The 5 Best Budget And Cheap Monitors - Spring 2024 Reviews

The best monitor you can get on a budget is the Dell G2724D. It's a versatile 27-inch monitor with a 1440p resolution that's good for most uses. It's rather simple and barebones regarding features, but it gets the job done, especially if you don't need anything fancy on a budget. You can buy it directly through Dell's website. It has good text clarity, which is great for reading through webpages and documents, and it's also a good choice for well-lit rooms as it gets bright enough to fight glare and has good reflection handling. Despite its budget cost, it's fairly well-built and has outstanding ergonomics, making it very easy to place in an ideal position.

Even though it performs well for everyday use, it's mainly designed as a gaming monitor and excels at that. It has a good response time, so fast-moving objects look fairly crisp, and its 165Hz refresh rate creates a smooth and responsive feel while gaming. However, as a budget monitor, it lacks some features like a USB hub. It also has a low contrast ratio, and blacks look gray in dark rooms. Though most budget monitors have limited image quality, the AOC Q27G3XMN is an exception. If this is important to you, the AOC is worth considering, as it has much better picture quality thanks to its Mini LED backlighting. However, it has some bugs and can be harder to find.

If you prefer a very cheap display and don't need the gaming features of the Dell G2724D, check out the ASUS VG246H. There are a number of trade-offs for getting this monitor instead of the Dell as it has a smaller screen and lower resolution, so images are less detailed, but it still has decent text clarity. It also has a much lower 75Hz refresh rate and isn't meant for gaming, but that doesn't make a big difference if you need something simple for office work.

It has a few features for productivity and editing, like an sRGB picture mode with great accuracy before calibration. Like the Dell, it also has remarkable ergonomics, making it easy to adjust, which is great if you frequently need to share your screen with someone else. However, like the Dell, it's limited in extra features, like a USB hub. Additionally, while it handles reflections well, it doesn't get bright enough to overcome glare and doesn't get as bright as the Dell.

If you want something mainly for working and don't mind spending more than on the entry-level ASUS VG246H, check out the Dell S2721QS. It has a larger screen and higher 4k resolution than the ASUS, so there's more screen real estate for multitasking, and it also delivers much better text clarity. It's a great choice if you want to use it in a well-lit room, as it gets much brighter than the ASUS and overcomes glare well. Like the ASUS and the Dell G2724D, the S2721QS also has wide viewing angles and impressive ergonomics, making it easy to share your screen with someone next to you, as the image remains consistent from the sides.

Like the ASUS and the G2724D, it delivers good image quality in SDR but with a few extra features. It does have Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture modes, but unlike more expensive monitors, it doesn't have a USB hub to connect to other devices. If you want something with a USB hub, including a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, you can also check out the higher-end Dell S2722QC, which often goes on sale. These extra features offer great value, but the S2721QS is usually cheaper.

If you don't need something for office work like the Dell S2721QS and prefer a smaller screen than the Dell G2724D, you can get plenty of good, budget-friendly 24-inch monitors. However, many monitors with this screen size focus on gaming, and that's the case with the ViewSonic XG2431, though it has a lower 1080p resolution than the G2724D, and images aren't as detailed. Regardless, it works extremely well for fast-moving games, as its response time is similar to the G2724D's, and it has a higher refresh rate for a smoother, more responsive feel.

Unlike the monitors above, it has some added gaming features, like a versatile backlight strobing feature that you can customize to improve the appearance of motion, which is something many budget monitors can't do. However, it doesn't work at the same time as VRR, though this is typical of many gaming monitors. However, like the other monitors, it has great ergonomics and wide viewing angles, so it's still versatile enough if you need a small display for productivity or even co-op gaming. Unlike the other monitors, it even has two USB-A ports to quickly connect your peripherals, like a keyboard and mouse.

If you want a bigger screen, a few budget-friendly 32-inch monitors are decent enough for everyday use, but low-cost monitors of this size aren't as good as smaller displays. Regardless, if that's what you want, the LG 32GN650-B is a decent choice, and you can also find it as the 32GN63T-B at different retailers. Both models perform the same, so you can get whichever you can find for cheaper. It has a higher resolution than the ViewSonic XG2431, but because of the large size, the pixel density is similar, so the text clarity is just okay.

The main downside is that this monitor has worse motion handling with more smearing and inverse ghosting than the Dell or the ViewSonic, but it's still decent enough if you don't play a lot of fast-moving games. As a VA panel, it displays fairly deep blacks next to bright highlights in dark rooms, but unlike the monitors above, the image looks washed out from the sides, so it's not a good choice if you regularly share your screen with someone else.