The 5 Best 27 Inch Gaming Monitors - Summer 2021 Reviews

The best 27 inch gaming monitor with a 1080p resolution is the ASUS VG279QM. It's one of the best gaming monitors we've tested as it's one of the few with a 280Hz max refresh rate and an IPS panel. It has wide viewing angles, great reflection handling, and gets bright enough to combat glare. Its ergonomics are outstanding so that you can easily place the screen in a comfortable viewing position.

Fast-moving content looks amazingly clear. The response time at its max refresh rate is one of the best we've tested on a monitor, and it also has an excellent response time at 60Hz. There's even a black frame insertion feature, which, unlike most monitors, you can use while VRR is enabled. The input lag is also incredibly low, but it increases at 60Hz, so it's not ideal for 60fps console gaming. It has native FreeSync support and is certified as G-SYNC compatible.

Unfortunately, as is the case with most IPS screens, it has a low contrast ratio that causes blacks to appear gray when viewed in the dark. Even though it supports HDR10, it can't display a wide color gamut, which means that HDR content doesn't look much different from SDR. Nevertheless, it's the best 27 inch gaming monitor with a 1080p resolution that we've tested and one that most people should be happy with.

The best 27 inch gaming monitor with a 1440p resolution that we've tested is the Samsung LC27G75TQSNXZA. Although we tested the 32 inch model, we expect the 27 inch to perform identically. It's well-suited for both dark and bright rooms because it has a high contrast ratio to produce deep blacks, and it fights glare easily thanks to its good reflection handling and high peak brightness.

Gaming-wise, it delivers an amazingly smooth experience. It has exceptional response time and a 240Hz refresh rate that results in clear images in fast-moving scenes. Input lag is incredibly low and doesn't increase with VRR or HDR enabled. It has a black frame insertion feature that can improve motion clarity further, but it isn't usable simultaneously with VRR. It delivers a pretty good HDR gaming experience, as it can display a wide color gamut and gets bright enough to bring out some highlights, though not enough for true cinematic HDR.

Like most VA panel monitors, it has narrow viewing angles that cause images to appear washed out when viewed from the side. Its ergonomics are reasonably good, though, as it allows for height, tilt, swivel, and rotation to portrait mode, which is rare for a curved monitor. Extra features include two USB 3.0 ports and Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture modes. All in all, it should please casual and hardcore gamers alike.

The best 27 inch gaming monitor with a 4k screen that we've tested is the LG 27GN950-B. Its large, high-resolution screen feels incredibly immersive and well-suited for atmospheric games like RPGs. It uses an IPS panel with good viewing angles, making it great for playing co-op, and it gets very bright to combat glare. However, it's not the best for dark rooms because it has a low contrast ratio that causes blacks to appear gray.

Motion handling is amazing. It has a 144Hz refresh rate and exceptional response times, which means fast-moving scenes look clear and smooth, and you get a more responsive gaming experience. You can overclock the refresh rate up to 160Hz, but it's only achievable with 4k games and not with 1080p or 1440p content as you're still limited to 144Hz. The backlight is entirely flicker-free, which helps eliminate motion duplication and reduce eye strain.

It's pretty decent for gaming in HDR. It supports a wide color gamut and gets bright enough to bring out some highlights, especially when gaming in a dark environment. One important thing to keep in mind is that you need a graphics card that supports Display Stream Compression to achieve the full 160Hz refresh rate since there's no HDMI 2.1 port. Overall, it's a great 4k gaming monitor that's worth checking out.

The best 27 inch gaming monitor in the budget category is the Gigabyte M27Q. It's an excellent gaming option that provides great value for its low cost, and it competes with more expensive options. It's well-built and should look good in both gaming and office-oriented setups as it's made of both glossy and matte plastic.

It has a high 170Hz refresh rate with native FreeSync support, and we confirmed G-SYNC works with NVIDIA graphics cards. However, you can only achieve its max refresh rate over a DisplayPort connection, as it's limited to 144Hz over HDMI. It has an incredibly quick response time at any refresh rate you're gaming, so motion looks extremely smooth, and it has low input lag. Colors look fantastic because it displays an extremely wide color gamut with near-full coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing, and our unit has fantastic color accuracy.

Unfortunately, the panel has a BGR subpixel layout, which may affect text clarity depending on the software used, but text still looks clear overall. Also, some people have reported issues with displaying solid colors at 90Hz and below, but we didn't experience this with our unit. Besides these small issues that shouldn't change the gaming experience much, this is one of the best 27 inch gaming monitors we've tested.