Buyer's Guide: The Best Monitors

The perfect monitor should be an all-rounder, capable of handling games, photo editing, office computing and movies. Here are a few things to look out for when shopping for a monitor.

- Screen panel technology: the type of screen panel (TN, VA or IPS) in turn defines how wide the monitor's viewing angles will be. TN screens are usually the worst, as they tend to look black when you look at them from below. Panel technology can also affect the consistency of colours across the screen. On a TN screen, for example, an orange dot will look darker at the top of the screen than at the bottom. That can clearly be problematic for photo editing.

- Responsiveness: in theory, the faster a monitor's response time, the smoother fast movement will look onscreen. In practice, however, some manufacturers push their screens too far, and the results end up looking worse than on screens with slower announced response times (due to effects like reverse ghosting)

- Connections and accessories: make sure that the monitor has all the connections you'll need. For example, if you're planning on using the monitor to watch TV from time to time, you'll need an HDMI socket and a couple of built-in speakers (or a headphones socket) if you don't want to end up needing all kinds of adapters.

- Colour fidelity and contrast: not all monitors display colours in the same way. While some monitors display colours that are quite simply crazy, others reproduce colours perfectly accurately, but that's not something you'll find listed on the manufacturer's spec sheet. You'll have to read our reviews to find that out, as we check the colours with special lab tests! Similarly, while manufacturers do give contrast ratios, these are often highly exaggerated and aren't reliable. Once again, only the kind of tests we carry out in real-life situations can show the actual screen contrast.

With these factors in mind, here's our pick of the best monitors out there right now.

Editor's Choice

Although this monitor's contrast is a little on the weak side—a common problem in IPS screens— the Asus P246Q is an excellent display. It has a good design and plenty of hardware features. Plus, it displays accurate colours, has nice, wide viewing angles and is responsive enough for gaming. What's more, considering that it's mainly aimed at imaging industry professionals, it's really not badly priced.

Two Alternatives

Best of the Rest

Here are a few more of our favourites.