Looking for the best 27" under $500...

I'm in the market for a new monitor too, except I'm torn between the asus Ve278q and the Samsung S27a55h. I looked at the U2711, but it's more than I'm willing to spend, and after reading about the AG coating it's not even on my short list. I'm leaning toward the Samsung, from what I've read it's a great monitor with the exception of some backlight bleed. However, for $70 less, the asus is very tempting.
 
Honestly if your main purpose is gaming on your xbox the asus VE278Q would be the best choice for the money. I had one and a xbox 360 connected to it, it worked fine and had no problems with it. It would honestly be a waste of money to get a U2711 for xbox 360 primary use. You would be more hapier with the ASUS, or even a 40+ tv such as a Sharp aquos.

I'm looking at your setup and if xbox gaming is the main use, I'd probably just put a 40" 1080p sharp aqous in front of everything. Would still be better than the dell u2711 for xbox 360 gaming and cheaper.

I however upgraded from the VE278Q to a U3011 and love it, but my primary use is PC gaming :)
 
I would rather chop off my pinky finger than be stuck with a U2711. I don't understand why you are fixated on owning one, the S27A850D has better picture quality and clear semi-glossy coating.

Agreed. Our advice is to not buy a U2711, if you choose to ignore and buy one anyway that's your choice. But why keep asking?
 

Thanks for the info, I would have probably jumped on the Samsung today until I read that. I was basing my decision off the user reviews I had read, and most people that bought it seemed generally happy with it, but your writeup there is pretty damning. Since you obviously know your stuff, what monitor do you guys suggest out of everything on the market right now? FinalJenemba, I read your post on page one, and aside from the Apple display, it didn't sound like you were terribly happy with any of the monitors you had used. I'm looking for the same thing the OP is, 27" under $500. There is a lot to like about the Asus, but damn that's a white bread looking monitor. Should I just hold out for now, is there anything better on the horizon? My current Samsung is okay, but it's starting to get really dim and the viewing angles are pissing me off. If I don't sit straight up in my chair, I can't see a damn thing when I'm playing games.
 
FinalJenemba, I read your post on page one, and aside from the Apple display, it didn't sound like you were terribly happy with any of the monitors you had used.

Yep, that's pretty much the situation, lol. I would say, out of all the sub $500 monitors I tested, overall the HP 2711x was the best. It had the best black levels of all of them, even the more expensive ones, and it had the best gamma oob of all the sub $500 stuff. The native gamma was the biggest problem for me with the Asus, fixable with a pc as you can calibrate around it, but that made it useless as a console display for me. As long as you can get around the, really not all that bad, backlight glow from the bottom, the HP was the best.

Don't get me wrong, its no where near the Apple, nothing is anywhere near the Apple. Guess im back try trying to find a way to use my PS3. I haven't tried the Kanex adapter yet, guess that's next lol.
 
Hanns-G is a decent company, they make a decent monitor. It is a low cost, low price monitor that still works well. It has been a favorite of many PC gamers in my area for a few years. It is not an LED monitor, its a TN/TFT Active Matrix monitor. LED in monitors is not really worth it, you don't get much better performance out of them, and they generally cost a lot more.

use less power, less heat and often don't have the problem of backlight bleeding and usually a more even light across the screen.
 
If I don't sit straight up in my chair, I can't see a damn thing when I'm playing games.

All TN panels do this, so it's time to forget about 27" and focus on more important things like image quality over a few extra inches.. The 24" Sony Playstation 3D TV costs 500$ and uses a VA panel=deep blacks and good viewing angles. There are a few reports of it being input lag free, fast response times and having great picture quality. Best Buy sells them so try one out since they have a hassle free return policy.
 
*sigh*... I'm taking measurements and hoping that 27" isn't too big for my desk area...
 
All TN panels do this, so it's time to forget about 27" and focus on more important things like image quality over a few extra inches.. The 24" Sony Playstation 3D TV costs 500$ and uses a VA panel=deep blacks and good viewing angles. There are a few reports of it being input lag free, fast response times and having great picture quality. Best Buy sells them so try one out since they have a hassle free return policy.

I realize that with TN panels, and it doesn't bother me on any of the other ones I use/used. My current monitor is only a few years old, but it's getting really dim (guessing the backlight is dying??). Before that it never bothered me.

What are you guys thoughts on the Samsung S27a750d? It's $600, and I could probably swing that if it's a good monitor. I saw where you guys said it has poor backlight uniformity, but honestly it seems like every monitor has it's issues. How does this stack up to the asus? I'm intrigued by the 3D capability and obviously 120hz is a big plus.

OP, sorry, I'm not trying to hijack your thread, but we have the exact same question so I don't want to create another thread. Maybe between the two of us asking questions, we'll find a monitor we like ;)
 
I realize that with TN panels, and it doesn't bother me on any of the other ones I use/used. My current monitor is only a few years old, but it's getting really dim (guessing the backlight is dying??). Before that it never bothered me.

What are you guys thoughts on the Samsung S27a750d? It's $600, and I could probably swing that if it's a good monitor. I saw where you guys said it has poor backlight uniformity, but honestly it seems like every monitor has it's issues. How does this stack up to the asus? I'm intrigued by the 3D capability and obviously 120hz is a big plus.

OP, sorry, I'm not trying to hijack your thread, but we have the exact same question so I don't want to create another thread. Maybe between the two of us asking questions, we'll find a monitor we like ;)

I can actually show you just how bad it can be. This is a photo of the bottom right corner of the s27a950d I tried, but the 750d was the same, except worse.

_DSC3900.jpg


With the exception of the backlight, they where both great displays.
 
Thanks for the pic Final. That looks pretty bad, but is it noticeable during regular use? Did you play with the 3D at all? I'm curious how far away you have to sit in order to use it. Thanks for you help here, much appreciated.
 
No problem. Yes it was noticeable during regular use. The pinch was so bad, that not only where there bright spots on dark scenes, but dark spots on bright scenes.. Also, if a movie was letterboxed, forget about it, so distracting.

The 3d was fantastic. I mean really good. You could sit a close as you want. I found it very tiring on my eyes, but all 3d is a bit tiring to me.

It could have been great, if the backlight wasnt so bad id still own it right now.
 
OP, sorry, I'm not trying to hijack your thread, but we have the exact same question so I don't want to create another thread. Maybe between the two of us asking questions, we'll find a monitor we like ;)

Oh, no man, it's perfectly alright... I am still welcoming any advice and suggestions that I can get. Although, I think I was about 2 seconds away from ordering the Asus VE278Q... but me, being a stubborn ass, is going to go back to a few stores to see some more...

Now, I just need to decide if 27" is what I want/fit. I sit pretty close to my desk most of the time. But, I've always been... I may regret going too small, but never too big...
 
I think Samsung S27A550H is best for your requirements. It is Full HD LED monitor with response time of 2 ms and screen brightness at 300cd/m².
 
I think Samsung S27A550H is best for your requirements. It is Full HD LED monitor with response time of 2 ms and screen brightness at 300cd/m².

That's the one I was initially going for, but these guys say it's a turd, and I believe them.

Good grief, it should not be this hard to find a monitor that works right. That 950d pic Final posted looks like a defect from the factory, I can't believe they would even put something out in that condition. I read a couple reviews on that monitor (the 750d), and while the the uniformity wasn't perfect by any means, it wasn't a train wreck like the ones you got. I wish I could go to a store and see one in person, but we have absolutely no pc stores left here, and I don't want to be out $50 shipping the thing back if it's screwed up. It certainly seems like they have some QC problems since you got two in that kind of condition.
 
B2BigAl, I know the op is looking for something that's mainly for consoles, but what about you, is this manly a pc monitor or do you need it for both?
 
Just for my PC, I've got theater room with a projector for the consoles. Wish I could put my pc on that bad boy ;)
 
Well crap... Just got back from the store and wouldn't you know, they had an HP 2711x on display next to a small version of the Asus VE278Q and it looked pretty impressive (besides a bit wobbly). So, new question... HP 2711x or Asus VE278Q?
 
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B2BigAl: Get the ASUS. Its the better overall panel but it only looks good from a PC, you need it to configure the colors. Its gamma cant be properly set in the panel, you need to do it from the video card.

Syxx676: Get the HP. The HP looks better out of the box and will look better with the consoles than the ASUS.
 
B2BigAl: Get the ASUS. Its the better overall panel but it only looks good from a PC, you need it to configure the colors. Its gamma cant be properly set in the panel, you need to do it from the video card.

Syxx676: Get the HP. The HP looks better out of the box and will look better with the consoles than the ASUS.

Lol awesome, such a great consultant. But yea, I should probably note that I probably spend about 75% of my time on my PC, but not for anything serious. I just wanted to make sure it worked well for 360 gaming... The HP, I'm guessing, is still a good option? Also, another random question, but I recall playing Minecraft on my cousins monitor and in dark areas, it was WAY too dark compared to mine. Is this an issue when you say it has great blacks?
 
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use less power, less heat and often don't have the problem of backlight bleeding and usually a more even light across the screen.

Considering I have yet to have any bleeding problems, and the heat is barely much at all in my LCD screens, the power would be the only worth while change. And for the price of LED monitors, that power savings is not worth it.
 
B2BigAl: Get the ASUS. Its the better overall panel but it only looks good from a PC, you need it to configure the colors. Its gamma cant be properly set in the panel, you need to do it from the video card.

Syxx676: Get the HP. The HP looks better out of the box and will look better with the consoles than the ASUS.

Thanks buddy, I'm going to be in KC over the holiday and I'm going to visit microcenter while I'm there and take a look at the ASUS in person. Thanks for the advice man, you're alright in my book ;)
 
Also, a youtuber posted a reply to one of my comments...
Man, Asus VE278Q is TN+Film Painel. This is a shit! Max Res 1920x1080 as Dell is 2560x1440. Dell is so much better than Asus.

The painel of U2711 is H-IPS like Apple Cinema, but with color gamut better than Apple because Apple uses LED ilumination.


He sounds pretty dumb after reading over this thread...
 
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One more thing... I was kinda intrigued with the picture in picture on the ASUS... I thought that it could come in handy for when I'm gaming and need to take a quick look at my PC screen for either game help, quick e-mail checks, or sports scores. Is this how it would work? Is it a nice feature, or worth going with the ASUS (in my case)?
 
Yea, I really can't find anything at all on the PIP for the ASUS. Just trying to figure out if it's enough to sway my final decision... If I'm playing on my 360, is it just a touch of a button to get to my PC in PIP?
 
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HP ZR27 is garbage due to the aggressive AG coating which makes text hard to read due to the tiny pixel pitch and whites+light colors look grainy. Movies look like they were shot with 3200 ISO and games with light colors which don't have a film grain option (left 4 dead/mass effect) look like they have permanent film-grain which you can't turn off.

Buying a 1440p monitor is also a waste for 360 use since most games are 720p or less. You want the glossy HP 2711x or matte Asus VE278Q. Also consider the 24" Sony 3D display which uses a VA panel (much better image quality+3D) vs 27" 1080p TN's

If this forum could give +rep you would get a kick in the ass from me ;)



HP is not garbage, you just don't like LG's anti-glare. The HP is not optimal for this purpose because it doesn't have a proper scaler built-in, and I don't think the anti-glare combined with the tight dot pitch of a super-high-res 27" is a great visual combo.


I had a U2711. I didn't experience visual apocalypse or go blind. You want to inform someone of an issue? Please do, but no need to go Chicken Little about it all the time. Passion is great but you also need to learn to be objective.


Also, I tried the Sony Playstation 3D Display and I would not recommend it. I bought it from Best Buy so I could return it, and I am doing so today.

1) 240hz is a gimmick as it's a C-PVA panel and a slow one at that. Horizontal movement is ok, vertical movement is pathetic and very slow/blurry. When I move the XMB, the text seems to fade and re-appear when going up and down.. It also still only supports 60hz through HDMI from my 5870 card. I didn't try my GTX 480, and I'm not interested in doing so.

2) It doesn't do 4:4:4 chroma sub-sampling and is sub-par as a PC monitor when you have red text on a black background or a red/blue background with black text, similar to a lot of HDTVs.

3) White has a 3D effect to it because of the shiny front glass slapped on in front of the panel. Even worse it's not sparkle free and it has reflections! Ouch.

4) The back-light control can give great contrast but the brightness control either raises the black level or lowers it and crushes blacks. The CPVA panel does have great blacks too, so this is actually a shame.

5) Ergonomics blow. The controls are on the back and the damn volume buttons are not separated from the rest, meaning if volume is too loud you will have to do a "prison style reach around" in order to get to the controls, and then finger the back of the screen (again prison style) to find them. Painful with no remote control and frustrating too.

This had great potential as a monitor, and I actually like the C-PVA panel for black levels, viewing angles, and the new pixel structure is good for text, but I would avoid it unless it's highly discounted.

The 3D was ok too, cross-talk wasn't too bad, but in non-3D the motion blur was heavy.

Oh no, its bad. Some people notice it less than others, more power to them, but its bad.

I've been trying allot of 27" monitors lately, honestly I think I have tried all of them, and I cant find one that I really like, not one. Im really picky but come on.



Dell U2711 = Flawless except for the AG coating the ruined the whole thing.

Asus VE278Q = Really decent actually. Bad color shift at angles, terrible color and really hard to configure. The only preset that doesn't crush and blow everything out is standard, and in that setting the gamma is way off and makes everything washed out. I had to adjust the gamma in my nvidia control panel to make it look correct. Was fine as a pc screen but poor as a console screen as consoles don't have gamma adjustment. Had just the right amount of AG.

Samsung S27A950D = Best TN I have ever seen. 120hz was amazing, 3D was amazing, color was good, very little color shift. Back-light uniformity was atrocious. Bleed and pinch everywhere, genuinely enough to be distracting. From everything I read, all of them are like this.

Samsung S27A750D = Tried this because I was hoping it might be like the 950D but with less bleed because the stand was in the right place. I was wrong. Its exactly the same, in every way, right down to the problems. If anything it was worse.

I have not tried the 850D, but from what I've read the back-light uniformity is pretty bad like the others.

Apple Cinema Display = By far the best so far, by far. Fantastic on a computer, even a PC. But here are the problems, NOT good for consoles, at all. Ugly, pixely, and I can't seem to get an adapter that works correctly with my PS3. Also, its high maintenance. The glass lets dust get in, so if you want it to stay clean, you have to pull the front glass off every once and awhile and clean it. Plus its expensive as hell. I still have this, but im trying to replace it as I really want to play some PS3 games lol. Update: I've decided to stay with this monitor for the foreseeable future. The image quality just outweighs everything else, everything. Ill update this post if I ever find a good way to use the PS3 with it. :)

HP 2711x = Im trying this one right now. Just ok over all, kinda like a glossy VE278Q, but cheaper. Viewing angles are the worst of the bunch, and colors, while punchy, have no depth (edit: this wasn't fair, I was used the IPS, I would like to correct this to say the viewing angles are standard TN, not better or worse than that). Also, quite bad glow from the bottom. Just sort of decent, but not good enough when I have a Cinema Display already, I will say the blacks are its party piece, really really good.

LG E2770V-BF =Update: So to report, its not very good. The color is punchy, but not accurate, the blacks crush really badly, and the contrast ratio is pretty poor, even compared to an IPS. The viewing angles are good for a TN. By far the biggest problem though, is the pixel walk. My goodness is it bad, everything grey is super grainy, and if you move your head in really close the grain is moving like noise. I tested it here at lagom: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/inversion.php, and it failed miserably. It also had a strange problem with sharpness, you could set it from 1-10 in the menu, but 5 was to sharp, and 4 was to blurry. Iv never seen that on a monitor before. Its been returned.

Hope this helps!

If this forum could give +rep, you would get it from me. Great research and summary!

The one place I agree with NCX is that the S27A850 is a good fit for someone who likes the ACD 27", but where I would caution you is in that the variable in quality of those screens is fairly high/wide. Also, from reading reviews, the Samsung would never be able to reach the black levels of the ACD. The contrast ratio is similar but the wider brightness range on the ACD makes it better that way.

What's it like withOUT the glass in front?
 
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Syxx676...how are you able to hear audio through the HP 2711x when using your xbox? No website mentions a headphone jack.
 
Frankly everyone has good input & research.... and I know you already bought it...

Personally I own the DELL U2711 and well I love it... best thing I have ever owned.

Frankly there is no PERFECT monitor for all uses. It really comes down to if you want good gaming, crisp text, glossy screen or matte screen what kid of color saturation & blacks you hope to accomplish. Are you doing CAD & rendering? Are you using a PS3? Utilizing apps with multiple tool bars?

I dont remember reading any info like this.

Frankly I do a lot of all of the above & a lot of gaming and I wanted high resolution and no I dont connect a PS3 or XBOX to it so I dont care how that works. And I wanted a good color saturation out of the box & highest resolution I could get from a 27".

So bottom line find the cheapest monitor that has the best features for what you want/need.
 
Oh well, I went with the HP 2711x...

Sorry I didn't realize this thread was still going on lol. Yes the Asus had picture and picture, but I never really used it though. The problem is you cant actually read anything in the little window, its easier to just switch the input. Don't worry you made the right choice for your situation I think. The HP is a good monitor, let us know how you like it!

Glad my monitor juggling was able to help some people out at least!

And PS, I got my PS3 working great with the ACD, I got the Kanex HD adapter from amazon and it actually works great! Its only 720p so its a little jaggy but the colors are perfect which makes it worth it.
 
Sorry I didn't realize this thread was still going on lol. Yes the Asus had picture and picture, but I never really used it though. The problem is you cant actually read anything in the little window, its easier to just switch the input. Don't worry you made the right choice for your situation I think. The HP is a good monitor, let us know how you like it!

Glad my monitor juggling was able to help some people out at least!

And PS, I got my PS3 working great with the ACD, I got the Kanex HD adapter from amazon and it actually works great! Its only 720p so its a little jaggy but the colors are perfect which makes it worth it.

Ah, glad I went with the HP! I appreciate all of the help and advice too. Not only did I order the monitor, I also received the surround sound speakers, receiver, and practically a whole new computer to build (damn Black Friday). If all goes well, I'll post updated pics of my little 'entertainment' center.

Thanks again guys!
 
I got my s27a750d today and it's awesome. The colors and viewing angles are great, it's so much better than my old Samsung it's like night and day. It doesn't have any of the backlight issues that you had reported finaljenemba, so I bet it was a problem with an earlier production run. The backlight uniformity, while not absolutely perfect, is very good. No pinching or bleeding anywhere, with the exception of a very faint bleed on the right side. The 120hz refresh rate makes an amazing difference, even when just working on the desktop, and gaming on this thing is just sick. I played skyrim for a couple hours in 3D and it was great, the implementation is really well done. I'm honestly very surprised at just how well it worked.

I was a bit worried about glare from the glossy screen, but it's virtually non-existent. I have a huge full length picture window in my office and my back is to the French doors which are all divided glass, and I can't see any glare. Whatever they did to reduce the glare on these works like a champ.

I do miss the higher resolution on my old 1920x1200 24", that's my only real complaint, but it's certainly not a deal breaker. Also, I do have one stuck pixel, first time I've ever had a stuck pixel on any of my monitors, but I probably never would have noticed it were I not looking for it. All in all, very happy with my purchase. I know it's slightly over $500, picked mine up for $550, but it's well worth the price of admission IMO.
 
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