1. Electronics
  2. Computers

The Best 27-Inch Monitor

By Dave Gershgorn
Updated
Our top pick for best 27-inch monitor, the Asus ProArt PA278CV, next to a coffee mug and an external hard drive.
Photo: Michael Murtaugh

If you’re on your computer only once or twice a day to check email and read the news, you don’t need to buy any of the monitors in this guide—our budget monitor picks are great for the basics and cost half as much.

But if you spend hours every day staring at a screen for work (or for fun), a 27-inch monitor’s extra size and usable space are worth the money. The Asus ProArt Display PA278CV offers the best all-around combination of picture quality, ports, and price, along with a fully adjustable stand and a great three-year warranty.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

If you don’t need a 4K monitor, the PA278CV is a 2560×1440 model with good color accuracy, an adjustable stand, and all the ports most people need.

Buying Options

Upgrade pick

This 4K Dell monitor offers a top-notch contrast, a sharp display, and all the ports you could need.

Our pick

If you don’t need a 4K monitor, the PA278CV is a 2560×1440 model with good color accuracy, an adjustable stand, and all the ports most people need.

Buying Options

Resolution: 2560×1440 | Refresh rate: 75 Hz with FreeSync | Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort in, DisplayPort out, USB-C | USB-C charging: 65 W | USB hub: four USB 3.0 Type-A ports

The Asus ProArt Display PA278CV has a great-looking screen with good enough color accuracy for most people and all the ports you need to hook up desktop or laptop PCs. The PA278CV’s stand can tilt, swivel, and pivot the screen and raise and lower its height, its USB-C port can provide enough power to charge most 13-inch laptops, and it comes with a three-year warranty and a good dead-pixel policy. Its QHD resolution (2560×1440) means it isn’t as sharp as a 4K screen, but it’s also hundreds of dollars cheaper than comparable 4K monitors.

Upgrade pick

This 4K Dell monitor offers a top-notch contrast, a sharp display, and all the ports you could need.

Resolution: 3840×2160 | Refresh rate: 60 Hz | Ports: one USB-C, one HDMI, one DisplayPort 1.4 in, one DisplayPort 1.4 out, Gigabit Ethernet | USB-C charging: 90 W | USB hub: one USB-C port with 15 W charging, five USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports

The Dell UltraSharp U2723QE has a higher 4K resolution than our top pick, so text and images will look much sharper. It also has a new technology that doubles its contrast compared with that of standard IPS monitors, so its 2000:1 contrast ratio looks great when displaying movies, TV shows, and pictures. This monitor also looked great when used with Mac machines, which is something we can’t say for most lower-resolution 1440p monitors. So if you’re looking for a high-resolution 27-inch display, this is the best one we’ve tested.

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.

Former Wirecutter senior staff writer Andrew Cunningham wrote previous versions of this guide and has been testing, reviewing, and otherwise writing about PCs and other gadgets for AnandTech, Ars Technica, and Wirecutter since 2012.

Our monitor guides benefit from the expert advice of Wirecutter’s Chris Heinonen. He helped us figure out the best hardware and software to use for our testing, and he designed the evaluation process.

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 PA278CV monitor.
Photo: Michael Murtaugh

Our pick

If you don’t need a 4K monitor, the PA278CV is a 2560×1440 model with good color accuracy, an adjustable stand, and all the ports most people need.

Buying Options

The Asus ProArt Display PA278CV offers all of the most important features we look for in a great 27-inch monitor: a nice-looking screen with decent color accuracy, a flexible stand, a USB hub, a USB-C port with enough power to charge a 13-inch laptop, and a three-year warranty with a good dead-pixel policy. Movement and animations on screen are a little smoother than on older monitors because its screen refreshes at a slightly faster-than-typical 75 times per second (or 75 Hz). The PA278CV is more expensive than some of the other monitors we tested, but it’s one of the cheapest to include this array of features.

The cable ports on the underside of the Asus ProArt PA278CV monitor.
The PA278CV has (from left) one HDMI port, one DisplayPort input, a USB-C port, a DisplayPort output, and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports on the back. Two more USB 3.0 Type-A ports sit on the side of the monitor (they’re underneath the text labels in the top-right corner of this picture). Photo: Michael Murtaugh

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 PA278CV has 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 65 watts of power to charge the computer, enough for 13-inch laptops like the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, as well as the Dell XPS 13.

The PA278CV’s design is angular but nice-looking and understated. Note the cable-management clip on the stand. Photo: Michael Murtaugh

The PA278CV’s 1440p screen is good enough. The color accuracy wasn’t exceptional when we used its Standard color preset (which is not its most accurate preset overall but is the most accurate preset to give you full control over its brightness settings). Most of the monitor’s DeltaE scores from our standardized color tests landed between 2.0 and 3.0, which means its photos and videos may not look exactly as they do on a color-calibrated computer or phone screen, but things generally don’t look off enough to be distracting for most people. The majority of the monitors we tested for this update fell into this “fine but not great” category.

Contrast RatioGrayscaleColorCheckerSaturations
Asus ProArt PA278CV1020:12.8402.3232.184
Dell U2723QE2000:11.62562.85142.6442
Our QHD monitor testing data. A contrast ratio of 1000:1 or above ensures that the monitor can display deep blacks and can differentiate between shades of black. A grayscale score above 3.0 indicates that shades of gray may have a visible color tint. ColorChecker and saturation scores above 3.0 mean that the colors displayed on screen may look visibly different when compared with a color-accurate reference image.

This monitor has an excellent stand. 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

The color accuracy is good but not great. Asus specifically advertises the color accuracy of its ProArt displays, but in testing the PA278CV we found that its color accuracy was fine but not outstanding, on most of its color presets. It does have an sRGB preset that’s exceptionally accurate (in our testing, it was even better than what Asus advertises on the box), but that preset locks the display’s brightness to a relatively dim 106 cd/m2. This is around 25% dimmer than our typical 140 cd/m2 testing brightness, and unless you’re in a dark or dim room, it’s lower than we like for day-to-day use. If you want exceptionally good color at a higher brightness level, you’ll need to calibrate the screen yourself.

Our upgrade pick the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE, sitting against a blue backdrop and showing an abstract pink and orange desktop background.
Photo: Connie Park

Upgrade pick

This 4K Dell monitor offers a top-notch contrast, a sharp display, and all the ports you could need.

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.

Contrast RatioGrayscaleColorCheckerSaturations
Asus ProArt PA278CV1020:12.8402.3232.184
Dell U2723QE2000:11.62562.85142.6442
Our QHD monitor testing data. A contrast ratio of 1000:1 or above ensures that the monitor can display deep blacks and can differentiate between shades of black. A grayscale score above 3.0 indicates that shades of gray may have a visible color tint. ColorChecker and saturation scores above 3.0 mean that the colors displayed on screen may look visibly different when compared with a color-accurate reference image.
Photo: Connie Park

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.

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

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.

  1. Tim Brookes, TN vs. IPS vs. VA: What’s the Best Display Panel Technology?, How-To Geek, March 12, 2020

  2. Jason Fitzpatrick, The How-To Geek Guide to Cleaning Your LCD Monitor Screen, How-To Geek, July 5, 2017

  3. Connect a display to your Mac, Apple Support, May 21, 2021

  4. Jon Martindale, How to calibrate your monitor, Digital Trends, March 9, 2021

Meet your guide

Dave Gershgorn

Dave Gershgorn is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. He’s been covering consumer and enterprise technology since 2015, and he just can’t stop buying computers. If this weren’t his job, it would likely be a problem.

Further reading

  • The Asus VA24DCP showing sun over a lake as its desktop background.

    The Best Budget Monitors

    by Dave Gershgorn and Andrew Cunningham

    We researched and tested cheap monitors and found options that are good enough for most people.

  • Our pick for best 4K Monitor, the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE, shown next to an Apple Magic Keyboard, a mug and some notepads.

    The Best 4K Monitors

    by Dave Gershgorn

    If you’re a video-editing pro or love to watch high-res movies, the best 4K monitor is the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE.

  • The Asus ProArt PA248CRV showing a vinyard desktop background.

    The Best 24-Inch Monitor

    by Dave Gershgorn

    If you’re looking for a secondary monitor to pair with a laptop, the 24 inch Asus ProArt PA248CRV is a great option that won’t hurt your wallet.

  • The Dell P2721Q monitor on a desk with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

    The Best Monitors

    by Dave Gershgorn

    We’ve spent hundreds of hours researching and testing monitors of all shapes and sizes to find the best one for any need (or budget).

Edit
Dismiss