The Best Budget Monitors

Whether you’re replacing an old monitor that came with your desktop computer or buying a new one to attach to a laptop now that you’re working from home, you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get a decent monitor. ViewSonic’s VA2456-MHD is the best display you can buy for less than $150: It looks nice, it’s well built, it has the ports you need to connect it to just about anything, and it comes with a generous three-year warranty.

The 24-inch, 1080p ViewSonic VA2456-MHD has the best contrast ratio of any budget monitor we tested, with darker blacks that make for slightly better images in games, movies, or web browsing. This model’s color accuracy out of the box isn’t good enough for professional photo and video work, but it is good enough for anything else and better than that of many of the other models we tested. The VA2456-MHD has both HDMI and DisplayPort connections—most budget monitors have one or the other—a modern-looking design, and a stand that doesn’t wobble too much (though like most cheap monitors, it only tilts up and down). The built-in speakers aren’t great, but they’re fine for YouTube videos or your operating system’s bleeps and bloops, and ViewSonic backs the monitor with a three-year warranty and a decent replacement policy for panels with dead or stuck pixels.

If you don’t plan to get a monitor arm but still want to be able to adjust your monitor just right, the Acer CB242Y bir is a 24-inch 1080p monitor with a far better stand and a slightly worse screen than on the ViewSonic VA2456-MHD. This Acer monitor isn’t as color-accurate out of the box, and its contrast ratio isn’t as good—to the naked eye, its blacks aren’t as dark—but unless you’re viewing it side by side with another screen, looking at a test pattern, that isn’t a problem. It doesn’t include a DisplayPort (it has only HDMI), and it lacks internal speakers. But its stand is head and shoulders above all the other ones we tested, allowing for height adjustments as well as tilting, swiveling, and pivoting 90 degrees; most monitors in this price range can only tilt (and wobble). The CB242Y has a 75 Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling and gaming look a bit smoother than on typical 60 Hz monitors, and it supports FreeSync, which helps to eliminate screen tearing and stuttering while you’re playing games. It comes with a three-year warranty, though Acer’s dead-pixel policy isn’t quite as good as ViewSonic’s.

The Asus VA24DCP is a 24-inch, 1080p monitor with a USB-C port, which makes it great for laptop users. If your laptop has a compatible USB-C port, you’ll be able to use one cable to send video to the monitor and to charge, replacing both HDMI and power cables. This makes it easier to plug and unplug your laptop from your desk setup, and it’s a feature we think is generally worth the extra cost. The monitor also has a bright screen, which makes it better for sunny offices. But if you’re buying a monitor for your desktop or an older laptop without USB-C, we recommend opting for our other, cheaper picks.