The 6 Best 1440p Monitors - Winter 2022 Reviews

The Samsung LC32G75TQSNXZA is the best 1440p monitor for gaming that we've tested. It's a premium monitor with many gamer-friendly features, available in two sizes. The 32 inch model we tested should perform like the 27 inch variant, which has higher pixel density at the cost of less screen real estate.

It has a VA panel with a great native contrast ratio for deep blacks. It has an edge-lit local dimming feature, but it's terrible as it doesn't improve the picture quality in dark scenes and causes blooming around bright objects. It has a 240Hz refresh rate that you can achieve over a DisplayPort connection, and it has native FreeSync variable refresh rate (VRR) support and G-SYNC compatibility. It has a quick response time that makes motion look smooth, but you may notice some black smearing because it has a slow response time in dark transitions.

Unfortunately, we've received reports that the backlight flickers in certain content with VRR enabled. We didn't experience this issue with our unit, but it may be different from other units. It has narrow viewing angles, so the image looks washed out from the sides, so it's not a great choice for co-op gaming. However, it has a curved screen that's supposed to bring the edges of the screen within your field of vision. Overall, it's the best 1440p monitor we've tested for gaming.

The best 1440p monitor for office use we've tested is the ASUS ProArt Display PA278CV. It's a great office monitor with a USB-C input that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, which means you can dock a laptop and charge it simultaneously with a single USB-C cable. It also supports power delivery, but it's limited to 65W, enough for most ultraportable laptops, but not power-hungry ones with a dedicated GPU. It still has four USB 3.0 ports, with two of them on the side of the screen for easy access.

It uses an IPS panel with a 75Hz refresh rate. It has great viewing angles, gets bright enough to combat glare, and its ergonomics are outstanding. Since it's designed for content creators, it has full sRGB coverage, and its color accuracy is excellent out of the box. You can use it for some light gaming on the side, thanks to its great response time and variable refresh rate support.

Unfortunately, it doesn't support HDR. Also, the backlight is only flicker-free when the screen is at maximum brightness, but the flicker frequency at lower brightness levels is so high that it shouldn't be noticeable to most people. There's a new DisplayPort Out port that lets you daisy chain to a second monitor; however, it doesn't work at the time of testing. Nonetheless, this is an impressive and feature-rich office monitor that should please most people.

The best 1440p monitor we've tested with an ultrawide screen is the Gigabyte M34WQ. These types of monitors are different from your typical 16:9 monitor because they have a 21:9 aspect ratio, offering more horizontal screen space so that you can open multiple windows side-by-side comfortably. It even has Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture modes so that you can view an image from two sources at once.

It's mainly a gaming monitor, but it's designed with productivity in mind. It has a 144Hz refresh rate with native FreeSync support to reduce screen tearing, and it has G-SYNC compatibility with NVIDIA graphics cards. It has low input lag for a responsive gaming experience, and motion looks smooth thanks to its quick response time. If you need it for office use, it has a built-in KVM switch that allows you to control multiple devices with one keyboard and mouse, making it easy to connect your desktop PC and laptop to the monitor during the workday.

Sadly, while it supports HDR10, its picture quality in HDR isn't anything special. It has a low contrast ratio that makes blacks look gray, and it doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve picture quality in dark scenes. Also, its HDR peak brightness is just okay, and it's not enough to make highlights pop. However, if you're only using it for HDR content, it's one of the best 1440p monitors we've tested.

The best 1440p monitor in the budget category 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 resulting 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.

Unfortunately, it has a low contrast ratio, so blacks look grayish 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.