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The Best 4K Monitors

By Dave Gershgorn
Updated
Our pick for best 4K Monitor, the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE, shown next to an Apple Magic Keyboard, a mug and some notepads.
Photo: Connie Park

When people shop for a TV these days, a high-resolution, 4K screen is practically a given. But 4K computer monitors are still a luxury, unless you’re editing photos or videos professionally, or if you specifically want to watch 4K content.

The Dell UltraSharp U2723QE is our favorite 4K monitor because it’s a quality, color-accurate display that can charge your laptop over USB-C, and it has superior contrast compared with the competition.

For a cheaper option, we recommend the Dell S2722QC.

If you want a larger 4K display that has the same contrast as our top pick and also supports Thunderbolt 4, the HP Z32k G3 is an excellent option. And if you don’t need 4K, you can find all kinds of great monitors and pay less.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

This Dell monitor offers a sharp 4K display, top-notch contrast, and a wealth of ports.

Upgrade pick

This large, 32-inch HP monitor has premium features such as IPS Black technology and Thunderbolt 4 support.

Buying Options

Budget pick

This monitor has a color-accurate 4K display, USB-C, and a USB hub. It even comes with a one-year version of Dell’s warranty that is typically reserved for higher-end displays.

Also great

This monitor is for gamers who want the highest resolution but also the option to do some work on it.

Buying Options

Who this is for


  • Video and photo editors

    Anyone who needs to work with images in their native resolution benefits from a 4K monitor.

  • Busy screen users

    A 4K monitor lets you fit more information on your screen at the same time.

  • Heavy text readers

    If you want to see sharper text and more-detailed images on your screen, a 4K monitor provides that.

  • 4K-video watchers

    One of our picks would please pixel peepers who watch 4K movies or TV shows at their desk.

Our pick

This Dell monitor offers a sharp 4K display, top-notch contrast, and a wealth of ports.

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 represents a step up from the vast majority of other 4K monitors thanks to its IPS Black display, which provides increased contrast and color accuracy. In our tests, the screen looked sharp, and the colors appeared natural and vibrant. This monitor lacks fantastic-sounding speakers but makes up for that in the sheer number of its ports: In addition to USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort connections, the U2723QE has a Gigabit Ethernet port, five USB-A ports, an extra USB-C port, and a KVM switch to use all those ports with two connected computers.

Upgrade pick

This large, 32-inch HP monitor has premium features such as IPS Black technology and Thunderbolt 4 support.

Buying Options

Resolution: 3840×2160 | Refresh rate: 60 Hz | Ports: one HDMI, one USB-C, one DisplayPort 1.4 in, one DisplayPort 1.4 out, Gigabit Ethernet | USB-C charging: 100 W | USB hub: one USB-C port with 15 W charging, five USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports

The HP Z32k G3 is a large, 32-inch monitor that provides a wide open field for you to sow your many applications and browser windows. It offers the same kind of IPS Black display as our top pick, as well as a similar port layout, but it has about 25% more screen. Because the Z32k G3 also supports Thunderbolt 4, one USB-C cable from your computer could connect two of these monitors next to each other for a dual-screen setup or even (with your laptop included) a triple-screen arrangement.

Budget pick

This monitor has a color-accurate 4K display, USB-C, and a USB hub. It even comes with a one-year version of Dell’s warranty that is typically reserved for higher-end displays.

Resolution: 3840×2160 | Refresh rate: 60 Hz with FreeSync | Ports: two HDMI, one USB-C | USB-C charging: 65 W | USB hub: two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports

The Dell S2722QC is a great high-resolution monitor that balances high-end features with a competitive price. The monitor offers impressive contrast and color accuracy, plus USB-C connectivity to keep your laptop charged while it’s attached to the display. The S2722QC also comes covered by Dell’s Premium Panel Exchange policy, so if you open the box and find a defect in the monitor such as a bright pixel, the company will ship a replacement the next business day.

Also great

This monitor is for gamers who want the highest resolution but also the option to do some work on it.

Buying Options

Resolution: 3840×2160 | Refresh rate: 144Hz, GSync Compatible | Ports: one HDMI 2.1, one HDMI 2.0, one DisplayPort 1.4, one USB-C | USB hub: two USB 3.0 Type-A ports

The HP Omen 27k is a good option for work-from-home types whose monitors pull double-duty for work and play. Useful features include an HDMI 2.1 port and KVM switch to swap peripherals between multiple connected computers, coupled with the 144 Hz refresh rate and 1 ms response time of a gaming monitor. Keep in mind that you’ll need a beefy GPU (graphics processing unit) to power this monitor, since it refreshes what’s on the screen at more than twice the rate of the others on this list.

Senior staff writer 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 use your computer only for browsing and video calls, or if you’re looking at your screen for just a couple of hours a day, you don’t need to spend extra money on a 4K monitor. But if you’re doing professional video or photo editing and want to view 4K photos and videos at their native resolution, if you want to be able to fit more stuff on your screen at once, or if you want to see sharper text and more-detailed images on your screen, a 4K monitor is worth the investment.

“4K” is a loose term that refers to the number of pixels present horizontally across the screen; the most common 4K resolution is 3840×2160 pixels (yes, it’s rounding up, but “3.84K” is not as catchy). That’s four times the pixels in a 1080p display and 2.25 times the pixels in a 2560×1440-pixel display. The increased pixel density allows for sharper text and more-detailed images and videos, as well as an increase in usable desktop space—you can view a bunch of information on a 4K screen at once, depending on your operating system’s scaling settings.

To push all of those pixels, you need a newer and faster computer; most laptops and desktops released in or after 2015 should be good enough to handle your web browser and other basic apps. To run a 4K display at the typical 60 frames per second (60 Hz), your computer should support DisplayPort 1.2 or later or HDMI 2.0 or later. If you’re playing high-end games, you also need a powerful graphics card, such as an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, 3080, or 3090, or an AMD Radeon RX 6800 or 6900. These graphics cards allow your computer to change the image on the screen faster, up to standard speeds of 144 or 240 frames per second (144 or 240 Hz). In addition, streaming 4K video requires a relatively fast internet connection; Netflix recommends speeds of at least 15 Mbps for 4K streaming, and if other people are using your network at the same time, you should have more than that.

If a 4K monitor isn’t right for you, we have guides for lower-resolution budget monitors and 27-inch monitors, which are still excellent for browsing the web, multitasking, and gaming. A good budget monitor will run you between $100 and $150; a good 2560×1440 27-inch monitor will cost between $250 and $400.

These are the features you should look for in a 4K monitor:

  • Size: A 27-inch monitor is large enough to take advantage of some of 4K’s extra screen resolution yet isn’t too large to use on a desk. We didn’t look at any 4K monitors bigger than 32 inches because they occupy too much desk space.
  • Display technology: Your 4K monitor’s display should be IPS, not TN (or VA), because IPS panels provide far better viewing angles and color reproduction.
  • Price: An excellent 27-inch 4K monitor should cost less than $700, and a decent budget model should cost $400 or less. You can buy a high-quality 32-inch model for $700 to $900.
  • Ports: HDMI and DisplayPort connections are both requirements for any decent 4K monitor, and the best models also include a USB-C port that can send a display signal and charge a connected laptop at the same time. Great monitors should also include a USB 3.0 hub so that you can connect peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and webcams, since 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. We measure each monitor’s contrast ratio during our testing, instead of relying on the manufacturer’s listing. 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 any kind of photo, video, or graphics work, a monitor’s color accuracy ensures that your images look the way you intend them to when they appear on another screen or in print. The best 4K monitors come calibrated from their manufacturers and thus have better color accuracy than those that don’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 a plus. If you’re doing professional image work on the monitor, we recommend either calibrating it yourself or hiring a professional. Though the accuracy of factory-calibrated monitors is generally great, professional calibration can usually improve it.
  • Monitor-control software: Monitor buttons are notoriously small and fiddly, which can make them annoying to use for most people and especially difficult for those with limited use of their hands. Software controls make things easier for everyone.
  • 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. But because good monitor arms can cost an additional $100 to $200, we prioritize 4K monitors with stands that can tilt front to back, swivel side to side, slide up and down, and pivot into portrait mode.
  • Warranty: 4K monitors are bigger investments than budget monitors, so a good warranty is important—we confirm that each monitor comes with a good dead-pixel policy that protects your purchase from bright- and dark-pixel defects.
  • Refresh rate: A 60-hertz refresh rate over either HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2 keeps things smooth and prevents laggy animations and mouse movements. For higher refresh rates, you’ll need an HDMI 2.1 cable.
  • Design: A monitor’s bezel, or the border around the screen, doesn’t affect its functionality. But a slim border looks more modern and reduces the amount of space between screens if you’re using a multi-monitor setup.
  • Easy-to-use controls: Your 4K monitor’s on-screen display should make it easy for you to change settings such as text size or brightness. Its buttons—whether capacitive or physical—should also be easy to use.
  • Variable refresh rates: If you play PC games, this is something to watch out for. A monitor with a variable refresh rate, also called adaptive sync, matches the screen’s refresh rate to the frame rate of the game you’re playing as it goes up and down, eliminating screen tearing and stuttering, and reducing input latency without affecting the game’s performance. A few of the monitors we’ve looked at support FreeSync, which works with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.

For each round of research and testing, we look through the websites of 4K-monitor manufacturers, including Acer, Asus, BenQ, Dell, HP, LG, and ViewSonic. And we eliminate models that don’t meet our criteria, aren’t readily available through established retailers, or are too expensive relative to other models with similar features.

We use customized tests in the Calman software calibration suite and high-end hardware to assess the color accuracy of each monitor’s display. Shown is our ColorChecker test, which runs through more than 100 colors. Video: Rozette Rago

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

For each round of tests, we adjust the monitor’s brightness to 140 cd/m2 (candelas per square meter), a good value for everyday use, and set its contrast as high as it can go without losing white details. We test different built-in color presets for the monitors that have them, noting the presets that produce the most accurate colors.

We then test the accuracy of each monitor’s color 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 test each monitor using an X-Rite i1Basic Pro and a Calibrite ColorChecker Display Plus, as well as custom tests in the Calman software calibration suite.

A contrast ratio higher than 1000:1 is necessary for a monitor to produce enough detail in highlights and shadows in images. Grayscale results tell us whether a monitor’s white, gray, and black tones contain tints of other colors. The CMS and ColorChecker measurements determine performance on specific colors, and the saturation test measures how each monitor handles different intensities of certain colors.

MonitorContrastGrayscaleCMSColorCheckerSaturation
Dell U2723QE2000:11.62562.9432.85142.6442
HP Z32k G32106:11.33562.9463.12172.8059
Dell S2722QC1153:12.8252.343.12.591

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.

Color gamut, or the range of colors that a device can accurately represent, is also important—color accuracy doesn’t mean much if your screen shows only a portion of the colors meant to be displayed—so we use our Calman tests to determine how much of the sRGB color gamut each monitor’s screen can reproduce. The ideal score is 100%.

Often, 4K monitors include support for a wider color gamut called DCI-P3, which is primarily used in film production but is also supported by most of Apple’s recent phones and computers and a number of high-end Windows laptops. It’s rare to come across 100% DCI-P3 coverage, at least in our price range for this guide, but anything higher than 80% is better than average.

Our pick for best 4K Monitor, the Dell UltraSharp U2723QE.
Photo: Connie Park

Our pick

This Dell monitor offers a sharp 4K display, top-notch contrast, and a wealth of ports.

Dell’s UltraSharp U2723QE pairs an accurate IPS display with plenty of ports and features, so it’s a terrific standard monitor for home or work. Traditionally, Dell has geared the UltraSharp line of monitors toward professionals, which makes such models expensive compared with the competition. However, the U2723QE’s addition of a new screen technology called IPS Black elevates the display’s quality by a significant margin and makes this 4K monitor an easy recommendation. It also has a wide range of ports, and its USB-C port, which is capable of 90 W, allows you to connect and charge most laptops through the monitor.

It offers fantastic contrast. With an outstanding 2000:1 contrast ratio, the U2723QE produces noticeably more vibrant images than similar IPS-technology monitors, which typically have a contrast ratio closer to 1000:1. This is due to Dell’s use of IPS Black technology, a new kind of display made by LG that claims to increase contrast, color accuracy, and viewing angles. In the U2723QE, IPS Black certainly does those things—but most important of all, the results look wonderful.

It also has good color accuracy. We really liked the way 4K content looked on this monitor, as its great contrast bolstered its color accuracy. In darker, high-contrast scenes such as the introduction to The Matrix, details in shadows were suddenly more visible in comparison with their appearance on other monitors such as our budget pick, the Dell S2722QC. And thanks to this monitor’s fantastic grayscale accuracy, white and gray on this display are actually white and gray, and they don’t have any visible tints of color.

It’s bright enough for most rooms. We measured the maximum brightness of the display at 393 nits, very close to the 400 nits advertised. This monitor is bright enough even in reasonably sunny rooms.

You can easily change the monitor’s settings from your computer. Dell offers software, for both Windows and Mac, to control the U2723QE’s settings. The software works well on both platforms and can change all of the monitor’s settings.

Photo: Connie Park

It has a wealth of ports. Dell built this monitor to work with most laptops, which you can connect to the U2723QE through its USB-C port. It can deliver up to 90 W of power, which is enough to charge most laptops. (However, gaming laptops, and those with powerful graphics cards, typically need too much power to charge this way.) For connecting to a PC or Mac desktop, the monitor also has HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4 connections.

In addition, it has five USB-A ports for peripherals, one extra USB-C port (with 15 W of charging for a phone or tablet), a Gigabit Ethernet port, and a DisplayPort out that allows you to daisy-chain a second monitor into your setup while still using just one connection cable to the U2723QE. (Note that daisy-chaining works only on Windows computers, as Apple doesn’t support this capability on its devices.)

The stand is highly adjustable. Dell’s monitor stand allows you to change the height, tilt, swivel, and rotation of the monitor, including rotating it to a portrait orientation. The monitor feels secure in any valid position, and the stand is sturdy and doesn’t wobble to a noticeable degree.

Dell provides a long warranty. Dell’s premium monitors come with its Premium Panel Exchange service, which allows you to get a replacement monitor if yours has just one bright subpixel, or more than six dark subpixels, within three years of purchase. This is one of the better warranties that we’ve seen from a monitor manufacturer.

The packaging is eco-friendly. Many manufacturers are moving away from Styrofoam packaging and toward newer, more eco-friendly ways of shipping their products. Dell, for one, packages this monitor entirely in cardboard, which helps the planet and saves you from having small foam bits lingering in your office for weeks.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Although the Dell U2723QE’s color-accuracy scores indicated that this monitor would be perfectly fine for most people in that regard, out of the box it wasn’t quite up to par for color-critical work. If you intend to use this monitor for designing graphics for print or anything similar, we recommend calibrating it beforehand.

Our upgrade pick for best 4K Monitor, the HP Z32k G3.
Photo: Connie Park

Upgrade pick

This large, 32-inch HP monitor has premium features such as IPS Black technology and Thunderbolt 4 support.

Buying Options

The HP Z32k G3 uses the same IPS Black technology as our top pick does, but it’s larger and equipped with a few more features, including Thunderbolt 4 for faster data-transfer speeds. At 32 inches, this display feels significantly larger than a 27-inch monitor, so it could be worth the investment if you want more screen space but don’t like working with dual monitors.

It has the same great screen as our top pick but bigger. We like the HP Z32k G3 for the same main reason we like our top pick, the Dell U2723QE: the IPS Black display. This model has the same 2000:1 contrast ratio, accurate colors, and 400 nits of brightness. It’s simply a bit larger. In our tests, the Z32k G3 measured very similarly to the U2723QE, and this model looked just as superb as our top pick when we were watching content.

Its large screen is ideal for multitasking. The jump from a 27-inch monitor to a 32-inch display might seem slight on paper, but in practice it’s a big difference, especially if you have a smaller desk. The difference in size is about 25%, so you get more room on your screen to position more windows side by side. While we were testing this monitor, we comfortably worked in three larger-size windows that spanned the width of the display. Just expect to sit a few inches farther back to see the whole screen comfortably.

It has Thunderbolt 4. You won’t find a ton of monitors that support Thunderbolt 4, which allows one cable to pass enough data to support two 4K monitors at a 60 Hz refresh rate. But the Z32k G3 does, so you can set up two of these 4K monitors, connect them with a DisplayPort cable, and use both at once by hooking one USB-C cable from your laptop to the first monitor. Both Mac and Windows support Thunderbolt 4, so you just have to confirm whether your specific laptop has a Thunderbolt 4–capable port. (It will still look like a USB-C port, just with a little Thunderbolt logo next to it.)

Photo: Connie Park

It also has many other ports. In addition to the Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, which is capable of 100 W of power delivery, the Z32k G3 offers HDMI and DisplayPort connections, with support for HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4.

This HP monitor also has five USB-A ports and an additional USB-C port capable of 15 W charging. In contrast to our top pick, however, it does not have a KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) switch for easily changing peripherals plugged into the display between different attached computers.

The stand supports this heavy monitor well. This monitor is large and somewhat heavy, but HP’s sturdy stand allows you to adjust its height, tilt, swivel, and rotation, and it keeps the display from wobbling noticeably.

But its menu buttons are terrible. Our biggest, and only, gripe with the Z32k G3 is its bizarre diamond-shaped directional pad for controlling the on-screen menu. All four directional controls are located under one, diamond-shaped button, so if you don’t press perfectly on one of the diamond’s corners, the whole button moves, and you can end up accidentally pressing one of the other directional controls. HP also offers software controls for Windows users, but those with Macs will have a slightly tougher time adjusting this monitor’s settings.

Our budget pick for best 4K monitor, the Dell S2722QC.
Photo: Dave Gershgorn

Budget pick

This monitor has a color-accurate 4K display, USB-C, and a USB hub. It even comes with a one-year version of Dell’s warranty that is typically reserved for higher-end displays.

We recommend the Dell S2722QC as a stellar budget-pick 27-inch 4K monitor, as it’s a bright, high-resolution display with USB-C connectivity and charging. Bonus: You can often find the S2722QC on sale for less than $400, and it comes with most of the features of Dell’s more expensive 4K monitor models, as well as a generous warranty that ensures that you won’t get a flawed panel out of the box.

It has most of the ports you’re likely to need. This monitor has all of the standard ports for day-to-day work, including two HDMI 2.0 ports, a USB-C port with 65 W of power delivery, a headphone jack, and two USB-A ports that support USB 3.2 Gen 1. The USB-C port is the big-ticket item here, as it allows you to connect a compatible laptop with only one USB-C cable for both displaying the image and charging the laptop. The monitor’s 65 W of power output is sufficient for charging most laptops, including non-Pro MacBooks and Dell’s XPS 13 line.

It offers exceptional color accuracy for its price. The S2722QC’s out-of-the-box color accuracy looks great for handling productivity tasks and watching 4K content, though if you’re doing color-critical work, you should either calibrate the display or opt for our top pick, the Dell U2723QE, which is much more accurate. In our tests, we were able to calibrate the S2722QC to get DeltaE 2000 scores of less than 2.0 for most metrics, which is good enough for casual to semi-professional media work. That’s about the limit of this model (and many other comparable monitors), though, since Dell doesn’t provide granular controls for adjusting the gamma and color beyond basic RGB sliders on the Custom Color setting.

It’s sturdy, sleek, and simple. We generally like Dell’s monitor stands, which it uses across many models, and the stand for the S2722QC is no different. This sturdy support allows you to raise and lower the monitor, swivel it side to side, tilt it up and down, and rotate it 90 degrees into a portrait orientation. The rest of the monitor offers similar build quality.

Our pick for 4k gaming monitors, the HP Omen 27k, showing a pink and blue vaporwave-style sun and grid desktop wallpaper.
Photo: Dave Gershgorn

The HP Omen 27k is a sharp, affordable 4K gaming monitor. Other monitors might offer milliseconds better response time for professional gamers. But the Omen 27k is the best option for the casual gamer who also needs to get work done, rather than those who need to squeeze out every ounce of gaming performance.

It’s ready for competitive gaming. The Omen 27k has a 144 Hz refresh rate, which is the bare minimum we recommend if you’re playing competitive online games or generally want the best gaming experience. It has a fast 1ms response time, and in our testing, gaming was pleasant without any tearing or noticeable artifacts. It’s also a bright panel—actually slightly brighter than the advertised 400 nits of brightness in our testing.

It has all the ports you need for desktop and laptop use. With USB-C, HDMI 2.1, HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort 1.4 options, the Omen 27k easily connects to both your laptop and gaming computer. If you plug your keyboard and mouse into the monitor’s two USB ports, you can use the monitor’s KVM button (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) to switch between computers and automatically change your mouse and keyboard to control the right one.

It’s sleek and has a nice stand. The Omen 27k has a sophisticated, understated design, and the RGB lighting on the back manages to not look garish. It also has a stand that raises and lowers, tilts up and down, swivels side to side, and also rotates 90 degrees to a portrait orientation. Many gaming monitors we tested had less ergonomic stands, which made it harder to dial in a healthy posture.

If you’re a designer or work in print production: The Asus ProArt PA279CRV has fantastic color accuracy in its sRGB mode, and has features like 96W of USB-C charging and true 10-bit color depth. We preferred the richer black tones of our Dell top pick, but the PA279CRV is still a dependable 4K monitor for creative professionals who require the best color they can reasonably afford.

MonitorContrastGrayscaleCMSColorCheckerSaturation
Asus PA279CRV1061:11.52461.08930.99750.9354
Dell U2723QE2000:11.62562.9432.85142.6442
HP Z32k G32106:11.33562.9463.12172.8059
Dell S2722QC1153:12.8252.343.12.591

If it’s on sale, or if our picks are sold out: The Philips Brilliance 279P1 is a great budget 4K display that’s often on sale. It’s about as color-accurate as our current budget pick, the Dell S2722QC (which is quite good), and it has a similar port selection and 65 W USB-C charging, but the Dell model is about 50 nits brighter and provides better contrast. We’ve seen this Philips monitor go on sale for $300, which is about as cheap as you can find a 4K monitor with USB-C. If you find it for that price, it’s a good deal.

If you want a bigger 4K gaming monitor: We also liked the Gigabyte M32U, which is the best option we could find for those who want a larger monitor that easily switches between two computers. It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, alongside a DisplayPort 1.4, a USB-C port with a scant 18W of charging, and a USB hub with KVM capabilities to switch your peripherals between computers. We found its contrast, color accuracy, and gaming performance to be about as good as our top gaming pick’s; it’s just larger.

This year, nearly every monitor manufacturer brought a 32-inch OLED gaming monitor with a 240 Hz refresh rate to CES. We plan to test the Acer Predator X32 X, the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDM, the Dell Alienware AW3225QF, the Gigabyte FO32U2P, the HP Omen Transcend 32, LG’s Ultragear 32GS95UE, and Samsung’s Odyssey G80SD for a future update to this guide. We don’t know when most of these monitors will arrive, but expect them to trickle out in the first half of the year. Asus has committed to its monitor being available in Q1 2024, and the Alienware monitor is actually already on sale for $1200. Pricing for the other monitors is vague, and will be announced as the monitors are closer to release.

The monitors seem very similar on paper and we haven’t gotten a chance to use them ourselves. This year will be the largest test of OLED computer displays yet. For context, the highlight for OLED technology at last year’s CES was LG’s 27-inch 1440p OLED with a 240 Hz refresh rate—the first of its kind. Now, we have seven monitors competing just in the 32-inch 4K OLED category, and they all have that 240 Hz rate. Some of the monitors, like the LG Ultragear 32GS95UE can even switch into a 1080p mode that allows a ludicrously fast 480 Hz refresh rate. Since the technology is becoming more widely available, we’ll start testing this new crop of monitors for image burn-in and other issues found with OLED displays.

Two new 4K smart monitors also caught our attention at CES. Smart monitors have a computer inside them to run apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, much like smart TVs, and usually come with a little remote so you can use it as a TV from across the room. We’re looking forward to testing Samsung’s new Smart Monitor M80D, which we hope will have a faster processor than last year’s model (you can read more about in the Competition section below). LG also announced a 4K smart monitor, called the MyView 32SR70u. While Samsung’s smart monitors generally look like monitors, this LG monitor has an unusual base that makes it look more like a TV. We’re waiting to hear more information about US pricing and availability for both monitors.

Samsung’s newest Smart Monitor M8, refreshed for 2023, is both a 32-inch computer monitor and a smart TV. It even comes with a remote, and it’s a fun idea that could be great for a college dorm or studio apartment. It has a nice picture, a marked improvement over the 2022 model we reviewed. However, we found the smart TV software too slow for a $700 monitor. A smart TV needs to offer an advantage over a $50 Chromecast, and while the monitor is packed full of apps like Game Pass and Google Meet, the software runs just a bit too slow to enjoy using them.

The Dell UltraSharp 6K 32-inch monitor has a fantastic display with a built-in webcam. While this display is twice as expensive than we’d typically recommend, the resolution and color is superb. The built-in webcam has 4K resolution, but Dell’s software support makes it difficult to recommend. There’s no way to directly control the exposure of the camera, meaning you can’t get a good picture unless you’re in a specific lighting situation. Since the camera can’t be removed, we cannot recommend this monitor.

The BenQ PD2725U 4K Thunderbolt 3 display exhibited poor contrast (690:1) in our tests. Content still looked nice, but considering this model’s $850 price tag, we’re sure that you can get a better picture for less with one of our picks.

The LG UltraFine 5K Display 27MD5KL-B promises 500 nits of brightness, a claim that we found to be accurate in our testing—the display looked fantastically sharp when used with a Mac, and it seemed bright enough for almost any office. However, we didn’t find it to be especially color accurate out of the box, it has a short one-year warranty, and its stand only tilts and adjusts height. This monitor might be the right fit for Mac owners who want to spend $1,200 on their display, but the vast majority of people don’t need 5K, and frankly, most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference over 4K.

The Apple Studio Display provides a 5K resolution, excellent color accuracy, and nice speakers. Our advice here is similar to that regarding the LG UltraFine 5K Display: If you’re a Mac user who wants to spend the money, this is a nice monitor. Otherwise, you can get an image nearly as good for much, much less.

If you’re choosing between the LG UltraFine 5K Display and the Apple Studio Display, we’d say go for the Studio Display. It’s brighter, it has speakers that are actually decent for listening to music, and nearly every Apple display we’ve tested has provided fantastic color accuracy. The Apple Studio Display is also about nine years newer than the LG UltraFine 5K Display. (We eliminated cost in arriving at this conclusion, as by this point we’re already far beyond the price range of what we recommend in this guide.)

The Dell P2723QE represents a step down from our top pick, Dell’s U2723QE, as it doesn’t incorporate IPS Black monitor technology. Upon testing this model, we found its maximum brightness to be about 250 nits, significantly dimmer than our similarly priced budget pick. The company also sells a larger version of this monitor, the Dell P3223QE, but our upgrade pick, the HP Z32k G3, is typically about $100 more and worth that extra cost.

As for other budget 4K monitors, the Dell S2721QS typically costs only $50 to $75 less than our budget pick and omits both a USB-C port and USB hub features.

This article was edited by Caitlin McGarry and Arthur Gies.

  1. Connect a display to your Mac, Apple Support, April 24, 2020

  2. Setting the Contrast Control, 2nd Edition, Spears & Munsil

  3. TN Vs. IPS Vs. VA, TN Panel

  4. Shawn C. Steiner, Color Gamuts: A Quick Primer, B&H Explora, May 18, 2018

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.

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