The Best 27-Inch Monitor

If you’re on your computer only once or twice a day to check email and read the news, you don’t need to buy any of the monitors in this guide—our budget monitor picks are great for the basics and cost half as much. But if you spend hours every day staring at a screen for work (or for fun), a 27-inch monitor’s extra size and usable space are worth the money. The Asus ProArt Display PA278CV offers the best all-around combination of picture quality, ports, and price, along with a fully adjustable stand and a great three-year warranty.

Resolution: 2560×1440 | Refresh rate: 75 Hz with FreeSync | Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort in, DisplayPort out, USB-C | USB-C charging: 65 W | USB hub: four USB 3.0 Type-A ports

The Asus ProArt Display PA278CV has a great-looking screen with good enough color accuracy for most people and all the ports you need to hook up desktop or laptop PCs. The PA278CV’s stand can tilt, swivel, and pivot the screen and raise and lower its height, its USB-C port can provide enough power to charge most 13-inch laptops, and it comes with a three-year warranty and a good dead-pixel policy. Its QHD resolution (2560×1440) means it isn’t as sharp as a 4K screen, but it’s also hundreds of dollars cheaper than comparable 4K monitors.

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Budget pick

MSI Modern MD271QP

A basic monitor with USB-C

The MD271QP has a USB-C connection, making it easy to connect a modern laptop without the need for an HDMI cable or extra dongle. However, you’ll still need to plug in your laptop’s charging cable.

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$362

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Amazon

Resolution: 2560×1440 | Refresh rate: 75 Hz with FreeSync | Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort in | USB-C charging: 15 W | USB hub: none

The MSI Modern MD271QP is a simple, streamlined 1440p monitor that’s perfect for laptop users. If you have a laptop with a USB-C port, a single cable will send the image to the monitor and slowly charge your laptop with 15 watts of power. However, you’ll still need to plug in a power cable as well to keep your laptop fully charged. The MD271QP lacks features we liked in the Asus ProArt PA278CV, including a built-in USB hub, granular color calibration controls, and blue-light filtering modes for reading. But if you don’t need to tinker with color settings or those extra USB connections, the MSI Modern MD271QP is a great monitor for $100 less than our top pick.

Resolution: 3840×2160 | Refresh rate: 60 Hz with FreeSync | Ports: HDMI, DisplayPort in, USB-C in | USB-C charging: 65 W | USB hub: two USB 3.0 Type-A ports

The Dell S2722QC is a 3840×2160 display that’s great for anyone who watches 4K content or casually edits photos or video. However, if most of your time is spent on general office work or browsing the internet, you don’t really need to spend the extra cash. The S2722QC has a USB-C port with 65 watts of charging, so it can power most laptops except higher-end devices like the Dell XPS 15-inch or the 16-inch MacBook Pros (which are picks in our guide to the best laptops for video and photo editing). For more powerful 4K displays, check out our guide for the best 4K monitors.

Resolution: 2560×1440 | Refresh rate: 144 Hz with Nvidia G-Sync compatibility, up to 170 Hz overclocked | Ports: two HDMI in, DisplayPort in | USB-C charging: none | USB hub: two USB-A

The ASUS ROG Strix XG27AQ is a full-featured gaming monitor with HDR, a USB hub, and a robust menu system. The XG27AQ can reach a 170 Hz refresh rate, meaning the picture is updated 170 times per second, making motion in games look smoother and more realistic. We think this monitor is a nice balance between price and premium features like HDR, an overclockable refresh rate, a USB hub, good build quality, and a sturdy stand.