The Best Monitors, According To Display Experts

Size: 27 inches | Resolution: 3840 x 2160 | Brightness: 1,000 nits (Peak HDR brightness)  | Refresh rate: 240Hz | Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-A, tripod socket and headphone jack | Stand: Tilt and height adjustable | Orientation: Landscape or portrait

Pros:

• Produces accurate colors according to digital cinema standards
• Plenty of port options
• Great for gamers and multitaskers alike

Cons:

• Tripod stand takes up too much space
• Illuminated Asus logo may be annoying

You can spend thousands of dollars on a monitor that comes with every extra that you can think of, but odds are that many of those extras will be overkill for your needs. The Asus ROG Swift 27-Inch Monitor is an excellent blend of performance and power, but doesn’t ask you to overspend on the extras. It features a lovely 27-inch QD-OLED display, complete with Dolby Vision support and Anti-Flicker 2.0 technology to reduce on-screen flicker. It can handle 99% of DCI-P3, a visual standard backed by digital cinema companies and creators that aim for color uniformity on your screen; the higher this number, the more accurate your colors. For video editors, it also comes with Delta E < 2, which essentially means that the display is professional-grade for color reproduction. Port options include a DisplayPort 2.1a that can transfer up to 80Gbps, USB-C, HDMI 2.1 and a tripod socket. The monitor offers a 4K picture with a 240Hz refresh rate and 0.03ms response time, which also makes it a great choice for gamers.

It also comes with an OLED Care Pro and a Neo Proximity Sensor. When you leave your desk, the monitor notices your departure and turns off the display to minimize the risk of burn-in. (This is an OLED display, which is more prone burn-in, which can happen when a static image appears on the screen for an extended period of time and can result in a ghostly permanent artifact on-screen.)

The tripod stand takes up a lot of desk space, though you can always swap the original mount for a third-party clamp stand on your desk (I recommend the Amazon Basics model, which I also use for my WFH setup). It has a pretty distracting illuminated red logo, but thankfully, you can disable the light in the monitor’s settings.

Size: 27 inches | Resolution: 2,560 x 1,440 | Brightness: 1,000 nits | Refresh rate: 180Hz | Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort and headphone jack | Stand: Tilt and height adjustable | Orientation: Landscape or portrait

Pros:

• QHD resolution suits most needs
• Multiple game modes
• Adaptive refresh rate

Cons:

• Gamers may want higher refresh rates than 180Hz
• Mini-LED panel won’t deliver deep, inky blacks

For those looking for low latency, decent refresh rates and good graphics, the AOC Q27G3XMN 27-Inch Gaming Monitor is a great choice. The display offers a 180Hz refresh rate for PCs and 120Hz rate for consoles, so you can still enjoy smooth graphics during gameplay. Those numbers aren’t the best available, but unless you’re a hardcore gamer or spend your day editing video, you likely won’t notice. It features 336 dimming zones and uses VESA DisplayHDR 1000, which is another display standard to reproduce hyper-accurate colors. Because it’s Mini-LED, you shouldn’t expect the deep, inky blacks that an OLED monitor can produce, but it’s still good enough to enjoy vivid colors on-screen.

Gamers will enjoy the 1ms response time and Adaptive-Sync. The latter is a technology that allows the display to adjust the frame rate to match your GPU’s output, which can help keep gameplay smooth. The QHD resolution also comes with plenty of extras for editors, including a 96% DCI-P3. It’s not as hyper-accurate as others on this list, but again, unless you plan to heavily work with video and photo editing software, this won’t matter to you. It also comes with six gaming presets, including common gaming formats like FPS and RTS, so you can adjust your display to fit whatever game you’re playing.

Size: 27 inches | Resolution: 5,120 x 2,880 | Brightness: 400 nits | Refresh rate: 60Hz | Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, USB-A and headphone jack | Stand: Tilt and height adjustable | Orientation: Landscape or portrait

Pros:

• Feature-rich, with plenty of extras (including Thunderbolt 4)
• Simple single cable-docking
• Large display

Cons:

• We wish it were brighter
• 60Hz refresh rate may be a deterrent for hardcore video editors

The BenQP PD2730S 27-Inch 5K Monitor tops our list for the best monitor for MacBook Pro users. It can handle 98% of DCI-P3, so you can enjoy an impressive color uniformity on the screen. It also offers Apple’s homegrown visual standard called Display P3. With the 100% sRGB, and you can see hyper-accurate reds, greens and blues when you’re editing photos and videos. It’s also important to note that the refresh rate is 60Hz, which may not be quite enough for video editors who want to work with smoother frame rates.

It’s also considered the best monitor for MacBook Pro users because it offers an extensive port selection, including USB-C, USB-A and more. You can also daisy chain your peripherals to customize your work setup—a unique feature on this monitor. One of the USB-C ports also offers a 90W charger, so you can charge your MacBook while you’re working at your desk. While the brightness could be stronger, it’s still good enough for most needs.

Size: 39 inches | Resolution: 3,440 x 1,440 | Brightness: 275 nits | Refresh rate: 240Hz | Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-A and headphone jack | Stand: Tilt and height adjustable | Orientation: Landscape

Pros:

• A massive 39 inches of workspace
• Sky-high brightness and antiglare coating allows for work in bright spaces
• Streams movies and games using LG WebOS

Cons:

• Not as color-rich as a QD-OLED
• Some reports of faulty hardware

While you can find plenty of ultrawide monitors on the market, the 39-inch LG 39GX90SA combines the best of all worlds. It’s an ultrawide that isn’t overpowering on desk, but it still gives plenty of extra workspace for multitasking with multiple windows. Because it’s an ultrawide, it uses an 800R curve, which is is helpful for seeing everything on screen without having to turn your head. It can also hit up to 1,300 nits peak brightness. For context, many laptop displays only reach up to 500 nits. It’s also worth noting that this monitor uses an antiglare surface to reduce light distractions. Because it’s an OLED monitor, blacks can reach deep, inky levels, with an impressive 1.5M:1 contrast. Its color accuracy can also reach 98.5% of DCI-P3 color average. 

For gamers and video editors, it can reach a peak refresh rate of 240Hz, and its response time is 0.03 milliseconds, which can mean the difference between neutralizing your opponent—or your opponent neutralizing you. It’s also a smart monitor, equipped with LG’s WebOS software. Like you’ll find in LG’s TVs, the LG WebOS allows you to stream shows and movies as well as access LG’s 300 free streaming channels. More importantly, pair the monitor with a controller and it can access cloud gaming services including Nvidia GeForce Now, Blacknut, Amazon Luna and more. All that said, beware that there are a few reports of faulty hardware, including in USB ports and the display itself, and users note that its WOLED technology isn’t as color-rich as a QD-OLED panel. 

Size: 32 inches | Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 | Brightness: 350 nits | Refresh rate: 240Hz | Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-A and headphone jack | Stand: Tilt and height adjustable | Orientation: Landscape

Pros:

• Innovative cooling system helps prevent burn-in—a common OLED issue
• QD-OLED technology produces a wider range of colors
• Pantone validated colors 

Cons:

• Maximum brightness is lower than the competition
• Reports of black screen flashes from multiple customers

For those who want a true QD-OLED with deep contrast, the Samsung Odyssey G8 fits the bill with a gorgeous 32-inch 4K QD-OLED design. Unlike the LG 38GX90SA OLED Curved Gaming Monitor, it produces a wider range of colors, which can be important if you plan to work with graphics. Its contrast ratio only hits 1,000,000:1, which is a third lower than the LG option, but its DCI coverage to reproduce accurate colors is slightly higher 99%. The monitor is Pantone-validated for accurate colors, too. There’s also the Dynamic Black Equalizer, which can analyze and adjust color saturation and blacks. While the monitor can only reach 250 nits brightness, I found it to be plenty bright for darker offices—just don’t place it in a bright, sunny office space. It can also nail a 240Hz refresh rate for gamers.

What makes this model stand out from the crowd, though, is what Samsung calls its Dynamic Cooling and Thermal Modulation system. OLED panels—historically—are notorious for burn-in, which is when the ghost of an image permanently becomes a part of the display; you can see the image no matter what you’re doing on the screen. This cooling system aims to prevent this from happening by using a pulsating heat pipe to diffuse heat. It also uses AI to predict the monitor’s surface temperature and make adjustments to reduce heat. That said, there are reports of random blackouts on the display from multiple customers.

Size: 27 inches | Resolution: 3,840 x 2,160 | Brightness: 450 nits | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Connections: HDMI, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, USB-A and headphone jack | Stand: Tilt and height adjustable | Orientation: Landscape

Pros:

• Impressive contrast
• Built-in KVM switch
• Thunderbolt 4 port for Apple users

Cons:

• Not a gaming monitor
• Weak anti-glare coating

If you’re swapping between multiple computers throughout the day, the Dell UltraSharp U2725QE has an incredibly helpful feature: It offers a built-in KVM switch, so you can not only connect two laptops to the display, but seamlessly switch between them. So if you’re working from home during the day but want to boot up a casual game on your personal computer at the end of the day without having to change monitors or finagle cables, this monitor lets you switch at the push of a button. The display offers a 120Hz refresh rate, which isn’t the strongest but it’s suitable for light gaming. You can also expect the IPS display to showcase accurate colors when doing light video and editing work.

Dedicated gamers, beware, though: This monitor was designed with business users in mind. You can use it for some gaming, but don’t expect extras like Adaptive-Sync, G-Sync or other gaming-centric technologies built into gaming displays. It does offer 99% DCI-P3 and Display P3 for Apple users, though, and comes with a dedicated Thunderbolt 4 port. In general, you’ll find plenty of ports, including multiple USB-A, USB-C and more, and they’re all easily accessible. There are reports of a weak anti-glare coating from some users.