Best Monitor 2025: Our favourite displays tested by experts

The Odyssey OLED G8 (2024) is a home run for Samsung, combining the brand’s Quantum Dot OLED technology with the same powerful processor found in its flagship 8K TVs.

A bit more subtle than the ultra-wide Odyssey G9, the Odyssey OLED G8 measures 32-inches across and has a more standard 16:9 ratio. There’s also no curvature to the screen, unlike its eye-catching bigger sibling. However, the OLED G8 is packed with premium features that ensure this monitor continues to stand out from the crowd.

The OLED G8 has an elegant design, with minimal bezels and a premium metallic finish. There is a circle of LED lights around the stand attachment point which we found added to the ambience when gaming, but you can switch these off if you prefer a more classy look.

There’s a fair amount of connectivity options, including a 1.4 DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, two USB-A ports and one USB-B port, and the 5W stereo speakers offer plenty of detail and clarity when gaming.

The Quantum Dot OLED panel offers incredible colour accuracy and a high amount of detail. The OLED panel creates an intensity in dark game environments that is uncommon with LCD monitors, while the same picture processing engine found in Samsung’s flagship 8K TV reproduces shadowy details without a hint of noise or shading coarseness.

The monitor also features the same Tizen operating system found on the brand’s latest TVs, offering a slick experience with a wide range of streaming apps and Bixby and Alexa voice support. There are a few absent apps, including BBC iPlayer, All4 and the Freeview Play app for accessing catch-up services in the UK.

However, the Odyssey OLED G8 is a fantastic monitor with an incredible display and powerful processor, making it a gaming monitor and home entertainment system in one.

The holy trinity for a gaming monitor is a gorgeous picture, blazing-fast performance and a stylish design, and the AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD delivers on all three fronts at a reasonable price.

This 27-inch OLED monitor is capable of deep inky blacks as well as vibrant colours, resulting in an incredible picture. This is paired with a 240Hz refresh rate, which ensures buttery smooth motion for both casual gamers and eSports professionals alike. We were really impressed with the performance, especially thanks to the quick response time and support for Nvidia G-Sync.

During testing, we couldn’t find many faults. It’s a shame this monitor lacks HDMI 2.1 support, but that shouldn’t be too great an issue for most. The speaker quality can become distorted at maximum volumes too, but that’s nothing that a gaming headset or soundbar can’t solve.

As a result, there’s no question that the AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD delivers an excellent all-round package that will please the vast majority of gamers. The only real reason to look elsewhere is if you’re looking for something cheaper, prefer an ultra-wide monitor or you’re desperate to make the jump up to 4K. If you fall into one of those categories, you’ll find a great alternative by scrolling down further.

The Philips 27B1U7903 hits the spot if you’re looking for an excellent monitor to fit into your home office setup. It isn’t constructively large but it packs in a stellar display and useful features.

The panel itself is a crisp 27-inch 4K option, with that detail brought to you by a high 163dpi pixel density. We were mightily impressed by the range of colour on offer from this simple Mini-LED panel, even. Our testing saw it score 99.9% sRGB, 95.9% AdobeRGB and 97.5%, those are some impressive scores all around.

The prowess extends to brightness too, with it hitting a max 805nits in SDR and 1,802nits in HDR, making this monitor ideal for awkward lighting conditions. It comes with a stunning 2,304 dimming zones too, which makes this impressive performance happen. Using this monitor, we found it to be positively OLED-like, a luxurious device that looks stunning when used for work tasks.

The design of this Philips monitor is delightfully unassuming and it brings impressive function. It offers Thunderbolt 4 connectivity but is boosted with USB4 compliance too. You get two HDMI 2.0, one DisplayPort 1.4 and four USB-A. For the Thunderbolt 4 / USB-4 ports, you get one that supports upstream data and video alongside 90W charging as well as one for downstream data/video and 15W charging. Handily, the power supply for this monitor is built-in, meaning there’s no chunky brick to find a comfortable spot for it.

The AOC Agon AG405UXC is another excellent gaming monitor, but this time sporting a massive 40-inch panel that’s large enough to displace your television.

For less than £600, you’re able to pick up this gaming monitor which offers a crisp 1440p IPS panel equipped with a 144Hz refresh rate, 3ms GtG response time and VRR technology.

The quality of this AOC display is outstanding, scoring strong results in our benchmarking. It came in at 99.2% sRGB, 84.9% DCI-P3 and 75.5% Adobe RGB. Top scores for a monitor focused on gaming performance over creative work, especially at this reasonable price.

It’s not short on added features either, with HDR support that will get the brightness up to 486 nits (361 nits in SDR). Then, the onboard KVM functionality is wonderfully useful. The monitor offers four USB-A, one USB-B and one USB-C port which, with KVM support, means you can use it as a useful dock for all your keyboards, mice and the like.

Ultra-wide monitors are incredibly useful for both office workers and gamers, providing extra screen space to make multitasking easier. The main problem with them is they can command a hefty fee, but not so with the Lenovo Legion R45w-30.

This monitor has a massive 49-inch display, with a 1500R curvature and 5120×1440 resolution maximising immersion for the best experience. We were really impressed with the picture quality, as it aced our benchmark tests and looked supremely bright with HDR activated.

Gamers will rejoice with the high 165Hz refresh rate too. You will find better gaming specs with the likes of the Samsung Odyssey G9 OLED (2023), but you’ll also need to fork out a lot more money for the privilege. This makes the Lenovo a great option for those who fancy an ultra-wide monitor without having to deplete the bank account.

The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 is a sharp 4K pen display that offers pro-level colour accuracy for digital artists. It’s also significantly better value than its closest competitor, the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24.

As with any monitor, the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 needs to be hooked up to a computer or laptop and a power source to work. Once set up, the 24-inch screen offers a 4K resolution with 1.07 billion colours available, covering 99% of the RGB and 93% of the DCI-P3 colour spaces. We found the glare-free display to be useable in a variety of lighting conditions, while Pantone and SkinTone validation ensure high colour accuracy.

The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 comes with several handy accessories, including two pens and the Quick Keys remote for assigning shortcuts. The latter features an OLED display with eight customisable buttons and a dial to cycle through them for a total of 40 presets per application. The remote also works both and wirelessly, with a 53-hour battery life in the latter instance.

The display itself features a heat-dissipating rear to keep things cool without requiring a noisy fan. The tilt stand allows the monitor to be adjusted between 16 and 72 degrees, while the VESA mount-ready design means the monitor can be mounted in a few different ways.

If you’re a creative in need of a fantastic value pen display, the Xencelabs Pen Display 24 is our top recommendation.

If you’re looking for a fantastic ultrawide monitor, our top pick is the Philips Evnia 34M2C860. While expensive, this monitor packs a marvellous QD-OLED panel, solid port selection and comprehensive OSD.

The Evnia 34M2C8600 is a 34-inch ultra-wide monitor with a 3440 x 1440 resolution and a smooth 175Hz refresh rate. The QD-OLED panel is the headline feature here, combining the high peak brightness of QLED with the deep, inky blacks of OLED. The display has a near-instant 0.03ms response time, along with support for AMD FreeSync and Adaptive Sync for Nvidia to eliminate any screen tearing.

We found the image quality to be excellent with deep blacks, vibrant colours and virtually infinite contrast, making both games and movies look brilliant. Colour accuracy came out near-perfect in our colorimeter tests, while the 237-nit peak brightness in SDR fell just short of Philips’ 250-nit claims.

The monitor offers one of the most comprehensive OSDs we’ve tested, with ten presets available to adjust the way the screen looks for everything from movies to FPS and racing games. You can also use the OSD to switch between inputs, enable the KVM switch, access OLED care to prevent burn-on and enable Ambiglow to enjoy ambient lighting on the wall behind your monitor.

The monitor itself is modern and stylish with the white and silver colourway functioning as a statement piece on your desk. The stand is built entirely from metal for maximum sturdiness and there’s even a headphone stand built into the back. We found the monitor to be easy to build and Philip bundles a bracket in for VESA mounting.

If you’re looking for a gorgeous ultrawide monitor, this is a great choice.

Mini LED is all the rage across productivity and gaming laptops right now. Monitors are in on the hype too, like with the Acer Predator X32/FP. This gaming-focused Mini LED from Acer gets plenty right, doing its best to justify its high price tag.

Expectedly with a Mini LED panel, the Acer Predator X32/FP excels in colour and brightness. The selection of colour is luxurious and abundant, hitting 99.8% for sRGB and Adobe RGB as well as 94.7% for DCI-P3. Peak brightness gets up to a lofty 455 nits in SDR, and a wondrous 1043 nits in HDR mode – that’s positively glorious stuff. These impressive specs are joined by little motion blur, cementing this luxury Mini LED panel as a great all-rounder.

With a resolution hitting 3840×2160 alongside a 160Hz refresh rate and built-in USB hub, this monitor can excel for gamers, creatives or productivity users. Specifically for gamers, this monitor also dons AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, for dodging screen tearing at those higher rates. There’s VRR (variable refresh rate) as well as a whopping four HDMI 2.1 ports.

Getting into PC gaming can be expensive but the AOC Gaming 25G3ZM/BK is here to help. With this AOC monitor, you’re getting a whole lot for under £200. The big sell is a 240Hz refresh rate, making it ready to go for competitive gaming.

It isn’t all about that though, the high refresh rate wouldn’t be enough to sell this monitor itself. Thankfully, that’s not the case. For this low price, you get surprisingly strong colour accuracy and gamut coverage to rival monitors twice this price. The raw stats see a great contrast ratio at this price of 4000:1 and coverage of 99.7% sRGB, 80.8% Adobe RGB and 91.2% DCI-P3. These numbers are remarkable for a device under the £200 mark.

Outside of benchmarks, the proof was in the pudding too. This 1080p panel offers up strong viewing angles, pleasing colour and an overall delightful gaming experience, even if brightness is a little lacking. Again, for the price, the design isn’t half bad either. This doesn’t look like a sub-£200 device, even if it is largely made out of plastic. There are slim bezels and a sturdy base that add up to a sleek combination.

If you’re hunting for a monitor to use with your Mac or MacBook, then the Apple Studio Display is a logical, and indeed powerful, choice.

We found it to be one of the best-looking monitors we’ve ever reviewed, thanks to an professional aesthetic that sits well alongside Apple’s equally pro-grade laptops and desktops. It features an aluminium construction, complete with the typical Apple-like precision we’ve come to expect. There aren’t any controls on the monitor though, which means you have to control the Studio Display using the connected device.

The Studio Display is a feature-packed panel, complete with some fantastic sounding speakers, a built-in webcam and even the internals of an iPad with an A13 Bionic chipset and 64GB of storage. We did find that connectivity to Windows laptops to be difficult, which presents the idea that the Studio Display is only designed for Mac users. If you want a Windows-based equivalent, you’re better off looking elsewhere.

As for the display itself, the Studio Display offers up sharp images thanks to a 5K resolution. We found it’s an adequate LCD panel for Mac users that offers similar tech to pro-grade offerings from a few years ago. With 600 nits of brightness, this is a vibrant panel with great colour accuracy too. But it lacks the punch of a Mini LED display, as well as the powers of Apple’s ProMotion tech that offers up a 120Hz refresh rate to ensure smoother scrolling.

At $1599/£1499, this is an expensive choice, but if you’ve got your heart set on having a capable panel to pair with your Mac, then the Apple Pro Display should serve you well.

With a 32-inch 4K QD-OLED panel, 120Hz refresh rate and built-in spatial audio-capable speakers, the Dell 32 Plus is a brilliant monitor for gaming and working alike. 

Thanks to its toolless construction, setting up the Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED Monitor is a breeze and takes a matter of moments to get going.

Considering other monitors can include a DisplayPort or even just a USB-A hub, the Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED monitor offers a fairly basic port section that’s made up of a singular HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4-supported USB-C and a second USB-C that delivers up to 15W of power.

As it’s a QD-OLED panel, while you will benefit from true blacks and a vibrant contrast, it’s worth noting that its peak brightness falls short at just 240.2 nits. Although this is to be expected with QD-OLED screens, it’s always worth keeping this in mind. 

Otherwise, its 32-inch 4K display offers lovely detail, with text especially appearing sharp and crisp too. 

Overall, if you need a solid all-round monitor that’s just as supportive when it comes to tackling your workload as it is for intense gaming sessions, then you’d be hard pressed to find a better option than the Dell 32 Plus 4K QD-OLED. However, if you need more ports then we’d recommend opting for the Alienware AW2725Q instead.

If you need a monitor that’s packed with ports, will comfortably support heavy workloads and looks great on your desk, then the BenQ MA320U is a great value choice.

It’s undeniably taken a lot of design cues from Apple’s Studio Display, sporting the same two-tone silver and black chassis and keeps all its ports neatly tucked at the back of the monitor. This certainly isn’t an issue, especially as the MA320U is much cheaper at just £599.99/$599.99. 

Speaking of its ports, you’ll find a USB-C that supports up to 90W of power and 4K video output, a pair of HDMIs, a two-port USB-A hub, a second USB-C (this time only offering 15W of power) and a headphone jack to round it off. Considering we weren’t particularly blown away by its speakers ability, the headphone jack is a welcome addition. 

Although it doesn’t sport a QD-OLED or similar panel, its 32-inch 4K IPS screen still provides not only brilliant detail but also 100% coverage of the sRGB colour space which is perfect for productivity workloads. You can also easily adjust the stand to ensure the panel is exactly how you’d like it while working, even into portrait orientation too. 

The built-in OSD of MA320U is fairly basic, however there are plenty more advanced settings that can be found within BenQ’s Display Pilot software. Available for both macOS and Windows, you can access features such as HDR support, different colour modes and brightness settings too. 

If you’re a MacBook user and want a decent second screen, that isn’t quite as pricey as the Studio Display, then the BenQ MA320U is a brilliant and more affordable alternative.