The Ultrasharp U2720Q is the ideal solution for any user who wants a qualitative screen at a contained price. It has many advantages that make it particularly interesting in multimedia or office automation. On the other hand, the creatives will still have to go through the calibration to take advantage of its wide color ranges.

The Philips 328P6VJEB stands as a great example of an affordable UHD display. It thus combines good display quality with correct calibration and complete ergonomics. In return, it sacrifices access to display synchronization technologies (FreeSync and G-Sync). It is therefore perfect for office automation, multimedia and even creation, but not for gaming, where a lack of fluidity could appear.

With this LG Nano IPS screen, we truly enter a higher range. Although it is not the best calibrated on the market, it offers the most possibilities thanks to the ranges of colors it can process, its correct responsiveness and, above all, its HDR rendering. With this product, we have a very good versatile and efficient solution, in all circumstances even if we advise professionals to use a probe for manual calibration.

Although it is designed for productivity, the PD3200U has undeniable qualities that make it equally interesting for everyone. Indeed, it combines excellent display quality with sufficient responsiveness for gaming. However, the main black points come from its fairly limited ergonomics and its coverage of color spaces, which would have deserved greater amplitude.

Honorable Mentions

BenQ EW3270U: A beautiful 4K monitor with questionable ergonomics. With the EW3270U, ​​BenQ offers a qualitative screen equipped with a 32 ”VA panel, ideal for maximizing the contribution of 4K. The latter can be adapted to users from all backgrounds thanks to its correct calibration and sufficient reactivity. In the end, if you are looking for a 4K display for your PC but don’t have a very large budget, it is one of the ideal solutions. It is not in our selection simply because of its too limited ergonomics. the 3280U is the latest version, available at a higher budget.

How To Choose The Best 4K Monitor For Gaming?

In order to compose our selection, we had to determine what were the important elements in the search for the best display. We have found that the main difficulty lies in the variety of factors that influence the choice. Whether it is the intended use, the environment in which the product will be placed or the connections available, all may be important depending on your particular needs.

In order to clarify the situation a little, we have defined the following criteria:

• Size: it is the central element of your display. Available in different sizes, there are 3 types: TN, which aims for responsiveness, IPS which focuses on image quality and finally VA, which aims for a balance between the two. In addition, the physical capacities of the panel impact the final rendering: maximum brightness, contrast and color ranges covered are data that must be taken into account.
• Clibration: This is the setting defined by the manufacturer or the user. It influences colorimetry (maximum delta E3), gammas (reference to 2.2) and color temperature (reference to 6500 K). The majority of users are satisfied with the factory settings. It is therefore important that this setting is as efficient as possible. Of course, professionals can use a probe to optimize the final rendering as much as possible.
• HDR: This technology aims to bring the quality of the rendering on the screen closer to what the human eye perceives. However, as the Fnac Lab, to comply with the HDR10 standard, seen as the “real” HDR, certain conditions must be respected: a maximum brightness of minimum 1000 nits, a minimum of 0.03 nit maximum and good coverage of the Rec.2020 and DCI color spaces. P3 (90%). Few screens reach these values.
• Response Time: It affects the time that elapses between a signal and its display on the screen. The best TN screens advertise a responsiveness of 1 millisecond, rarely achieved in reality, which is why it is better to trust the tests published online. Above 5 milliseconds the difference may start to show up in game. A value less than 5 is really important for games of type shooter where gamers can’t afford any latency.
• Refresh Rate: The refresh indicates the number of images per second that the panel is capable of displaying. The higher this number, the smoother the animations will be. The afterglow time designates the time that an image whose display is finished actually takes to disappear. A high value can result in “ghosting”: the image remains visible for a moment too long and creates a blur effect.
• Ergonomics: It is very important to ensure your comfort. The foot in particular must have as many adjustments as possible to avoid stiff necks, reflections and other inconveniences. Height, tilt, rotation and swivel are adjustable on the best screens. Access to parameters also deserves your attention: some buttons may be poorly placed or not very responsive. In our view, the best option is to use a clickable “joystick”.
• Ports: It must be as complete as possible. Currently, it is essential to have HDMI (and its dedicated cable), DisplayPorts and USB. In the case of 4K screens, the latest standards are so severe the amount of data transported is important, especially with high refresh rates.
• Energy Consumption: When a screen is permanently connected, it is useful to ensure that its impact on your overall electricity consumption remains reasonable. It is therefore important to take a look at its energy label (recently updated, as we explain here), on which you will find its ranking from A to G, the latter being the most energy-intensive. It also gives you an estimate of the average power consumption, based on 1000 hours of operation in Standard mode.

On the basis of these elements, we were able to reduce our initial selection, made up of around fifty references, to around fifteen products.

Reading different tests and user reviews then allowed us to choose the 5 products presented above as the best 4K PC monitors right now.