The UK doesn’t always get the best deals. But as Amazon Prime Day enters its second day, there are some absolute corkers available on gaming monitors, even if none of my favourites are actually on Amazon.
At the bottom end of the market, you can now get a proper high-refresh 27-inch 1440p IPS panel running at 180 Hz and with 400 nits of brightness and 1 ms claimed response for £160. That’s so much monitor for the money. Just 18 months ago, it would have cost you twice as much.
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Personally, I’d try to find the money for the upgrade to 4K and 0.5 ms, which can now be had for under £260, which is actually pretty hard to believe. Again, 18 months ago, you’d have been looking at pretty much double the money.
Of course, my favourite form factor is 34-inch ultrawide, and that now starts at barely over £200, including 180 Hz refresh. Incredible. That said, if I could, I’d stretch to the OLED option. Until recently, it was hard to justify OLED thanks to painful pricing. But at £440 for a 34-inch ultrawide, well, OLED is much more accessible.
Speaking of which, the full 4K 32-inch OLED experience can now be had for £600. That’s still a fair amount of cash. But the combination of OLED sizzle with 4K crispiness on a 32-inch panel might just tempt me away from my beloved ultrawide. Quick, somebody hide my credit card!
Quick links
- MSI MAG 274QRFW 27-inch 1440p | £159 @ Overclockers
- Gigabyte G34WQCP 34-inch ultrawide | £219 @ Scan
- MSI MAG 274URFW 27-inch 4K | £249 @ Overclockers
- Philips Evnia 34M2C6500 34-inch OLED | £439 @ Scan
- MSI MAG 321UP 32-inch 4K OLED | £598 @ Overclockers
MSI MAG 274QRFW
In a world where the worst GPU you can buy is about £300, it’s incredible that a screen this good is available for under £160. This MSI has a 27-inch 1440p IPS panel rated at 1 ms for response and capable of 180 Hz refresh.
As if that wasn’t enough, there’s the brightness. Cheap screens normally fall down by that metric, but this is a 400 nit model with HDR400 certification. So, there really are no weak points.
Admittedly, it’s actually not a true HDR monitor; it will just process an HDR signal. But then, even the most expensive mini-LED monitors with local dimming are rubbish at HDR. Only OLED does HDR properly, and that’s a whole different price category, even in terms of these deals.
Anyway, if you’re looking for decent high-refresh gaming on the cheap, put this MSI panel at the top of your buy list. It’s a fabulous deal.
Gigabyte G34WQCP
In terms of real-world gaming, 34-inch ultrawide is easily my favourite form factor. It’s super immersive and cinematic. It’s also great for multitasking on the desktop. Win-win.
So, it’s heartening to find that you can now have that experience for so little money. This Gigabyte panel gives you the 34-inch ultrawide basics, plus 180 Hz refresh and 1 ms response. It’s a VA panel, so the response probably still isn’t as good as an IPS monitor. But it should be reasonable.
Of course, VA means better contrast. Add in decent, if not stellar, 350 nit brightness and at this price point, I can’t see a reason not to pull the trigger.
MSI MAG 274URFW
There’s only one problem with this monitor. GPUs are so expensive. That’s a particular problem given it’s a 4K model and that means plenty of GPU load. But you can hardly blame this MSI panel for being too cheap, can you?
This 27-inch 4K beauty runs at 160 Hz and cranks out 400 nits of brightness. Even more impressive, given the low, low price point, is the 0.5 ms claimed response. OK, in reality, it won’t actually do 0.5 ms. But that rating does mean it’s one of the very latest and fastest available IPS monitors.
Honestly, it’s amazing that a monitor with these capabilities is available for so little money. It’s just a pity that a graphics card to truly suit will cost you so much more.
Philips Evnia 34M2C6500
I was blown away by the Alienware AW3423DW, the OG 34-inch ultrawide OLED. But it was so much money. The good news is that pretty much the same screen with the same Samsung-sourced QD-OLED panel is now yours for a little over £400.
It really wasn’t that long ago that a plain old LCD 34-inch ultrawide cost £400. Now you can get OLED with perfect per-pixel lighting, epic HDR performance and response times that annihilate any LCD monitor.
At this price point, it’s also easier to forgive the mediocre pixel density of 34-inch 1440p panels. Likewise, OLED burn-in is proving to be a non-issue. So, I’m running out of reasons not to apply a strong buy recommendation, I really am.
MSI MAG 321UP
I’m an ultrawide kind of guy. I prefer it for both gaming and general computing. But if I were to go 16:9, this would be my pick.
4K and 32 inches is the perfect match. You still get excellent pixel density, but at the same time, worthwhile additional screen space compared to a 27-inch 4K monitor. That makes for not only a more immersive gaming experience, but also more elbow room on the Windows desktop.
This MSI uses Samsung’s QD-OLED tech. I reckon it’s preferable to LG’s WOLED, albeit with the caveat that black tones can look a bit grey in bright ambient light. That snag aside, this is an incredible panel capable of sizzling HDR visuals, plus super crisp fonts and fantastic image detail on a very large scale.
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