Best 27 to 32 inch monitors in India (4k, 144hz, 1440p and ultrawide monitors)

If you are in the market for a large monitor in India(or any other country other than the US), you would be utterly disappointed to find out that there are very few options available. You are probably looking for a bigger monitor(27, 28, 29 or 32 inches) because you have probably already used a smaller monitor of around 21 to 24inches in the past and now you want to upgrade to a better and bigger monitor even if it means spending a few thousand rupees extra.

You might also be wanting to increase your screen resolution from Full HD 1080p to 4k 2160p, after all, you have been hearing the term 4k for a few years now, so the price of such monitors should have come down by now, right? You might have already gone through Amazon and Flipkart to be shocked at the prices of 4k monitors and decided to settle for 1440p instead, but again, there are very few options available in the market.

The thing is that most people just buy the full HD 22inch models for around Rs7000 to Rs12000, and this is the price range at which most monitors are sold in India. Very few people are willing to spend more on a monitor even though the monitor is perhaps the most important part of their computer system.

Due to this reason, if you go to pretty much any computer shop, you will never get to see a monitor above the Rs15000 limit. And, even the online retailers are reluctant to keep stock of monitors over this price as the volume of sales is too low for them to make any dent in their revenue. Why sell 2 monitors for Rs30000 while you can sell 100 monitors for Rs10000?

We buy expensive computers for over Rs50k and then add a cheap monitor to it without realizing that we will get the most benefit by having a better display as we are looking at it all the time. Even if you are just browsing the internet or doing your office job or watching videos, a better monitor will give you more value than a better processor or more RAM or storage. And, monitors do not easily get outdated. They work properly without any issue for over ten years.

I researched extensively for a large screen monitor with a screen size of 27 inches or above with a screen resolution of 2560X1440 or above and is writing this article to help out other people in narrowing down the options. So let’s start our hunt for a good big monitor under Rs30000 in India.

Why read my article?

I have personally purchased four 32 inch monitors in India(total cost over 1 lakh+) and have used them for several months. That is something I think almost no one in India has done before. I also like to use good monitors and have experienced dozens of other monitors of varying sizes.

I have put a lot of effort into making this very in-depth and long guide which is written in such a way to make it super easy for you to decide which monitor to buy. It has all the information you can possibly need to make this choice, so this would be the only article you need to read before buying. I made this article because I was also once overwhelmed by the amount of research required to make the correct choice, so I wanted to make it easy for others by sharing my research over here.

This is a detailed article that answers the following questions – 

  1. Best large screen monitors under Rs30000 or $400
  2. Best 4k monitors available in India under 30k
  3. Best 32 inch monitors in India
  4. Best 27 inch monitors in India
  5. An in-depth guide about purchasing a good monitor of any size

 

UPDATED – In the past year, the government reduced the taxes of display components by 10%, so monitors have become cheaper by that much. However, the large monitor market is so small in India that there has been not many newer models or alternatives than the ones mentioned in this list. Only six new models were launched in past 1.5 years, which has also been added to this list in this update.

Quick Decision point or Tl;DR

If you don’t want to read this article and just want a quick decision, here is your best options according to my intense research –

32 inch Monitor options

If you are short on money and want the cheapest option possible, go for Acer EB321HQU. It is 32inch and has 1440p at around Rs 18k price point. It is great value for money at that price range, but quality control is poor and the panel is of average quality, so it is recommended that you go for higher-priced options but if you don’t have that extra budget and want a big monitor, this is your only option.

If you are into gaming, or if you want high refresh rate display, go for LG Ultragear 32GK650 which has 144hz, 1440p at Rs24 to 25k price point. Its price often fluctuates and increases when demand is high and supply is low.

If you are into gaming, movie watching and want a larger color gaumat, go for Viewsonic VX3258-2KPC-MHD as it has 144hz, 1440p, better design and higher color gaumat for a slightly higher price of 29k price point. It is also a curved monitor, so check if you care about that. If you are someone working on design software like CAD, you may not like curved monitor as it becomes difficult to perceive straight lines, but for everyone else, it is a great improvement over flat panels.

If the above viewsonic monitor is not available at that price point(It is out of stock 90% of time) or if you want an IPS monitor, go for LG 32QN600 at  28k pricepoint. It is a newly launched monitor in India. It has a fantastic panel and is color accurate along with basic HDR support and has 75hz refresh rate which is above the normal of 60hz. It is perfect for general commuting needs like programming, video editing, browsing etc.

If you want a 32inch 4k monitor, the best option is BenQ EW3270U for Rs35k. It has a really good panel, supports HDR, has good color accuracy, good response time and is just an allrounder monitor that can do everything. It is also great for movie watching and is great for everything except if you want high refresh rate gaming. However, due to it being so good value, they often increase its price to 45k.

If the above Benq is not available at that price, then the next best option for 4k is Acer ET322QK for 26k(previously Rs30k) which is also a great monitor, but it is a slightly older model.

Alternatively, there is a Samsung 4k monitor for around 29k(previously – Rs38k) which is also good. Its curved version is also available for the same price. It is recommended to buy the curved version more than the flat one.

If you are a design professional who wants a color accurate display the best option is Benq PD3200Q at Rs38k price point as if offers true 10bit 1440p high-quality panel with incredible color accuracy.

If you want a 4k color accurate monitor then the best option is Acer ProDesigner PE320QK as it has best colour accuracy and large color gaumat for professional works at Rs 55k price point. Generally, common people don’t need these kindof monitors, so if you are not a professional, don’t waste your money.

27 inch Monitor options

32 inch is my recommended screen size for anyone who wants to go bigger than the normal 22-24inch market as 27 feels only slightly bigger while 32 feels like a really big change, but if in any case you want a 27 inch, here are the options.

If you want a 27inch gaming monitor with even better response time, go for Acer Nitro XV272U as it has 1440p, 144hz, 1ms response time and is generally a very good gaming monitor at 31k price point. It even has 99% srgb coverage and resonably good color accuracy.

If you want a 27 inch 4k monitor, go for LG 27UL500 which has 4k HDR10 panel with good color accuracy at 31k price point.

If you want a color accurate monitor then get BenQ PD2700Q at 25k price range. It is designed for designers who care about colors, but it is a great allrounder monitor for everyone at a good price point. It has 100% Srgb colors, great panel, 1440p.

If you want a high end color accurate monitor used by professional designers, get Acer ProDesigner PE270K for slightly higher price point of 38k. It is 4k and has an excellent color accurate panel.

If you want an ultimate gaming monitor with spec of 4k along with 144hz go for Acer Nitro XV273K at 60k price point. It also has HDR400 and low response rate. It is generally an overkill for most people.

Now, lets start with the article –

Things to keep in mind while buying a monitor

Never buy a monitor under 91PPI

PPI means Pixels per Inch which is a number which takes both the screen size and screen resolution into account. If you put a low resolution in a large monitor, you will be able to see the pixels and thus everything will look pixelated. A good rule of thumb is that you should never buy a monitor with PPI less than 91 Pixels per Inch.

Infact, Windows by default was designed to be used at the 90 PPI range and if you use a very high PPI monitor like 200PPI, you will face the opposite problem where everything will look incredibly small like the text will be unreadably small. The solution to this problem is the scaling(zoom) settings within Windows which will enlarge everything so you get the benefit of both high PPI and size of everything remains the same. Until a few years ago, this scaling used to not work properly leading to some software being rendered with small text, but nowadays this problem has been fixed.

Anyways this means 90 to 100 PPI is the optimal range, but if you want higher sharpness or if you sit too close to the monitor, you can opt for a higher PPI monitor.

Full HD monitors

For a 1920*1080 monitor of 21inches, the PPI is 102.5
For a 1920*1080 monitor of 24inches, the PPI is 91.8
For a 1920*1080 monitor of 27inches, the PPI is 81.6  [Too low] For a 1920*1080 monitor of 31.5inches, the PPI is 69.9 [Too low]

QHD Monitors

For a 2560*1440 monitor of 27inches, the PPI is 108.8
For a 2560*1440 monitor of 31.5inches, the PPI is 93.2

4k monitors
For a 3840*2160 monitor of 27inches, the PPI is 163.2
For a 3840*2160 monitor of 31.5inches, the PPI is 139.9

Ultra-Wide Monitors

For a 2560*1080 monitor of 25inches, the PPI is 111.1
For a 2560*1080 monitor of 29inches, the PPI is 95.8
For a 2560*1080 monitor of 34inches, the PPI is 81.7 [Too low]

For a 3440*1440 monitor of 34inches, the PPI is 109.7

As you can see, 24inch is the maximum you should go with a Full HD resolution for a monitor if you do not want a pixellated screen. This is the reason why I want a 1440p or 2160p monitor when going for 27+inches of the monitor size.

Monitor size

For most people 21 to 24inches is the ideal size for a computer monitor, but if you are a tech enthusiast or gamer or programmer or someone who works on computer whole day or you watch movies in your monitor etc, then you need a bigger monitor size. And, that is the reason why this article is being written.

If you are unable to determine the size of your monitor, try cutting out a newspaper into the exact dimensions of your monitor’s visible screen size and then try keeping that paper at the place where you intend to keep your monitor. This will help you visualize the size of the monitor before actually making the purchase.

Your viewing distance from the monitor is also important. If you sit too close to a big monitor, then you might see pixels or your entire field of view will get covered by a screen, which might give you a headache, or you might find it difficult to see the other end of the screen. So, figure out the correct size which suite your needs.

If you do not like the idea of one large monitor, and still want a large screen space, you might want to consider buying a dual monitor setup. Both has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Caution: Never buy a 25inch ultrawide monitor. It will feel smaller than a 24inch monitor because of its low height. It is basically an 18.5inch monitor stretched sideways by 33% to make it ultrawide. If you want ultra wide, then go for 29 inches or more. Don’t get tempted by the 25inch ultrawide available for less than Rs14000.

TN vs VA vs IPS panel monitor

There are basically three types of LCD panels made for all kind of displays. You might see other names like PLS, AHVA, AMVA, ADS etc which are all basically different names for these three types of panels. Each type has its own advantage and disadvantage.

TN panel

This is the oldest LCD technology. It has the fastest response time, high refresh rate and is cheap to manufacture, so it is also most commonly found in budget monitors. It has very poor viewing angles, so if you view from an angle, you will see a significant color shift. It also has an average color accuracy.

Choose this panel only if you have some special reason to choose it, like for example, if you want a gaming monitor which needs 144Hz refresh rate, then you might want to consider a TN panel as other types are more expensive or unavailable.

VA Panel

It has the best contrast ratio, meaning blacks will be three times darker than the other two types of panels. That will significantly improve the picture quality but it also has a lower response time and is known to have ghosting issues, meaning when you move the mouse cursor or something, you will see a slight trail behind it. Note that the ghosting issues is over-exaggerated here, in reality, it would only be visible if you look closely and particularly at it. This issue used to be a major problem in old VA panels, but modern ones are very good and almost on par with IPS panels.

Also, comparatively the colors won’t pop as much as IPS panel and viewing angles are not as good as IPS but significantly better than TN. Most good TVs in the world use VA panels, so if you have a modern TV near you, then you can check its viewing angles and other things incase you have not seen a VA monitor before.

This panel is perfect for movie watching movies and playing games with a lot of dark scenes. But may not suit everyone. If you want Black to look black and not dark grey, then this is the best panel to go for.

IPS panel

This has the best viewing angles and thus there is no color shift while watching from any angle. It also has the best color quality making colors pop out with spectacular effect.

It is the best panel for most people and due to this reason, it is currently the most popular type of panel found in everything from TVs to smartphones. It is great for doing work which requires color accuracy like photography or graphic design, and it is also great for watching movies or playing games.

However, it maxes out at 1200:1 contrast ratio compared to 3000:1 contrast ratio offered by VA panels, and its response time is around 5ms compared to 1ms offered by TN panels. But these are reasonable numbers for pretty much everyone except for individuals with specialized needs.

Backlight glow

One common problem with IPS panel is Backlight glow(sometimes referred to as backlight bleed), which basically means that if you try to show a fully black photo on your monitor infull-screen mode, and you create a pitch dark environment, you will be able to see the inaccuracies of the IPS panel. You will be able to see some slight yellowish color of the backlight at various parts of your screen.

Backlight glow or bleed of lcd IPS monitor

Backlight glow

When people see this, they freak out and often ask for a replacement, only to be disappointed again with another monitor with backlight glow. Almost all IPS panels have some level of backlight glow, and it can be dishearting to see this in your new monitor, but you should understand that this is a part of the technology.

And, this is only visible when viewed in very dark environments with a black image on the screen. This happens because IPS display is incapable of fully turning off all the lights behind the screen, and some of them escape creating this non-uniformity. Often the photos posted online are highly exaggerated because cameras try to adjust to the low light environment and make it look 10times worse than it actually is.

You can solve this issue by at least keeping some lights on while using your monitor. If you want a dark room, then use at least use bias lighting.

Color Depth 6bit vs 8bit vs 10bit

Color depth is the number of shades available for each color of Red, Green, and Blue available for making each pixel. All displays mix the shades of these three colors to form each pixel, so If your monitor can show more shades of each color, then that means it can show more colors.

8bits of color depth means for each color in each pixel there are as many shades available as the numbers which can be stored in an 8bit file. So, 8bit can have 256 numbers, thus 256 shades of each color are available. Since three colors(RGB) for each pixel, a total of 256*256*256 colors can be displayed in a pixel, that amounts of about 16million colors.

6bit = 64*64*64= 262,144 colors
8bit = 256*256*256=16.7 million colors
10bit = 1024*1024*1024=1.073 billion colors

Making a higher bit display is expensive, so most monitors use a trick called FRC to increase its bits beyond what it actually has. FRC is a technique by which they make a color blink very fast to make it appear that it has more depth than it actually has. For example 6bit+FRC=8bit.

This is usually okayish and is not noticeable to our eyes, thus don’t go out searching for a true 10bit panel. Most monitors which advertise 10bit colors actually have 8bit+FRC to make it appear that it has 10bits. Similarly, most 8 bit panels are 6bit+Frc.

Color Gaumet

Now, just because you have a 10bit panel doesn’t mean your panel is actually capable of displaying so many colors, instead, it just gives it a theoretical capability to do so. Various other factors determine what your monitor can actually display.

There are various color standards established by various agencies, the most important of it is SRGB which is the color space commonly used by web browsers and various content providers. So, you must never buy any monitor which cannot display atleast 95% of the SRGB color space.

There are other color spaces like NTSC, Adobe RGB, DCI P3, Rec 2020 etc. Each one shows various ranges of colors suitable for various industries. Generally, if your monitor can show 72% of NTSC colors then your monitor should be able to show 100% of SRGB color space.

Note that if your monitor can only display 50% of SRGB colors then that means you literally are blind to half of the colors which can actually be shown by the content you normally watch as so many things use SRGB. So, it is very important to try to get as much SRGB as possible, ideally 100%. If you do specialized tasks like photo-editing, then you should care about other color spaces as well.

Refresh rate

If you are not a gamer, then ignore this section. Nearly all monitors come with a maximum refresh rate of 60hz which means that it can display 60 frames per second. This should be sufficient for all the use case scenario of nearly all the people except for hardcore gamers.

More refresh rates like 144Hz can make games look far smoother than what it is at 60Hz. In simple terms you will not see the blurring effect which often happens when you move too quickly in a game, thus everything will feel better on your eyes. However, you will be able to utilize these high frame rates only if you have an expensive computer which is powerful enough to push that many FPS.

As a side effect, even common tasks like normal scrolling in a web browser or moving mouse cursor will feel a lot smoother than a 60hz monitor.

Response Time

This is a time in which a pixel can change from one color to another, usually measured from either black to white or one shade of grey to another shade of grey. Generally, most monitors have response time under 8ms. A longer response time can make the image look blurry.

Input Lag

It is the amount of processing delay that happens between the computer giving the signal to the monitor and the time it took to show it on the screen. This is one important thing which differentiates a monitor from a TV.  One easy example to explain input lag is, if you move your mouse, you do not see the mouse moving in your monitor at the same time, but it moves after a short delay. A high input lag can make a monitor unusably bad.

The problem is that most manufacturers do not mention the input lag of their monitors, thus it is crucial to read reviews measuring it.

Contrast Ratio

You should definitely ignore the “dynamic contrast ratio” mentioned By most manufacturers. This is a useless number for just marketing purposes. The real number which matters is Native contrast ratio which usually is in the range between 800:1 to 4000:1

Contrast is the amount of difference between the brightest color and the darkest color shown on the screen. Low contrast can make the picture look washed out and high contrast can really make the colors show up beautifully. This is the reason why many enthusiasts want OLED panels to become mainstream because it has infinite contrast ratio as it doesn’t use any backlight, so it can achieve perfect black.

If you can’t see the difference in quality between the above two photos, you are viewing this in a bad quality display.

Even the native contrast ratio mentioned by the manufactures cannot be really trusted. If you want to see the real contrast ratio, then read some reviews where the reviewer has manually tested the contrast ratio. I have seen some monitors advertise 1200:1 contrast ratio, but when manually tested they achieve only 650:1 which is a really poor level of contrast!

Realistically, you should aim to get a contrast ratio above 1000:1. Most TN and IPS panels cannot go above 1300:1 ratio. VA panels can go in 3000:1 to 6000:1 ratio with most panels having around 3000:1 range. If you watch a lot of videos and photos then contrast is the most important thing as you will see noticeably improved picture quality in a higher contrast monitor, so you should prefer a VA panel. All the best TVs(except OLED) are VA panels for this reason. But, if your main task is productivity stuff like browsing websites and editing documents, then IPS maybe better even after sacrificing contrast ratio.

Gsync or Freesync

This is another feature exclusively meant for gamers. Gsync or Freesync are technologies which prevent screen tearing while playing games. It basically aligns the frame rate of the graphics card and the monitor to achieve this.

Forget Gsync at this price range. I have not seen any monitor with it and the fault is Nvidia’s. They keep a high royalty fee which monitor manufacturers have to pay in order to implement G-sync in their monitors. And, then it only works with Nvidia’s graphics cards.

AMD, on the other hand, gives Freesync for free and allows any graphics card company to use this feature in their card, but Nvidia refuses to accept this standard.

In this price range, at best you can get Freesync. So, there is no need to bother about this.

Resolution vs Panel Quality

Having a 4k resolution or high PPI doesn’t automatically mean that the picture quality will be great as well. A Rs14000 Full HD IPS monitor with a good panel can have a better picture quality than a cheap 4k TN monitor available for Rs28000.

So, NEVER buy a monitor just because it is the cheapest 4k monitor you can find. I have to stress this because many people think 4k automatically means good quality and due to this, many companies are racing to put the highest resolution without considering the panel quality.

Flicker-Free Panel

If you look at your monitor for a large part of the day, this might be an important feature for you. Some monitors use a technique called PWM modulation to adjust the brightness of a screen, and this can be harmful to your eyes.

Here is how it works, when a monitor is at full brightness, there should be no flicker, but when you reduce the brightness, how is your monitor able to reduce the brightness? Some monitors use a cheap inexpensive technique by which they simply turn on and off the backlight at frequencies which we cannot see directly, but can feel the reduced brightness. Since the screen is off half the time, it feels like you have reduced the brightness, but what you actually did was the change the rate at which the screen is being flickered.

A lot of people claim that this invisible flickering of the screen is causing eye fatigue, headaches, stress, migraine and other issues. So, nowadays many monitors come with Flicker-free ways of adjusting the brightness, and many monitors will advertise this in their feature list.

Although many other people claim that this is a gimmick as they are perfectly fine with their flickering monitors, so make up your mind on if you care about this or not. But, worry not, most monitors nowadays are flicker-free anyway.

Input Ports

There is nothing significant to look here as most monitors these days come with a reasonable number of useful ports. You might want to check the version number of HDMI and Display port because older HDMI1.4 version is only capable of displaying 4k in 30hz while the HDMI 2.0 solves this problem.

If you have an old computer, check if it has the required ports to connect the monitor. Also, check if your computer has the required version of HDMI to display 4k or high frame rates. There is no point in buying an expensive 4k monitor only to find out that your laptop has an HDMI1.4 port and thus you can only use 30hz.

The USB ports found in many monitors are just a free USB hub, so don’t buy a monitor just because of this feature.

Monitor Speakers

Ehh, why do you care? I really do not understand why people make a big fuss about the low-quality speakers found in most monitors. You can see one-star reviews on Amazon stating low speaker performance as the reason in the review sections of all monitors which has an inbuilt speaker. And, that is the only reason this section exists in this article.

I really don’t understand why people place so much importance on the free speakers in a monitor as you are buying a display and not a sound system. All speakers on all monitors are bad. Don’t buy a monitor for its inbuilt speakers. If you care about audio, try getting a separate speaker, and that doesn’t really cost a lot. You can get reasonably good speakers for under Rs2000 or maybe get a headphone?

A very common issue which might be destroying your monitor’s colors

There is a very common problem which most people face with their monitors, but they don’t know that they are facing this problem. This is applicable only if you connect your monitor to your computer using an HDMI cable.

Oftentimes, when you connect your computer to a monitor via an HDMI cable, your computer(Windows) assumes that you are connecting to a Television and so it uses the settings which are good for television, this means that it will not show all the colors it is actually capable of showing. There are basically two settings.

  1. HDMI Limited color range(16 to 244) [16 is dark grey, and 244 is whitish-grey, but many TVs consider 16 as black and 244 as white]
  2. HDMI Full-color range(0 to 255) [0 means black, and 255 means brightest white for monitors]

So, go to your graphics card settings and confirm that it is set to FULL-color range, otherwise, everything will look washed out, and black will look like dark grey. I have seen several people complain about their monitor’s contrast ratio, only to figure out that they were limited by this color-range issue.

Now, let’s get started on the list

Big 27, 28, 29, & 32 inch monitors available in India under Rs30000

This list is actually not that big. Don’t get saddened by this short list. And, I have not included monitors with bad PPI like full HD 32inch monitors.

To make it easy to choose, add all the monitors you like to the cart in Amazon whenever you see them in this list. This will make it easy to price-compare and shortlist in an organized way. In the end, you can remove everything except the perfect choice, and you are done!

1) ViewSonic VX3276-2k-mhd 32 inch 1440p IPS monitor

Pros:

  • IPS panel
  • 2560*1440 resolution QHD
  • 1200:1 contrast ratio mentioned
  • 10-bit panel (probably 8bit+frc)
  • 75% NTSC color space (99% SRGB)
  • Extremely good design. Probably the best-designed monitor in all price ranges.
  • 31.5 inches
  • Smallest bezels in any monitor(7mm)
  • Ultra slim thickness(thinner than a smartphone at the thinnest part)
  • No scaling required as the PPI is exactly the same as a 23.6inch monitor.
  • Two HDMI 1.4 ports, one DisplayPort, one Mini Display Port and a 3.5mm audio jack
  • VESA mountable
  • Flicker-free panel
  • 3 years warranty
  • Reasonable value for money (Rs25900)

Cons

  • Nothing much, this is near perfect! I am mentioning cons for the sake of mentioning it
  • The picture in Picture mode probably doesn’t exist(showing content from two computers via two cables on the same monitor at the same time)
  • Newer monitors have 144hz while this one is 60hz.[So, not a good choice for gamers, but great for everyone else]
  • Very few reviews are available online as this monitor was launched around February 2018

Buy from PrimeABGB at Rs25900

Edit: From July 2019 this monitor became available on Amazon – Here is the link –

Don’t get frightened by this massive monitor which can easily be used as a TV and no one will think that it is, in fact, a monitor. I have consistently seen various forums in which people think that 1440p resolution is low for a monitor of this size. That is infact a misconception because those same people recommend a 24inch full HD monitor without batting an eye. A 31.5inch QHD monitor has same PPI as a 23.6inch FULLHD monitor.

One huge advantage of this similar PPI is that you do not need to deal with the scaling issues found in Windows or other operating systems. If you have a 4k resolution at 24inches, then by default it will be unusable as everything shown in the screen will be tiny. The text will be unreadably small. To solve this problem, you will have to magnify everything by 150% or even 200% using windows scaling feature.

But, the problem is that scaling doesn’t always work perfectly. Several old software doesn’t support scaling and those things will still appear tiny. Even though many of the issues with scaling has been solved over the years, it is still not perfect.

However, a 31.5inch 1440p monitor will show an object at the exact same size as it was shown in a full HD 23.6inch monitor. So, if you were comfortable with a 23.5inch monitor, you will be able to use your monitor without requiring any scaling!

And, you wouldn’t see any pixelation at the same viewing distance as that of a 23.6inch monitor, but you are anyway not going to sit so close, so you get more perceived PPI. The perceived PPI increases with viewing distance. According to Apple, a human eye cannot differentiate between pixels when viewing a 300PPI screen from 12inches away and they call this Retina display. All displays eventually become retina displays given enough viewing distance. A 31.5inch 1440p monitor becomes retina(300ppi perceived PPI) at about 94cm length which is the normal viewing distance for such a display.

Enough about PPI, now let’s talk about this monitor. In my opinion, this is basically the best-designed monitor in all price ranges. Very slim bezels which get hidden when the monitor is switched off and the thinness of this monitor is mesmerizing. The stand is metallic and has a beautiful unique triangular shape. I think this will fit perfectly into any desk setup.

If we go according to the previous version of this monitor – Viewsonic VX3209, then that one has a good number of reviews and seems to be a great monitor. Some people have reported that it had one of the best contrast ratios seen in any IPS panel. The LCD panel used in that monitor was this BOE mv315QHB-N10 IPS Panel and I feel that they have used either the same panel or an improved version of this panel in this monitor.

2) Acer EB321HQU 31.5″ 2K LED Monitor with 2560 x 1440 Resolution

This is extremely value for money considering its price. If you buy it at the right time, it could probably be the cheapest 1440p monitor you can buy in India.

Pros:

  • 31.5inches
  • 2560*1440 resolution
  • IPS panel
  • Vesa mountable
  • Three inputs (DP, HDMI, DVI-D) and Headphones-Out
  • 300nits brightness claimed
  • Flicker-free
  • No scaling required as the PPI is exactly the same as a 23.6inch monitor.
  • 3-year warranty
  • Amazon Fulfilled, thus easier & safer to buy.
  • Extremely value for money

Cons:

  • Very Ambiguous. Not even the seller is sure about the exact specs.
  • We are not fully sure if it is 10bit or 8bit panel
  • Bulkier looking than the Viewsonic.
  • White color back-side may get dirty over time

Buy from Amazon.in

There are at least four variants of this model with exactly the same name and each one uses a different LCD panel, and nobody knows which one is which, not even the seller. Some people claim that even Acer doesn’t know how to differentiate each one.

All of the models are 31.5inches and has 1440p resolution, but several sites shows differing information regarding rest of the specs. There is one version with 10bit panel and another with 8 bit panel. Some specs show contrast ratio so high(3000:1) that it can only be achieved by a VA panel while they claim it is an IPS panel. Some sites claim it is a VA panel as well, thus further confusing the users. In Amazon India, the title says it is an IPS panel, while in the Q&A, the seller has mentioned that it is an 8-bit VA panel while the same seller has mentioned that it is a 10-bit panel as the answer to another question!

Also, there are differences in the number of input-ports based on the model you purchase. This monitor should get the award for being the most confusing product of all times. I don’t understand why they can’t simply have a better model naming system.

Anyways, whatever is the case, it is the cheapest 1440p 31.5inch monitor you can find anywhere in India. And, it is incredible value for money. You can even use it as a reasonably good Television.

3) LG 21:9 Ultrawide 29UM59 29-inch Monitor

It is a good ultrawide monitor. This would most likely be the best 29 inch ultrawide monitor in India. But, it keeps going out of stock and coming back in stock all the time sometimes in different model number with small variations like the one mentioned the next in this list.

Pros:

  • 29inch ultrawide
  • IPS panel
  • 2560*1080
  • 95.8 ppi
  • SRGB over 99%
  • Flicker-free
  • AMD Freesync
  • 75hz refresh rate if you have AMD graphics card.
  • Picture in Picture mode available
  • Two HDMI port and one 3.5mm audio jack
  • Lot of reviews available online
  • Amazon Fulfilled
  • 3 year warranty
  • Value for money

Cons:

  • 8 bit (6 bit + FRC)

Buy From Amazon.in

It is basically a 23inch monitor stretched sideways by 33%, so expect the vertical height of only a 23inch monitor. And do not think that you are getting a huge monitor. Buy it only after knowing the pros and cons of the 21:9 aspect ratio.

This monitor is also available in Paytm with a slight discount which might get you this monitor for as much as Rs18k.

4. LG 29UM69G 29 Inch Ultrawide IPS Monitor

Buy From Amazon.in

This is the newer model of the LG ultrawide monitor mentioned above. It has the same internals and same features, except that this has some updated features like the claimed 1ms response time motion blur(practically unlikely) and USB-c ports.

It is also color-calibrated from the factory and you get individualized reports of the calibration. That is not something which is commonly found in this price range. It also has lot more reviews than the last one.

5) Samsung U28E590D 28 inch 4K UHD Monitor

This is one of the cheapest 4k monitors you can find.

Pros:

  • 4k resolution 3840 x 2160
  • 1ms response time claimed
  • 10bit panel(8 bits + FRC)
  • 60hz refresh rate(not all 4k monitors can do this)
  • One HDMI 2.0, One HDMI1.4, One Display port 1.2 and 3.1mm jack.
  • Vesa mount (It is at a bad location because older model didn’t have it)
  • AMD FreeSync
  • Picture in picture mode
  • Amazon Fulfilled

Cons:

  • TN panel
  • The viewing angle is not good, but is good compared to other TN panels
  • Colors not as vibrant as IPS panels
  • Poor contrast ratio
  • Four-year-old model

This is one of the first True 4K monitors to hit the market, so it is about four years old. There are two variants –

  • U28D590D – Older model. It doesn’t have a Vesa mount. It doesn’t have HDMI 2.0, so it only supports 4k at 30hz through HDMI cable. You will need to use display port for full 60hz refresh rate
  • U28E590D – This is exactly the same as the older one, except that it has VESA mount and HDMI 2.0

They are very confusing names, so even sellers can make the mistake and sell you the older model. In Amazon reviews, at least a few of them have possibly got the older model. Since there are two HDMI ports and only one of them supports HDMI 2.0, we are not sure if the users inserted their HDMI to the wrong port and thus got less frequency as well.

Since it is such an old monitor with a TN panel, I would suggest to spend 10K more and get a newer IPS panel. This might be good for certain use-case scenarios like 4k gaming.

7) BenQ EW3270ZL 32-inch WQHD AMVA+ Panel Monitor

Finally a VA panel

Pros:

  • VA panel
  • 32 inches (not 31.5 like others)
  • 2560×1440 QHD resolution
  • 10bit panel(True 10bit)
  • 300nit brightness
  • Flicker-Free
  • 3000:1 Contrast ratio
  • Brightens intelligence adjusts brightness according to on-screen content and ambient light conditions
  • 100% sRGB color space
  • Two HDMI (v1.4), One Display Port and One Mini Display port.
  • 3-year warranty

Cons:

  • 2KG heavier than the other monitors of this size.(because VA panel are heavier)
  • Less number of reviews available maybe because it is a new model
  • No vesa mount

Buy from theitdepot or Amazon


It seems like a good VA panel. If you are interested, it is also available in Amazon for 3500 extra and it is Amazon fulfilled. It seems to be using M320DVN01.0 LCD Panel, if you are interested.

8) Acer KG281K 28inch 4k TN Monitor

One of the cheapest 4k monitor.

Pros:

  • 4k 3840 X 2160 Resolution
  • 28inch
  • Flicker free
  • 1ms response time claimed
  • Amd Freesync
  • 1 x Display port (V1.2) & 2 x HDMI
  • 3 year warranty
  • 10-bit panel
  • 72% NTSC(barely 99% srgb)
  • Amazon fulfilled

Cons:

  • TN panel, but one of the better TN panels
  • bad viewing angles as expected
  • Not as good picture quality as IPS or VA panels

9) Acer 4k 31.5 inch monitor

When I first made this list, this monitor was very expensive at over 40k. However, its price gradually decreased to 35k and at the time of writing in May 2019, it is available at 29k in a sale, plus Rs1500 discount if bought with SBI card. That makes it the lowest priced 4k monitor worth buying. This is the best choice for you if your intention is to watch a large amount of videos/movies/TV-shows as VA panels have a high contrast ratio which is 3 times more than IPS panels. Movies look great in high contrast and for this reason, almost all TVs are VA panels. It is also a great choice if you like sitting in dark environments.

Pros.

  • Lowest priced 4k
  • 31.5inch
  • 10 Bit panel
  • VA tech, thus high contrast ratio
  • New design stand
  • Wall mountable
  • 2 HDMI 2.0 and a Displayport
  • AMD freesync
  • Headphone holder in the back
  • 3 year warranty

Cons

  • The stand may take up too much space
  • Thick body. VA panels are thicker than IPS
  • Backside is white in color and can get dirty with dust if not cleaned regularly

10) Aopen 32HC1Q 32-inch Curve Gaming Monitor

This is the only 32inch model in our list which goes to 144Hz refresh rate, thus it is great for fast paced action games. Everything will look super smooth at that refresh rate. Even moving the mouse or scrolling through websites will look smoother than ever. However, to take advantage of such high refresh rate at 1440p resolution you need a high spec graphic card. This is also a VA panel monitor, so it has a great contrast ratio for movie watching and dark games. This monitor is the only newly launched product in this list(other than the Samsung 27 inch 144hz) which was not there in 2018, but exists in 2019. Aopen is a sub-brand of Acer and it uses Acer’s panels. However, the quality control on these panels are not as strong as other companies, and this is how they manage to reduce its price so much.

When a factory makes large quantities of panels, many of the panels have some small defects like few dead pixels or not having perfect color uniformity. In case of high quality branded monitors with high-quality control, even panels with small defects like four dead pixels will be rejected. So, when you are buying a Big brand product, you are also paying for the cost of the rejected panels. Lower priced brands have little relaxed Quality control which means small defects like four dead pixels are ignored thus the cost reduces. In most cases, you should be fine with such a monitor as you will not even be able to see 4 dead pixels among 8 million pixels. But if you are a perfectionist, who want absolutely perfect monitor with zero dead pixels then you will have to pay a higher price for rejecting larger number of defected panels.

Based on the reviews, and assuming the reason why Acer decided to launch a new monitor sub-brand, I think Aopen is a way for Acer to release monitors at a lower price with lesser quality control without affecting their main brand. It is a good thing that companies are atleast trying to reduce the price by utilizing some cost-cutting measures.

Currently, this monitor is priced at Rs28k(08/10/2019), but when it was launched, due to offers, it had come down to as low as 21k. However, you cannot expect that kindof offers again. It was just a method for new companies to get noticed by offering products at a loss.

Pros

  • 144Hz
  • 1440p
  • VA panel, thus high contrast ratio
  • Curved monitor. The curve at 32inch looks awesome
  • AMD Freesync
  • HDMI, DVI, Display port with free cables
  • Designed for gaming
  • 4ms response time stated
  • Good design
  • Slim bezels
  • 3 year ONSITE warranty(they will come to your house to repair it for free)

Cons

  • Quality control issues. You may get small defects like one or two dead pixels, or uneven black levels. However, no major issues

11) Samsung 27-inch WQHD Curved 144hz Gaming Monitor LC27JG54QQWXXL

This is the newest monitor on this list. It was launched in Amazon on July 15th 2019 as part of Prime day deals. Great to see a new big monitor from a branded company at this price range. Samsung is well known for their high-end displays and thus this becomes a great option for anyone interested in a nee monitor.

Pros

  • 1440p
  • 144hz refresh rate
  • VA panel which means high contrast ratio(3000:1)
  • Curved
  • AMD Freesync
  • Vesa mount

Cons

  • Bad non-adjustable stand
  • It is a new product thus not many reviews are available

12) LG Ultragear 144Hz,1ms 32″ QHD (2K) Gaming Monitor with Radeon Freesync – 32GK650

This is probably the best value for money monitor in this list. It was launched in 2nd August 2019 at 26.9k price in Amazon. This maybe LG’s reply to Samsung’s monitor mentioned above which was launched just two weeks before this one.

Pros

  • 1440p
  • 32inch
  • 144hz
  • VA panel with good contrast ratio
  • AMD Freesync
  • Good stand with lot of adjustment options
  • Lot or reviews available
  • DisplayPort, HDMI x 2, Headphone Out
  • 100×100 Vesa mount
  • Borderless design with very thin bezels
  • 3 years warranty
  • Excellent pricing

Cons

  • Nothing I can find, other than some reviews saying its gtg response time and viewing angles are not as good as Samsung CHG70 which is not even available in this price range, so I dont think that is an issue.

This is officially the best option on this list as of now. You can read the excellet review of this in this Rtings article. I don’t think the pricing will remain at 27k($384), as I feel this is some kindof promotional pricing. The pricing in Amazon US website right now is for example $449(Rs31k), and usually, the pricing of products in India is atleast 15% higher than that in US. So, the actual pricing should be Rs36k. In my opinion, you are getting a discount of ~10k right now, so buy it before they increase the price.

13) LG 27 inch 4K-UHD (3840 x 2160) HDR 10 Monitor

This is a new addition to the list because its price had remained in Rs 42k range for over two years but recently they have reduced the price to 33k and sometimes with bank deals it comes in 30k range, thus it is being added to this list

Pros

  • 4k
  • IPS
  • HDR10
  • Good stand
  • Vesa mount
  • sRGB: 99%, Adobe RGB: 73%, DCI-P3: 75%
  • 3 years warranty
  • Good brand
  • Brightness 350 nits, Peak Brightness 450 nits

Cons

  • well nothing specific for the pricing other than the HDR is not true HDR, instead, it is a gimmicky lowest end HDR possible on a monitor. So, if you are only buying it for HDR, don’t do it.
  • 2 year old model but several other monitors on this list are much more older.

Basically, if 4k is must have for you then this is a good choice, but generally the ideal size for 4K, in my opinion, is 32inch+ but if you still want 4k, this is like the only option you have got. If it was me, I would take the 32inch 1440p options in this list over this one.

13) Benq 32inch 4k monitor EW3270U

If you want 4k and high colour quality, go for this monitor. This model has never been available at current price range of 35k, thus was not on the list till now.

Pros

  • 4k  at 31.5inch is just perfect
  • VA panel
  • 95 percent dci-p3 wide color gamut
  • HDR10
  • 10 bit panel [FRC unknown]
  • AMD Freesync
  • Type-C USB port(Rare feature at this price point), 2*HDMI and one Display port.
  • Benq Unique feature – Intelligent Brightness auto-adjust based on the room lighting condition
  • Vesa wall mount points but monitor is 7.5KG heavy so normal arms may not hold it.

Cons

  • Nothing much other than boring standard design and not the best stand.

Honourable mentions –

BenQ GW2765HT 27 inch 1440p monitor

It has a boring design and is overpriced in Amazon.

Price: Rs 30000 at PrimeAbgb

Conclusion

Buying a monitor above the Rs20,000 price range is going to be hard as there are not many options available. I have mentioned all the models I have found which fits into our criteria of 27 inch or higher size along with 91 or higher PPI under Rs30000 price range. At least these are the only viable monitors available online, and it is possible that some other model is available offline. If you know of any such monitor, please comment below.

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245 comments

  1. Priyanshu

    I am a thorough researcher. With this article you got me floored man..exact points and extensive research. Great Job!!

  2. Prantik Majumder

    Hi kshitij,

    This what you have done is a phenomenon piece of research about monitors. I came to know a lot of things reading your blog. I am now in the lookout of a 27inch 2K monitor. Though you mentioned 32” would be a noticeable update from my present 24” and I agree fully, but unfortunately, my desk and other environment might make a 32” “too big” to be comfortable.
    My budget is below 26K and requirements are IPS, and 10bit (8bit+FRC) monitor.

    The LG 27QN600 https://www.amazon.in/LG-2560-1440-Display-Borderless/dp/B08CF4GK96/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=27+inch+monitor+lg&qid=1621767088&sr=8-4
    could be one choice but its only 8bit (probably 6bit + FRC).

    Do you have any suggestion for my requirements. Also, I don’t game at all, so I don’t think above 75Hz is required for me.

  3. Amit

    Thanks for the wonderful article.
    It is by far the best article which I saw in long time. Very well researched and clearly structured.
    Thanks once again, keep up the great work.

  4. Hardeep

    Very nice, informative article about moniter buying.. but i need a article above 40 ,43 inches 4k moniters, can you please create a article about 43′ 4k moniters in india, same as this one… Or if you don’t have time to write, can you please suggest me best 43 inches 4k ips panel moniters.. m a video editor a bit gamer… Thanks in advance.. dear bro

  5. Hardeep

    Very nice, informative article about moniter buying.. but i need a article above 40 ,43 inches 4k moniters, can you please create a article about 43′ 4k moniters in india, same as this one… Or if you don’t have time to write, can you please suggest me best 43 inches 4k ips panel moniters.. m a video editor a bit gamer… Thanks in advance..

  6. SureshRamasamy

    Awesome Article. It was really helpful to understand and choose the better monitor. Thanks!!!

  7. Sravan Sriram

    This is THE BEST ARTICLE for this topic. I have been looking for something like this for a REALLY long time. Time to buy my LG Ultragear 144Hz,1ms 32″ QHD (2K) Gaming Monitor with Radeon Freesync – 32GK650. (Literally just copy-pasted the name from the title cuz I don’t know the actual name) Thanks Again.

  8. Nishant

    Can you please share your experience with this monitor? Do you suggest buying this?

  9. Morgan

    An exhaustive and thoroughly researched article on the emerging bigger PC monitors in India. Previously I had a 22″ Viewsonic LED monitor and it had been working good for the past 9 years and recently started showing some white patches on the centre of the viewing area. As per your recommendations, I bought the Viewsonic VX3276 2K mhd monitor and it is really nice. Thanks for helping me to zero in on the right size and model…

  10. shekhar

    sagar im not plaaying games but for watching movies or general programming etc, reading surfing it all seems ok

    • Sagar

      Can you please give your review after using this monitor these many days? worth buying this or better to go for some other model? Are you facing any issues with size and picture quality?

  11. SD

    This is by far the best and detailed article to choose a good monitor in India. It took quite a lot of research to get to this page but it’s definitely worth it and have shared it with a few colleagues as well. I chose Acer EB321QU though I was aiming for viewsonic, it was always out of stock. I have also realised there is height adjustable version (they have speakers too which most them might not use) which is EB321QUD which I found on Acer India website at the same price (17k) which is also rarely in stock. Thank you so much for this great article.

    • Nishant

      Can you please share your experience with this monitor? Do you suggest buying this?

    • Sagar

      What’s your review on this monitor? Is it too big for work? Videos looks pixelated? Also someone gave bad review for live sports. Can you please check and confirm on that?

    • Manish

      Yeah, i bought same pretty good monitor, but one thing i notice 75Hz works only on 8 bit depth. If you will switch to 10 bit then its standard 60Hz.

      Not much issue unless you game.

      Colors are nice and calibrated, Size is better compare to my old 27″, HDR bit crap, minor IPS bleed but overall good monitor.

      I was mainly confused between this and BenQ EW3270U 4k because that monitor is also available in 25k refurbished but VA Panel, thick border design, no warranty and i think panel is one of cheapest 4k.

      So, going to manage without 4k for now 😀

      • Sagar

        Thanks Manish for review. Initially, I was hesitant to buy without many reviews. Now I need to wait for price drop or deals.

      • Sagar

        Can you please give your review after using this monitor these many days? worth buying this or better to go for some other model? Are you facing any issues with size and picture quality?

  12. Shyam

    Hi Kshitij,
    It’s Sham again.
    Bought monitor based on your suggestions.
    Now I am looking for Webcams.
    Was curious to find a post from you, unfortunately I did not.
    Could you please create a post on Webcam’s if possible.
    Thanks.

  13. Ram

    Hi Kshitij,

    Can you please suggest me best option for 24 inch monitor?
    The pupose is for coding, reading, general media consumption.

  14. Madhu B

    Hi Kshitij,

    i am looking for a 27/28 inch 4k monitor for work from home connecting to a macbook pro. I am open to occasional gaming/videos. Please suggest if “Samsung LU28E590DS/XL 28-inch UHD LED Backlit Computer Monitor”.

    If not please suggest a better 27inch 4k monitor in 30k range.

    thanks
    Madhu

  15. Madhu B

    i am looking for a 27/28 inch 4k monitor for work from home connecting to a macbook pro. I am open to occasional gaming/videos. Please suggest if “Samsung LU28E590DS/XL 28-inch UHD LED Backlit Computer Monitor”.

    If not please suggest a better 27inch 4k monitor in 30k range.

    thanks
    Madhu

  16. Ashish Jha

    Hi Kshitij,

    Really amazing resource man!

    I wanted to ask you and the community here for a few tips regarding what type of monitor I should buy. I have never used a monitor before. I have used a 15.6-inch FHD MSI GS65 laptop only for the last 2 and a half years primarily for coding, casual browsing, youtube and occasionally watching movies and series. Rarely gaming.

    But now I need a second screen or move to a larger single screen setup option (while keeping my laptop shut) because I need to start teaching online classes.
    My desk space is very limited, the table width is about 36 inches with a wall on two sides. (For reference of my current setup – https://twitter.com/the_dream_saver/status/1296423617656434692 )

    So I was thinking if a 27-inch or a 32-inch will make sense for me?
    Also, my chair is positioned at max 1.5 – 2 feet from the screen, so does that limit my options?

    And how do you feel about a 29-inch or 34-inch Ultrawide monitor instead of a say 32-inch single monitor?

    What will be your best recommendation for me?

    Thank you so much in advance!

    • Vikas sharma

      Were you able to figure out ? i have the exact same needs.

  17. Manish

    Hello,

    You think LG 32QN600 is worth it in 24,500 current price?
    They have 27″ QHD coming as well “27QN600″ might be less then 20k

    Currently i’m using a dell 27″ IPS 1080p display and everything is big as elephant
    So i though to upgrade little but don’t know if i need 4k or 1440p or 27″ / 32″ need IPS for sure.

    Primary i will use for coding, web design, stock trading, and little Youtube.

    4k makes sense only on 32″+ and 32″ IPS 4k is too expensive around 50k
    Left with only QHD you think it looks good on 32″ monitor? i mean ppi is less then 100
    27” QHD might look sharp?

    Will be thankful if you can give your suggestion.

    Thanks

    • shekhar

      yes im getting this next week, for 2 days price of this jumpped to 33k all of sudden and now back to 24k LG 32QN600
      when we get new monitor what all shou wld we check first as i saw one guy had negative review for it, what is ips glow and backlight bleeding

      Looking at the specs I ordered without any second thought. The first monitor had huge IPS glow. Thinking a defective piece requested for replacement. The second one had IPS glow and huge backlight bleeding. The stand material looks so cheap. I did not expect this from LG. I think they are selling defective products via Amazon.

  18. Nishank

    Hi Kshitij,

    Thanks for this very informative article.

    I am looking for a 32″ monitor for my home office. Most of my work is on the browser but I do have to switch a lot between windows. I currently have a LG 27″ monitor and I like the On screen control tool LG has for splitting windows. I am contemplating between the below 3 options:

    1. ViewSonic VX3276-2K-MHD
    2. LG 32QN600
    3. BENQ EW3270U

    Which one would you recommend for my use case? Budget is not really the issue as they are all below INR35K.

    Thanks
    Nishank

    • Nishank

      Hey Kshitij,

      Planning to order really soon so would appreciate any advise/inputs.

      Thanks,
      Nishank

  19. Vijay

    Hi Sunil,
    Can please let us know at what price you got this? And also the store location details.
    I have been waiting for this item to be back in stock in Amazon for quite long now

  20. Anukrishnan R

    Sir what is your review on Lenovo Q27q-10

    • kshitij

      It is normal for monitors to have bad reviews as one can’t guarantee perfection due to how the technology is. One can end up with a bad lemon even after paying over a lakh for a monitor. I would say it is similar to buying fruits. In the case of that review, it looks like the monitor got damaged in shipping causing more IPS bleeds and the panel being uneven. If one gets a bad one, they can go for replacement.

      • shekhar

        THEre are good reviews for it in amazon as u pointed before but two people had posted minor issues, can u tell me what will be solution for those?

        1. This is a wonderful monitor! Picture Quality and Brightness are as expected and this monitor is as great as any of the LG line of monitors. My only complaint would be that at 32 inches the resolution matches the screen size. I find myself trying to shrink application windows and text to maximize view-ability like I do on my 4k screen at work, but the resolution can’t handle it, so the text starts to pixelate. This may sound bad, but this resolution is the highest quality my Mac Mini can support; and so I would say at this size screen it would make better sense to go with the 4k resolution LG Model, but if you need this exact resolution this model is fantastic! It is super sleek, and works better than what I expected. It is a great monitor. I will definitely continue to purchase this line of Monitors from LG, they are amazing!

        2. was afraid I might be overwhelmed by this on my desk, but no, just wow. I am working 10 hours per day on computer and didn’t want 2 monitors for my modest size narrow depth desk at home.. This has a 100 x 100 cm scheme on the back to put on monitor arm. Had to snap off the plate on back. Instructions don’t tell you how to get neck off, but that is how. Once we figured that out, it was easy to get off neck and switch to monitor arm. Light enough not to drop to the desk. I got the white. I thought the frame around the screen would be white but from is black, white in on the edges and back. Has various settings, like game, or classic and other that produce different back lighting. Color is pretty brilliant. I am pleased with my purchase. I don’t see any color bleed as discussed in reviews for some other brand products. Monitor arrived in California in about 6 days in good shape. I recommend finding a 5 or 6 foot high speed hdmi cable, this only comes with a 3 foot white cable. The white power cord is a little longer that comes with it, so it is fine.

        so im presuming this allows monitor arm external unlike benq 31.5 inch which is too heavy to use a monitor arm?

        https://www.amazon.com/LG-32QN600-B-32-Inch-Monitor-FreeSync/dp/B088YN9LBK/

        • kshitij

          1. If you have already experieced higher resolution like 4k, then it would be difficult to go back to smaller resolution. This applies to all resolutions, like if you are used to 1080p, you will find it hard to use 720p monitor.

          2. Less weight the better for most monitor arms. But, all monitors can be put on monitor arms of different sorts. Only the free-standing arm with gas-spring has a limit on weight.

  21. Sahil Shah

    Hi Kshitij,
    Amazing article, I was flustered with the google finds but you reviews are really good.
    I currently have a ASUS VG248QE which I am looking to upgrade. I now have almost have 9-10 hours of work per day but I do like playing games like FIFA, Call of Duty online & I keep simultaneously watching good quality movies on my off days. My Viewing is 1 & 1/2 feet from my desk. What would you recommend me in terms of upgrading my monitor?

    • kshitij

      I would say you have only two choices.

      1. Lg 32 inch 1440p 144hz – Choose this if you are more interested in gaming at high refresh rate. As you already have such a monitor, you already know if you need it or not. This size, resolution and panel will be a great upgrade that feels worth it. Currently, it is priced at 35k, but it often comes at 25k, add it to your cart if you are considering it. My affiliate link – https://amzn.to/3kG7QgZ

      2. Benq 32 4k 60hz- Although at the distance you are sitting, 4k is not essential, this is a very good quality panel that will make movies, photos and videos look much better due to its high contrast ratio, and the resolution will help make text look slightly sharper even at a distance. For your high refresh rate needs, you can use your existing monitor. And for work, I recommend setting a black desktop wallpaper, and “dark night mode chrome extension” to save your eyes and reduce strain during such long usage times. my affiliate link – https://amzn.to/30Ej4dz

      I would say, go with the benq.

  22. Sagar

    This new LG monitor 32QN600 have HDMI v1.4 ports. Does it results in any disadvantage as some other monitors having HDMI v2 nowadays? Does it make any real difference while using Firestick or watching live sports? also, we should be able to connect firestick along with external speakers without any issues on this right?
    One last question I have is, this model is still shown as Coming Soon in LG website. but in amazon its already available and price is dropped by 3k recently. Do I need to worry about quality or something? I was not expecting any price cut as it is new monitor and have good features.

    • kshitij

      HDMI 2.0 is just a bandwidth standard, like having higher Mbps internet. A 1440p 75hz monitor does not hit the bandwidth limited of HDMI 1.4 so, it makes zero difference if it has either. Due to this reason, the version of HDMI provided in all monitors are enough for their needs.

      It is common for products to sometimes be first available in amazon and not show up in websites. Also, I have seen many monitors launch at lower prices so that people buy and review it and make it popular and later they increase the price.

      If you are going to use it for Firestick or watching TV or movies, you should be aware that Firestick won’t support 1440p resolution and instead if you try to connect, it will show up in 1080p mode. So, for your use case, it is best to upgrade to the Benq 4k monitor which is much better suited to watching videos and firestick will use 4k resolution – https://amzn.to/30Ej4dz

  23. shekhar

    If your main intention is to have a colour accurate IPS monitor for general computing needs, programming etc, then go for the newly launched LG 32inch monitor for 28k – https://amzn.to/3ijwcuP

    1. The price of this is now 25k from 28k, do u think this will go as low to 23k like LG ultragear
    2. Apart from programming if we want to watch some animated movies will this be a good monitor

    • kshitij

      It is priced very well. I don’t think it will go any lower. And yes it is good for anime movies.

  24. Preetika Subramaniam

    I’m looking for a monitor that can be moved to a vertical position, primarily for coding. You haven’t mentioned the ability to move the monitor to a vertical position. Could you please help by recommending some models?

    Additional info: Budget is less (<20K) and looking for 27 inches size or less.

    • kshitij

      Your lowest priced but best solution is this BenQ GW2480T monitor, it can easily move to vertical position with inbuild stand and the panel is of good quality. And it costs less than Rs13k

      Alternatively, you can buy any IPS monitor and mount it on a monitor arm. But, I guess the above one will meet your requirements better and save your budget.

  25. Rushabh

    I never comment on these, but this is a well researched and very well explained article. I wish these article was well known and published on bigger website so that normal public like me have easy access to it and not on 3rd page of google search.

    • kshitij

      Thanks. It is a tiny website, so google don’t promote it well.

  26. Alok

    Hello Kshitij, My budget is 15k and I’m confused as hell about what to buy in this range. please share some monitor which you think are good. my use cases are coding, media consumption, reading and gaming have the last priority of all.

    • kshitij

      At that price, I think the best option is to get TWO 24 inch monitors. For coding, it is incredibly useful to have two monitors. You don’t need to get both of them together. You can buy the second monitor a few months later once you are used-to your new monitor. Currently, buy this 24inch Samsung monitor for 10k. – https://amzn.to/33O5dne

      It is a great allrounder monitor at a nice price. Good for media consumption and reading.

  27. shekhar

    sorry im a bit noob when it comes to games, if i want to play playstation games directly for PC without having a PlayStation box is that possible?
    if so then what monitor will give good experience like for fifa or cricket playstation and im not talking of the first person shooter games.
    will this be a good one?

    BenQ 31.5 inch(80.01 cm) Gaming Monitor – Eye Care Technology, 4K, HDR – EW3270U (Black)
    by BenQ

    • kshitij

      If you don’t have PlayStation hardware, you can’t play PlayStation exclusive games on PC. There are some “Playstation emulators” available, but I don’t know if it works. For most games, there are PC Version which you can download. And yes, for the type of games you are talking about, this will be a fantastic monitor.

    • shekhar

      is benq china or swiss, it says in roduct description as china but in video it says swiss

      • kshitij

        It is a Taiwanese company.

  28. Citruz

    Wow! amazing article and very clearly explained. Thanks for this 🙏🏼.

  29. markhalid

    Am really confused, At present after the prime day deals are over, what would you buy if you budget happens to be 40k to 45k.
    Thanks for replying on the previous question.
    Your post is FANTASTIC, AMAZING. Am soon going to purchase a monitor and your reply will add heavy weight to my decision. 😉 thanks a million.

    • kshitij

      There was no good deal on the prime day sales. Everything was for same price as before or more. You don’t have much choice in the Indian market in that price range. Infact only two. The first choice will be the Benq allrounder for 35k [My affiliate link – https://amzn.to/30Ej4dz ]
      It has everything you need. at 10k less than your budget. The second choice should only be considered if you want a curved display. I am talking about this 4k samsung monitor for 39k [My affiliate link – https://amzn.to/33EfceI ]

      Both are excellent display and you are unlikely to see any picture quality difference. With the saved money, you can buy a monitor arm to position your monitor in whatever angle you like!

  30. markhalid

    Any comments on the power consumption of BenQ EW3270U? only by going through the specifications of different monitors, I could find clear high values for BenQ. How much do you think it will make the difference? like Samsung 32 has 50W and this thing has 70W. Will it be huge?

    • kshitij

      VA panels use nearly double the power of IPS panels. This is the main difference you are seeing in power consumption. Also, power is usually measured at max brightness, so this is the max amount of power it will consume. Normally people will keep brightness at around 30% to 50% and at that point it will consume half the power. In any case, power usage is generally not a thing one should choose to differentiate monitors as it uses so little power. For comparison, even the smallest airconditioners use 1000W of power.

      My affiliate link – https://amzn.to/30Ej4dz

    • shekhar

      even im lking th specs over benq which is now available at 33k instead of 43k
      but let kshitij compare if this one is worth over benq as we can save 7k of money plus we get 32 inch qled with LG

      • kshitij

        That is a new monitor! Great! It has a nice IPS panel with basic HDR support. Fantastic. So, my recommendation is

        If you are a gamer requiring high refresh rate go for the 144hz option – https://amzn.to/33LRhd8 [It is overpriced currently, it is perfect at Rs25k price point]

        If your main intention is to have a colour accurate IPS monitor for general computing needs, programming etc, then go for the newly launched LG 32inch monitor for 28k – https://amzn.to/3ijwcuP

        We haven’t seen a good 32inch IPS monitor available in India in few months. This is a great find.

        • SMS

          Thanks Kshitij. Do you think price is going to increase for this new LG model in future? Is it good to buy now or wait for some reviews to come in?

          • shekhar

            yes even im thinking the same, what is price drops to 23k in few days

            so is this monitor LG QHD (2560 x 1440) 32 Inch IPS Display 3 Side Borderless – HDR 10, sRGB 99%, AMD Free sync – Dual HDMI, Display Port – 32QN600
            better than
            the 33k priced benq
            BenQ 31.5 inch(80.01 cm) Gaming Monitor – Eye Care Technology, 4K, HDR – EW3270U (Black)

          • kshitij

            Read my other comment too and I doubt if price will drop anymore, but both of these monitors are quite different. Benq offers VA panel with 3000:1 contrast which is excellent for watching videos and photos. It is also 4k. Meanwhile, LG offers IPS panel which is great for fast response time and colour accuracy. Both are great monitors. You can choose based on what you prefer the most. I would say the 4k and contrast will benefit more general users while the IPS will be useful for those who use the majority of their computer time reading text and browsing.

          • kshitij

            It is good to buy. The prices will likely fluctuate and it may even go out of stock like many of the other good monitors I recommended went out of stock within few days. This is a great price for what it offers. There has been no other monitor with same specs that has come below this price point ever, so there is a chance its price will increase if demand increases and stocks run thin. This model was already launched in other countries several month ago if you want to see reviews. LG monitors are generally good quality panels and you don’t need to worry about anything in reviews as these things have become quite “Standard” or normal.

            The only thing you need to check is if you want VA panel(great for movie watching due to 3x more contrast) or IPS panel(excellent viewing angles and colour accuracy and faster response time).

        • shekhar

          but the LG one is not a 4k monitor but a QLED
          whereas benq is 4k for 33k
          anyways i think LG one is suitable for programming from what i read in reviews you shared in usa but if u look at the price there it is only 250 usd , here it is 28k.

          my main question is , is there advantange of 4k led of benq 33k price over 2k resolution qled of LG at 28k
          4k vs 2k, does readibility suffer at 2k but then one is LED vs other of QLED
          i want to use mainly for programming, browsing and occasional videos and movies and no gaming

          • kshitij

            4k vs 2k – If you are going to sit at a distance where you cannot touch your monitor with your hands, you are not going to notice a difference between 4k and 2k. If you sit any closer, you will clearly notice that 4k is sharper. Generally, people with 32-inch monitors including me sit one hand distance from the screen. I am using a 32 inch 2k IPS monitor right now and it is fantastic, there is no readability issues. Everything is sharp and at the right size.

            Your main comparison should be between IPS and VA, not other things. The only negative of IPS I notice is that while watching movies, the black colour looks noticeably like grey especially when compared to a VA panel and this affects picture quality of videos and photos. This is only evident when watching either a dark scene or if I am sitting in a dark room. In a bright room, watching a bright scene, there is almost no difference. So, if you expect to use your monitor in dark environment or if you love Night Mode in apps, then I suggest getting the VA. I would personally choose VA just because I use it a lot at night and because I like more contrast.

            Regarding prices in USA, it is 300USD and that is before taxes. Add customs, shipping and the low-quantity-sales issue of India, you are getting it at a fair price at 28k. Benq is infact being sold at better price than US.

            You cannot go wrong with either of these monitors as both are excellent, just that they are slightly different. Let me know what you choose.

            My affiliate links – benq – https://amzn.to/30Ej4dz

            LG – https://amzn.to/3ijwcuP

          • shekhar

            thanks khsitij
            i will wait till price of benq falls to 33k and then buy from ur link, 2 days ago it was 33k around, now it is gone up to 35k

          • kshitij

            ok Thanks. Its price fluctuate drastically. It frequently goes up to 45k. 33k is the lowest it has been, and it generally hangs around 35k.

  31. Rohit Prakash

    Hi kshitij ,
    Thank you for writing such a great article about monitors…
    After going through all the points and all the user comments I got More and more confused to select a single one…
    My simple requirement is, programming work, and video and photo editing, and not for gaming…
    I already have a 22inch monitor and want to add a dual monitor or basically the new one I will make primary one and this 22 inch will be secondary monitor…
    I have i7 9th generation processor with 16gb ram but integrated graphics at the moment… I will upgrade graphics card in coming few months..

    32 may be too big for me, so I will go for 27 inch monitor with minimum qhd or 4k…
    My budget is around 20 25 K..
    I have selected one that benq 27p00q dual mode, but it looks like a very old monitor and so concerned about the technology used for this Monitor…

    Can you please suggest me few choices here, if the above benq doesn’t looks good to you…
    How’s the servicing in india and built quality…
    I will prefer to buy one in coming amazon prime.sale…

    Thanks and waiting for your quick reply…

    • kshitij

      For video editing, you will really really benefit from a 32inch monitor. Go for this LG 32 inch monitor for 28k – https://amzn.to/3ijwcuP

      If you really want 27 inch, then go for LG 27 inch 4k for 31k

      In my opinion, the 32inch is perfect for you.

  32. Aditya

    Loved the article, I had been researching for weeks.
    Your recommendations and well as answers below helped a ton.

    Keep up the great work man !!!

  33. Manu Dev

    Wow!
    I’ve been scouring the internet for guides on monitors, and this was the only one required. Well explained and great article overall.

    I’m pretty tight on budget (25k max) and I’ve seen a lenovo monitor here: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B083M6S11B/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nSQjFbMEZBFSM yeah… It comes and goes however it’s a looker and 2k at 27″. What are your thoughts on it? Any other model to consider?

    • kshitij

      It is an okayish monitor. Nothing special. And if you are talking about the looks, please see real photos as well, the bezels on the photo shown in amazon are fake photoshopped one. It looks like this in real life – https://i.imgur.com/OWXPRc6.png

      I suggest getting the LG 32inch 144hz monitor for Rs24k – https://amzn.to/2Pfuf5Z (My affiliate link). It is rarely available as it is great value for money and goes out of stock quickly.

  34. shekhar

    And ive seen many cases where full leds tv were mentioned but wouldn’t qled or 4k ULED would be tter than FULL LCD or LED for programming or movies or editing videos.
    what im looking is not full time programming but say i want to do 2 hours programming, 2 hours editing videos and 2 hours watching movies etc then which size monitor would be best

    • kshitij

      Since you are so into big screens, I suggest to try using some 4k 40ish inch TVs which you or your friends may have by connecting it to your laptop and see if you are comfortable with such a gigantic sized display. You can even go to some TV showroom and try it for 10-20 minutes. If you think you can handle that, then you can consider a huge 40ish inch monitor. The main problem with such a large monitor is that it is a flat-screen so to view the edges of the screen, you will have to move your head or even move around depending on the distance you are planning to sit. If it was a curved monitor, it could have worked well. The advantage of having multiple smaller displays is that you can angle them however you like, and also turn them off when not in use to reduce eye-strain.

      In my opinion, a 32inch monitor would be great for you. This is the max size where you can use a window in full-screen mode at normal viewing distances without any problem. Once you go larger than this, you will always have to be in the windowed mode which is not easy to get used to. I suggest adding this BENQ 32inch 4K monitor to your cart and check the price every day. It should be available for 35k in few days. This is the best allrounder monitor in India, and since you spend two-third of your time on videos, this panel is excellent for videos as well(much better than IPS panels). – https://amzn.to/30iFrFk (my affiliate link)

      Once you have out-grown your 32inch monitor, you can buy some another monitor of any size as your secondary display(maybe even another 32inch, or two 24 inches on the side). This will be the place where you will put your not-so-important things for multi-tasking, like if you want to play a youtube video in one screen and do work in the other. Or you want to put the file-explorer in it while editing the videos, or as a reference when programming.

  35. shekhar

    1. thanks for your comment but let us say we are coding for sometime and then we want to do editing of videos as well for training, in that case does 43 inch monitor makes sense like what u said for stock trading to be able to view 4 screens in one monitor or can we also divide a 32 inch monitor to 4 screens.

    2. 32 inch is better than 27 inch for programming am i correct

    • kshitij

      For stock trading, all they need is to keep graphs on each window and monitor it from a slight distance. But for programming, you need a more focused. The problem is you may feel the screen is too big and having to move your head may become an issue.

      You can divide any screen into smaller sections, like if you divide 32 inch by 4 you get basically four laptop-screen sized windows(15inch).

      And yes, I am a developer, and I find 32 inch to be much better than 27inch.

  36. kiran

    Hello Kshitij,
    Your review is absolutely perfect.
    Can you please advise of HP E273Q 1440 IPS display is a good choice or not.

    My purpose is office use, large excel sheets, multiple applications, mails and occasionally watching movies.

    Also, i am not planning to play games at all. Don’t care for inbuilt speakers.

    But,
    1. Need a good IPS panel with at least 1440p resolution
    2. Need more Connectivity option- HDMI, USB 3.1, USB c, display port, etc
    3. Budget is not more than 30000 INR.

    Please advise if there are any other options as well

    • kshitij

      HP E273Q is a good monitor, but it is overpriced at 30k price point, thus not recommended.

      LG has a way better monitor at this price that is 27inch 4k IPS and supports basic HDR and it only cost Rs1000 more. While it lacks the USB-C, that is not a big issue as in the future you can buy a Rs1000 HDMI to type-c adapter if you ever really need that port. Since it has a significantly better quality panel, it is my recommended choice. My affiliate link – https://amzn.to/30iaS2y

      • kiran

        Thank you Kshitij. Both the monitors are in my wish list actually.
        One small query though,
        Given the durability, quality of product and reliability (screen bleeding, perfection, etc).
        Which one would you consider.

        • kshitij

          All LCD panels have screen bleeding, that is the part of the technology itself. So, don’t think about getting a “perfect” panel, the best you can hope for is a panel with least amount of screen bleeding and most amount of black level uniformity. You don’t need to worry about it even if your panel have some imperfections, that’s totally fine and you will not even notice it in real world usage.

          Among the two options you have, I would prefer the LG. They make their own panels, while HP buys them from other companies and assembles it. Apart from that, this particular LG monitor has much better panel as I said earlier. Regarding durability, both should last fine for 10 years or even more.

          • kiran

            Thank you Kshitij.
            You have helped me in the decision making process.

            All the best for your blogs and careers.

  37. Pradip Delhi

    Sir
    I am 55 yr old.
    But enough to beat guys of 30sssss.
    I wann to have a big screen.
    My need——
    Daily TRADING Terminal with 4 open separate charts of stocks in share trading.
    And videos …movies…Tv channels. ( Jio Fiber)
    Going to buy a workstation high end instead desktop immediately.
    Now need monitor.

    I selected “Acer DM431K ” (Amazon—49990/- )

    Is there any problem??

    Pl disscuss./tell me.

    Thanks in advance.

    and
    Movies/videos… in 4k.
    I like Acer DM431K .

    You are gem in comparison of monsters, I realized.
    Thanks for such huge pain, time for this. (Without a penny)

    • kshitij

      Yea you can go for it. Stock trading is one of the rare case scenarios where such a huge monitor makes sense. You will be able to open four full-sized windows and see everything. But, it is going to be a huge monitor, so you will have to learn to use the space well.

      The alternative option is to buy four full HD monitors and keep them on a monitor-stand. The advantage is that you can angle it however you want, and keep all windows in full screen in each monitor. The only disadvantage is that you can’t use it for a Big-TV like experience. And talking about that, this monitor has an IPS panel which is the best to be used as a monitor, but for watching movies it will not match the contrast (black-levels) of TVs sold at same price(They use VA panels). It is not a problem as almost everyone use their monitor to watch videos, but just telling you incase you are more into watching movies.

      Incase you decide to go with the huge 43inch acer monitor and you are buying from amazon, you can use my affiliate link — https://amzn.to/39Ovtyx

      If you instead want to buy four full HD 24inch monitors, I can recommend that too.

    • kshitij

      No, that is not a good idea. If your main purpose is just watching videos and movies with occasional usage as a monitor, you can go for it. But, for programming, it will cause eye strain and even migraine as you will be viewing it for a very long period on a daily basis. It would be better to get a 32inch monitor or two 27inch.

  38. Vishnu Sreenath

    Funny !!! I couldn’t reply to your last message in the same thread….
    Anyways I bought myself the LG 27GL850… I was quite surprised to see that back in stock….
    Cost around 36K but does serve my purpose very well….

    • kshitij

      Great! Thanks for coming back and letting others know.

  39. Sheetesh

    This is one of the best articles i have seen on the internet since i started researching for monitors a few days ago. I also gravitated towards 32 inch as it gives loads of real estate. My only qualm was whether to go for a qhd or 4k.
    I use a 24 inch fhd ips panel with office mac on the sideso i know how a qhd will look at 32 inches. Although my 24 in monitor is great but it is not as crips as the mac. The font is also slimmer on mac. So a 4k 32 inch will be a better choice. But the qhd monitors are cheaper and also we get an ips panel. Hence the dilemma.
    What are your thoughts on using a 42 inch 4k tv as a monitor. That would have similar ppi as a 27 in qhd?

    • kshitij

      I would suggest avoiding using a TV as a monitor. TVs generally have lower quality panels as they are not watched from close distances like monitors to notice the Imperfections. Also, TVs have high input lag. It may also increase stress on your eyes, at least I have felt so after trying to use a tv as a monitor. Some newer generation TVs like the OLED TVs or some other higher-end TVs are nowadays of equal or better quality than typical monitors, so if those are what you are thinking about, then it might work fine. There is one Acer 43inch 4k monitor available on amazon for Rs45k, but I would suggest to avoid it as it is just too big to be used comfortably as a monitor for general purposes unless you have a specific use-case where it makes sense.

      If you want a good 4k IPS monitor, this is kindof your only option – LG 27inch monitor. It is 27inch but it is great quality.

      Almost all 32 inch monitors have gone either out of stock or their prices has gone up. If you still want 32inch 4k, this Benq is your only choice. It is VA, but it is good panel.

  40. Sameer

    Hi Kshitij,

    This is a great post and thanks for sharing. It would be really helpful if you could share some best 24-25 inch monitors.

    • kshitij

      Ok, I will make a post in a few days.

  41. Rakesh

    Hi Kshitij,

    Thanks for a wonderful article. This really helped me clear off some of my wrong notions. Can you please help me decide on 4k vs Ultra wide monitors? My requirement is mostly going to be development and watching media content (Youtube / movies / sports). I am neither a gaming maniac nor do I work with media (photo/video) editors. Also, I would prefer a USB Type C monitor but it is not something a MUST to have. I can definitely live without it.

    With ultrawide monitor, will the media content look ‘ugly’ if I use any plugin such as UltraWide Video in Chrome to stretch the content ?

    Budget is around 50 – 55k. I had LG 27UK850 and BenQ EW3270U / EW3280U in my mind. Can you suggest any other monitors? Also, any feedback on after sales service will also help in deciding.

    Thanks again!

    • kshitij

      4K is the better choice. The main issue with ultrawide in regards to watching media is that 99% of content doesn’t fit properly. So, you end up with black bars on the sides most of the time. Another issue is that there is no good choice in the Indian market at a reasonable price. A 34+ inch ultrawide would be good for productivity but no good options are available here. And at that point, it is often better to have a dual monitor setup.

      This Benq monitor is kindof your only choice. And it has USB-type-c, but currently due to huge demand, the price has increased from 35k to 41k.

      That said, if you are going to have a dual-monitor setup, I can recommend two 27 inch monitors.

      • Rakesh

        Thanks for your response Kshitij. I will re-consider. Thanks for your inputs !

  42. Sourabh Joshi

    Could you do a similar article for 24inch monitors

    • kshitij

      Ok, I will write a new article for 24 inch monitors soon.

  43. Gautaum

    Hi Kshitij,
    Amazing detailed article. But I am looking for 27inch WQHD, as 32inch would be too big. My primary requirement is to have another screen for coding purpose and movies/videos. I have macbook pro 15inch early 2013 model, which support max WQHD displays(according to Apple), few people have claimed they have 4k working but i am not sure and don’t want to take the risk.
    Also Samsung 27-inch WQHD Curved 144hz Gaming Monitor LC27JG54QQWXXL you suggested, i can’t find it. Also its prices is not mentioned anywhere. Could you suggest some good 27inch WQHD, there are very few. Also can you review the below-
    1 – https://www.amazon.in/Samsung-inch-68-4-Curved-Monitor/dp/B077Y18T97/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=ll1&tag=tech0f7-21&linkId=005d79a5c394d53352d8847efd52af92&language=en_IN
    2 – https://www.amazon.in/dp/B06XT5BL3M/ref=as_li_ss_tl?&th=1&psc=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=tech0f7-21&linkId=857caf3f2f4ebb21187c6e0de4a32f1d&language=en_IN

    • kshitij

      Due to huge demand caused by people working from hope, all good monitors are going out of stock. In case you want 144hz you can go with Acer nitro but it is an IPS panel which is great for productivity tasks like coding. But, if your main purpose is movie watching, then go with the first samsung mentioned in your links. It has VA panel which is great for watching videos.

      • Gautaum

        I have been reviewing your comments and you said that 32inch QHD would not be bad for coding, and currently i want it more for coding purpose but will also watch movie sometimes, and now the more i think about it i think i can go for one 32 inch. What would you recommend 27 or 32? My mac might not support 144hz so that dosen’t matter. In 32inch I am now looking at ViewSonic 32 and LG Ultragear 32-inch QHD (2K), ViewSonic is out of stock. Is there any other monitor i should look for or Lg one would be fine for my purpose. Thanks for all the help.

        • kshitij

          I recommend 32 inch, and I am a developer myself. It is great to be able to see everything at proper sizes. Monitors are going out of stock very quickly these days, and even LG ultragear often go out of stock. Viewsonic was the slightly better choice among the two, but currently the best available choice is LG ultragear. It should be fine for your purpose.

          • Gautaum

            Hey thanks a lot for your prompt response. It’s been very helpful. I will order it now.
            Last question how to connect it with mac, there are two options mini HDMI or using thunderbolt port, i need to buy connector either way so which one would be better?

          • kshitij

            I don’t know which mac you have, but the best option to connect a monitor to a laptop is via a thunderbolt dock. You connect your keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, USB hard drives etc to the dock at all times, and when your laptop is near, you connect it to the dock using the single thunderbolt cable and you have a complete desktop-replacement laptop ready at your disposal.

            If that option doesn’t sound interesting to you, then well HDMI is the second option.

          • Gautaum

            Hey Thanks for the prompt reply. I can’t reply to your latest message so replying where getting an option. Now the Benq 32 inch 4k monitor you mentioned is showing 45k, which is way above my budget. Also my mac can support max qhd display, so I was not looking for 4k. Do you think it would be fine running qhd in 4k display, will the monitor even work, not sure about that so didn’t even look for those, I can stretch my budget to 30k max..
            I can wait for couple of weeks, for the LG one, hopefully it comes in the same price range 25k.

          • kshitij

            In that case best to wait few weeks for LG to come back to available. And yea, when it becomes available, it often reduces price to 25k. Benq reduces to 35k when it becomes available and increases by 10k when it is short on stock.

            Yes, you can run a higher resolution display at lower resolution, but clarity would be slightly less than a native 1440p display. Also, unless your mac is very old, it might support 4k 60hz through thunderbolt or displayport.

          • Gautaum

            I have Macbook Pro 15 inch retina early 2013 model, below is it’s config from apple(https://support.apple.com/kb/sp669?locale=en_IN).

            Dual display and video mirroring:
            Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, at millions of colors.

          • kshitij

            ok then 4k might not work.

          • Gautaum

            Hey Kshitij,
            LG UltraGear price is not coming down it is sitting at around 34k. What should i do? Is there any other monitor that is good and under 25k?

        • Gautaum

          Hey Kshitij,
          I ordered LG 32 inch QHD monitor but order got cancelled and now it is our of stock. Can you recommend any other 32inch QHD monitor?

          • kshitij

            Assuming you don’t want high refresh rate, get this Benq 32 inch monitor. It is 4k and is an all-round great monitor. It is also more expensive, but 35k is the lowest it has been in the past few weeks. It is also likely to go out of stock soon.

            All other 32inch good monitors also went out of stock. The LG one you are referring to frequently go out of stock but good thing is that they often come back in stock in couple of weeks if you want to wait. But, in my opinion get the Benq unless you are a gamer and need high refresh rate.

  44. SM Sagar

    Thanks Kshitij for excellent article, helped me to clarify many questions I had earlier. I am planning to buy 24/27 inch monitor which I will use for development work and as TV by connecting Fire stick (without laptop). No plans to use it for gaming. I was thinking about below models. Can you suggest which one will be better? or any other options? Budget around 20k.
    1. BenQ EW2780 – https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07YBS2C12/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_2?smid=A359UAXQFZOMOY&psc=1
    2. LG 24MP88HV – https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B01BGI6GZC/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=AG4YRXGQZFZ11&psc=1
    3. BenQ GW2780 – https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B073NTCT4R/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A1TAU5OLY196DS&psc=1
    4. HP 4TB30AA – https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B07MNXHN5M/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_5?smid=AS3PVMAQXH54K&psc=1

    • kshitij

      None of the monitors you listed are particularly good except the LG. If you are planning to use it as a TV, you should seriously look into a 32inch monitor as that works perfectly as a TV, also more development space is great for programming, I am a developer myself. My first suggestion will be to extend the budget by 5k and get this 32 inch monitor

      One thing to note is that firestick do not support the 1440p resolution, so it will default to 1080p while using it with this monitor, which is fine in my opinion but you won’t get best resolution while using it.

      • Sagar

        Thanks for your suggestion. I will consider that. Have one more basic question related to Audio Out port and Headphone jack. If we have any of those ports in monitor (without in-build speakers) can we connect external speakers using that without laptop/additional hardware to get it worked for firestick?

        • kshitij

          Yes, the 3.5mm audio out port can be used to connect external speakers. And yea, it should work with firestick.

  45. Babu A

    Thanks Kshitij. I ordered for LG ultragear 32 inches and I loved the display however, it is just too big for me and returning it. I want to go for 27 inches and would be using only for productivity with major focus on excel models. I can’t go for 32 as I need to maintain more than 1.5 ft and am not comfortable with that distance. I am not into gaming and not gonna watch movies in this. Any other recommendation with budget around 25k pls?

    Your views on https://www.amazon.in/dp/B083M6S11B/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_1WVdFbYPKQ9BF

      • Babu

        You believe the QHD Lenovo I pinged above is not good. I use a Surface Laptop 2 version. Not sure whether it is compatible with 4K monitor. Also, would like to hear your thoughts on the one I pinged (lenovo QHD – new launch)

        • kshitij

          That monitor is okay, but they are not well known for quality monitors, so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are okay with taking the risk. Your laptop supports 4k 60hz through its mini display port connection, and the monitor has a display port so all you need is a cable like this.

          If for any other reason you don’t want 4k, I recommend Acer Nitro as it is a solid well known monitor with excellent panel. The extra refresh rate will also make everything feel smoother like even scrolling through internet will feel smooth.

  46. Sunil

    Hi kshitij.
    Brilliant article, I need to thank you for providing an detailed explanation on monitors. There are far few articles on monitors, which makes this insightful.
    Could you kindly comment on my choice of monitor. I am thinking of buying Dell professional monitor.
    https://www.flipkart.com/dell-27-inch-full-hd-led-backlit-ips-panel-monitor-p2719h/p/itmf8k2hh3kqngqa
    27″ is ideal for me, considering i use it for office purpose and movies. Is this a good buy considering my budget is around 30k?

    • kshitij

      No, it is not good. That is a 1080p monitor while you can get a 1440p or 2160p monitor at that price. It is also quite an old panel. For your use case of office work and watching movies at 27inch, this is the best option – LG 4k monitor. It is 4k, HDR, good color accuracy, and is overall a very good panel.

      This assumes your computer supports 4k 60hz, if you don’t know, reply with your specs and I will check.

    • kshitij

      Both of them are excellent monitors. They are newly launched thus not in the list, but I will add it. The Prodesigner monitor has an absolute best quality panel which can show incredible levels of color gaumat at high accuracy. Meanwhile the other one(Acer B277K) is also excelent in every way, it is just that the first one is designed for professionals while the second one is meant for consumers thus slightly lacks accuracy levels. Both are so good that normal users won’t notice much difference, but if you want the absolute best panel, then go for prodesigner option otherwise save some money.

  47. Kiran

    Hi Excellent Article,
    can you please do the same on curved Monitors ONLY

    • kshitij

      There are not a lot of curved monitors to write an article about, and most people don’t seem to care about it, also curve is useful only in large monitors like 32inch ones.
      If you want the curve, the best option is Viewsonic 1440p curved monitor. It is great panel, curved and has good specs.

      • Kiran

        Hi Thank you for your quick response, I today have a Samsung 24 inch Curved gaming display that i use for productivity and its fantastic, I was looking at the various ultrawide monitors … but they are just too expensive, I was looking to get the samsung 27inch but as yoiu state above the experience is just not there. Thank you for your suggestion. Just placed my order for the Moniter. Thanks

  48. Vishnu Sreenath

    Hi,
    Thank you for writing this amazing article on monitors…. I have been reading a lot about monitors these days since I’m looking for an all round 27″ 2K monitor for gaming and professional use(Programming). This article was by far is the easiest to understand due to its simple structure and to the point content.
    One thing I want to point out here is that the LG Ultragear 27inch priced at Rs 23K(LG 27GL650F) is a 1080p monitor I believe. Please re-verify this information. LG 27GL850 is a 2K monitor which I can’t find available anywhere as on today in India. Also, I checked offline in some LG stores near by. They don’t have any monitor in stock unfortunately and they have no idea when they will be back in stock.
    Since these are COVID times and most of us are working from home, the need for a decent monitor is very high. I’m stuck with a 14″ office lap and have to work 9- 11 hours a day with it.
    I have plans on building a new gaming PC (capable of gaming at 1440p )in the next few months and was planning to get the monitor along with it. But since I need the monitor now for my official work, I’m trying to get the right one now so that I don’t have to be sorry later on.

    Please recommend some options on the 27″ 2K monitors with min 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms RT. Thanks again for the article… I’ll share it with my friends as well… 🙂

    • kshitij

      Yup you are right, that one is not 2k and has been removed from the list. I think I got it mixed up or it earlier said 1440p. The LG 27GL850 (2k) was available in India for the price of 34k on Amazon but it quickly went out of stock about 4 weeks ago.

      Are you absolutely sure you don’t want the 32inch? They work perfectly well and give more space for programming, and is also great for gaming. Don’t think it would be too big or something. I suggest Viewsonic 32 curved as the first choice. It ticks all boxes and is a great panel. It is also likely to go out of stock soon based on what I have been seeing for past few months.

      Acer Nitro XV272U is the only good choice I can see if you are insisting on 27inch with that spec, but it does have one of the fastest response time. And yes, the price is likely to remain at this 30k level for forceable future.

      • Vishnu Sreenath

        I am quite sure I don’t want a 32″ one. There are multiple reasons for this.
        1) I don’t think I’ll be comfortable with something that big up close to me.
        2) Even though my planned set up will be capable of gaming at 1440p, while playing first person shooters, I probably will have to downscale to 1080p for utilizing the fast refresh rates of the monitor. I’m already in two minds on this on a 27″ monitor. 32″ monitor at 1080p is not even in the picture…
        I was wondering what the ppi will be if I use the 1440p monitor for 1080p gaming(just for those cases though). I’m quite sure I’ll be happy with everything else at 1440p .

        • kshitij

          If you are going to make your PC in the next few months, then consider waiting for the Nvidia 3000series and AMD Big Navi to launch. They are going to be aimed at 4k gaming and would give a massive GPU performance boost of 30% to 50% at the same price that would solve your dilemma. But, even then if you have to play in 1080p, that would be alright. Playing 1080p on my 32inch 1440p monitor looks totally great and not pixelated. If you have a 40ish inch TV near you, just go near it and see if it is okay. Also, for any reason you feel it is big, you can just sit a little further away if that is possible in your setup and use your monitor as a TV.

          • Vishnu Sreenath

            Yes… I will wait for the RTX 3000 series and AMD Big Navi launch. I am also looking forward to the launch of zen 3 based Ryzen processors. There is more time to that and lets see what they come up with.
            I have a 32″ TV at home and I tried sitting close to it(like I would with my set up). I found that uncomfortable after some time and felt really no need of it. May be it is just that I’m used to working with 22” and 24” ones at work, the 32″ one felt overwhelming to me. I’m just sad there are not much options these days to choose from in terms of availability.

            I probably got this confusion of 1080p on a 1440p monitor bcoz of too much googling. It is something similar to searching for some symptoms in google and realizing that as per google you have a major disease and probably will die tmrw…

          • kshitij

            32inch tv at your home has 4 times less pixels than a 1440p monitor. That would mean you cannot sit upclose to it like a monitor because everything will be pixellated so much that it would give you a headache. Anyways, if 27 is better for you, then go for it. But, yea choices are less nowadays, demand is high and everything is getting sold out.

  49. Babu

    Hi,
    This is definitely one of the well written articles on the monitor. Thanks again for this. I am a finance professional and bit amateur on techie stuff. This definitely gave me the necessary inputs before choosing one.
    2 questions: (i) For folks like me who spend most of the time on complex excel models/ reviews, does ultrawide monitor create stress on eyes given you need to move your eyes from one end to another often? (ii) Hence, in parallel, thinking probably curved monitor would not be a bad idea either.
    I am looking at something above 29 inches for sure. Don’t wanna spend more than 25K while i can foot the bill to my work arnd 18K or so :). your thoughts / recommendation pls?

    • kshitij

      For excel and all, the extra Vertical height offered by a 32-inch monitor is better than the horizontal space offered by an ultrawide. Your optimum solution is one 32 inch monitor, or if you do lot of multi-tasking requiring frequent switching between multiple windows, then the better option is to have a Dual monitor setup(24inch two monitors). I feel like the one big monitor maybe what you are looking at.

      And, no there is no increased stress by having to look from side to side, for that to happen, you will have to go for 40+inch size and then sit too close to it. 32 inch at one hand distance is just perfect.

      The best option is this 32inch Viewsonic monitor, while the second best option is this LG monitor – https://amzn.to/3e7UBRK
      Due to the high refresh rate, everything will look incredibly smooth, like scrolling, opening windows etc.

  50. Vedant V

    Thanks a lot for this wonderful article. I am looking for 1440p options in the 27 inch category and since the focus is mainly office work, video editing & YouTune/Prime Video planning for a 1440p one. None of the ViewSonic ones that you had listed are available on Amazon.in anymore. I am looking at the Acer Nitro 27-inch VG271U. Request you to share your thoughts on the same and share alternative for the requirements that I have called out. Thanks in advance.

    • kshitij

      For video editing, it is highly recommended that you go for a 32inch with the best option being this viewsonic monitor. You can really make use of the extra space and see everything in a non-cluttered interface.

      There is a shortage of monitors currently due to the current ongoing crisis. So, lot of products are either going out of stock or prices are being increased. The Acer monitor you mentioned is excellent option but its normal price is 25k range, while it is currently priced at 35k. Also it is an IPS panel which is great for some tasks but for video-watching VA panel is much better due to 300% more contrast ratio.

      You would really be better off with the 32inch Viewsonic I mentioned above.

      • Vedant V

        Thanks for the link on ViewSonic but not comfortable with a Curved Monitor.
        Also, yes – I did see the price of the Acer Monitor at 25.2 K sometime back – wil wait for the next sale possibly.

        Also, I came across one more from Benq which seems to have good speakers and a subwoofer as well as well- the Benq 2780Q (https://www.amazon.in/BenQ-EX2780Q-Monitor-Channel-Metallic/dp/B07X8HBHJP/). It is priced currently at 35K – any idea what should be a good price to get this at and your comments on the 2780Q?

        • kshitij

          EX2780Q has been overpriced at over 35k since forever, thus not worth considering. If 1440p, 144hz is what you are looking, this is a great value 32inch monitor – LG Ultragear 32

          If you anyway want a 27 inch then same model is available in 27inch too. Lg Ultragear 27 at 22.5k. [Price of both of them are unlikely to drop in the near future. This is as low as they go generally.]

          this Acer one is a good choice and maybe the one you are talking about.

  51. Namita Ravindran

    Hi,

    Thank you for this article. My primary use is for work, it involves having multiple screens open at once. I prefer having a single mentor to dual monitors. So zeroed down on LG Ultragear 144Hz,1ms 32″ QHD (2K) Gaming Monitor with Radeon Freesync – 32GK650 after reading your article.
    I need to connect my MacBook Pro (2019 model) to this. Would you recommend any particular HDMI cable for this?

    • kshitij

      If your main work is in having multiple windows open, then the best will be to have multiple monitors dedicated for each task as then you can see all your windows in full screen mode. You can probably get a dock

      If you want to go with a single monitor setup, you can go with the LG Ultragear, or if you want a slightly better panel that is also curved, you can go for this 32inch Viewsonic monitor –
      https://amzn.to/2Aoawxg [Make sure if you want curve or not before going for it. Some people working in design who use software like Autocad dislike the curve as they need straight lines for their work.]

      Regarding the HDMI cable, use the one which comes for free along with the monitor. The viewsonic one comes with a free display port cable, so incase your Dock doesn’t have it, then you might have to purchase an HDMI cable and in that case any hdmi cable would do like this one

  52. Punyasloka Parida

    Thanks for this wonderful article. I was initially hunting for 27 inch QHD, but there are so few out there. Everyone is selling FHD in 27 inch! Thankfully, your PPI calculations have given me the assurance that it is okay to have a QHD in 32 inch as well!

    I am a developer and currently looking for a monitor to connect my laptop. So, my primary use case is work (development), a bit of gaming (my laptop doesn’t have an external graphic card and i am no hardcore gamer) and sometimes I work on Adobe Photo Editing Tools but not as my primary work, just as an hobby. So, I am totally okay with 60Hz refresh rate but 144Hz would be great. Also, I think I would mostly go with a VA panel and color accuracy matters a bit to me.

    So, I have chosen these two from your list –

    * LG – 32GK650 – https://amzn.to/2Aq9roM – (I hope this is a VA Panel. Some comment and one of the product image suggest that it is a TN panel) which is 25K INR.

    * VX3258-2KPC-MHD – https://amzn.to/3eUUBFJ – (This is not from your list) but this got my attention when I was looking for VX3276-2k-mhd from the ViewSonic official page. Seems like a newer model but amazon has only 8 reviews. Also, I couldn’t find VX3276-2k-mhd on amazon. VX3258 has higher refresh rate and has 88% NTSC wide colour gamut coverage (https://bit.ly/31ATxmM) as opposed to 75% NTSC but I am not sure if it is a 8bit or 10 bit. I would appreciate your input on this ? Would you add it your list if you find this is a good buy or a better alternative to VX3258.

    I have narrowed down these two Monitors. Can you suggest which one should I go for it given my use case or if you have any other alternative, please let me know.

    Thanks in Advance!

    • kshitij

      Both of them are great monitors but among these, I would prefer the viewsonic as it has a slightly better panel and that curve helps at 32inch size. It was not in this list as of now because it wasn’t available in India till some time ago. I will update the list this month to add it. And regarding the bits, I think it is 10bit(8bit+2frc).

      Regarding the curve, you need to be sure if you want a curve or not, if you deal with designing objects that require straight lines, then some people do not prefer the curve. And for gaming, you will have to go to viewsonic’s settings and adjust the response time to the fast settings as by default they keep it at average response time settings.

      • Punyasloka Parida

        I finally ordered the Viewsonic VX3258-2KPC-MHD and is out of stock now! I am hoping that it fulfills my needs. Will update this thread after some regular usage.

        • kshitij

          Yeah it will. I had mentioned in my recent comment to Vishnu that it is very likely to go out of stock soon. [viewsonic]

          And it would be excellent if you come back and comment your review about it.

  53. Ankur

    Hey Kshitij,

    Thank you for this detailed post. It is much appreciated. I would suggest if you can add a index on the top with anchor links to different segments, that would help.

    As I read the first few lines of the post, I could feel a deja vu. Exactly my story. However I have never really used an external monitor with my MacBook 13″. But I have almost always used an external keyboard and mouse. So half way there.

    I have several questions, so thank you (again) in advance for reading and hopefully replying.

    My usage is lot of reading, writing, minimal YT video editing (no colour correction type work) and the usual office work. No serious coding or gaming expected. I guess text / webpage clarity and image clarity that doesn’t visibly look worse than my Retina MacBook Pro should work for me.

    On 32″ – reading your comments, I am reluctantly but increasingly convinced that a single 32″ option isn’t too big and can be productive. A 32″ further helps as at this point, I have room for only 1 monitor. I started with a budget of 20,000, but guess I am okay to bump it up to 30,000. However are there practical benefits of having a 2 monitor setup? Like being able to much more seamlessly move a window or tab to another screen?

    I like the LG 32″ option (32GK650) that you have suggested. However RTINGS in its review (under the colour depth section) mentions “Unfortunately, the 32GK650F-B has worse gradient handling than most monitors. There’s noticeable banding in areas of similar color.” They don’t have a review for the Viewsonic 1440p that you have suggest, so I couldn’t compare. I preferred the LG as it has a much more adjustable stand. But can go for the Viewsonic as well if it is better.

    I may also consider the BENQ 32″ 4K which you have suggested, but my ageing MBP 2015 may slow down. Will test a friends 4K monitor later this week. Also it is seemingly above my new increased 30k budget. The case in favour of it of course is that, it is once a decade investment, such tough choices 🙂

    Thanks
    Ankur

    • kshitij

      Big screens are fantastic to read documents and browse websites. You will never feel the “congested” atmosphere most websites provide. You will be able to view an entire A4 document in a single screen, or if you want two A4 side by side, that is also possible.

      The benefit of two monitors side by side is more psychological than technical. Even if you get a 32inch 4k monitor, you will instinctively want to run everything in full screen mode and you will soon get used to that size and then, dividing the screen into two to show two windows will feel congested to you, thus making you run everything in full screen mode almost always. Meanwhile, if you have two displays, then you have no choice but to compartmentalize your work.

      And, it is easy to put everything in full screen, like you can have youtube running in full screen in one monitor while browsing on the another. Also, two 27 inch monitors gives more combined area than a single 32inch monitor. So, for multi-tasking productivity, two monitors are generally more useful. But, since you already have the laptop’s screen, you can run your secondary stuff on your laptop screen while doing main things on your monitor thus getting semi-benefit of the dual screen while also enjoying the size of a 32inch.

      And, 32 inch is not as big as you think once you use it for a few days. It is in my opinion the best monitor size. Once you get used to it, you will feel cramped in anything smaller and you will think how you got by all these days on smaller displays. The best thing about it is the vertical space. You can see so much more while just browsing around the internet, while you would have to scroll in smaller screens.

      1440p is the minimum resolution suitable for 32inch, and it looks perfect while sitting one hand distance from the screen, but if you want the crispy sharpness, then you need more PPI which is what Apple calls retina, and for that, you will want 4k.

      According to some forums I checked, your macbook should be able to run multiple 4k monitors at 60hz. And I am 100% sure you will be able to run at least one monitor at 4k 60hz smoothly. And yes, it would be a good idea to test it out with your friends monitor to get a feel of it.

      Lg’s 32G650 is more meant for those who are into gaming, it gives great value for money high refresh rate screen, but sacrifices a little on color coverage and accuracy.

      If you want to save some money, you can get this Acer 32inch 4k for under 28k [It is good, only a bit less colour coverage and lacks basic level hdr which BenQ offers. This was the best option available before Benq came to the scene.]

      If you don’t want that compromise, you can get the benq 32inch 4k since you are anyway spending so much money why not get the best.

      And regarding the stand, it is best to get a monitor arm in the future so that you can adjust your screen any way you like. The benq monitor mentioned above weighs 5.9kg and is compatible with this monitor arm.

      Assuming you will be using the monitor on a regular basis, it is well worth investing on a good monitor as you will be looking at it for a better part of your life, so make it something worth looking at.

      My affiliate link for BenQ monitor – https://amzn.to/2CNDx6l

      • Ankur

        Thanks Kshitij,

        I got the Benq 32″. I am using it at 1440p resolution as 4k is difficult for reading. It largely works well, and I am happy with the size. For some reason it still doesn’t look at good as my MacBook Pro display, the colours etc seem slightly different. After some tinkering with the settings, I have found a balance that works for me, but I wonder if it is the VA vs the IPS.

        I am also recently having some eye fatigue. Extreme difficulty in focusing on text on screen. More on the Benq than my Macbook, but it may be because of increased work hours or my room lighting which still needs some tweaking. Is 24″ a good distance between the 32″ monitor and my eye?

        For some reason I can visibly feel the slower refresh space when scrolling or moving between different spaces on 32″. Is that feeling amplified because of the large screen?

        Overall I am happy with the large external screen and would be keeping this. Guess some more acclimatisation is needed.

        PS: I couldn’t use your affiliate link because I wanted to go with a bank offer. However I have bookmarked your affiliate link and have started to use it for other purchases.

        Regards
        Ankur`

        • kshitij

          You shouldn’t use it in 1440p resolution like that as not showing native resolution will cause a slight amount of blur in any monitor which may cause the issues you described, instead, you should use it in 4k and then do scaling in your operating system to zoom every software by 150% to 200% so that everything is at readable size. This is how you will get text and things at a reasonable size while taking advantage of the 4k. Check this article

          You should also adjust the brightness of the display to an appropriate LOW brightness level if you are using it primarily for work, and while watching movies/videos, set it to higher brightness for better clarity. There are modes in the settings to quickly change the settings.

          Also, verify that the 4k is working in 60hz and not 30hz. And yes VA vs IPS will cause colours to look a bit different.

  54. Nikhil

    Hi Kshitij!

    Thanks for the wonderful article. Absolutely really detailed but would still love your personal opinion on this.
    I currently own a BenQ GL 2450H and I primarily use it for my PS4 needs. Have been thinking of upgrading it to a 32inch monitor. Having gamed on this monitor, I can safely state that Response time is of much importance to me and it is something that annoys me about getting a TV for console gaming. However, I’d like your suggestion on which monitor I can consider as an upgrade.

    Thanks in advance 🙂

    • kshitij

      For PS4 gaming, the best option without considering the price is LG’s OLED TVs, but they cost over 1.5lakh thus may not make sense. You get both a fantastic TV and a place to game with low response time. Some of the newer TVs from other companies also have a lower response time in gaming mode, but not as good as monitors.

      In case of monitor,

      If you plan to connect it to PC and play is higher FPS(144hz) in the future, then get LG Ultragear – https://amzn.to/2Zfqli9

      If you are okay with 32inch but want lowest input lag and price is no issue – Acer Nitro XV273K – https://amzn.to/2ZfsZV7 [It has the crazy combo of 4k 144hz and IPS. It is GSYNC compatible and has ultra low input lag, but costs a bomb of Rs 60k+ price.]

      Alternatively, the best option is Benq 32 inch – https://amzn.to/387uoRP

      Its response time and input lag is good. And, since it is VA, the contrast is also excellent. Since, PS4 doesn’t support over 60fps, that is also fine. And, you can also use it in future as a 4k monitor. It is a good allrounder monitor.

      I think whatever you are choosing, consider the near future as well when you may want to use a PS5 or PC.

      • Nikhil

        Hey Kshitij,

        Thanks for your reply. Still have a couple of questions. Any suggestions on the TVs with lower response time with gaming mode? I’d love to check them out.

        The Acer Nitro seems a bit farfetched, but if you had to choose, which one would you pick?

        I currently do own a Razer Blade 15 with a 2070, but I primarily game on the PS4. And yes, the PS5 is definitely on the cards once it is out.

        • kshitij

          Even the best TVs have 12ms of input lag, while it is around 2ms for best monitors. While this is not a big noticable difference, if you are buying exclusively for the lowest input lag, you may want to go with a monitor. And, at what budget are you looking a TV? Almost all of the TVs will cost you above or around 1 lakh. OLED Tvs I mentioned earlier are the best choices. Samsung’s QLED is the next best choice(Q60T, Q70T etc) but their availability seems to be low in India.

          And regarding the monitors, the acer nitro’s price suddenly fell from 65k to 57k currently – Acer Nitro XV273K – https://amzn.to/2ZfsZV7

          If the price doesn’t matter to me, then I would pick that one. Otherwise I would pick the LG Ultragear 144hz https://amzn.to/2Zfqli9 as I would be able to game on both the Razer blade and PS4 on it at a price of 24k.

  55. Seth

    Hello Kshitij
    Thank you for writing this article and this does help me understand the type of monitors around for the budget. Even with a well written article, am not able to make a decision due to multiple monitor reviews and views that I have seen on internet. Hope you can help me here.
    I currently use a 2017 MacBook Air and want a monitor so that I can have the benefit of dual screens for productivity. I started of by looking at dual monitors and then the Ultrawide (curved)monitors caught my eye and with a real estate of 40 inches( desk), I thought Its best to have a curved monitor 29″ or more which can be mounted on an arm paired with MacBook Air.
    Apart from office work , I would be using this for infrequent gaming ( PS4)& entertainment ( movies etc). Not fussed about getting a sound option on monitor & open to suggestion for dual screens if you think that fits the case here . I would also be adding bluetooth devices ( speaker, mouse keyboard and expect scaling ) Appreciate your advise / recommendations.

    • kshitij

      Firstly, 32inch 4k is better than 29inch ultrawide for your purpose. 32inch options has more resolution and size than a 32inch one.

      Secondly, I will make your choice easy, get this Benq 4k monitor – It has a very good quality panel along with basic HDR support. This will be the best for movie watching, looking at photos, youtube etc and also you will get a lot of real estate for your office work.

      It is basically Four laptop-sized 1080p displays kept together in a screen. You can keep multiple windows open at the same time. It also has USB-type-C. It will cost you Rs35k and is, in my opinion, the best option for your purpose in ANY price range up to 75k. It will complement well with your Macbook Air’s tiny screen.

      But, you are not going to use this as your “secondary” display, instead this will be the main monitor you will always use while the laptop screen will be a neglected display you occasionally use to put some secondary information. The perfect positioning for this setup will be to have the laptop placed on the desk or keyboard tray in such a way that the top of the laptop screen is touching the bottom of the monitor as shown in this photo. My current setup is like this, and it works the best. Basically what I am saying is to not go for an arm to hold the laptop, it is usually not the optimal setup.

      But one potential problem I forsee is that your laptop is too low specced. This makes me doubt if it will be able to smoothly run a 4k external monitor. I checked with apple website and it says that it supports 4k 60hz but it may not be smooth experience. If you have a 4k TV or any other 4k display available, you might want to first test out if your laptop is able to run it smoothly.

      Edit – I contacted a friend who has a macbook air, and he said he is able to smoothly connect to 4k TV so I guess it is not an issue. Also this article confirms that even older macbook air supports 4k 60hz.

      It would be awesome if you use my affiliate links before purchase – https://amzn.to/2zKmykm

      • Dhruv Gupta

        Hi Kshitij,

        I just chanced upon your blog article. Extremely detailed, your focus on value for money is really heartwarming.

        To understand, you are suggesting the BenQ-EW3270U model which seems to be a great fit for 99% of my use case scenario.

        Having said that, I’ve sort been conditioned into believing that a 34″ ultra-wide setup would be the best fit for y needs (I’m a digital marketer and have around 3-4 tabs constantly open that I need to refer at any given point in time).

        Do you think, this monitor would do good with for my productivity needs? I just feel having my tabs side to side in a horizontal fashion would be the best way to manage my time most efficiently.

        If not, would you be kind enough to give an alternate suggestion for a decent monitor under 40K that is more suitable to my needs?

        I researched and found this Samsung-LC34J791WTWXXL, but this one is for 62k. I can stretch it to there if its worth it, but I really like the value BenQ is providing.

        For your reference, I use a 2020 Macbook Pro 13″ with 10th Gen Intel Core i5 inside.

        Thanks in advance.

        • kshitij

          It is much much better to have a dual monitor setup for productivity than to adjust it on the same screen. From what I have observed, people want to keep everything in full screen mode, and this is best achieved on a two-monitor setup, where you can assign some work to one monitor and other to the second monitor.

          And, yes for keeping two windows on the same monitor, ultrawide is better because of the extra width. But, having 3 windows open simultaneously is going to be difficult on any monitor. This is not due to the lack of real-estate or screen resolution, but when people get bigger monitor, they just expect more space and thus they find it uncomfortable to have more windows open at the same time even though they have much more space than they previously had.

          But, a 4k 32 inch screen is basically Four 15.6inch Full HD laptop screens put together. People are easily able to do lot of tasks on a laptop screen of that specs, if you are able to think of your monitor as 4 laptop screens, then you will be able to use it like that and get max benefit.

          Another alternative is to get 3(or 4) full HD 24inch monitors, and now you have three monitors you can use in full-screen mode for the total cost of around 10k per monitor. This might be the most value for money and productive option as you have a monitor dedicated for each task. If you are not going to use the monitor for gaming or movie watching this would probably be best option. However, you might need some adapter to get that many monitors connected(you first need to confirm this before going ahead with this option).

          But if you want a big screen, I would suggest getting the 32inch benq. Then in the best-case scenario, you will have 4 windows open at the same time, worst case you have 2 windows open at the same time. And, in the future, you can get a second 32inch monitor and have a dual-screen setup. And it would give you more screen real-estate and value than going for one 34inch at 62k price. Also, note that 34inch has less height than a 32inch monitor and has lesser area as illustrated in this site and the Benq is a 4k monitor while the samsung one you mentioned is a 1440p monitor.

          Hope this helps. It would be awesome if you use my affiliate links before purchase – https://amzn.to/2zKmykm

      • Seth

        Thank You Kshitij for your advise. Yes my primary monitor would be the one I invest in and my MacBook will be used for video calls etc.I intend to keep that on a raised platform / stand so that it gives me the benefit to seamlessly interact during a video call. With this explained .. Can I have few documents opened side by side on the BenQ monitor suggested mimicking dual screens? i.e a PPT & Excel , Multiple Apps etc ?. Also the only con I didn’t like for the monitor that you suggested was the thick bezels which looks outdated for today . Seeing you recommend Viewsonic, is there any that fits the bill or any other company?

        • kshitij

          A 4k 32 inch monitor is basically Four 15.6inch Full HD laptop screens put together. People are easily able to do a lot of tasks on a laptop screen of that specs, if you are able to think of your monitor as 4 laptop screens, then you will be able to use it like that and get max benefit. You can also use two windows side by side as you have a lot of space, but generally what happens is that people sit further away from their monitor and thus reduce the benefit of the big screen.

          Regarding the looks, the Benq 32 inch design does look slightly dated, but there aren’t any value for money deals of 32 inch 4k monitor in this price range. The next option you have is this Samsung monitor(https://amzn.to/318k3n6) for Rs9k extra. It is curved and has a modern design, but I don’t feel it is worth the extra cost. Alternatively, you will have to downgrade to a 1440p display or a 27inch which also I don’t think is worth it. So, best to go for Benq – https://amzn.to/2Z5AhLj

  56. Sharath

    Hello Kshitij,

    I got the BenQ 32′ monitor as suggested before, it looks fabulous in HDR emulated mode and other settings tested. Colors really pop as it supports WCG. My nit-pick would be color shift at off-angle (more when viewed from top or standing position).

    Now, am breaking my head on CPU/GPU requirements for running 4K HDR from streaming services on Win 10. For casual PC gaming, I am fine with 1080p since I spend more time on PS4 vanilla which supports HDR (maybe Xbox in future).

    My existing PC is a good old ASUS Crosshair 1st gen motherboard (no-onboard graphics) which released in 2006, paired along with AMD Phenom II x4 940 Black Edition OCed at 3.4 Ghz and Radeon HD6670 1GB DDR5 card (DVI, HDMI1.4, VGA). This PC has 8G DDR2 RAM and 850 Watts 80 Plus rated PSU.

    I was thinking just to upgrade my graphics card to something like RX580/ GTX1650 Super and test 4K HDR capability of the new monitor or do I have to upgrade to APU based Ryzen 5 3400G with compatible AM4 MB supporting HDMI2.0/HDCP2.2/DP1.4. This is more of a HTPC used for media streaming, movies etc. I really don’t want to spend bonkers on upgrading CPU/GPU/MB/RAM etc but looking for least possible upgrade options for this monitor.

    I went through few forums which I listed below; but more questions arise with evolving technology and its compatibility with Win10 😊. Can you suggest my options here?

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/help/4040547/windows-10-display-requirements-hdr-video
    https://www.engadget.com/2019-01-27-hdr-setup-explainer.html
    https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/10/30/what-graphics-card-hdr-pc-games-3/

    Thanks again, appreciate your help!

    • kshitij

      Firstly thank you very much for coming back and reviewing the monitor you purchased. It is always great to know.

      Regarding your PC, it is too old to be salvaged by any easy upgrade. Changing CPU would mean having to change motherboard and RAM. Then you may wonder changing the Power supply and Storage as well. And soon you will end up with a new PC. Graphic cards may work, but there could be bottlenecks in such an old motherboard. You need to check the PCIe version of that board, and also check if it is X16. And even then maybe a second hand GPU would be the cheapest option.

      Since you are saying this is an HTPC, it would be better to consider Xioami mi-box which was recently launched in India for Rs3.5k and it supports 4k HDR. I own it for my TV and its great. This would be the cheapest way to get 4k HDR to play smoothly on your monitor, also you get a remote. It is currently showing out of stock, but would be available in a few days probably.

      • Sharath

        Thank you for the quick response, as always.
        Yes, this PC support PCIe 1.0 x16 and my existing card is PCIe 2.0 x16. Although PCIe slots are backward compatible, I would explore used market or probably look for streaming device as you suggested.

  57. Yogesh

    Hey Kshitij, I have a slightly higher budget (around 50K). Can you recommend me some good monitors in that range. I need it mostly for programming, some content consumption and maybe light gaming. Sometimes I want to pair it up with my MacBook Pro. So a USB Type C port is preferred. Overall I want a good image quality and if possible high refresh rate.

    • kshitij

      I just went through all the options in the 35k to 55k price range for you. There is no monitor that is “worth-it” in the price range as in they offer nothing better than a 35k monitor. I recommend you to get two different monitors and keeping them side by side for a dual-monitor setup.

      1. Get this Benq 4k monitor – This will be the best for movie watching, looking at photos, youtube etc and also you will get lot of real estate to do coding. You can keep multiple windows open at the same time. It also has USB-type-C. It will cost you Rs35k.

      2. Then get the LG ultragear 1440p 144hz monitor when its price comes down to 25k. Its current price of 38k is temporary probably due to it being out of stock. So, grab this one in the future. This will act as your secondary display. For programming, I have noticed that two displays increase productivity a lot as you don’t need to open and close windows all the time. Also, you can put videos on one monitor all the time while working on the other.

      It would be awesome if you use my affiliate links before purchase – https://amzn.to/2zKmykm

      • Yogesh

        Thanks for the reply. Initially I was considering BenQ EX2780Q. Can you take a look at it?

        • kshitij

          Benq Ex2780Q is good at Rs35k with great panel and basic HDR capabilities. But are you sure you want 27inch and not the 32inches I mentioned earlier?

          • Yogesh

            Yes I think 27″ is good for now. Later on if I feel like I need more screen space, I will buy another one for a 2 monitor setup.

  58. Ajai

    Hey Kshitij, great article..In fact, if I may say so, this is one of the best articles on large screen monitors for Indian buyers that I got from search results..definitely a must read for first time or large screen monitor buyers…you have covered terms and explained them in easy to understand words.

    • kshitij

      Thank you very much for your comment. Yes, there are no articles about this topic and that is why I wrote it.

  59. Mukesh K Gautam

    Hi, Kshitij ,

    Once again, Please review Dell UltraSharp 43 4K USB-C Monitor: U4320Q.

    With regards

    • kshitij

      Dell’s UltraSharp lineup is generally high-quality panels. And this monitor you mentioned is also great in all ways, but at what price? And, where are you getting this from?

  60. Mukesh Kumar Gautam

    Hi Kshitij,

    Woww !!! Thanks a lot for writing an amazing article for the new buyers like me who wants to upgrade their tiny monitor using since long long back . We do see a lot of articles created on other electronic devices but this is something people hardly focuses on. Your hardwork is much appreciated !!. You have clarified all the jargons either company uses to mislead us or we get confused while choosing. I want to have a 4K monitor for office work, Net surfing, Movies in 4K definition. Kindly suggest 32 to 43 inches budget is around 40K . (IPS/Crisp color/Good Refresh rate and uses HDMI 2.0b or similar). What necessary changes to be made in CPU/Board please suggest also.

    Waiting for your reply !!!

    With regards

    • kshitij

      I would recommend BenQ 32inch 4k monitor. It is great panel with good color accuracy, has basic HDR capabilities, and its price has never been so low at 35k. Also Benq has the feature of automatic brightness adjust based on room lighting condition. It has HDMI2.0, also it has USB-type-c which will come handy in the future.

      It is VA panel but that is the best for movies and general image quality. You don’t need to worry about it not being IPS or anyhting.

      Regarding CPU changes, you need your board to have a port which supports 4k at 60Hz. That means either display port 1.4 or HDMI 2.0. Older version of the HDMI can only support 4K 30hz. If you let me know your CPU specs, I can confirm if it will work or not.

      There is one Acer 43 inch monitor for Rs45k, but it is not that good panel, and it may become too difficult to use due to its large size. So, not recommended.

      And thanks for your great comment. It would be awesome if you use my affiliate link to make the purchase – https://amzn.to/3ed0P3D

  61. Shyam

    Hi Kshitij,
    This is Shyam again.
    I really liked this post, this gives a complete picture for a layman.
    Bought ViewSonic VX3276-2k-mhd as per your suggestion and its really good.
    Now looking for a budget wireless headphone for phone/skype/webx calls.
    Hope you could put-up a post similar to this one, which will help everyone.
    Thanks,
    Shyam

    • kshitij

      Great to know! And, yes I know a lot about headphones as well which can help many people. I will try to write more articles. But, basically, you need to be sure what exactly you want like there are various sizes available from earphone to on-ear-headphone.

      After buying lot of headphones and earphones, what I realized is that headphones below 3k price range do not last more than one year of use, but is still good value as you can use it more care-free. If that is the budget range, get something like Nu republic or Boat.

      Another thing I realized is that there is not much point in spending too much money as the sound quality of a Rs10k headphone sounded maybe 15% better than a Rs1.5k headphone. Comfort and other things were far better, and they will last for like 2+ years, but for pure sound quality it was not a big difference. That said, if you are going to use it daily for hours, then it is better to spend like 10k on the headphone for the comfort and quality.

      If your budget is higher, let me know.

      • Shyam

        Hi kshitij,
        Good that you know about headphones.
        I am looking something less than 10K.
        This is mainly used for voice calls and meetings.
        So, sound quality of a song does not matter for me.
        I will prefer headphone which has good mic (external-like call center/internal) where the person on the other end can hear me loud and clear.
        I tried to search for multiple headphones but most of them complain about the ambient noise or distortion being heard at the other end.
        So, please help me choose a good one for voice calls.

        • kshitij

          Firstly, the headphone you are describing is called headsets. From my experience, most of the wireless headphones/headsets in this price range have low quality cheap microphones. Even in high price range, it seems no one is caring about microphone quality until we reach Professional headset territory but they are also not wireless. So, the best we can then get are gaming headsets as gamers care about mic quality the most.

          Secondly, I just went through 20+ headphones which was suitable for your needs(wireless+good-mic), but surprisingly all of them were either out of stock of insanely overpriced. I think the demand for such devices has increased hugely due to lockdown and thus there is a scarcity. For example, Corsair HS70 and Logitech G533 were good choices for you and their prices used to be under 12k, but now they are unavailable.

          So, Your best option would be to go with a wired headset like Logitec G pro as it has excellent mic quality, good comfort, and good audio. Also it is available for 8.5k which is less than your budget and surprisingly, its price was the same 5 months ago as well. This is the best mic on a headset you can get and it is even better than the earlier mentioned wireless options.

          Now there is one alternative which will ensure you has best mic sound quality and that is to buy a dedicated microphone and separate headphone, but I doubt you would want that.

          If you are buying from Amazon, it would be great if you use my affiliate links – https://amzn.to/3dbFbLN

          • Shyam

            Thanks for the suggestions.
            I will look into it and get back to you in case of any questions.

          • kshitij

            That said, if you want the absolute best quality audio, you can get a dedicated mic like BLUE mic This will make your voice stand out like TV broadcast quality. And you can use any wireless headphone for audio.

            This option is suited for you if you are going to be using a desktop at one location to make those calls and you don’t want the portability of the mic.

          • Shyam

            Hi Kshitij,
            Thanks for the suggestion.
            Found a solution.
            Got Infinity(JBL) Glide 510 On-Ear Wireless Headphone and soldered extra semi hard copper wire for the mic so it turned into a wireless headset with less cost.

  62. Arjun

    Hello Kshitij,

    Thanks a lot for the lucid explanation. I found the ViewSonic VX3276 a great buy, it has IPS screen and is a tad bit above 60Hz, –> 75Hz. The only thing I am considered about is the brightness, the ViewSonic monitor has a peak brightness of 250 nits whereas the LG/BENQ alternatives are at 300 or above. Both LG and BenQ are offering more brightness but with a VA Panel. Do you think 250 nits would be sufficient?

    • kshitij

      250 nits is more than enough. I own that monitor and I keep it at 30% brightness 90% of the time because anything more feels too bright. Ofcourse it depends on your room’s lighting conditions, but generally around 75 to 100 nits is what is comfortable. I increase it to around 70% brightness while watching some movies. That’s all.

      That said, it is NOT 75hz but 60hz. And at lower resolutions it can hit 75hz, but who uses it like that. Also, maybe through overclocking, 75hz might be possible.
      But, to add one more option, you can consider this Viewsonic which has 144hz and good color reproduction. It is using an MVA panel which is a modern version of VA panel that maybe better suited for you than the IPS panel. This monitor was not previously available at current pricepoint of 28k.

  63. Nelson Mathew

    Is the tiltable monitor is good or not? I shortlisted hp eliteDisplay e273. Whats your opinion? I am a programmer and i am using the system for coding, designing and watching movies.

    • kshitij

      HP EliteDisplay e273 is not recommended. It has 27inch but only 1080p resolution. At that size, you will see pixels at normal viewing distances. This is NOT good for any of your tasks.

      Coding – It is not big enough, and low resolution means you get less real-estate

      Designing – It is not color accurate

      Movie watching – It is not VA panel and also size is not big enough.

      I instead suggest to either buy LG 32inch 1440p at 25k price[dont buy at anything more than that price] or 32 inch viewsonic

      If you really want lot of tilting, it is best to buy a Monitor arm separately.

      • Nelson Mathew

        Thanks brother… e273 has the only problem with the resolution? I am asking because, there is a model e273q.. i think, it has more resolution.
        Secondly, lemme know which brand is better – hp, dell, LG, Samsung, acer, benq or viewsonic

        • kshitij

          All brands make good and bad monitors, so can’t say a specific brand like that, but HP is not recommended as they are not in the monitor industry much.

  64. Abhijith

    Hi Kshitij,
    Kudos for the well written article. Especially liked the explanation of all the technical jargon.
    What’s your opinion on benq pd2700q. It’s 27 inch 2k available for 26k from Amazon. My primary purpose is programming.

    • kshitij

      Benq Pd2700q(https://amzn.to/3hnLleR) is an excellent panel with extreme colour accuracy as it is designed for photographers and video editors. However, for programming, a 32inch monitor might be much better simply because you can see more things at once. If your budget can be increased, I would suggest BenQ 32inch 4k (https://amzn.to/3ed0P3D) unless you are going for a dual-screen setup.

  65. Sharath

    Hi Kshitij

    Great article and detailed explanation. I was looking to upgrade my 23″ Full HD ASUS monitor with either 27″ or 32″ 4K IPS/VA monitor. My requirements are casual web browsing, YouTube (not content creator), Netflix , Movies, casual computer gaming, PS4 and additional monitor for my office laptop. I was looking for true HDR capabilities and 10bit or 8bit+FRC, is Display HDR certification required?

    Here are few options I was considering around 40k, can you help me finalize it?

    BenQ PD2700U 4K UHD IPS HDR 10 sRGB 100% Delta E ≤ 3 color accuracy
    Benq EX2780Q 2K QHD IPS 144Hz DisplayHDR 400
    BenQ EW3270U 4K UHD VA HDR 10 sRGB 100% DCI-P3 95%
    LG 27UK650 4K UHD IPS HDR 10 sRGB 99% Adobe RGB: 73%, DCI-P3: 75%
    Acer ET322QK 4K UHD VA HDR 10 sRGB 100%

    Thanks
    Sharath

    • kshitij

      Since you are upgrading, the change to 27inch would be a minor one, and since you use it so much for movies/yotubue/netflix and browsing, it is best to go with 32inch 4k.

      The best option is Benq 4k 32inch.

      The reason is that it has the best panel among all with DCI-P3 of 95% and it never used to be available at the 35k price range I currently see. So go for it. Acer ET322QK 4k would be the second option but Benq is better and probably newer. Also, watching videos is better done on VA panels.

      HDR in none of these panels will be of any good due to its limited brightness capability. To get proper HDR, you need like 1000nits brightness. What you are getting here is just slightly better than normal. That’s all. In case HDR is more important, TVs would be the better choice with one problem I noticed being significantly increased eye-strains for any PC related tasks. And, regarding 10bit, this is the best you can get at this price, no need to worry about FRC.

      So, go for it – https://amzn.to/2Uq4qDv

      • Sharath

        Thanks a ton for your reply…I was thinking to have same BenQ 32 and you just made this decision easier. Thanks again, have a good one…

        • kshitij

          Glad that it helped. Once you get it in hand, come back and write a comment on how good it is so that it helps future buyers.

  66. Vikas Choudhary

    Hi Kshitij,

    Thanks a lot for writing an amazing article for the new buyers. We do see a lot of articles created on other electronic devices but this is something people hardly focuses on. Your hardwork is much appreciated !!

    I was looking for a 27 inch or above size of monitor below 30k and landed to this page. Just like any other developer my requirement is writing codes in day time and watching movies/videos at night.
    So far I liked viewsonic vx3276-2k-mhd. What’s your recommendation?
    (Note: I could not find a seller in amazon who can deliver it to my address( I stay in Bangalore). And, the price is 26500.
    Any idea if there are more sellers on amazon for this product)

    • kshitij

      It may be due to lockdown that it is not available at your location. Maybe it will change in few days. There used to be an amazon fulfilled seller, I think he may have temporarily closed due to lockdown.

      Anyways, alternatively, you can buy LG 32inch for around 25k. https://amzn.to/3dSmii9 (my affiliate link)

      If both are not available, then well it is best to wait. And, for writing code, 32inch is perfect. You will never want to go back to smaller screens after using it.

      • vikas choudhary

        Thanks for a swift reply!!

        Yeah both of them are currently not available and only option now I have is to wait.
        Once again thanks for your help buddy 🙂

          • kshitij

            The alternative if someone needs to go with Amazon will be to go for Acer 4K 32 inch. It seems to be available with amazon Fulfilled to me when I checked. https://amzn.to/2XIlHKg

            This has 4k. the equivalent of four full HD monitors. Great for programming. But for some extra price.

  67. Manas Aggarwal

    Hi!
    Great guide! Helped a lot in gaining useful information about monitors.
    I was thinking to buy 2 Benq GW2283 -https://www.amazon.in/Benq-GW2283-21-5-Monitor-Display/dp/B07JPXTL28/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=GW2283&qid=1591279649&sr=8-2
    Do you think this setup will have a better screen quality than a 2K 27″ monitor like – https://www.amazon.in/BenQ-BL2420PT-Resolution-Designer-Monitor/dp/B00UAMYTR8/ref=sr_1_8?crid=CKVMKXO9YR3X&dchild=1&keywords=benq+monitor&qid=1591279723&sprefix=benq+monito%2Caps%2C317&sr=8-8

    • kshitij

      Among these options, LG ultragear is the best option if it is available for under 27k price range. The second best is Viewsonic vx3276. Avoid the low ppi samsung as you will see pixels at normal viewing distance and it would make the display look terrible.

  68. Vishal Ponneri

    Amazing article man… Helped a lot in narrowing down my options….. My finalists:

    AOPEN Acer 32HC1Q
    LG Ultragear 32GK650

    • kshitij

      If those are your options and the price is similar, I would go for the LG ultragear as it is the better brand and its price should be higher than what it is currently selling for(24k), while AOPEN’s price is currently at normal price – https://amzn.to/3euHZo3 [My affiliate link]

  69. Shyam

    Hi Kshitij,
    Thanks for the post, which helped me choose the right monitor.
    I am going with — ViewSonic VX3276-2k-mhd 32 inch 1440p IPS monitor
    Could you please let me know if this works with MacBook Air (2017 Model).
    As, I saw few posts saying ViewSonic does not provide Mac drivers and we cannot extend the desktop and the resolution will not be QHD etc.,
    Please help.

    • kshitij

      I have not tested it with mac, but that seems like some absurd claims. A display should work as-is with standard drivers. So, without any drivers itself any of these monitors should work perfectly fine. Most probably, the people who are claiming this may not have a device that is capable of outputting more than 1080p resolution and thus they may not be getting that resolution. Anyways, these are the problems with the device/os and not the monitor.

      BTW, that monitor is fantastic in both design and use. I own one personally and it is very good on the eyes like you get zero eyestrain even when I use it for 15hours continuously. Eye strain is not a measurable unit so it cannot be explained without actually seeing and using one for extended periods, and I can say for sure this monitor does a good job at keeping it easy on the eyes. Some friends has also commented about this when they use my monitor.

      • Shyam

        Thanks a lot.
        Buying it from ViewSonic dealer as Amazon is restricted in my city.

  70. Sumith

    Sir, I need an excellent 27 inch monitor (I’m not interested in huge size monitors..eg. 32 inch) for ultimate gaming, editing, watching movies purposes. I’m really confused which should I buy..my budget is 32,000. My Graphics card is Sapphire Nitro+ SE Radeon RX 5700 XT. Pls suggest me great monitor.

  71. Avigyan

    Hi Kshitij,

    I am looking for a gaming monitor with 27” screen 1440p 144hz and FreeSync display.
    Which comes down to Samsung one that you have mentioned over here.
    I have been thinking about that one for over a month now but as it is new to the market, i do not get to see any other reviews except the Amazon itself.

    By any chance have you encountered the monitor? If so then please provide a short review about that.

    • kshitij

      I have not encountered it personally as it is so brand new. But, Samsung is a well known display maker for decades. They rarely ever disappoints in case of panel quality. So, you can go for it.

  72. Vijay

    Is Acer EB321HQU really a good monitor???
    I’m a video editor… I have been using Dell ST2420L for nearly 7 years…. But it started to get many issues… So was in the position to switch to a new montior… I bought LG 29UM69G few days offline…. But i felt it was a bit of a downgrade in terms of size comparison since i was trying to get LG 34 Ultrawide which went for around 22K on amazon big billion sale but i was quite hesitant to buy it online… But then this 29LG Ultrawide didn’t look much of an upgrade to me after getting it since the Height was a bit letdown and only width was quite extended compared to my Dell… I went through ur article… So decided to go with this Acer EB321HQU which i’m getting at a decent price but not cheap like the online one… My major work will be video editing & basic color grading…. But can u give me suggestions on whether the Acer is a good choice or else should i opt for some other options…. Not planning to exceed the 30k budget… Already i was under the 20k… So i need invest more 10k if i have to look out for other options than the Acer model….

    • kshitij

      No Acer is not the one you should go for your particular task. It is just a huge value for money large sized monitor which is a good choice for most casual users but not likely for your case. It is not designed to be colour accurate for any professional use and there might be colour uniformity issues as well. You as a video editor must buy a colour-accurate monitor so that you are able to deliver perfect content to your clients.

  73. bone cutter

    hi ,
    excellent article. I have narrowed it to LG 32 and Acer 32.

    • kshitij

      Get this LG Ultragear 32 monitor. It is a rare moment where you get everything – 144hz, VA panel, 1440p, Branded, 32inch at lower than the price in US!

      This monitor went out of stock within two days of launch. Now it has become available. I doubt if it stays available for long.

  74. MK

    Hi Kshitij,

    Kudos on a great article – I’ve been looking for a good monitor guide specific to the Indian market, and no other site/page I’ve visited yet even comes close to your article. Thanks so much!

    I’m looking for a 27″ to 32″ 2K monitor, IPS or VA panel. Primary use would be programming (so lots of text), general personal use, some gaming (fairly casual; nothing hardcore so I don’t care for 144 Hz), potentially some image editing (though not as critical). I know a few on your list fit this criteria but the links don’t always have similar prices to what you mention in the article (I suspect prices fluctuate a fair bit?). I am based in Mumbai and am able to go to some local stores like Prime ABGB and others on Lamington Road, and elsewhere. Any specific monitors you’d recommend that I ask around for in the local shops (or any fav shops you know of, for that matter)? Cheaper the better of course, but I’m also looking for good reliability and will happily take a slightly costlier monitor if it gives me less of a headache wrt dead pixels and backlight bleeding and the like. Any brands you’d particularly recommend? I found your comment re Acer’s poor QA to be useful. Seems like BenQ is a decent option on that price/quality spectrum?

    Thanks again,
    MK

    • kshitij

      Thanks. I wrote this article after not finding any quality article on this topic. This is a very niche topic and only get around 10 daily visitors to this page as most people in India would be looking for monitors under 10k.

      For programming, I have found that you would be better off with two 27inch monitors side by side as you can see the output or reference material in one screen and do the coding on the another. Or at other times, you can play youtube video in one and do coding on the other. Alternatively, you can use a laptop and a 32inch monitor. In any case, you need two screens to get the best productivity.

      The prices fluctuate a lot. The ones I have mentioned are often the lowest price I found them at. Also, because it is a niche market, many times sellers go in net-loss thus stop selling. It is more profitable selling thousand 22inch full HD monitors for 8k than to sell ten 32inch 1440p monitors for 30k. So, sometimes they suddenly reduce the price to sell off the stock or other times when they realize they are not making a profit, they increase the price.

      This Samsung 27inch 1440p 144hz monitor fits your needs perfectly.

      Generally, Samsung and LG are the most reliable brands in case of monitors. But, you would be good going with other brands as well as there wouldn’t be a noticeable difference. Also, all monitors of all brands will have dead pixels and screen bleeding issues as it is an issue with LCD technology itself. Even those $1000 monitors you see in other countries also have these issues. Just that the better brands will have a higher quality control so lesser chances of getting a bad lemon. But, if you got a display and found it to be good, then it is likely to work perfectly for 7 to 20 years.

      Buying locally is good if you can test the monitor for dead pixels/backlight-bleed before purchase. Otherwise, it is better to buy from Amazon due to their better replacement policy. Generally, these shops don’t stock these niche products, but try calling up and see what they have got. Let us know what you bought anyway!

    • Santhosh

      Hi MK,

      I have the exact same requirement (lot of reading, programming and casual gaming)
      –> Should have enough width for 2 windows (split mode).
      –> Can not not afford multiple monitors because of desk space.
      –> I sit 2 feet away from monitor, so what’s the ideal size & resolution. is 27”1440P good option?
      –> looking for reliable brand to have better after sale service, in case of issues
      Can you please suggest a good options for the above criteria. Hope you already got one and will your experience 🙂

      • kshitij

        If you sit 2feet away and you can only afford one monitor, then get 32inch monitor. Either 1440p or 4k. Both will be good. 27inch is okayish but it will feel cramped and you won’t feel the size. For programming, I strongly suggest having one more display. Even a laptop display switched on in the side drastically increases the productivity as you don’t need to change windows often, instead you can refer in one and do in the other. Also, you can watch youtube videos in one while doing something else in the other.

  75. Sreyas Udayavarman

    Woah !! well written but I am still in a state of confusion to buy a 144Hz 2k or 4k monitor with fast 1ms response time. Mostly I would use it for gaming, development and movies. Could you suggest one among them I was thinking about Samsung 27″ but it is out of stock at places and I cannot find it as well !!

    • kshitij

      1ms response time is more of a marketing ploy. Any monitor under 4ms should be considered of the similar category as the 1ms one.

      Based on your requirements, I would ideally suggest going with a 32inch VA monitor. The big screen helps a lot with development, and it is good for movies and development as well. But GOOD 32inch monitors of that spec are rare in India.

      Samsung 27 inch 144hz 1440p VA panel monitor is currently available on Amazon. This 32 inch AOPEN monitor is also good although of a lesser brand.

  76. Sagar

    Hey Kshitij,

    A great article which helps a lot of people, including me.

    Any views on MSI monitors, specifically “MAG” series 32″, 1440p, 144Hz variants. Would love to know your thoughts on them. Feel free to suggest any alternatives for gaming that you have come across recently.

    Regards.

    • kshitij

      That monitor is awesome, but it is not available in India and if it ever becomes available, it would likely be priced very high. So, in my opinion it is not worth paying the premium for a 10% improvement.

  77. anupam kapoor

    hi kshitij,

    very nicely written and informative article ! i was wondering if you have any recommendations for ips-panel, 27inch, 4k monitors ? ofcourse, this is predicated on the fact that, it would most definitely cost north of 30k.

    thank you !
    anupam

    • kshitij

      Hi Anupam,

      I would not recommend going for a 27inch 4k. The reason is that you will not be able to see the pixels at normal viewing distance, thus it is a waste. The optimal resolution to use 4k is 43inch. Yes, that high. So, if you want to get 4k, at the minimum go for 32inch. Don’t think it will be too big. It will not, you will in fact love it more than a 27inch monitor.

      Also, what is the reasoning for going for a IPS panel? In most cases, you will be better off with a modern VA panel than an IPS panels.

      I would suggest this Acer 32inch 4k monitor at just 28k cost currently. Alternatively, you can get this Benq 32inch 4k monitor which also claims to give HDR, but most likely not true HDR.

      If you really ONLY want a 27inch, then this one is the best option – LG 27″ 4K UHD IPS Monitor at 40k, but I wouldn’t recommend it as you have several significantly better options at so much lesser price.

  78. Siva

    Hi.

    This is a great post. It helped me a lot. Thank you!

    Please tell me which monitor I should go for between the first two on this list (Viewsonic and Acer). I would be using it for productivity, photo and video editing, watching videos and movies, and gaming. I would also be using it with an Xbox One S. So which is the better option for my uses?

    • kshitij

      If your main purpose is watching videos, movies, photos etc then it is better if you go with a VA panel as it has 300% more contrast and thus these things will look better. The only issue you will face is of that of small ghosting.

      I suggest you go with something which is NOT in this list. I am talking about BenQ BL3200Q 1440p VA monitor. It is 1440p, VA, good quality and it has 100% Srgb coverage with its colors certified to be perfect. It is designed with video-editing in mind. It also come with a great stand.

      It currently costs Rs39k, but it would be a much better option than viewsonic and acer. Viewsonic is good but it is IPS panel. Acer is good enough and most likely has a VA panel, but it’s quality control is terrible. They are able to sell it at lower price only by not being pro-active in QA. So, if you are seeking perfection go for the BenQ. If you are just looking at cost, then Viewsonic or Acer is fine.

      There are few better options as well if you do not care about 1440p and instead prefer 4k. For example- Acer 4k monitor. This is very good value for money, and you are getting a 4k panel at 27k price during offer time. Alternatively, you can get this Benq 32inch 4K monitor

  79. Vikas

    Very nicely written article. Really appreciate your effort in jotting down the ones available in India. I’m in the same situation like you have mentioned about the limitations of 27+ size monitors in India.

    However, does this list hold good in March 2019?
    Please let us know if something better is available in market.

    • kshitij

      Yes, it holds good in 2019. Only one more 31.5inch monitor got launched this year which is from a new brand called Aopen and it costs 30k, however, it’s quality control is not that great, so if you are unlucky, you might get a display with some errors like some dead pixels.

  80. ravi srinivasan

    Excellent article – found a link or another forum discussing monitors.

    Am wondering if distance to screen matters for 27/32 inches – i will probably not be more than 2 ft away…

    • kshitij

      Yes, viewing distance matters. But, at 2feet away, you should be fine with any monitor upto 35inches. The problem is mainly in our mind where we think these are too huge, but in reality, after using it for few days, you will think how you wasted your entire life infront of a small tiny screen. You will never be able to go back to old small monitors.

  81. Tarun Reddy

    Thanks a lot this article helped me alot…

  82. Andy

    Hi,
    Could you please recommend a 4k uhd monitor for console gaming? You mention buying a ips 4k in the Samsung 4k monitor section by adding in another 10k, what would be your recommendation if the budget was about 40k? Also, would a MO it or fare better vs a 4k TV at 50k ish budget for console gaming? I’m looking to buy Xbox one x in the near future

  83. Andy

    Hi,
    Could you please recommend a monitor for 4k gaming? You mention spending 10k more in the Samsung 4k monitor section to get one with IPS panel. Which model is this? I intend to use it with a xbox one x.

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