Best 1440p Gaming Monitors of 2023 [April Update]

welcome back to monitor's unbox this time to update our 1440p monitor recommendations for the early parts of 2023. last update was over on Hardware unboxed in September of last year and since then plenty of stuff has been happening new OLED monitor options price changes for some of her favorite choices and even what appears to be some Supply constraints so we'll break down everything throughout this video as with our previous best of videos we tend to talk about and recommend monitors we've personally tested and know to be good all monitors that are very similar to products we have tested it's always worth going back and checking out the dedicated monitor reviews we produce for more in-depth thoughts on each product but just so you know these recommendations are not sponsored in any way by any company they're based on our testing results and research we've got six categories for you today covering a variety of 1440p options and configurations so I'm sure you'll be able to find something for you so let's kick this one off with the best 1440p medium refresh rate displays foreign is the best category on the market Remains the 1440p 120 to 180 Hertz ish sort of Zone which we call the medium refresh rate category now that there are 360 Hertz 1440p displays typically if you want to get into PC gaming for the first time or you want to upgrade from an older 1080p display it's this 1440p category that provides the best bang for buck and offers the most choices in 2023 if you're after a 1440p 165hz sort of monitor you should be looking for something between 250 and 350 US which is where most of the sensible options lie there are still lots of these monitors priced above 350 us but at those sorts of prices we begin to encroach on higher refresh rate options so right now I strongly believe 350 is the absolute maximum you should be paying in 2023 some of the options that I've previously recommended are out of stock and hard to find such as the gigabyte m27q Pro slash m27qp that's still a great buy if you can find one for around 280 to 300 us or equivalent pricing in your region check out previous videos for more details but as it's hard to find I'll stick to recommending products that are readily available at the time of making this video the best choice for Budget 1440p Shoppers right now is surprisingly an older product from LG the 27 gl83a I've recommended various products from this family many times over the years such as the 27 gl850 27 GP 850 and 27 GP 83b but at just 250 us right now the 27 gl83a is a standout choice that offers excellent value for gamers the gl83a variant is very similar to the 27 gl850 we reviewed back in 2019 it's just that these days in 2023 it's half the price and lacks the wide color gamut support of that monitor it's also less of a standout option in the market now than it was back then we've seen many other monitors launch with similar Hardware capabilities over the last few years but at this price now of just 250 dollars it's a very competitive product that I'd recommend the big strength of the 27 gl83a is its speed and response times this is a 27 inch 2560x1440 IPS display at a maximum refresh rate of 144hz with vrr support it typically offers a five to six millisecond response time experience with low overshoot which leads to a clear and generally artifact free experience while gaming this sort of speed still holds up today it's right up there among the better choices in the sub 350 category the LCD panel used here has aged quite well there's also low input lag decent color performance and wide varying angles the main downside to the gl83a and this family of LG IPS monitors is the contrast ratio which is low and doesn't deliver very impressive blacks this specific variant as I said also lacks a wide color gamut if that's something that you're interested in but despite the contrast ratio I definitely prefer this monitor over a VA LCD at this price point as they all typically feature ugly dark level smearing and curved panels which I dislike compared to Flat panels at this sort of size it's really hard to go past at just 250 dollars that is a great price a possible upgrade pick for buyers is the MSI g274 qpf-qd which is readily available for 330 us this is a very similar monitor to the gigabyte m27q Pro that's harder to find these days except with a wide quantum dot enhanced color gamut this offers a point of difference to the 27gl83a if you need a wider color gamut for Creative tasks or you just like the extra saturation this MSI provides that along with decent color modes for srgb P3 and Adobe RGB its contrast ratio is also about 20 higher than the LG model though its response time performance isn't quite as good so it's bounce more towards color than speed at 330 us I think it's not as strong value as the 27 gl83a I'd like to see the price sit more in the 300 range or a bit below but it does offer a few advantages if you're after it so I think it's worth considering thank you the best premium 1440p 240Hz monitor on the market is also one of the overall best 1440p displays and perhaps a contender for best monitor period it's the Asus Rog Swift OLED pg27aqdm which brings with it a 27 inch 2560x1440w OLED panel at a 240 hertz refresh rate this is an excellent high-end display offering Elite Speed for competitive Gamers and stunning HDR visuals for single player gamers in the one package the main reason why you'd purchase an OLED like this is for its HDR performance though and the Asus variant of this screen delivers with noticeably higher brightness compared to the LG equivalent the 27 gr95qe we see up to 900 nits of brightness in HDR content which when combined with the Deep zero level blocks of OLED it's resulting super high contrast ratio and per pixel local dimming it leads to a stunning HDR experience that generally looks fantastic while gaming it's also capable of 250 nits of brightness for SDR content much higher than other W OLED monitors I've tested with a high 240Hz refresh rate the pg27aqdm is also capable of elite motion Clarity while gaming at 240Hz it looks super clear and smooth thanks to Lightning Fast Response times a 240Hz OLED is roughly equivalent to a 360 Hertz LCD and Clarity and All Leads are able to deliver the same response performance at all refresh rates leading to an artifact free experience even when gaming at say 100 Hertz this gives this display a rare combination of motion Clarity and visual quality that you don't get from other products in fact this is one of the few monitors that can deliver a top tier experience in both HDR and motion in the same package other benefits from this OLED include excellent viewing angles a great build quality with no obvious fan noise a nice wide color gamut and of course adaptive sync support it is expensive at a thousand dollars US but not overly expensive considering true HDR monitors with equivalent performance just a few years ago were like two thousand dollars plus and current pricing for Flagship H gel monitors is in the 1000 to 1500 range the main issue with getting an OLED like this is desktop app usage the pg27aqdm is not well suited to productivity work or desktop apps due to its non-standard subpixel layout which causes text rendering issues as well as its risk of permanent burning while viewing static content neither of these drawbacks are of any concern while gaming or watching videos but right now OLED isn't well suited to desktop tasks so if you are planning on doing a lot of that I'd probably grab something else I had to make a list of my favorite monitors I've reviewed this year so far I'd probably have this one right near the top of the list it's great highly recommend it and I think premium monitor buyers will really enjoy what it has to offer naturally a lot of people might be interested in a 240Hz 1440p gaming monitor that don't want to spend a thousand dollars to get the Asus OLED model that's where our budget choice for these specifications comes in but there is some unfortunate news here that makes it much more difficult to recommend a product in this category compared to our update about six months ago last time we recommended the gigabyte m27qx which is an excellent 27 inch 1440p 240Hz IPS gaming monitor priced around 400 US have seen pricing creep up to around 430 us but that's still an excellent price for this sort of display it's one of the cheapest and best value ways to access 240Hz at a decent resolution it's much more affordable than many other similar options that deliver roughly the same performance but the m27qx and many similar models are quite difficult to find in stock right now the small amount of stock remaining is highly overpriced and we haven't seen them available at around 400 since March hopefully this is just a short-term availability issue and the m27qx will be restocked because it's an excellent product that I'd highly recommend even without a good 1440p 240Hz LCD priced below 450 it's hard to recommend any of the typically 600 or more options if you can't get the m27qx I'd just be waiting until it comes back in stock or I'd grab something in a different category right now I think 600 is far too much to spend on a 1440p monitor with these specifications when we've had products hit 400 and like I said those more expensive options rarely offer anything substantially superior to the m27qx which is quite a well-balanced product good response times good color quality nothing that will blow you away but also no major flaws provided that in the future the m27qx becomes available again here's what you are getting it offers a fast response time experience on par with today's good quality IPS LCD panels when you combine response speed with a high refresh rate you get great motion Clarity making this monitor highly suitable to competitive multiplayer gaming but with the versatility of a decent resolution for other types of games as well the only downside here being the lack of a single overdrive mode experience which it's much more expensive competitors can offer depending on the model gigabyte are also providing good color quality including a nice wide color gamut decent uniformity great viewing angles and a respectable job of factory calibration as far as gaming monitors go I always like when a monitor delivers a good bounce of performance across all categories and that's pretty much exactly what the m27qx provides there are no significant downsides here rather a collection of performance trade-offs that often see the m27qx come in second or third place in any given test but at the typical 400 to 450 us asking price that's totally reasonable and it's really worth spending more to get a different product it's a great buy so fingers crossed it returns to the market soon thank you if you're after the ultimate high performance 1440p gaming monitor for competitive multiplayer that's the Asus Rog Swift pg27aqn it's currently the only 1440p 360hz display on the market packing a 27 inch IPS panel with some of the fastest response times I've ever measured on an LCD it's a high-end option coming in at a thousand and fifty dollars US so it's very much something for hardcore Esports Gamers but it does deliver impressive performance the main advantages to getting a 360 Hertz display like this are in motion Clarity and input lag when gaming at 360hz you'll get the clearest experience of any 1440p monitor just slightly edging out the 240Hz OLED I talked about earlier this level of clarity and smoothness makes it easier to spot and Target enemies without sacrificing on resolution previously to access this refresh rate you'd have needed a 1080p display which isn't the best these days with the PGA Twist of an aqn you get a higher 1440p resolution delivering a sharper image and additional versatility as this is also a great monitor for single player games thanks to its pixel density and excellent IPS color quality 360 Hertz also brings with it lower input latency this is a very responsive display the fastest that I've experienced at 1440p it has adaptive sync support with great performance especially above 100 Hertz and Asus has delivered outstanding color calibration which is often not the case with other competitive focused gaming monitors this again strengthens the versatility of this display and its usability for all types of Gaming the only major downsides to the aqn aside from its high price tag are the lack of proper HDR support and lack of backlight strobing this is very much a product focused towards competitive Gamers I suspect people who are more primarily interested in a single player experience will be better off with the Asus 240Hz OLED at a similar price not having backlight strobing is therefore a bit of an unusual emission with the very best 1080p strobe displays able to outperform this 360 Hertz unit in terms of clarity but at 360hz I still think this monitor is well above average in Motion Performance and currently there are no 1440p options that offer this refresh rate with strobing so I still think it is worth buying thank you in the categories I've been discussing so far the focus has largely been on 27-inch 1440p monitors which is where the best products are today but for some people like our very own Steve from Hardware boxed 27 inches is just too small and that's where 32-inch formats come into play right now the gigabyte m32q continues to be a standout option for 32 inch 1440p buys offering that panel size with a 170 Hertz refresh rate and IPS technology for 400 us there are no areas of standout class leading performance to the m32q but there's also no huge weak points which leaves the gigabyte option as a really well balanced product a at this sort of price point I don't think you necessarily need the outright fastest panel or the widest color gamut just something that is capable in all areas but even with that said the m32q still performs very well Motion Performance is in line with most modern IPS gaming panels especially when looking at cumulative deviation which gives us that idea of a bounce between response times and overshoot it's 170hz refresh rate is decent low input lag of course and gigabyte complements this with a backlight strobing feature that works in conjunction with adaptive sync and then for color performance we're getting all the usual benefits of ips a flat panel with excellent viewing angles are wide but not that wide gamut and in this case an above average for IPs contrast ratio I wouldn't necessarily describe this as an ideal monitor for Content creation but it has a level of Versatility that's well suited for playing games and watching videos also worth considering is the MSI Optics MPG 321 qrf-qd which I've seen on sale recently for as low as 380 us while I haven't tested this display the 321 qrf uses a better panel featuring quantum dot technology leading to a wider color gamut now something you need especially for Creative work the MSI alternative might be worth exploring especially at this sort of price I've seen this order panel previously and been pretty impressed with the performance in other areas like response times so I suspected to be a good buy but again I haven't tested it as extensively as the m32q so it's a bit harder to recommend foreign in the best 1440p HDR category there's really only one standout Choice once again it's the Asus Rog Swift OLED pg27aqdm so if you missed the premium 1440p 240Hz category if you skip to this section specifically to get my HDR recommendations go back check out that section as it covers everything you need to know about this Asus champion in this sort of category specifically though there aren't a ton of other suitable HDR choices there is the LG 27gi 95qe which is the LG version of this Asus model but with much lower brightness at a similar price point it's hard to recommend I've also tested The Cooler Master gp27q which is a 27 inch 1440p 165hz LCD with 576 Zone local dimming and true HDL support it's a lot cheaper than the Asus model but it has deal breaker issues with flickering that make it hard to recommend so for HDR Gamers again the pg27aqdm is where it's at right now now you just can't go past this OLED in the current market and that does it for today's monitor recommendation video lots and lots of options to choose from covering most of the 1440p categories I hope you are considering at the moment if you do want to learn more about the monitors we've talked about today we do have dedicated reviews for most of them that will go into the specifics around performance and features which are well worth watching also breakdowns for other monitor Types on this channel as well as a general buying guide for gaming monitors as a whole if you're interested so again lots of great advice here on monitors unboxed so that's it thanks for watching if you are interested in supporting our independent testing and all the reviews that we do that go into making these sorts of breakdowns then please do consider supporting us on patreon or float plan links to those are in the description below as well as just supporting the channel you gain access to some things like a Discord Community where you can chat about monitors get advice all that sort of thing you also get access to the ICC software profiles that we generate throughout our review process and we have other cool content like BTS videos and so on so yeah thanks for watching subscribe to more into this unboxed and I'll catch you in the next one [Music] foreign foreign

Channel: Monitors Unboxed

Views: 424,417

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Id: 5ae04bdURzQ

Length: 18min 59sec (1139 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Gerolux]

If Asus PG27AQDM is recommended why he is using LG27GR95QE as reference for blur buster test instead of Asus model?

it is likely because of when Tim recorded the video. It was likely done before the Asus review was out. So just used the LG model. Both perform the same since they are both 1440/240hz models. Asus didnt add anything so their model when it comes to anti-blur features.