Dell make some cracking monitors, from titanic OLED ultrawides to more pedestrian models suitable for office work and slower-paced gaming. We normally focus on the upper end of the spectrum, but today we’re featuring an entry-level 27-inch 1440p model that’s able to deliver excellent image quality, wide viewing angles, a higher-than-normal 75Hz refresh rate and superior ergonomics thanks to a nice stand. All that for £175 – not bad, right?
To get this price, you’ll need to sign up for Dell’s newsletter to get a 5% off code, then use it with another code – TELEGRAPH5MON – at the checkout. That brings this £259 monitor down to £175, complete with a three-year warranty and free delivery.
These 27-inch 1440p monitors are quite good for office work, as the 1440p resolution at this size allows you to use Windows at 100% scaling, with enough screen real estate to have two half-size windows up at the same time without impeding usability. I use this all the time for my work – often having the product page or similar open on one side and my article on the other – and it was just as useful when I was working in an office or writing essays as a student.
As this is an IPS monitor, you also benefit from wide viewing angles and accurate colour reproduction, which of course is important for games as well as surfing the web or getting work done. Brightness is reasonable at a rated 350 nits, while contrast is also OK at 1000:1.
You’ll see much better contrast figures from VA or OLED monitors, but these also don’t tend to be available at this price – and the VA models that are in this price bracket tend to suffer from a smeary look to fast motion, thanks to long pixel response times in excess of 8ms. With a 4ms GtG response time typical for this sort of IPS panel, that shouldn’t an issue on this particular model!
The extra refresh rate, 75Hz vs 60Hz, is also a nice addition. An extra 15Hz doesn’t mean much at higher refresh rates, as the actual time difference becomes increasingly smaller, but at 60Hz that extra 15Hz translates into an extra 25% boost – which can make a noticeable difference.
In any case, this is a solid deal for a cheap 1440p monitor from a trusted manufacturer, and well worth picking up for slower-paced gaming and office work.
