Best budget PC monitors: 6 models for different tasks | Articles | Computer technology

There are many rea­sons to choose an inex­pen­sive mon­i­tor, and they are all log­i­cal. I would like to save on the dis­play when assem­bling a pow­er­ful sys­tem unit. There is no need to spend a lot of mon­ey if the PC is an office PC for basic tasks. At the same time, it makes no sense to con­sid­er ante­dilu­vian mon­i­tors.

We iden­ti­fied 6 most bal­anced cost mod­els of dif­fer­ent class­es.

In appear­ance, all bud­get mon­i­tors are the same. The most impor­tant thing is in the details. Pho­to: rtings.com

HP 24mh: an inex­pen­sive mon­i­tor for any task
Sam­sung CF396: king of bud­get curved mon­i­tors
ASUS VP228DE: Inex­pen­sive FULL HD mon­i­tor
LG 24MP88HV‑S: frame­less mon­i­tor
AOC 24B2XH: 24 inch­es for the price of 21
Sam­sung U28E590D: afford­able 4K mon­i­tor
Impor­tant selec­tion fac­tors: how not to fall into the trap

HP 24mh: an inexpensive monitor for any task

24mh is an extreme­ly bal­anced mod­el in terms of image qual­i­ty, diag­o­nal and func­tions. Pho­to: amazon.com

The 2021 HP 24mh remains in the top bud­get mon­i­tor charts. The IPS-matrix per­fect­ly con­veys col­ors — juicy and nat­ur­al. Nar­row bezels improve the per­cep­tion of the pic­ture. Built-in speak­ers save mon­ey on acoustics and sound good — with­out wheez­ing and crack­ling. An adap­tive stand allows you to change the height and tilt of the screen, change the ori­en­ta­tion of the mon­i­tor in space (from land­scape to por­trait).

The word “ver­sa­til­i­ty” has lost its val­ue, but there is no bet­ter fea­ture for the HP 24mh. Thanks to the tra­di­tion­al FULL HD res­o­lu­tion (1920 x 1080) and a 23.8‑inch screen, it is con­ve­nient to work on the mod­el at a typ­i­cal com­put­er desk. Objects look large, with no vis­i­ble pix­els. In games, 24mh will please with a con­trast­ing pic­ture. The mon­i­tor is also suit­able for novice design­ers. With a pix­el den­si­ty of 93 ppi, you can do basic pho­to edit­ing in com­fort.

24mh has incor­po­rat­ed the basic qual­i­ties of “home”, “office”, “work” and “game” mon­i­tors. The most sur­pris­ing thing is that in each of the cat­e­gories the mod­el would be able to show decent results.

Advan­tages:

• excel­lent sRGB col­or gamut: nat­ur­al shades;
• nat­ur­al image thanks to the con­trast ratio of 1000:1;
• three video inputs for con­nec­tion: HDMI, Dis­play­Port, VGA;
• audio out­put;
• stand with adjustable height, tilt;
• the screen rotates 90 degrees;
• built-in speak­ers.

Impor­tant fea­tures:

• war­ran­ty — 12 months;
• bright­ness is not the high­est;
• due to high demand, the mod­el is rare.

HP 24mh main fea­tures:

• screen diag­o­nal — 23.8 inch­es;
• res­o­lu­tion — Full HD (1920 x 1080);
• aspect ratio — 16:9;
• dis­play tech­nol­o­gy (matrix) — IPS.

Price: from 12000 rubles.

Samsung CF396: king of budget curved monitors

The curved CF396 deliv­ers a new feel to work and play. Pho­to: rtings.com

Curved mon­i­tors have a spe­cial charm. Their design fea­ture of the screen cre­ates the effect of spa­tial immer­sion. The eyes are more com­fort­able, they are less tired. Typ­i­cal­ly, curved mon­i­tors don’t fit into the bud­get cat­e­go­ry. But Sam­sung cre­at­ed the CF396 mod­el, which is tech­no­log­i­cal­ly not infe­ri­or to com­peti­tors, but costs only 14,000 rubles.

Engi­neers suc­cess­ful­ly com­bined three key para­me­ters: cur­va­ture radius, res­o­lu­tion and screen size. Beneath the dry data of 1800R, FULL HD (1920 x 1080) and 23.5 inch­es lies user com­fort. The radius allows you to choose the dis­tance from the eyes to the mon­i­tor with­in 1.8 m. In this range, every­thing is dis­played clear­ly and large enough. No need to peer and strain your eyes, con­stant­ly turn your head because of the huge dis­play, move the mon­i­tor 2–3 meters away from you.

Prac­ti­cal design is not the only bonus of the mod­el. Pro­pri­etary VA-matrix with good con­trast and bright­ness dis­plays col­ors real­is­ti­cal­ly. With view­ing angles of 176 degrees, the pic­ture is not dis­tort­ed.

Games, movies, work — the ben­e­fits of the curved CF396 are notice­able in any sce­nario. In the future, you can buy a sec­ond mon­i­tor and cre­ate a curved work­sta­tion.

Advan­tages:

• curved screen;
• good sRGB col­or gamut;
• high bright­ness;
• con­ve­nient mini-joy­stick to con­trol func­tions;
• AMD FreeSync Tech­nol­o­gy — Pre­vents tear­ing and reduces lag in games.

Impor­tant fea­tures:

• a mod­est set of video out­puts (HDMI, VGA);
• slight tilt adjust­ment;
• war­ran­ty — 12 months.

Key fea­tures of Sam­sung CF396:

• screen diag­o­nal — 23.5 inch­es;
• res­o­lu­tion — Full HD (1920 x 1080);
• aspect ratio — 16:9;
• dis­play tech­nol­o­gy (matrix) — VA.

Price: from 14,000 rubles.

ASUS VP228DE: Inexpensive FULL HD monitor

Sim­ple mon­i­tors are still use­ful. Espe­cial­ly with gam­ing fea­tures and eye care.Photo: tw.buy.yahoo.com

Mod­el VP228DE looks old-fash­ioned: wide frames, thick leg. But the mon­i­tor is equipped with ASUS Game­Plus tech­nol­o­gy (shows crosshairs and a timer in games) and eye pro­tec­tion. TN-matrix is ​​not suit­able for design projects, but in sim­ple tasks or clas­sic games, its bright­ness and col­or repro­duc­tion are enough. Dis­play para­me­ters (dis­play set­tings) are wired into 8 ready-made modes. The user can select the appro­pri­ate one by press­ing one but­ton.

With a res­o­lu­tion of 1920 x 1080 and a diag­o­nal of 22 inch­es, the VP228DE is com­fort­able to work with doc­u­ments and watch videos. The mon­i­tor can be a good sec­ond dis­play for a free­lancer or stream­er. Game or beau­ti­ful VP228DE can not be called. But for every­day tasks, there are few equals to it in the bud­get seg­ment.

Advan­tages:

• FULL HD res­o­lu­tion for lit­tle mon­ey;
• fast matrix response;
• anti-flick­er tech­nol­o­gy Flick­er-Free: does not let your eyes get tired;
• addi­tion­al eye pro­tec­tion: elim­i­na­tion of the blue spec­trum.

Impor­tant fea­tures:

• col­or repro­duc­tion is not elite lev­el;
• small view­ing angles;
• only one video out­put — VGA;
• no screen height adjust­ment.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics of ASUS VP228DE:

• screen diag­o­nal — 22 inch­es;
• res­o­lu­tion — 1920 x 1080;
• dis­play tech­nol­o­gy (matrix) — TN.

Price: from 8500 rubles.

LG 24MP88HV‑S: frameless monitor

LG has incor­po­rat­ed the pan­el set­tings from mon­i­tors direct­ly into the fac­to­ry firmware. Pho­to: lg.com

Frame­less mon­i­tors are loved for their ele­gance, increased screen size. The main advan­tage is the pan­el. Sev­er­al frame­less mod­els work togeth­er to cre­ate a seam­less image with almost no tran­si­tions. For gamers, this is a sig­nif­i­cant bonus to real­ism and com­fort. For design­ers — an aes­thet­ic plus.

LG 24MP88HV‑S costs from 20,000 rubles. It is not cheap. Among ana­logues there are mod­els for 15000. But only 24MP88HV‑S gets rid of thick frames around the entire perime­ter. You can make a ver­ti­cal pan­el — LG mod­els are ready for this. Cheap options have a wide bot­tom pan­el — they are only 75% frame­less.

LG 24MP88HV‑S with IPS-matrix does not suf­fer from poor col­or repro­duc­tion. Sat­u­rat­ed and deep tones remain so even at an angle. This is impor­tant when cre­at­ing a pan­el: you can hang up to 4 mon­i­tors on the wall and not see image dis­tor­tions. The design of the mod­el is light and neat. Weight — only 3.2 kg.

The mon­i­tor does not have adap­tive sync gam­ing tech­nol­o­gy. The mod­el is designed for mul­ti­me­dia tasks, enter­tain­ment, watch­ing movies, work. Frame­less design makes the pic­ture real­is­tic and live­ly.

Advan­tages:

• ultra-thin bezels with a thick­ness of only 2.5 mm around the entire perime­ter;
• two HDMI video out­puts at once — you can con­nect a game con­sole in addi­tion to a PC;
• con­ve­nient loca­tion of ports;
• built-in speak­ers with a pow­er of 5 W each;
• excel­lent col­or repro­duc­tion;
• unlim­it­ed pos­si­bil­i­ties for mul­ti-mon­i­tor pan­els;
• wide view­ing angles.

Impor­tant fea­tures:

• stand requires care­ful han­dling;
• to set the refresh rate to 75 Hz, you need to con­fig­ure;
• war­ran­ty — 12 months.

Key Fea­tures of LG 24MP88HV‑S:

• screen diag­o­nal — 24 inch­es;
• res­o­lu­tion — 1920 x 1080;
• dis­play tech­nol­o­gy (matrix) — IPS.

Price: from 20,000 rubles.

AOC 24B2XH: 24 inches for the price of 21

AOC knows how to give bud­get mod­els a pres­ti­gious look. Pho­to: amazon.com

AOC has long won the title of bud­get giant. While com­peti­tors offer mon­i­tors with TN or VA matri­ces with a diag­o­nal of 21.5 inch­es for 12000, AOC for the same mon­ey — 24 inch­es with IPS. There is no need to be afraid of the cheap­ness of AOC. The man­u­fac­tur­er does not inten­tion­al­ly use any defec­tive parts.

The AOC 24B2XH mon­i­tor is a mod­el for home or office work. The IPS-matrix is ​​tra­di­tion­al­ly good for AOC: rich col­ors, good con­trast. The screen res­o­lu­tion of 1920 x 1080 is opti­mal for 24 inch­es: every­thing is per­fect­ly vis­i­ble, it is com­fort­able to work and play. The per­cep­tion of the screen is improved by thin bezels on three sides. The mon­i­tor tilts eas­i­ly and is sta­ble thanks to its wide stand.

Low Blue Mode tech­nol­o­gy pro­tects your eyes from blue light. The menu con­tains ready-made image pre­sets and fine-tun­ing options. The inter­face is not the most mod­ern: AOC saves on it. But it puts all the resources into the main thing — the image, uni­form illu­mi­na­tion, a matrix with a large diag­o­nal.

Advan­tages:

• excel­lent image qual­i­ty with full sRGB cov­er­age;
• styl­ish design with frame­less design ideas;
• HDMI and VGA video out­puts:
• 24-inch matrix and FULL HD res­o­lu­tion for less than 12,000 rubles.

Impor­tant fea­tures:

• unusu­al and sim­ple menu.

Main char­ac­ter­is­tics of AOC 24B2XH:

• screen diag­o­nal — 24 inch­es;
• res­o­lu­tion — FULL HD (1920 x 1080);
• dis­play tech­nol­o­gy (matrix) — IPS.

Price: 11460 rubles.

Samsung U28E590D: affordable 4K monitor

For the sake of 4K and sav­ings, you can sac­ri­fice design. Pho­to: ingeniovirtual.com

The con­cept of “bud­get mon­i­tor” is being erased amid price spikes. The desire to get a mod­el with advanced 4K res­o­lu­tion for the min­i­mum cost is grow­ing.

Sam­sung U28E590D is a time-test­ed mon­i­tor with a clas­sic design and a 28-inch matrix. The cheap­est rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the 4K class sup­ports AMD FreeSync — there will be no pic­ture gaps in games. Four pic­ture modes can be select­ed from the menu. The U28E590D has enough bright­ness and accept­able con­trast to dis­play all the details clear­ly. Max­i­mum com­fort is achieved by cal­i­brat­ing the screen. View­ing angles are stan­dard, but a response of 1 ms and brand­ed cables ensure the per­for­mance of the matrix. The user’s eyes are pro­tect­ed by Flick­er Free tech­nol­o­gy.

Sam­sung U28E590D sup­ports PBP — Pic­ture By Pic­ture. The mean­ing of the tech­nol­o­gy is to divide the mon­i­tor screen into 2 parts. Each of them shows an image from a sep­a­rate video source. Can con­nect a PC and a game con­sole, two PCs, etc.

Advan­tages:

• min­i­mum cost for a 4K mon­i­tor;
• full cov­er­age of the sRGB col­or spec­trum;
• PBP func­tion.

Impor­tant fea­tures:

• sim­ple design;
• TN-matrix with­out wow effect.

Key Fea­tures of Sam­sung U28E590D:

• screen diag­o­nal — 28 inch­es;
• res­o­lu­tion — 3840x2160;
• dis­play tech­nol­o­gy (matrix) — IPS.

Price: from 23000 r

Important selection factors: how not to fall into the trap

There are many bud­get mon­i­tors. When choos­ing, you need to remem­ber: res­o­lu­tion and refresh rate in iso­la­tion from all the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the mon­i­tor do not give an advan­tage. 4K (Ultra-HD) is mod­ern, clear and beau­ti­ful. But on a small mon­i­tor (22.24 inch­es), objects in 4K will be very small. It is incon­ve­nient and uncom­fort­able for the eyes. Before buy­ing, it is bet­ter to eval­u­ate the ratio per­son­al­ly so that you do not have to return the equip­ment.

High refresh rate (144Hz, 240Hz) — Greater pic­ture smooth­ness. But you can notice it only in dynam­ic scenes of films and games. Putting aside extra mon­ey for 144Hz when you plan on office work is point­less. High hertz will also do noth­ing for design­ers and video edi­tors. It is much more impor­tant to choose a mon­i­tor with a good col­or gamut.