that number is, the smoother things look, especially when gaming.
• Easy-to-use controls: Your monitor’s on-screen display should make it easy to change settings such as text size or brightness. Its buttons, whether capacitive or physical, should also be easy to use.

To test monitors, we performed typical desktop work for a few hours on each one, noting the sturdiness and quality of the stand and how easy the monitor was to adjust using the on-screen controls. We tested for some common issues that can afflict LCD monitors, such as low-light flicker (also called PWM flicker) and image retention.

We then set each monitor to 140 cd/m2 (candelas per square meter) of brightness to test the accuracy of each monitor’s color accuracy and contrast. A screen with too-bright, oversaturated color might look good to the naked eye, but photos, videos, and web pages won’t look the way their creators intended. We tested each monitor using an X-Rite i1Basic Pro 2 and a Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus, and we ran custom tests using the Calman software calibration suite. The Calman tests produce DeltaE 2000 numbers, which show how much the displayed color deviates from what it’s supposed to be: The lower the number, the better the result. A DeltaE value lower than 1.0 is perfect. Under 2.0 is good enough for print-production work, and you wouldn’t notice a difference even if you had a perfect reference to compare against. Ratings above 3.0 mean you’d probably see a difference with your naked eye.

The Asus ProArt Display PA278CGV offers all of the most important features we look for in a great 27-inch monitor: a nice-looking screen with great color accuracy, a USB-C port with 90W of power delivery, and a three-year warranty with a good dead-pixel policy. This latest version in Asus’ ProArt line also comes with full 10-bit color, a must for any color-critical design workflow, as well as a 144 Hz refresh rate, which is great for gaming or just smoother on-screen animations.

The array of ports make it a great monitor to use with a laptop. Laptops often include only one or two (or sometimes zero) USB Type-A ports. The PA278CGV has HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB-C ports on the back, plus a built-in USB hub (with two ports on the back and two on the side). If you connect a compatible laptop to the monitor’s USB-C port, that single cable can handle the display signal, the USB hub, and charging all at once. The monitor can provide up to 90 watts of power to charge the computer, enough for most laptops, unless yours has a higher-powered graphics processor for gaming or media work.

The PA278CGV’s 1440p screen is sharp and accurate. The PA278CGV proved to be exceptionally accurate in our tests, especially when set to the monitor’s presets for common color spaces, like sRGB and Rec. 709. The results, seen in the table below, indicate the PA278CGV represents colors very accurately, and that most wouldn’t be able to tell the difference without a direct comparison to the original color. We also like that this iteration of the 27-inch ProArt has been upgraded to 10-bit color depth, meaning the monitor can display 1.07 billion different colors, compared with the 16.7 million that an 8-bit monitor can display.

The PA278CGV has some gaming specs as well. The PA278CGV’s 144 Hz refresh rate and otherwise vibrant display means it’s pretty good for gaming alongside design work. It’s not the best competitive gaming monitor, but motion is fast and fluid enough for online first-person shooters or games that require quick-twitch reactions. This addition makes the PA278CGV a pretty ideal monitor for work and recreation because you can use your work laptop during the day and then switch to your gaming PC at night on the same display.

This monitor has an adjustable stand and a long warranty. It can raise, lower, tilt, swivel, and pivot the screen. Like all of our picks, this monitor includes VESA mounting support so you can replace the stand with a monitor arm if you’d like, but the included stand is good enough that most people shouldn’t need to worry about it. And the monitor’s three-year warranty is also great—in addition to protecting you from hardware failure, Asus’s dead-pixel policy states that the company will replace the screen if you notice even a single bright subpixel or five or more dark subpixels (both defects are irritating, but bright subpixels are much more noticeable).

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Its contrast is just okay. The PA278CGV’s contrast is 950:1, slightly lower than its predecessor in the ProArt line. But when using the monitor we didn’t notice less contrast than we would expect, and we didn’t have a diminished experience compared with the competition. The display does come with a “dynamic dimming” feature turned on; it changes the monitor’s brightness in relation to the content on the screen, and it can trick a light meter (and maybe even your eyes for a short while) into thinking it has a contrast ratio of about 1300:1. However, we generally think dynamic dimming ruins detail in media with darker shadows and provides a less-consistent experience, so we turn it off while testing.

Its stand is a bit more wobbly than that of its predecessor. Unlike previous 27-inch ProArts, which felt very stable on their stands, the PA278CGV feels a bit wobbly atop its stand. If you have a sturdy desk, this shouldn’t be an issue, but if you have a wobbly desk, you might want to invest in a monitor arm.

Asus removed the daisy-chain feature. The previous ProArt we recommended had a DisplayPort output, so you could attach its output to another monitor’s input, rather than needing to attach each one separately to your PC. Asus removed that feature from the PA278CGV, but kept it in the PA278CFRV, which you can read about in the Competition section.

If you’re doing anything that would benefit from sharper, more detailed text and images, we recommend the Dell U2723QE. It’s an excellent 4K display that has great contrast and pleasant colors, and it delivers useful features like 90W of charging over USB-C, a USB hub, and 400 nits of brightness.

Its 4K resolution looks sharp and natural. The monitor offers great contrast without distorting skin tones or other unrealistic color inaccuracies. But the Dell monitor’s best feature is its IPS Black display, which gives a 2000:1 contrast ratio. This is double the contrast of many similar monitors on the market, and when looking at images with shadows, clouds, or smoke, the monitor really shines. If you’ll be using the display for color-critical work like web, print, or video production, you’ll need to calibrate the monitor. Our tests found that the U2723QE displayed color accurately enough for most people, with DeltaE scores between 2.3 and 3.0. That means you’re unlikely to notice color inaccuracies with the naked eye in normal use, but against a reference image you’d likely be able to determine that the color is off.

You can connect multiple computers and peripherals. The U2723QE acts as a USB with six USB ports, including one USB-C, which can connect automatically to your laptop when using a USB-C cable to connect for video signal. The monitor has a “KVM” function that will automatically switch anything plugged into its USB ports between computers attached to the monitor, given everything is connected correctly.

Dell provides a solid warranty. You can also buy the U2723QE with some peace of mind, given Dell’s great Premium Panel Exchange, which ensures Dell will swap the display for a new one if there’s even one bright subpixel. This is one of the best warranties for monitors and a perennial reason we’re comfortable recommending Dell displays.

The BenQ PD2706U is the best monitor for people who change their monitor’s settings a lot, whether that be changing the input between two computers, changing the brightness or color temperature throughout the day, or using more advanced features such as setting a specific color space.

The PD2706U comes with a hotkey puck, a little round controller with five buttons and a scroll wheel to navigate the monitor’s settings. This type of controller is a huge improvement over the tiny, often-infuriating joystick that many manufacturers place on the back or underside of monitors to control the monitors’ settings. The puck can navigate all of the monitor’s settings, such as swapping between inputs or color spaces, and can also set shortcuts. And since the PD2706U has a USB hub, it also automatically swaps your peripherals between your computers when switching inputs.

It’s extremely color-accurate. The PD2706U is meant for designers and creative professionals, so we were happy to see it score especially well in our color-accuracy tests, especially when the color uniformity feature was turned on. That feature lowers the contrast of the monitor to around 550:1, but the result is nearly perfect colors. We measured DeltaE scores below 1.0 across multiple color and grayscale tests, which implies that noticing errors would be almost impossible, even with perfect reference colors. When we turned color uniformity off, the contrast ratio rose to a more reasonable 1025:1. This made the color accuracy a bit worse, but all DeltaE scores remained below 2.0.

Its hotkey puck is useful for swapping inputs and changing settings. BenQ’s hotkey puck (technically the Hotkey Puck G2) has a central dial to change the brightness of the display, though you also use it to scroll through menu options. You can map its four buttons to different functions, such as turning on picture-in-picture, changing the color space, and changing the input.

It works with both laptops and PCs. The PD2706U offers 90 watts of USB-C power delivery, so it can charge your laptop over the same single USB-C cable that you use to connect it to the display. The 90 W specification means that it can charge almost any laptop, aside from higher-powered professional or gaming laptops.

Switching peripherals between multiple computers is easy. After you connect your keyboard and mouse to the PD2706U’s USB hub and confirm that the KVM setting is enabled, the monitor automatically routes those peripherals to whichever computer is currently displayed on the monitor. For DisplayPort or HDMI connections, you need to attach an additional, included USB-B cable between the monitor and your computer. USB-C connections send video, power, and other data through the same cable.

BenQ makes software to control the monitor via your computer. In addition to using the physical puck, BenQ’s Display Pilot 2 software makes it simple for you to control different elements of the monitor on your computer. Among the settings are features such as blocking blue light, changing color profiles, or viewing content in two different color spaces.

If our top pick is out of stock, the BenQ GW2790QT is a 27-inch monitor with 1440p resolution that’s a bit simpler and has fewer features, but we still think would work well in a home office. Our top pick, the Asus ProArt PA278CGV, is a bit brighter at 400 nits (compared to 350 nits), capable of showing 1.07 billion colors (instead of 16.7 million for the GW2790QT), and equipped with a higher refresh rate of 144 Hz (instead of 75 Hz). Its USB-C power delivery is also higher, at 90 W (compared to 65 W), which means it can charge a wider range of laptops. If you sit in a bright room, do design work, or game, we recommend the Asus ProArt PA278CGV. But if you’re looking for a basic USB-C monitor and don’t care about those specs, or if you just want a white monitor, the BenQ GW2790QT could be a good fit.

For more information about the 4K monitors we’ve tested, read our full guide to 4K monitors.

The Alogic Clarity Pro Touch is an interesting and expensive 27-inch 4K monitor that’s also a full 10-point touchscreen and works with the company’s stylus. Usually touchscreens this large are reserved for all-in-one PCs, and there aren’t any other similar high-resolution touchscreen options that we found of the same size. It’s sharp, it has an impressive webcam that automatically pops up when a camera application is launched (but doesn’t always lower afterward), and the touchscreen works well with Windows. However, there are a few flaws. MacOS is not intended to work with touch, so we had issues using the touchscreen with a connected MacBook open, as the touch would register as a click on the laptop’s screen instead of the display’s. No matter the operating system, we saw a slight purple color cast that we couldn’t easily remove without having to edit the RGB levels. We’ve also seen a steady stream of negative reviews about the company’s customer service. Good customer service is important for any company we recommend, but especially for a $1,200 monitor from a small, relatively unknown company whose warranty doesn’t even include bright dots or dead pixels.

The Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q2 is a very high-quality 27-inch OLED monitor with a 1440p resolution and 240 Hz refresh rate, but we think it’s just a bit too expensive for the specs right now. The monitor is sharper and has better features than last year’s $1,000 LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B for $300 less, but it’s still more than double what you’d pay for a comparable 1440p IPS, and we don’t recommend spending that much on a 1440p display. We’re waiting for prices to come down on OLED displays before recommending them more widely.

The Gigabyte GS27Q is a budget 1440p gaming monitor that doesn’t have the USB-C port and USB hub that we look for in our top picks, but it’s sharp and more color-accurate than most budget monitors we test. It has a refresh rate of 165 Hz, HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort, and reaches about 320 nits of brightness, which is fine for indoors but a bit dim to use in a sunny room. If you’re looking for a cheap gaming monitor for your desktop and don’t need USB-C, this one fits the bill. However, it was also out of stock everywhere at the time of writing.

The Asus ProArt PA278CFRV is about $30 more expensive than our top pick, for a few small quality-of-life increases we didn’t think were worth it. It includes a new anti-glare coating, an ambient light sensor, and 6 watts of additional power delivery over USB-C. It also has a lower refresh rate of 100 Hz, and it can display about 980 million fewer colors because it’s an 8-bit display, versus the 10-bit display of our top pick.

The Dell UltraSharp U2724D has the fantastic IPS Black technology we liked from the U2723QE, but it doesn’t have USB-C power delivery. We think that’s critical for anyone using a laptop with a monitor.

The Dell UltraSharp U2724DE is a nice 1440p monitor with IPS Black and Thunderbolt 4 USB-C connectivity. But it’s pricey, and we think if you’re spending more than $500 on a monitor, you might as well get 4K resolution, like with our upgrade pick, the U2723QE.

The Titan Army P27A2R is a $200 budget gaming monitor that unfortunately didn’t fare well in our tests. We measured it to have a contrast ratio of 880:1, and it had visibly less contrast than the competition. It also doesn’t have a USB-C port or charging.

The ViewSonic VX2767U-2K has an attractive price for a 27-inch, 1440p display with USB-C. However, when we tested the display, it wouldn’t reliably detect a signal over USB-C, even after we tested it with five different laptops. The display would work properly after various combinations of turning the display on and off or plugging and unplugging the cable, but no combination reliably got the monitor to detect a video connection over USB-C the first time.

The LG UltraGear 27GR95QE-B looks incredible when gaming, due to its high-contrast OLED display and 1440p resolution. But text looks a bit fuzzy on the screen, so it’s slightly difficult to read on it for daily use. This is a condition of how pixels are arranged on OLED displays. So for that reason and potential long-term burn-in concerns, we’re recommending most people hold off buying OLED computer monitors until the technology is a bit more refined.

We previously included the MSI Modern MD271QP as a budget pick, but its price has increased since we originally published this guide. It’s still a nice monitor, but for a similar price we now recommend just getting out top pick. We’ll review more budget options in coming months to provide a new recommendation.

The Sceptre E275W-QP is one of the cheapest and most-promoted 1440p monitors on Amazon, but we recommend steering clear. Out of the box it has great contrast and color accuracy, but once you change the brightness its picture quickly falls apart. At its lowest brightness setting we measured its contrast ratio as 354:1, and at its highest setting we measured an abysmal 7:1 contrast ratio.

We also tested the Pixio PX277 Prime, a budget 1440p gaming monitor that’s prominently promoted on Amazon. We found that the monitor looked crooked on its stand after we set it up, with no way to adjust it or make it straight because you can only tilt the display up and down. The Pixio’s color also didn’t look as good as other monitors and didn’t have adequate controls to improve the picture.

Dell’s S2722DC is a decent 1440p monitor that was edged out for our top pick by Asus’ fantastic ProArt PA278CV display. The S2722DC had noticeably lower contrast than the ProArt, which resulted in the picture looking worse across the board.

The LG 27UP850-W is a great 4K display with HDR and a 96 W USB-C port. We think our pick, the Dell S2722QC, represents a better value to most people at $100 cheaper. Most laptops don’t require 96 watts of charging, and Dell’s three-year warranty is far better than LG’s more limited one-year warranty.

The HyperX Armada 27 is a $500 display with a 1440p resolution and specifically pitched toward gamers. It has a 165 Hz refresh rate, which is similar to that of the Asus ROG Strix XG27AQ, and comes with a desk mount rather than a stand, making for a nice addition when desk space is limited. We think our also-great pick provides a better value, as you get similar specs and gaming experience for cheaper.

We haven’t tested the Asus ProArt Display PA278QV, but on paper it’s the exact same monitor as the PA278CV without the USB-C port. Consider buying it instead of the PA278CV if you use a desktop computer or don’t care about USB-C and want to save $80.

ViewSonic’s VG2755-2K is similar to the VG2756-2K but has three USB Type-A ports in its USB hub and no Gigabit Ethernet port, and it refreshes its screen 60 times per second rather than 75. It’s normally $20 or $30 less than the VG2756-2K or the Asus PA278CV, but those monitors’ additional features are worth the relatively small price difference.

We didn’t test Dell’s P2720DC, which is a little more expensive than our main picks and has a 60 Hz refresh rate and no FreeSync support. It is cheaper than the U2721DE, though, and Dell’s U- and P-series monitors typically have good color accuracy and nice designs. It may be worth a try if you want a monitor with a USB-C port, a USB hub, and an adjustable stand and if you want better color accuracy than our picks can give you out of the box.

Acer’s V277U bmiipx was our budget pick in a previous version of this guide, and it’s still a good option at its typical price of around $250.

Acer’s Nitro VG0 VG270U bmiipx and KA272U biipx are good budget options priced around or just under $250. Both offer a 75 Hz refresh rate and FreeSync support along with a pair of HDMI ports and a DisplayPort connection. However, the KA272U feels even cheaper and more plasticky than the other already pretty cheap-feeling budget monitors we tested.

BenQ’s PD2700Q costs more than other 27-inch Acer budget monitors, and it has a big, chunky bezel that makes it look more dated. It does have a USB hub, but its ports handle only USB 2.0 speeds, limiting their usefulness. And it exhibited poor color reproduction in our tests—its 1230:1 contrast ratio was the best of anything we tested, but its DeltaE numbers were all near or above 3.0.

Dell’s S2721DGF is an excellent gaming monitor, with a 165 Hz refresh rate, FreeSync Premium Pro support, a USB hub, and better color accuracy than the ViewSonic XG2705-2K has. In addition, on the back it has blue LED lights, which serve no functional purpose but do look kind of cool. But it’s normally around $150 more expensive than the ViewSonic monitor we recommend for light gaming, and its contrast ratio of 919:1 is short of the 1,000:1 baseline we prefer. On top of that, although Dell prominently advertises the monitor’s VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification, its HDR mode isn’t very good. For example, its local dimming feature, which can turn down the backlight’s brightness during dark scenes to show more detail, is imprecise, producing an unpleasant splotchy look that ruins the effect (for more on what high dynamic range is and what it entails, check out our TV coverage).

The Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ is a gaming monitor with a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, FreeSync support, and an adjustable stand. It usually sells for a little over $400, which makes it less expensive than the Dell S2721DGF. But it doesn’t have a USB hub like Dell’s monitor does, its color accuracy (as on all gaming monitors we tested) was poor, and it’s still a bit pricier than the ViewSonic XG2705-2K. Stepping up from 144 Hz to 165 Hz is not worth paying extra for, but the VG27AQ is a decent option if the ViewSonic model is out of stock.

This article was edited by Signe Brewster and Caitlin McGarry.