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A Reliable, Cheap Monitor
Asus 24-Inch Full HD Monitor
A Budget Gaming Monitor
Dell 27-Inch Curved Gaming Monitor
For Creative Professionals
BenQ 27-Inch QHD HDR Monitor
A 4K USB-C Monitor for Your Laptop
27-Inch Philips Creator Series 4K USB-C Monitor
You might not think about your monitor too much, but whether you’re working or gaming in your home, that array of pixels blasting light at your face is important. A computer monitor can vastly improve your productivity if you’re currently working off a laptop, and a dual display setup can take things further. It can also make your games or movies look much, much nicer (or much worse). The folks on the WIRED Gear team use these large external screens every day in a variety of arrangements as we write our reviews, and naturally, we decided to review those too.
These are the best computer monitors of the many we’ve tested so far. There are hundreds of different kinds of PC monitors out there, so we’re continually testing and updating this guide. You’ll also find monitor buying advice at the bottom that explains any jargon you might not know. Be sure to check out other home office guides, including Best WFH Gear, Best Laptops, and Best USB Hubs and Docks.
Updated April 2024: We’ve added the Philips Creator Series 4K, LG MyView, Acer Predator X27U, and LG DualUp as new recommendations. We’ve also added notes on the BenQ PD3225U.
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Photograph: Asus
A Reliable, Cheap Monitor
Asus 24-Inch Full HD Monitor
WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu has been using this 24-inch Asus IPS monitor for years without issues, which is about the best praise you can get from a monitor at this price. The 1,080-pixel resolution is well suited to the 24-inch screen size, so it looks sharp. Colors can look a bit oversaturated, but you can tweak this in the display’s settings. The included tilt-adjustable stand does the job, but since it supports the VESA mounting standard, I recommend putting it on an arm mount to clear some space on your desk. It even supports AMD’s FreeSync if you have an AMD graphics card on your computer, so you can take advantage of the panel’s 75-Hz screen refresh rate for smooth gaming.
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Photograph: Dell
A Budget Gaming Monitor
Dell 27-Inch Curved Gaming Monitor
Some of our favorite keyboards and mice have the “gaming” moniker attached to them, but that doesn’t mean only gamers can use them. This curved gaming monitor from Dell packs a 1,440p LCD TFT display, which is about the minimum you’d want from a 27-inch screen. That makes it great for anyone looking for a higher resolution without shelling out the big bucks. The stand isn’t too obtrusive here, and while you can VESA-mount it, you’ll need to do some finagling, since the mounting holes are recessed.
There are gamer-friendly features, like the 165-Hz refresh rate (with AMD FreeSync support), which will make games appear more fluid and smoother on the screen, provided your computer is powerful enough to dish out the necessary frames per second. It lacks HDR support, which is a bummer, but if that’s not essential for you, this is a great gaming monitor at a reasonable price. It’s often available for $250 or less, so try to catch it on sale.
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Photograph: BenQ
For Creative Professionals
BenQ 27-Inch QHD HDR Monitor
If you do any kind of visual creative work like graphic design, video editing, or visual effects, then color accuracy matters a lot more to you than most people. This is where monitors like this one from BenQ can excel. WIRED senior editor Michael Calore says the 2K-resolution display is gorgeous, with highly accurate color reproduction. It covers 100 percent of the sRGB color gamut with color accuracy rated at Delta E ≤ 3. If you know what that means, then you probably already know whether this monitor is good for your needs.
For everyone else, it’s still really pretty. The stand is versatile, since you can rotate the screen to portrait orientation, or you can VESA-mount it.
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
A 4K USB-C Monitor for Your Laptop
27-Inch Philips Creator Series 4K USB-C Monitor
Monitors with 4K displays are curious beasts. They cram in a ton of pixels, but whether or not that’s useful heavily depends on the size of the screen and how far you sit from it. TVs benefit from 4K panels because they’re huge and you don’t sit too far away to not notice the difference. Meanwhile, phones rarely have 4K displays because the pixels they stuff into such a small frame are so close to your face that they’re already imperceptible.
The 27-inch size of the Philips Creator Series is on the small side for a 4K screen, and it’s limited to a 60-Hz refresh rate, but it produces a crisp, vibrant picture and a quick menu of screen settings to choose the best color and brightness for your activity of choice. There’s both a USB-C and HDMI input, and the built-in KVM switch (more on those below) allows you to connect and easily switch between two laptops or a laptop and gaming console. The KVM switch also lets you share your other peripherals with whichever device your monitor is displaying. While one USB-C cord is all you need to both connect to a laptop and keep it powered, thanks to the 96-watt power output, the Philips Creator Series also comes with a handful of cords (an HDMI, a USB-C to USB-C with USB 3.2 Gen 2 support, a USB-C to USB-A, and a DisplayPort) to make connecting to other devices super easy.
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Photograph: Dell
A Luxury Gaming Ultrawide
Dell Alienware AW3423DW
If money is no object, this Dell Alienware ultrawide monitor will stun (9/10, WIRED Recommends). This monitor uses a quantum dot OLED panel, meaning when it lights up, you get some of the deepest blacks you’ll find on a PC monitor, along with vivid colors and HDR support. This is a 34-inch ultrawide monitor, so you’ll need quite a bit of room on your desk, but that means tons of space to put multiple browser windows next to each other or play games on the sprawling screen. The 175-Hz screen refresh rate will make it all feel buttery smooth, and the slight curve adds immersion. Just try to avoid using it in a bright room as the screen’s auto-dimming function can wash out colors, and the black levels don’t look so great in those situations.
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
A More Affordable Gaming OLED
Acer Predator X27U
Acer’s Predator X27U isn’t cheap, but it’s a reasonable price for a solid all-around gaming OLED. The X27U is easy to set up and has both USB-C and HDMI inputs (and it comes with the cords too). The colors it outputs are beautiful and vibrant (it hits 99 percent of the DCI-P3 color space standard, which essentially means it can show you a lot of colors), and there are eight screen modes you can access from the monitor’s menu. The HDR mode is my favorite for everyday work and simple games like Stardew Valley, while the Graphics mode is best for a detailed game like Baldur’s Gate 3. There are also Action, Racing, and Sports screen modes for specific styles of games. It’s a flat panel, so it’s not as immersive as a curved screen, but that’s not a huge surprise, since it’s only 27 inches.
This one also has a built-in KVM switch, so you can connect and switch between multiple devices and use the same peripherals. It also has VESA mounting support, so you can ditch the stand to save some desk space.
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Photograph: Nena Farrell
A Monitor Made for Movies
LG MyView Smart Monitor (32SR85U-W)
Smart monitors are more or less a marriage of smart TVs and traditional computer monitors. It sounds a little unnecessary, but after testing the LG MyView Smart Monitor (7/10, WIRED Recommends), I’m sold. If you love to watch shows and movies at your desk or only have room for either a monitor or a television, this is the best of both worlds. (It’s still a small screen versus a typical TV, so it’s best for small spaces and only if you sit no more than 5 or 6 feet from it.) It’s a 4K monitor that has both HDMI and USB-C inputs, and you can switch between the WebOS-powered interface—the same found on most LG TVs with all your favorite apps—or your PC input so you can play games or get work done. I like being able to use the remote to switch over to the TV apps when I want to watch something after work, and I also like that LG’s Alexa skill lets me use voice commands to turn the MyView on and off.
The 32-inch screen is spacious—there’s plenty of room to fit several browser windows and apps. It only has a 60-Hz refresh rate, which is a bit of a bummer, especially if you plan on gaming. The worst parts about this monitor are its lackluster built-in speakers and the built-in webcam that doesn’t work with apps like Zoom unless you use a specific USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C cord, which LG doesn’t include in the packaging.
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Photograph: Amazon
A Vertical Monitor
28-Inch LG DualUp 2K Vertical Monitor
If you’re debating if you need a second monitor, here at WIRED we suggest trying a vertical monitor (ideally paired with an ultrawide). While nearly any monitor can be rotated 90 degrees to become your vertical companion, not all will crop everything correctly.
The LG DualUp solves this problem with a wider 16:18 aspect ratio to make that vertical arrangement work. WIRED senior reviews editor Julian Chokkattu could tell the difference most when he used Gmail and no longer had his email cut off or cramped, and other websites and apps looked normal rather than stuffed onto a rotated screen. It’s an investment, but the colors are great out of the box, there’s an included easy-to-set-up arm mount, and there are quite a few display output options, including via USB-C.
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Photograph: Arzopa
A Budget Portable Monitor
Arzopa G1 Portable Monitor
A portable monitor can be a great option at home if you tend to shift where you work, but if you’re a hybrid worker who goes to the office every so often, it’s a lightweight and affordable way to get a second screen wherever you are.
WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu likes the Arzopa G1 because it’s affordable (frequently on sale) and has all the specs you want. The IPS screen delivers nice colors, the 15.6-inch size lets you comfortably fit multiple app windows, and the 144-Hz refresh rate makes it more versatile if you want to use it for some gaming. There are two USB-C ports and a mini HDMI, plus a 3.5-mm headphone jack if you don’t want to use the built-in speakers. It comes with a nice folio cover that doubles as a kickstand.
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Photograph: Ricoh
A Portable OLED Touchscreen
Ricoh Portable Monitor 150
This monitor is 15.6 inches and surprisingly light for its size. It comes with a built-in kickstand that rotates out to about 120 degrees, allowing the monitor to be laid nearly flat, and the stand holds its position extremely well. It has two USB-C ports on the back, and a handy flap guides the cable around the kickstand to avoid its getting tangled.
The OLED display is crisp and vibrant, and most importantly, it’s a touchscreen, so you can interact with your apps directly. It even comes with a handy stylus for drawing directly on the screen when used with Windows devices. And while it doesn’t support touch or stylus input on macOS and iPadOS (which is a little ironic), I found it an extremely handy way to extend my iPad Pro’s display.
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Photograph: BenQ
Other Good Screens
Honorable Mentions
We think the screens above are better buys, but these are three other good models that do the job just fine.
BenQ 27-Inch IPS Monitor for $160: WIRED editor Julian Chokkattu bought and paired this monitor with his MacBook and says it works well and has nice colors. The large 27-inch screen paired with the 1080-pixel resolution means things can look a little fuzzy if you sit too close to the monitor, but it’s fine at normal viewing distances. It supports the VESA mounting standard.
HP VH240A 24-Inch IPS Monitor for $265: The stand on this monitor lets you rotate the screen into a portrait orientation, making it a nice hassle-free second monitor (you can VESA mount it too). Julian says he bought it for his partner in 2020 and it’s been going strong ever since, with a sharp 1080-pixel resolution and slim bezels. Just don’t bother with the built-in speakers, as they don’t sound great (as is the case with most built-in speakers).
BenQ PD3225U 4K IPS Monitor for $1,100: This 4K monitor is made for Macs with its M-book mode that instantly matches the connected Mac’s colors, and has a ton of screen settings you can access with the little puck remote. It’s a beautiful 32-inch screen, and adjusting it up or down or to the side feels super smooth. It’s on the pricey end, though, and there are plenty of cheaper options that do a similar job.
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Photograph: wuttipong charoensub/Getty Images
What to Look for in a Monitor
Screen Your Picks
Let’s go over a few key points to look for when you’re shopping around. Some of these factors may matter more for certain uses—for example, gamers generally care more about higher frame rates than office workers do—but they’re all handy to know going in.
- Resolution: This is the big one you’ve probably heard of, and a higher resolution is generally better, but it’s also worth considering the size of the monitor you’re getting. The bigger the monitor, the more it will benefit from higher resolutions. That will allow you to have app windows that take up less space but are still legible. Most monitors today are typically 1080p, 1440p (2K), or 4K.
- Refresh rate: This refers to how many times the display can refresh the picture per second, measured in hertz (or Hz). A higher refresh rate makes the action in games look smoother because you’re seeing more information. For productivity, 60 Hz is more than enough, but gamers will generally want a panel that can hit 120 or 144 Hz. You’ll need a powerful enough computer that can maintain a high frame rate to take advantage of these high refresh rates, and you usually have to enable this feature in your operating system’s display settings.
- Panel type: Monitors usually have a type of LCD (liquid-crystal display) panel. Three of the most popular options—twisted nematic (TN), vertical alignment (VA), and in-plane switching (IPS)—are all different types of LCD panels, and all use TFT (thin-film-transistor) technology too. Each is popular for different reasons: IPS for color, VA for contrast, and TN for speed with higher refresh rates and response times. IPS has become especially popular thanks to its growing refresh rate speeds. OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) panels are also gaining momentum in computer monitors. On these, each pixel lights up on and off, meaning you can get truer blacks and more vibrant colors, though often at the expense of brightness. You should think about what’s most important to you (great color? thin form factor? max brightness?) to choose the best panel type for your needs.
- Nvidia G-Sync/AMD FreeSync support: A gamer-specific criteria, these two features let monitors adjust their frame rates based on the games they’re playing. This reduces screen tearing without affecting performance. G-Sync is made by Nvidia and FreeSync comes from AMD, and while FreeSync monitors can usually work with most modern Nvidia graphics cards, G-Sync doesn’t work with AMD cards, so make sure everything you have is compatible when buying.
- HDR support: This isn’t crucial for productivity, but if you watch a lot of media or play games, it’s nice to have. Just like on TVs, HDR dramatically expands the range of colors a screen can reproduce, leading to more vivid pictures. Content still has to support HDR, but many sources do these days so it’s often worth springing for.
- Port availability: A crucial but easy-to-overlook factor is what kind of ports the monitor has for connecting your devices. Most typically come with one or two HDMI inputs, and a DisplayPort input, which will cover most needs, but it’s always a good idea to check what your setup needs. Check out our Best USB Hubs and Docks guide if you need to expand your computer’s port options.
- Built-in KVM Switch: A KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) switch is a device that helps you easily switch your monitor, keyboard, and mouse between two different computers or source inputs (like a gaming console). If you have one setup for both a work and personal computer, or a computer and gaming console, having a KVM switch built into the monitor means you can easily switch everything between your two devices without needing an external KVM switch. It’s handy.
- Stands: Most monitors come with a stand, and the flexibility of these stands can go a long way toward reducing neck strain and/or back pain. Ideal stands let you adjust the height, tilt, and rotation of a screen so you can position it exactly where you need it.
- Mounting brackets: If you use monitor arms, then the type of mount the display uses is crucial. Most monitors use the VESA standard. You should check the size and type of mount on the equipment you have before buying.
- Speakers: A lot of monitors come with built-in speakers, but I wouldn’t put much stock into them. They usually sound poor and don’t get very loud. You’re much better off getting a dedicated set of speakers. Check out our Best Speakers guide.
