The HP 27f is a basic entry-level gaming monitor that delivers decent overall picture quality. The 27" IPS screen delivers great wide viewing angles, and it has great accuracy out of the box. It also has very good gaming features, including excellent low input lag and AMD FreeSync support. Unfortunately, it has a fixed stand with bad ergonomics, and it has mediocre dark room performance.
The HP 27f is a decent monitor for most uses. It has a fast response time so fast-moving objects in movies and games look good and have only slight motion blur. It has excellent low input lag and supports AMD FreeSync, great for gaming. Unfortunately, it is limited by the 1080p resolution, which isn't great for multitasking or for working on detailed projects. It also has a fixed stand with bad ergonomics, so it is hard to place in an ideal viewing position.
Decent monitor for office use. The image remains accurate when viewed at an angle, which is great for sharing work with nearby coworkers. The HP 27f has decent peak brightness, and great reflections handling, so you shouldn't have any issues in a bright office. The 27" screen is a great size, but the 1080p resolution is less than ideal for multitasking. Unfortunately, it has a fixed stand with bad ergonomics, so you may have a difficult time adjusting the monitor to an ideal position, and it can't be VESA mounted.
Decent monitor for gaming. It has a great response time, with only a short blur trail behind fast-moving objects. It has excellent low input lag, and it supports AMD FreeSync, which is great. The 75Hz refresh rate is great for casual gamers but may be disappointing to more advanced gamers. Unfortunately, the 1080p resolution doesn't provide a very immersive gaming experience, and it has mediocre dark room performance.
The HP 27f is decent for multimedia. It has a large, 27" screen and great wide viewing angles, good for sharing the latest trends with a group of friends. Motion looks good thanks to the fast response time, so there's only a slight blur trail behind fast-moving objects. It is limited by the 1080p resolution and mediocre dark room performance though.
The HP 27f is okay for media creation. The 27" screen is a good size, but the 1080p resolution limits how much of your project you can see at a time. It has excellent s.RGB coverage, but the Adobe RGB coverage is less than ideal for professional photo and video editing. The fixed stand also makes it difficult to place the monitor in an ideal viewing position.
The HP 27f doesn't support HDR. For a good HDR gaming monitor, check out the Samsung CHG70.
The back is very simple, with only a slight silhouette of the HP logo. All of the inputs face out of the back, and unfortunately, it can't be VESA-mounted. There's also no cable management.
The HP 27f has decent build quality. The monitor itself is well-built, but the stand does have some issues. It isn't very solid, and doesn't support the display well; even the impact from typing causes the monitor to wobble significantly. Overall, it's similar to the HP 27Q, but the stand is slightly worse.
The HP 27f has mediocre contrast, very similar to the Dell P2417H, and about average for an IPS monitor. Unfortunately, blacks tend to look gray in a dark room.
There's no local dimming feature on this monitor. The video is for reference only.
Decent peak brightness, with no variation between scenes, which is great. There should be no issues using the monitor in a bright room.
HDR isn't supported on this monitor.
The HP 27f has decent horizontal viewing angles, typical for IPS monitors. Colors remain accurate up to about 40°, and then they rapidly oversaturate. The brightness drops gradually as you move away from the center but remains within acceptable limits up to 47°, and the black levels remain accurate at any viewing angle.
The HP 27f has very good vertical viewing angles. Within 25°, the image remains accurate, but beyond that, it degrades rapidly as colors quickly become over saturated and the brightness drops.
Out-of-the-box, the HP 27f has great accuracy. The white balance is excellent, with very few issues. Color accuracy is good, but there are small inaccuracies in almost every color, although they are minor enough that most people won't notice them. Gamma doesn't follow the target curve, with some scenes over brightened, and some over darkened.
After calibration, the HP 27f has excellent accuracy. The white balance error and color error are nearly entirely corrected. Gamma follows the target curve almost perfectly.
You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.
s.RGB Picture Mode: Custom (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Custom
Very good color gamut on the HP 27f. It has excellent coverage of the standard s.RGB color space, but only decent coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space, which is less than ideal for professional photo or video editing.
s.RGB Picture Mode: Custom
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: Custom
Very good SDR color volume. It has excellent color volume in the s.RGB color space, but it can't produce deep, dark colors very well, and like most monitors, it can't produce bright blues or magentas.
In the wider Adobe RGB color space, it has good color volume. Like with s.RGB, it is limited by the mediocre contrast ratio, so it can't produce deep, dark colors very well.
HDR isn't supported on this monitor.
HDR isn't supported on this monitor.
There are no signs of image retention on the HP 27f, even immediately after showing our high contrast static test image for 10 minutes.
Great reflections handling, similar to the HP 27Q and ViewSonic XG2402. There should be no issues using this monitor in a bright room.
Response Time Level 1
Response Time Level 2
Response Time Level 3
Response Time Level 4
Response Time Level 5
The monitor has a great response time. There are five overdrive settings, and each setting adds a bit more overshoot. The best Response Time setting is 'Level 2', as this mode improves the response time the most without adding noticeable overshoot.
The HP 27F doesn't have an optional Black Frame Insertion feature. If you want a monitor that does, check out the Samsung Odyssey G5.
Update 01/15/2019: Unfortunately, the HP 27F does not support NVIDIA's FreeSync implementation, as it doesn't have a DisplayPort connection, which is required.
At the native resolution of 1080p, the HP 27f has a decent 75Hz refresh rate. At non-native resolutions, only 60Hz is supported. This shouldn't be an issue for most people though, as most graphics cards will upscale without you even knowing. Many websites advertise the HP 27f as a 60Hz monitor, but 75Hz is supported out of the box with no additional steps, and it is fully supported with no dropped frames. On NVIDIA cards, the 1920x1080 resolution must be selected from the list of 'PC' resolutions in the NVIDIA Control Panel.
It supports FreeSync over HDMI, which is great. To enable FreeSync, select the 'Gaming - FreeSync' Picture Mode.
Excellent low input lag, great for casual gamers. The non-native resolution was tested at 60Hz, as that is the only refresh rate available in non-native resolutions. The input lag is much better than the HP 27Q.
The HP 27f has a great 27" screen, which allows you to see more fine details in your work, but the 1080p resolution may be limiting to some people. It doesn't provide a very immersive gaming experience, and it isn't ideal for multitasking.
If you want a similar monitor with a higher resolution, check out the Dell S2721D.