The 6 Best 1440p Monitors - Black Friday 2020 Reviews

The best 1440p monitor that we've tested is the ASUS TUF VG27AQ. It's versatile and should please both serious gamers or people who just want to relax and watch a few videos with friends.

The native refresh rate of 144Hz can easily be overclocked to 165Hz, delivering a better gaming experience. This helps by giving it an excellent response time, resulting in clear motion, and there's a Black Frame Insertion feature to reduce motion blur. The input lag is also incredibly low and stays low even at 60Hz, which is great for console gamers. It has an IPS panel, so the viewing angles are wide, and you won't lose image accuracy when viewing from the side, and the ergonomics are excellent, so you can place it on your desk however you like.

Unfortunately, its contrast ratio is low, and although it supports HDR, it lacks a wide color gamut and can't get bright enough to bring out highlights, so this mode doesn't add much. However, it delivers a great overall picture quality, making it the best 1440p monitor that we've tested.

The best 2k monitor with an ultrawide screen that we've tested is the Acer Nitro XV340CK. Mainly designed for gaming, it offers good overall performance that most people should be happy with. It's well-built, and it doesn't cost much compared to other ultrawides, which is great.

It has a native 144Hz refresh rate with FreeSync support, but G-SYNC also works with the NVIDIA graphics card. The input lag is incredibly low, it has an amazing response time at its max refresh rate, resulting in minimal motion blur, and it remains quick even when gaming at 60Hz. There's a Black Frame Insertion feature to improve the appearance of motion, but it causes image duplication. Its stand rotates on a round base so that you can turn it 360 degrees, and it has a wide tilt range and high height range. You can't rotate it into portrait mode, but that's expected for a screen of this size. Also, its IPS panel provides wide viewing angles, great for sharing your screen with others.

Unfortunately, even though it supports HDR, it fails to display a wide color gamut and has disappointing HDR peak brightness, so HDR content doesn't look all that different from SDR content. It performs best in moderately-lit rooms because its low contrast means blacks appear closer to gray when viewed in the dark, and it doesn't get bright enough to combat glare in well-lit rooms. However, it has built-in speakers and supports Picture-by-Picture and Picture-in-Picture modes. Most people should be happy with it, especially at its price point.

The best 1440p monitor in the budget category that we've tested is the ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV. It's a 27 inch screen designed for content creators, with enough gaming performance to satisfy casual gamers. It has a good build quality, and its exceptional ergonomics allow you to easily adjust the screen to your optimal viewing position.

It comes with an sRGB mode that's factory-calibrated, offering good out-of-the-box color accuracy. It has near-full coverage of the sRGB color space; however, its Adobe RGB coverage is just decent and might not be good enough for professional photo editing. It has an IPS panel with wide viewing angles and gets bright enough to combat glare under the harshest lighting conditions. It has an impressive response time that results in minimal motion blur and a 75Hz refresh rate that makes motion look slightly smoother than your typical 60Hz panel. To reduce screen tearing, it has native FreeSync support and G-SYNC compatibility.

Its downside is its low contrast ratio, which makes blacks look grayish, especially in a dark environment. Our unit has some backlight bleed, but uniformity issues vary per unit, so your experience might differ. It has four USB 3.0 ports that you can use for charging and an additional feature called 'Quick Fit Virtual Scale,' which lets you display an overlay to preview documents in their actual sizes before printing. All in all, this is a well-rounded and versatile monitor that's easy on the wallet.