Hi, it's HandyAndy Tech Tips here, and it's never been a better time to buy a 4K monitor!
They're coming down in price all the time, and that's why, in this video, I'm going to
tell you about five of the best that you can get on a budget.
So coming in at the number five spot is the Dell P2415Q, a 24-inch IPS panel for under
$600.
Now, as you can see, from its external appearance, it looks really great.
It has a nice thin bezel, and the stand, apart from looking fantastic, has the advantage
that it can rotate the monitor into portrait mode.
When you switch it on, you'll be stunned by the image quality.
It has an AH-IPS panel, which is 8 bits per pixel, plus a bit of clever dithering, to
give 10 bits or 1.07 billion colours!
In fact, this monitor covers the entire sRGB colour space, so it's awesome for photographers
or designers.
And because it's an IPS panel, it excels in all other areas as well.
It has really wide viewing angles (up to 178 degrees), and a static contrast ratio of 1155:1.
Now in terms of ports, this monitor has HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 and Mini DisplayPort
1.2.
And honestly, for something which looks this good on the outside and has such a good panel
quality, it's incredible that it only costs US$550 from Dell's website, a bit of a bargain,
I think.
At the fourth spot, we have the Samsung LU28E590DS, and wow, saying that name is a bit of a pain.
But luckily, this monitor is far from a pain to look at.
It has a fantastic stand, very minimalistic, and thin bezels.
The only problem is that some Amazon reviewers have commented that the monitor wobbles and
nearly tips over when they move their desks.
But when you play games on it, you won't notice any wobbling or tearing, because it has AMD
FreeSync built in!
This matches the refresh rates between your GPU and your monitor, preventing screen tearing.
And Samsung has stuck with the gamer theme when it comes to choosing the panel.
They've gone for a 28 inch TN, and you're probably thinking, "Oh, no, terrible viewing
angles, washed out colours", but it's actually not at all bad.
This is part of the new generation of TN panels, and Samsung has managed to integrate 170 degree
viewing angles, unheard of for TN panels, while keeping their main advantage, which
is fast response times - this particular monitor has 1 millisecond.
And the good news just keeps going!
It has HDMI 2.0 ports - that means that you can get 60Hz at 4K through HDMI, wow!
It also has DisplayPort 1.2, and all this stuff for a price of only $499, what a deal!
At the third spot, we've got the Asus PB287Q.
Now in comparison to the previous two monitors, this one looks just a little bit plain on
the outside, very business-like, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
But it does have a TN panel, which some people might see as a bit of a negative.
But here's the incredible thing - it's actually a 28-inch 10-bit TN (I bet you've never heard
of one of those before!)
So that's 1.07 billion colours with no dithering at all.
Now you might be thinking, "Well, 10 bits on a budget, there's got to be some compromise
here".
But there's actually not.
It has a 1 millisecond grey to grey response time, which is up there with the best of them.
Despite the TN, it has a horizontal viewing angle of 170 degrees, and the contrast ratio
- you wouldn't believe this - is 100 million to one!
You want to know the reason?
Because it's a dynamic contrast ratio, which means that the backlight brightness changes
depending on the content that you're viewing.
Now, in terms of ports, you're getting two HDMI 1.4, so, unfortunately, that means that
you get only 30Hz with 4K content, but you also get a single DisplayPort 1.2, which allows
you to have the full 60Hz.
Overall, this monitor, which is only a bit over $500 from Amazon, sounds like a really
good deal to me.
And now, we go to the second spot, and here we find the BenQ BL3201PH.
Now before I start talking about it, can I just say - that construction looks so robust!
Look at that stand - it almost looks like metal, but it's actually very tough plastic,
and, unlike some other monitors, you can see that the base is really large, to prevent
the risk of it tipping over.
And to go with the large base is a very large monitor - it's 32 inches.
It has a semi-glossy covering, and the panel is very interesting, it's called AHVA, and
it's apparently a compromise between TN and IPS, so that means that you're getting TN-style
refresh rates - on this monitor, it's 4ms grey to grey - while still maintaining those
IPS viewing angles of 160 or 170 degrees.
Now this fancy panel also has some other good advantages.
It has no perceptible backlight bleed at all, which is quite impressive.
It also has 8 bits plus a bit of dithering to give an effective 10 bits and 1.07 billion
colours, and it covers the entire sRGB colour space.
Plus, the contrast ratio of 1000:1 is quite reasonable.
Now, in terms of ports, you're getting dual HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, Mini DisplayPort
1.2 and dual-link DVI, which is quite unusual.
Now, this monitor might be a bit larger and a bit more expensive than the other options
on this list, but still, it only costs $879 from Amazon and I reckon that paying the premium
is worth it.
Alright, so finally we come to the number one spot.
And it's occupied by the LG 27MU67-B. Now, from the outside, this monitor looks pleasant
enough, nothing really special though, has a nice stand and you can rotate it into portrait
mode, which is an advantage.
But the real prowess lies inside, because this is apparently a 27-inch IPS monitor for
only $530.
Now it promises some really nice images, and it turns out that it actually does deliver.
The 99 percent sRGB coverage is really good, so it's great for colour-accurate work, and
the static contrast ratio of 1000:1 isn't too bad either.
It's the same old 8-bit panel with dithering to create 10 bit with 1.07 billion colours
that we've seen again and again on this list, but it does work very well.
But here's something that you haven't seen on this list, an IPS with AMD FreeSync included.
But you're probably saying, "Well, why bother including that technology on an IPS when the
response time isn't fast enough to notice it?"
Well, it turns out that this particular panel has 5 milliseconds grey to grey.
So in other words, it sounds like, if you want a high-quality panel for 60Hz gaming,
nothing crazy like 120Hz, then this is the one to get.
Do be warned though that it might be very hard for your graphics card to push all those
pixels around.
But talking about pushing things around, who was pushing the design team at LG to make
such terrible decisions with the ports on this monitor?
Sure, it has DisplayPort 1.2, Mini DisplayPort 1.2, and two HDMI 1.4 ports, but, come on,
there's no USB ports included at all, which could be a massive downside for some users.
Then again, I suppose there's not much point in getting too angry, because you are getting
a full 27-inch IPS 4K monitor for only $530 on Amazon.
And I think if you bought this monitor with a separate USB hub to plug into your PC, then
you'd be a very happy person indeed.
Anyway, that was my top 5 budget 4K monitors of 2016.
I'm HandyAndy, thank you so much for watching this video, please leave your thoughts in
the comments below if there's any monitors which you think I've missed out on, and please
subscribe to my channel if you want more Top 5 videos.