Whether it’s for gaming, office productivity, or creative work—or just to stream your favorite movies—a 4K monitor is a must-have upgrade for many PC users. But the 4K or ultra-high-definition (UHD) monitors on the market today are far from alike. Some offer speedy refresh rates to suit hardcore gamers. Others are designed for graphics pros, with precise color accuracy and support for wide color ranges. And some pack workflow-enhancing features that can make managing your desktop much easier.
Here’s everything you need to know about the benefits (and possible pitfalls) of getting a new 4K display today. We’ve also ranked the 4K monitors that have made the cut according to our detailed testing. They’re a great starter set for your search. They’re broken out below, followed by a detailed guide to buying a 4K panel.
The Best Black Friday 4K Monitor Deals This Week*
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Philips Brilliance 279P1
Best 4K Monitor for Business Productivity, Docking
Bottom Line:
Chock-full of features and shining with solid brightness and color coverage, the Philips Brilliance 279P1 is an excellent entry in the growing category of docking-station monitors.
PROS
- IPS screen with UHD resolution
- High pixel density
- Excellent sRGB color coverage
- Ergonomically superior stand
- USB hub and built-in speakers
- Four-year warranty
CONS
- Buttons for OSD control are less than ideal
Dell UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Hub Monitor (U2723QE)
A Solid Alternative to the Philips Brilliance 279P1
Bottom Line:
It isn’t cheap, but Dell’s UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Hub Monitor delivers loads of connection and adjustment choices, amping up an extra-poppy panel with wide color gamut and superb contrast.
PROS
- IPS Black technology deepens black levels, improves contrast
- 4K resolution with sharp high-pixel-density image
- Extensive ergonomic features
- Dual DisplayPort connectors let you daisy-chain monitors
- Mini-joystick controller for OSD
CONS
- Pricey for a 27-inch monitor
- No webcam
Read Our Dell UltraSharp 27 4K USB-C Hub Monitor (U2723QE) Review
Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-10
Best 4K Monitor for Basic Media and Productivity Work
Bottom Line:
The Lenovo ThinkVision P27u-10 is a good choice as a premium productivity monitor, especially if photos and graphic elements are part of your work.
PROS
- High-resolution screen
- Good color accuracy for sRGB and Adobe RGB
- Full range of ergonomic features
CONS
- Unintuitive on-screen display (OSD) navigation
Dell UltraSharp 43 4K USB-C Monitor (U4320Q)
Best Big 4K Productivity Monitor
Bottom Line:
Dell’s big, bold UltraSharp 43 4K USB-C Monitor (U4320Q) packs a large 4K panel in standard widescreen format, letting you tile windows both vertically and horizontally—even from more than one computer.
PROS
- Large IPS screen in UHD (4K) resolution
- Supports tiled windows (even from multiple video sources) via Dell software
- Better-than-expected sRGB color coverage
- Generous port selection
- USB Type-C port with 90-watt power delivery
CONS
- Stand offers only modest adjustability
- OSD controls are small buttons on monitor’s bottom edge
Read Our Dell UltraSharp 43 4K USB-C Monitor (U4320Q) Review
NEC MultiSync PA311D-BK
Best Big 4K Monitor for Pro Content Creators
Bottom Line:
The NEC MultiSync costs a pretty penny, but this large-screen 4K professional monitor has great color accuracy and aces a variety of color spaces, including Adobe RGB.
PROS
- 31.1-inch IPS panel
- Spot-on color accuracy
- High native resolution
- Wide range of ports
- Solid coverage of Adobe RGB color space
- Four-year parts-and-labor warranty
CONS
- Tiny navigational buttons are tricky to use
Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor (UP2720Q)
Best 4K Monitor (With Built-In Calibration) for Pro Content Creators
Bottom Line:
The Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor (UP2720Q) is one of the only monitors in its price range with a built-in calibration tool, which automates and simplifies the task of preserving a panel’s color accuracy.
PROS
- Includes integrated calibration tool
- Very good color accuracy results
- Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports
- Intuitive OSD navigation
- Height, tilt, swivel, and pivot control
CONS
- Pricey
- Does not include the CalMAN software it integrates with
- Low brightness for a professional monitor
- Tested contrast ratio considerably lower than its rating
Read Our Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor Monitor (UP2720Q) Review
HP Z27k G3 4K USB-C Display
Best Mainstream 4K Monitor for Pro Content Creators
Bottom Line:
HP’s Z27k G3 4K USB-C Display, a feature-rich productivity monitor, covers the full sRGB color gamut and offers an ergonomically friendly stand and wide range of ports. It’s solid on accuracy and connectivity, but you can find similar monitors for less.
PROS
- UHD (4K) resolution
- Full-gamut sRGB coverage and accurate colors
- USB-C port supports 100 watts of power delivery
- Stand has full set of ergonomic features
- Above-average contrast for an IPS monitor
MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD
Best 4K Gaming Monitor
Bottom Line:
MSI’s pricey but irresistible Optix MPG321UR-QD monitor offers something for everyone, with some of the best gaming and content creation results we’ve seen yet.
PROS
- One of the most feature-packed monitors we’ve ever seen
- QD-IPS panel is highly responsive in all modes, including HDR
- Exceptional gaming performance in all scenarios
- Thoughtful design and port layout, including HDMI 2.1
- Integrated KVM
CONS
- Square-shaped stand may not be ergonomically friendly for all gamers
- Oversaturated color out of the box
- Slightly higher dE values than average
Samsung Odyssey Ark
Best Extra-Large 4K Gaming Monitor
Bottom Line:
Samsung’s Odyssey Ark is a massive and marvelous curved gaming monitor packed with features sure to impress gamers all over—if they can afford it.
PROS
- Immersive panel curve
- Wide color coverage
- Fantastic sound quality
- Extensive port selection
- Packed with cloud gaming options
CONS
- Too expensive for most gamers
- Color accuracy needs adjustment
- Ark Dial remote is a bit clunky
- Very heavy
ViewSonic Gaming Elite XG321UG
Best Mini LED 4K Gaming Monitor
Bottom Line:
ViewSonic’s deluxe 32-inch Gaming Elite XG321UG monitor makes zero compromises, packing in an ideal balance of resolution and performance with plenty of creature comforts. The only question: Can your checkbook handle it?
PROS
- Mini LED implementation is impressive
- Excellent HDR performance
- Deep contrast ratio
- Nvidia Reflex and G-Sync Ultimate support
CONS
- Expensive
- Settings require some tweaking to optimize
- No HDMI 2.1 or USB-C ports
Sony Inzone M9
Best 4K Gaming Monitor for PC or PS5 Use
Bottom Line:
Sony’s new gaming monitor line enters a crowded field, but its first offering, the Inzone M9, delivers excellent visuals for both PC and PlayStation 5 gamers.
PROS
- Eye-catching design
- Exclusive features for PlayStation 5
- Very low input lag
- HDMI 2.1 and USB-C ports included
CONS
- Expensive
- Sound quality is unremarkable
LG C2 48-Inch Evo OLED TV (OLED48C2PUA)
A TV-Size 4K Monitor for the Ultimate Gaming Den
Bottom Line:
The outstanding LG C2 Evo OLED offers one of the best pictures we’ve ever seen on a TV, with nearly cinema-perfect color out of the box, as well as incredibly low input lag for gamers.
PROS
- Most accurate digital cinema color we’ve seen on a TV
- 120Hz panel with incredibly low input lag
- G-Sync Compatible and supports AMD FreeSync Premium
- WebOS offers Apple AirPlay, multiple voice assistants, and a web browser
CONS
- Remote control and WebOS are a bit clunky
- No hands-free Google Assistant
Buying Guide: The Best 4K Monitors for 2022
Ready to buy a 4K monitor? Let’s define 4K first. The vast majority of 4K monitors have 16:9 aspect ratios with a native resolution of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels (horizontal by vertical). That’s four times as many as a full HD or 1,920-by-1,080-pixel panel—and that’s a lot of pixels. Some other resolutions with approximately 4,000 pixels across—most commonly 4,096 by 2,160—are also considered 4K. All these panels remain premium choices, but they’re becoming increasingly common on desks at work, at home, and in gamers’ frag dens.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
But before we get too deep into details, we should help you answer a key question: Is a 4K monitor right for you in the first place? Depending on what you do most with your monitor, and where you’ll place it, the extra money you’d pay versus a lower-resolution display may not be necessary.
To 4K or Not to 4K: That’s the Gamer’s Dilemma
For starters, if you want a really big 4K monitor solely for home-entertainment purposes that don’t center on PC gaming, a 4K TV would likely be a cheaper option. That’s because many 4K TV sets aren’t beholden to the same standards that 4K monitors are, such as the need for boosted refresh rates (for gaming models), elite or specialized color accuracy (for content creators), or low input lag. (See our picks for the best TVs, now uniformly 4K models.)
Let’s take gaming. While gorgeous to look at, playing modern games at 4K resolution takes a ton of graphics horsepower to get above 60 frames per second (fps), today’s generally acknowledged minimum for serious gamers. Right now, only a handful of high-end graphics cards can reliably drive a 4K display with leading game titles at top image-quality settings. (And if you’re turning down the detail settings to make a game run better at 4K, that defeats much of the point of 4K in the first place.)
These elite cards include models like Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080, GeForce RTX 3090, and GeForce RTX 2080, as well as AMD’s Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6700 series—all commanding steep prices. If you don’t have such a card, gaming at 4K is going to demand compromises and may not be worth the splurge.
Gaming at 4K resolution isn’t strictly about your hardware nowadays. A crop of software technologies (image sharpeners, upscalers, and supersamplers) from both AMD and Nvidia have hit the market recently. In a nutshell, these aim to allow PCs with midrange graphics cards or lesser integrated graphics (and gaming-console GPUs) to run at higher resolution while minimizing the performance hit and loss in visual quality. While they may not be true 4K gaming, to my eyes and many more they’re the best that console and mid-budget gamers can do until hardware prices come down again.
The details of software enhancement and supported platforms and games for both Nvidia and AMD can and have already deserved their own articles, so we won’t slow down to go over the nuances here. But if one of these scenarios fits your needs, the next step is to figure out whether a 4K monitor is right for you for different reasons: your desk configuration and your eyesight.
Next Question: Can You See in 4K?
When shopping in the HDTV aisle, the answer as to whether you should opt for a 4K model today is almost always yes, because it’s hard to find TVs with other resolutions these days. It’s not quite as simple with 4K monitors. Getting serious about the question comes down to algebra and raises issues like pixel pitch, pixels per inch (ppi), and something called angular resolutions. Let’s try to keep it simple, however.
A good example of the pixel-pitch problem arises with virtual reality (VR) headsets and an issue known as the screen door effect. In essence, the lower a display’s maximum resolution and the closer you sit to it, the easier it is to see its individual pixels. In the case of VR headsets, this can make the image look as if it’s seen through mesh, and it’s why headset resolution has grown steadily—when something’s that close to your eyes, you can more clearly see the difference.
The same considerations apply to monitors, just across a viewing distance measured in feet instead of inches. The tricky bit is that viewing distance isn’t fixed but depends on the size and layout of your desk, your chair position, and so on. Whether you can make out the difference in image quality between a 4K display and, say, a 1440p panel (2,560 by 1,440 pixels) depends on not only the distance but your eyesight and the screen size. The last calculates out to a certain number of pixels per inch, in essence the screen’s pixel density. You can see how it scales here at each common resolution.
(Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Luckily, we don’t have to the math on our own. Workstation vendor Puget Systems has designed a helpful Google Sheet(Opens in a new window) that will automatically help you figure the optimal display size and resolution for you depending on your personal visual acuity. All you have to do is plug in your target screen size and resolution, the distance between your eyes and the screen, and the specifics of your eyesight. You can then try different numbers and see how the output changes, helping you figure out if a certain size or distance makes more or less sense. (If you haven’t been to the eye doctor lately and don’t know your prescription strength, a few more calculations using some of the formulas on this page(Opens in a new window) are all you need.)
Of course, less scientifically, you can look at 4K panels of various sizes in a local store to see if you can tell the difference between them and similarly sized 1440p or 1080p monitors. But ideally you’ll want to observe the same screen image, scaled the same amount, to get a meaningful comparison, and that may not always be practical.
Still, to summarize: Before you buy a 4K monitor, make sure you’ll actually be able to see the benefit of the increased pixel density given your seating setup. If you have 20/15 vision, sit three feet from the screen, and already own a 27-inch, 1440p display, you probably can’t justify the cost of a 27-inch, 4K monitor. It all depends on how big your screen is, how close or how far away you’ll sit, and your eyesight.
What 4K Screen Type Should You Buy?
Before you buy a new 4K monitor, you should know the pros and cons of the display technologies available. Most of the time, it’s easy to find what type of panel a monitor has simply by looking at the manufacturer’s spec sheet. Let’s run through the most common kinds.
VERTICAL ALIGNMENT (VA). VA panels are some of the oldest in the game, but they’re still around because despite better, newer display technologies, they “just work.” VA screens offer some of the highest contrast ratios apart from OLED models (more about them in a moment), and better viewing angles and color reproduction than TN panels. However, VA is the slowest of all display technologies, offering the pokiest response times and highest input-lag numbers. That makes them a bad bet for gaming.
TWISTED NEMATIC (TN). TN displays, on the other hand, boast extremely fast pixel response times, averaging anywhere between 1 millisecond (ms) and 5ms, and they’re relatively inexpensive to produce, making them ideal for gamers. The tradeoffs with TN? Uneven color reproduction, limited off-center viewing angles, and mediocre contrast ratios. That’s a lot to give up for the sake of speed, which means that you’ll typically see 4K TN panels only in gamer-centric monitors.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
IN-PLANE SWITCHING (IPS). IPS panels are the most common of today’s 4K displays. They tend to cost slightly more than VA or TN screens, but they offer the best all-around experience for most users: strong color reproduction, moderately quick response times, and the widest viewing angles of any display type except for OLED. The penalty? Prices anywhere from $50 to $300 higher than their non-IPS counterparts at a given screen size.
Since 2021, we’ve seen a host of monitors with tweaked panel types dubbed Fast IPS, Rapid IPS, or Nano IPS. These variants boost screens’ gaming capabilities and overall color vividness. A few we’ve tested haven’t impressed us, but enough have to make them the preferred option for anyone who wants smooth motion, low response times, and low input lag in their next display.
ORGANIC LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE (OLED). Familiar from high-end HDTVs, OLED is the newest technology in computer monitors. Offering a theoretically infinite contrast ratio, gorgeous color for film and TV, and unbeatably dark black levels, OLED basically sounds like the ultimate display technology. The TVs we’ve seen look stupendous, and you’d think monitor manufacturers would be pumping out OLED models in droves.
But although 4K OLED panels have been all the rage for several years in the TV market (and are increasingly popular laptop displays), we’ve seen only a few OLED computer monitors, including the professional-level Asus ProArt PQ22UC(Opens in a new window) (a 21.6-inch 4K panel priced at $3,999) and the gigantic Alienware 55 OLED. Considering OLED’s burn-in potential and relatively low peak brightness, we rated the latter as more of an OLED TV that happens to run at 120Hz instead of 60Hz, rather than something you’d likely use as your desktop’s daily driver. (The newer Alienware 34 QD-OLED has lower 3,440-by-1,440-pixel resolution.)
MINI LED. Finally, there’s mini LED. Rather than edge-lighting an LCD-based panel with a ring of LEDs that sits around the display and lights the picture globally, this tech embeds hundreds or thousands of small LEDs behind the panel itself. This allows a lighting technique known as full-array local dimming (FALD), getting you close to OLED’s infinite contrast at a lower cost.
At this writing, we know of only a handful of desktop mini LED monitors, but that is changing with the release of several in the gaming space in late 2022.
What to Look for in a 4K Gaming Monitor?
Though 4K displays are still far from the norm in the gaming monitor market, the top models are adopting rapid pixel-response times and blisteringly quick refresh rates. As the technologies in the panels (and the GPUs needed to power them properly) advance, which features should a potential 4K gamer look for? Let’s lay them out.
INPUT LAG. In broad strokes, input lag is measured as the amount of time it takes for your monitor to display an external action. For example, if I click a button on my mouse, the input lag (measured in milliseconds) expresses how long it takes for something to happen on screen. Some of the best gaming monitors boast input lag below 2ms, though this is often slower with 4K displays because the number of pixels redrawn in each pass is greater at higher resolution.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
REFRESH RATE. Gaming-monitor refresh rates have skyrocketed in recent years, especially at resolutions below 4K. While flat-panel displays seemed stuck at 60Hz for ages, it’s easy to find 144Hz, 165Hz, or even 240Hz or 360Hz models in the esports arena.
Like so much else, it’s more complicated with 4K. Due to the bandwidth limitations of the HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort 1.4b interfaces and cables, early 4K monitors were limited to 60Hz. In the past few years, however, models have appeared that take advantage of HDMI 2.1 to push that ceiling to 120Hz or higher.
Examples include the venerable HP Omen X65 Emperium (the first Nvidia “Big Format Gaming Display” or BFGD), and the Asus PG27UQ. How do they do it? With a technique called chroma subsampling, which you can read more about in our analysis of the challenges of 4K gaming at 144Hz.
(Credit: Zlata Ivleva)
RESPONSE TIME. Not to be confused with input lag, response time refers to the amount of time it takes for a pixel to change from black to white or from one shade of gray to another. In practical terms, you should expect a response time of under 20ms in even the slowest 4K monitors, and when shopping for a gaming panel it’s better to aim for 5ms or lower to stay competitive in the long term.
ADAPTIVE-SYNC TECH. Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync and FreeSync2 are all flavors of what are known as adaptive sync technologies. Without getting too deep into the weeds, they’re designed to prevent stuttering and screen tearing (screen draws with parts of the image misaligned). These maladies can occur on monitors—gaming-focused or otherwise—in fast-moving action scenes.
Adaptive sync aligns the refresh rate of the monitor with the frame-rate output of the video card on the fly, drawing a frame only when a full one is delivered rather than at a fixed rate. Though it’s not essential for gamers who mostly play single-player, slow-paced titles, adaptive sync is great for anyone daring to take his or her skills into the online multiplayer arena in serious competition.
You need both a compatible monitor and a compatible graphics card to enjoy G-Sync or FreeSync (for the GPU, a late-model Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radeon RX card respectively). Note that Nvidia has designated a relatively new subset of monitors as G-Sync Compatible; these work with the adaptive-sync tech of its cards despite not having the specific, exclusive G-Sync-enabling circuitry of earlier G-Sync displays.
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What to Look for in a 4K Monitor for Pro Graphics Work?
With the monitor industry ramping up the move to 4K and consumers adding millions of such screens to their desks, digital content creators can hardly be expected to stick with 1080p. Professionals were among the first users to splurge on monitors with native 4K resolution, and these buyers continue to drive the market forward with 5K, 6K, and even 8K displays peeking out just over the horizon.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
A 4K monitor is a nice addition to any amateur or professional creator’s toolkit, though we should note that in terms of color reproduction or accuracy 4K screens have no inherent advantages over lower-resolution models. Instead, their main benefit is displaying higher detail in photography, 3D visual arts, or cinematography. Having more pixels gives you a greater level of accuracy, whether you’re adding angel wings to an image of a fashion model, making vector art, mastering a movie, or doing anything that requires zooming in and retaining as much visual fidelity as possible.
Another benefit is extra workspace. Even if your ultimate output isn’t in 4K, working on a 4K panel can let you see your content at full resolution while leaving screen space for control menus, color palettes, video timelines, and other creation tools. Of course, you could relegate that stuff to a second monitor, but a 4K panel can enable single-display workflows that were impossible or awkward before.
Color-gamut coverage is a key spec for many visual professionals. A number of elite 4K monitors cover 100% of the sRGB color gamut used online, as well as scoring high with the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts used for photo and video imaging respectively. Good examples that we’ve tested include the NEC MultiSync PA311D-BK, the Dell UltraSharp 27 4K PremierColor, the BenQ EW3270U, and the ViewSonic VP2785-4K.
What to Look for in a 4K Monitor for the Office?
Keeping busy on a 4K monitor isn’t much different from doing general work on a lower-resolution screen, but there’s one key difference: effective screen space. Since a 4K monitor has four times as many pixels as a 1080p panel, this gives you in theory four times the elbow room to show application windows side by side.
The reason we say “in theory” is that it’s almost impossible to make out the same text scaled 1:1 at 4K versus 1080p at the same screen size. This is why both Windows and Mac machines come with a feature known as DPI (dots per inch) scaling. For example, when you switch your display resolution in Windows 10 from 1080p to 4K, the operating system will by default scale your content to 150% of its standard DPI.
This increases the size of all rendered elements on screen by that percentage. At 150% scaling, it’s more likely that you’d be able to fit two or three standard app windows side by side and still clearly read their text. With four windows in different screen quadrants? Not so likely.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
To help simplify your workflow even more, some 4K monitors such as the business-centric Dell U3219Q come with built-in features like an automatic window-sizing tool. (It sections off parts of your screen that Windows programs will resize to on their own.) These monitors can also accept video signals from multiple sources and display them side by side (“picture by picture”) or inlaid in a larger window (“picture in picture”). This can be useful if, say, you’re working on a PC but you need to test your changes on a separately connected Mac at the same time.
Connections, Adjustments, and HDR Support
Some specs are not as front-and-center as the display type or the refresh rate, but they’ll affect how you work with your 4K display day to day.
The stand’s adjustability might seem trivial, but it can affect your comfort depending on where and how you use your panel. A range of forward and backward screen tilt is pretty standard (usually listed in degrees), but you’ll want to look for the ability to swivel the panel left and right on its stand or rotate it between landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) modes. The last is less common and mostly for serious photo editors.
Connectivity is another thing to check, though for most folks it comes down to either HDMI or DisplayPort. Most 4K monitors will have both inputs, sometimes several. Look for a match with your video source. A few panels support input via Thunderbolt, suitable for MacBook Pros and high-end Windows laptops.
(Credit: Molly Flores)
One note: To get a 4K display running above a 60Hz refresh rate (mostly of interest to gamers or game developers), you’ll need a graphics card capable of outputting its signal over a DisplayPort 1.4b cable. With a few 4K 144Hz monitors such as the Acer Nitro XV273K, you’ll need two such connections plugged in concurrently.
Finally, there’s the issue of HDR. High dynamic range is a color specification common in current 4K HDTVs, but it’s also made inroads into monitors recently. (See our HDR primer for much more background.) Of course, you’ll need content or media recorded in HDR or games that support the HDR spec in order to enjoy it. That said, if you have a monitor that also plugs into an Xbox One X, for example, that console will display all kinds of HDR content as a plug-and-play experience without issue.
So, What Is the Best 4K Monitor to Buy?
As you can see, upgrading to a 4K monitor entails a lot more than just a simple step up in resolution. But now you’re ready to shop. We’ve tested a host of 4K monitors and gathered a selection of the very best in all the main usage classes: business monitors, gaming screens, and creative or visual professional panels. We broke out our favorites above and have included a detailed spec breakdown below; let’s dig in.
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