The 4 Best 27

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We’ve removed the MSI Modern MD271QP as a budget pick, since its price has increased since publication.

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.

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.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $355.

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.

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The Dell S2722QC adds a 4K display and USB-C port with 65 watts of charging without being much pricier than other 27-inch monitors.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $370.

Resolution: 3840×2160 | Refresh rate: 60 Hz with FreeSync | Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort in, USB-C in | USB-C charging: 65 W | USB hub: two USB 3.0 Type-A ports

The Dell S2722QC is a 3840×2160 display that's great for anyone who watches 4K content or casually edits photos or video. However, if most of your time is spent on general office work or browsing the internet, you don't really need to spend the extra cash. The S2722QC has a USB-C port with 65 watts of charging, so it can power most laptops except higher-end devices like the Dell XPS 15-inch or the 16-inch MacBook Pros (which are picks in our guide to the best laptops for video and photo editing). For more powerful 4K displays, check out our guide for the best 4K monitors.

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ can reach a 170 Hz refresh rate, has a built-in USB hub with cable management, and is kept in place by a rock-solid stand.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $380.

Resolution: 2560×1440 | Refresh rate: 144 Hz with Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, up to 170 Hz overclocked | Ports: two HDMI in, DisplayPort in | USB-C charging: none | USB hub: two USB-A

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ is a full-featured gaming monitor with HDR, a USB hub, and a robust menu system. The XG27AQ can reach a 170 Hz refresh rate, meaning the picture is updated 170 times per second, making motion in games look smoother and more realistic. We think this monitor is a nice balance between price and premium features like HDR, an overclockable refresh rate, a USB hub, good build quality, and a sturdy stand.

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.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $355.

The Dell S2722QC adds a 4K display and USB-C port with 65 watts of charging without being much pricier than other 27-inch monitors.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $370.

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ can reach a 170 Hz refresh rate, has a built-in USB hub with cable management, and is kept in place by a rock-solid stand.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $380.

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.

A good 4K monitor costs several hundred dollars more than a good QHD monitor, and not everyone benefits from the added sharpness.

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. Not everyone benefits from the added sharpness—if you sit more than a couple of feet from your monitor, it's unlikely that you’d be able to tell much of a difference. 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.

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).

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

We looked through the websites of monitor manufacturers such as Acer, Asus, BenQ, Dell, HP, LG, and ViewSonic to find new QHD models to consider (in addition to the 4K models we considered for our 4K monitors guide and models we’d already dismissed in research and testing for previous versions of this guide). We eliminated monitors that didn't meet our criteria, weren't readily available through established retailers, or were significantly more expensive than the other monitors we considered.

To test the selected 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 tested 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 tested each monitor using an X-Rite i1Basic Pro 2 (discontinued) and an X-Rite OEM i1Display colorimeter, and we ran custom tests designed by Wirecutter senior staff writer Chris Heinonen 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.

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 used our Calman tests to determine how much of the sRGB color gamut each monitor's screen could reproduce. The ideal score is 100%. Our numbers don't go past that because reporting numbers larger than 100% can give the impression of full gamut coverage even in cases where that isn't true—for example, if the monitor displays many colors outside the gamut without displaying all the ones inside it.

4K monitors often 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 the price range we focus on here, but anything higher than 80% is better than average.

For each round of tests, we adjusted 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 could go without losing white details. We tested different built-in color presets for the monitors that had them, noting the ones that produced the most accurate colors.

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.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $355.

The Asus ProArt Display PA278CV offers all 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. It supports FreeSync, so it's a decent choice for light gaming (though if you play a lot of games, our gaming monitor pick might be a better choice).

The ports on the back plus the built-in USB hub (with two ports on the back and two on the side) make the PA278CV a particularly good choice if you plan to use your monitor with a laptop, which often includes only one or two (or zero) USB Type-A ports. 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 1440p screen had good enough but not exceptional color accuracy 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.

Its color accuracy may not be its strongest point, but the PA278CV has an excellent stand that 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).

Asus specifically advertises the color accuracy of its ProArt displays, but in testing the PA278CV we found that its color accuracy was merely good, not great, 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.

The Dell S2722QC adds a 4K display and USB-C port with 65 watts of charging without being much pricier than other 27-inch monitors.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $370.

If you don't edit photos and videos for a living, or don't typically watch 4K content on your computer, a higher-resolution 4K display probably isn't worth the extra cost. But if you’re doing anything that would benefit from sharper, more detailed text and images, we recommend the Dell S2722QC. It's a reliable 4K display that costs about $100 more than our top pick, the Asus ProArt PA278CV, with many of the same features like a USB hub and a USB-C port.

The Dell S2722QC's 4K resolution provides a sharp and natural looking image, without distorting skin tones or other unrealistic color inaccuracies. We measured the monitor's contrast ratio at 1150:1, higher than its advertised contrast, which gives great detail in darker scenes of movies and generally makes an image seem more lifelike. 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 S2722QC 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.

Dell uses the same sturdy stand for many of its displays, and the S2722QC is no exception. It lifts up, lowers down, tilts vertically, swivels left to right, and pivots into a portrait mode. The monitor has a standard selection of ports, including two HDMI, a USB-C, and two USB-A ports. There's also a headphone jack. We generally find monitor speakers to be unimpressive, and the S2722QC's are no exception. It has two 3-watt speakers, which sound a bit tinny but are fine in a pinch, especially for lighter duty like listening to a meeting or video with someone talking.

You can also buy the S2722QC 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 ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ can reach a 170 Hz refresh rate, has a built-in USB hub with cable management, and is kept in place by a rock-solid stand.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $380.

For PC gamers looking for a 27-inch monitor, we recommend the ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ for its fast refresh rate, HDR capability, and USB hub. The monitor's 1440p resolution is perfect for gaming if you have a reasonably recent graphics card, and it's a noticeable upgrade from 1080p. The monitor has a 144 Hz refresh rate, meaning it updates the image on the display 144 times per second to make motion seem more fluid, and you can push it even higher to 170 Hz with a few simple tweaks in the settings. The XG27AQ also supports Nvidia G-SYNC, which allows your computer's Nvidia graphics card to communicate with the monitor to reduce stuttering and other visual artifacts that distract from your game.

This is also generally a great monitor for PC users and costs about the same as our top pick, the Asus ProArt Display PA278CV, so if you occasionally play fast-paced games like Apex Legends, Valorant, or League of Legends, the higher refresh rate is an advantage compared with the Asus ProArt. However, if you need a USB-C connection for a laptop, this isn't the monitor for you.

We especially like the 1440p resolution for gaming, because it's far more sharp than 1080p without needing the massive computing power necessary to run games in 4K. It's the sweet spot for gaming resolution right now, especially for modern midrange graphics cards. And if you run into a game that your computer can't handle at 1440p, you can knock it down to 1080p in the game's graphics settings while keeping the monitor's high refresh rate for smooth motion.

The XG27AQ has two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, a headphone jack, and two USB-A ports. There's also a USB-B port that connects the USB-A ports to your computer for the USB hub functionality.

The XG27AQ has intuitive controls on the back of the display on its right side, with buttons for menu shortcuts as well as a joystick for navigating left/right/up/down through menus. From the menu you can overclock the display to 170 Hz, access the built-in RGB lights, and add the gaming-specific overlays like a frames-per-second counter or built-in crosshairs.

If you want a cheaper gaming monitor: Acer's Nitro XV272U Vbmiiprx is a basic gaming monitor that offers 1440p resolution, up to 170 Hz refresh rate, and HDR support. We prefer the ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ's color performance, USB hub, menu system, and stand to the XV272U's. But for $100 cheaper, the XV272U is still a nice monitor if you’re on a budget.

If you want a cheaper 4K monitor: Dell's S2721QS is a more budget-friendly 4K display that costs just $320. However, it doesn't have a USB-C connection, which we think is essential for anyone who uses a laptop. This budget 4K display looks almost exactly the same as our top 4K pick from Dell, though, so it's still a worthwhile buy if you’ll only use it with a desktop.

CES 2023 introduced three 27-inch OLED displays from LG, Acer, and Asus. These monitors all have a 2560 x 1440 resolution, 240 Hz refresh rate, and peak brightness of 1000 nits, making them great candidates for gaming or general entertainment. LG's UltraGear 27GR95QE-B will release in January at $999, and Acer's Predator X27U will launch in Q2 for $1100. The pricing and release of Asus’ ROG Swift PG27AQDM is still unknown. These prices are generally higher than what we’d normally recommend, but we expect OLED prices to fall once the technology becomes more commonplace in the desktop monitor market.

Samsung also announced the new ViewFinity S9 monitor aimed at creative professionals, with a 5K resolution and an easy calibration tool that can be used by scanning the monitor with an Android phone. The S9 is positioned as a competitor for Apple's Studio Display, which we don't recommend since other monitors can provide similar image quality at a fraction of the price. Samsung hasn't announced availability or price yet.

In the world of productivity monitors, we’re also looking forward to testing Asus’ new ProArt PA279CRV, an updated version of the 27-inch 4K ProArt display. It has a slightly different design with more recycled materials, and higher 96W charging wattage. MSI also released the Modern MD271UL, which looks sleek and has 65W USB-C charging.

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

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.

Additional reporting by Andrew Cunningham.

This article was edited by Signe Brewster and Arthur Gies.

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

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

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

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

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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