Best 4K Monitor To Buy Now: Here Are Tech Talk's Top Picks
4K monitors are seeing a huge decline in prices, making them some of the most attractive choices for people who are looking to get a new monitor for their old computer or buy a new computer with a brand new pimped up monitor.
Monitor manufacturers first introduced their new stunning displays for a price not below $3,000, so it wasn't surprising when not a lot of people jumped into the 4K bandwagon right away. Now, with a lot of models being sold for prices below $1,000 - and some even going as far down as less than $500 - 4K monitors have suddenly become even more attractive than their stunning displays already are.
Before you get out there and purchase your new desktop monitor, make sure you really need or want one. If all you do on your computer is the regular web browsing and gaming, a high-definition display with only one-fourth the pixels of 4K will work pretty well. If, however, you're a sucker for powerfully clear and vivid displays, or if you're a professional who needs all those pixels that only a screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 can offer, here are your best bets:
Samsung 32-inch Ultra High-Definition Professional LED Monitor (U32D970Q)
At $2,000, the U32D9700 is certainly not the cheapest 4K monitor around, but if you're a movie editor, designer, or photographer, you'll quickly fall in love with the full set of calibration tools Samsung has packed into this 32-inch beauty, which lets you control everything from the basics, such as brightness and contrast, to more advanced settings, such as gamma and color precision adjustment. You'll also find the dual-color and picture-by-picture modes useful.
On the matte black back panel are ports for dual-link DVI, HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort, and USB 3.0. The only downside to this monitor is all those pixels get distributed across the 32 inches of the screen, meaning you won't get as brilliant a display as you would on a smaller 28-inch monitor. Still, image quality remains excellent and much better than many monitors on the market today.
Samsung 28-inch Ultra High-Definition LED Monitor (U28D590D)
If you're after the brilliant images of 4K, you want something from a household name, and you can't afford to plunk down $2,000 for a monitor, the 28-inch Samsung U28D590D is the monitor you want. For prices as low as $489 on Amazon, this monitor offers tons of pixels in a smaller screen with a 1 millisecond response rate all housed in a sturdy, attractive housing. What's more, it can upscale any old HD content (because HD is old now) into full 4K clarity.
The downside? You don't get viewing angles as wide as those on an IPS or LPS design (you only get angles for 170 and 160-degree viewing), and it doesn't feature a built-in speaker, so you'll have to shop around some more for that. Other than that, this monitor will give you the best bang for your buck.
ASUS PB287Q 28-inch Screen LED-Lit 4K Monitor
The PB287Q is another competitively priced 4K monitor that is worth looking at. ASUS developed this monitor with gamers in mind, and it is one of the first TN-based monitors to truly give a good impression, with 60 Hertz over DisplayPort, 1 millisecond response rate, and flicker-free backlight.
As with our other picks, there are some bad things to be said about this monitor, although you might find that some of it is plain and simple nitpicking. For instance, TN, as opposed to IPS, is not particularly known for vertical viewing angles, making the PB282Q not a good buy for portrait viewing. Plus, the on-screen display controls are placed on the back of the monitor, making them hard to reach if you like to fuss around with the controls.
Dell UltraSharp UP2414Q 23.8-inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor
For $660, the 24-inch UP2414Q delivers excellent color accuracy, making it a great monitor for professionals working with 4K videos and images. On the outside, it has a simple, straightforward design with various degrees of rotation, pivots, and tilts. On the inside, it claims to cover 99 percent of Adobe RGB and 100 percent sRGB with excellent grayscale performance for working with shadows and highlights.
Controls are also placed thoughtfully on the bottom right edge on the front, so you don't have to fumble around at the back to choose the settings you want. While color accuracy is excellent, you might not like the 1,000:1 contrast ratio and the 8 millisecond response time.
Acer B286HK ymjdpprz 28-inch Ultra High-Definition 4K2K Widescreen Display
The 28-inch Acer B286HK is surprisingly good for its $440 price tag. It doesn't have the best designed exterior with the wobbly stand, but this 4K monitor is an ergonomic fit for anyone with less than $500 to spend for a 4K monitor boasting 60 fps and a collection of four USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI port that supports MHL charging.
Eizo ColorEdge CG318-4K
The Eizo ColorEdge CG318-4K goes beyond Ultra-HD to deliver a resolution of 4096 x 2160, the resolution approved as the 4K standard by the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI). With built-in self-calibration, you won't have to fiddle with the controls to get the optimal settings. Simply sit back and enjoy true color fidelity with its 98 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 standard for digital cinema and 99 percent of Adobe RGB.
The downside? This monitor costs nearly $6,000.
