High-resolution screens are becoming more common on the market. 4K resolution displays are no longer a luxury and are easily available at reasonable prices. 4K still sits on the upper echelon of the premium viewing experience, but it’s safe to say that you can buy a good-quality 4K display without burning a huge hole in your pocket. And in this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the best budget 4K monitors you can buy in 2022.
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Best overall budget 4K monitor: Samsung UR55 Series 28″
Samsung is home to some of the best monitors on the market. In addition to its high-end monitors, the company also has a lot of budget options across different categories. If you are looking to buy a reliable budget 4K monitor in 2022, then we think this particular monitor from the Samsung UR55 series is worth checking out. It has a lot of good things going for it and it’s our pick for the best overall budget 4K monitor you can buy in 2022.
Right off the bat, one of the first things you’ll appreciate about this monitor is that it only costs $289. That makes it one of the most affordable 4K monitors out there. And despite the affordable price tag, we think it offers a lot of great features and doesn’t necessarily skimp on any essentials. Samsung has a couple of different variants of this particular monitor that all have different panel sizes. We’ve picked the one that comes with a 28-inch display for this collection, but you can buy another variant that sports a 32-inch screen. We think 32-inch would be a sweet spot to experience 4K, so you might want to step up for it.
The Samsung UR55 is a very simple-looking monitor that leaves very little room to complain about. In fact, there’s not a lot to talk about the overall design of this monitor itself. It’s got a fairly simple design with slim bezels all around. The bottom bezel is slightly thicker than the other ones but we’ve seen that with other monitors too. Unlike Samsung’s Odyssey monitors, this one doesn’t have any flashy lights or other striking design elements, so keep that in mind. You might want to look elsewhere if that’s something you want. We think the simple design of the Samsung UR55 monitor will easily blend into most setups without any issues.
The Samsung UR55 also appears to be pretty good when it comes to the overall picture quality. This particular monitor is said to cover up to 100-percent of the sRGB color space and up to 88-percent of the DCI-P3 space. These numbers, in case you are wondering, are pretty decent for a budget monitor. We’re talking about a 4K monitor that costs less than $300, after all. While the Samsung UR55 doesn’t have the brightest panel out there, we think its 400 nits of HDR brightness is still pretty good. This monitor also supports up to 60Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time with AMD FreeSync technology. The Samsung UR55 isn’t necessarily a gaming monitor but we think it should be good enough for casual gamers.
This particular Samsung monitor also has a decent selection of ports. We’re looking at two DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0 ports. Additionally, you also get a 3.5mm headphone jack but keep in mind that it doesn’t have built-in speakers. It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker since even a lot of high-end monitors lack built-in speakers. Overall, we think there’s a lot to like about this 4K monitor and we think you’ll find plenty to like about it, especially when you consider its price tag of less than $300.
Alternate best budget 4K monitor: LG 32UN500-W
Like many other manufacturers, LG has a ton of 4K monitors under its name that span across different categories. If you are on the lookout for a budget 4K monitor on the market, then we think the LG 32UN500-W is definitely worth checking out. We think this monitor is perfect for those who want to buy a 4K HDR monitor on a budget. There’s a lot to like about this monitor and it’s our pick for the second best 4K budget monitor you can buy in 2022.
The LG 32UN500-W is essentially a stripped-down version of the LG 32UL950-W and 32UN650-W. both of them are more expensive monitors in LG’s UltraFine lineup. But despite being a stripped-down version of the more expensive monitor, we think the company has managed to do a pretty good job of retaining a lot of good features that make this LG monitors so popular.
As for the specs, the LG 32UN500-W features a 31.5-inches VA panel with a W-LED backlight. We’re looking at a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 for a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s worth pointing out that this particular monitor supports up to 60Hz refresh rate and has 5ms response time and AMD FreeSync support. The LG 32UN500-W has a peak brightness of 350 nits and has a contrast ratio of 3,000:1. The overall panel quality of the LG 32UN500-W is said to be pretty decent. It also supports HDR10, which is good.
One of the best things about this particular monitor is that it’s very easy to put together. As such there’s no need for any tools to put this monitor together. The standard VESA 100 x 100mm mount easily snaps right into place with ease. The metallic stand, as you can see, looks very trendy and it gives the monitor a great overall look and feel. The panel is covered by slim bezels all around, which also adds to the overall appeal.
As far as the ports are concerned, the LG 32UN500-W sports one DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.0 ports alongside a 3.5mm audio out and power supply port. The overall user experience of the monitor is also pretty good and it has received pretty good reviews overall from the community. It’s not the best option for gaming due to the limited refresh rate support, but we think it’s still good enough for casual gamers. It’s also great for content consumption as it packs built-in speakers. This is a good feature to have because a lot of budget 4K monitors don’t have built-in speakers, thereby forcing you to rely on expensive audio sources.
Overall, there’s a lot to like about the LG 32UN500-W 4K monitor. We think it’s a solid budget monitor that offers a good set of features and a great user experience for the price. It also supports HDR which is good. The monitor is also easy to install and works well for a variety of content. You can hit the link below to find the best price for it online right now.
Best budget 4K gaming monitor: ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q1A
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q is already a part of our other 4K monitor lists as one of the best budget picks, so it’s hardly a surprise that it has made its way to this particular collection too. This is one of those budget 4K monitors that’ll cost you just a little over $300 and offer a pretty good experience overall, be it for gaming or other day-to-day workloads. And despite its affordable price tag, we think the TUF Gaming VG289Q1A offers plenty of great features, making it a solid addition to this particular collection.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q features a 28-inch IPS/W-LED panel. This panel has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a maximum resolution of 2840 x 2160. The fact that it only supports up to 60Hz refresh rate may sound like a letdown, especially for a gaming monitor, but we think it’s not necessarily a huge deal considering its affordable price tag. It’s not particularly surprising to see the 60Hz option in the budget space. We’re also looking at a 5ms response time for this panel, which is again not the quickest in this collection, but still not a deal-breaker.
The overall image quality of this monitor, however, appears to be great. This monitor has received pretty good reviews from the enthusiasts in the community, so the overall experience of using it seems to be good. The TUF Gaming VG289Q has a peak brightness of 350nits and it has a contrast ratio of 1000:1. this particular panel also supports HDR and it’s recommended that you enable Windows HDR to play HDR games or watch 4K HDR content on it. While the HDR quality may not be as good as it is on higher-end monitors, we think it offers a pretty good experience for casual users.
There’s not a lot to talk about the design of the ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q. That’s because ASUS has managed to keep it very simple. Just like a lot of other ASUS TUF Gaming products, this one also has subtle design cues to represent its gaming DNA. Unlike a lot of other high-end gaming monitors, you won’t find any RGB accents on this monitor. That, however, isn’t a bad thing as most people prefer having a simple-looking monitor without any RGB bling. The monitor has a tall and sturdy stand that provides nearly 6-inches of height adjustment and up to 62-degrees swivel. The bezels around the display, as you can see, are also quite thin. We think this monitor looks great overall.
As for the competition, well, you won’t find too many budget 4K gaming monitors, so there’s not a lot of options. This monitor is available for just $328 at the time of writing this article, which is simply great. It’s often available at discounted prices, putting it well under $350, so be sure to check it out. You can hit the link below to find the best price for the ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q online right now.
Best looking budget 4K monitor: Dell S2721QS
While none of the monitors mentioned in this collection look awful or have a bad design, we think the Dell S2721QS, in particular, looks the best out of the bunch. It’s got an elegant design, especially at the back of the display that makes it better than a lot of other options mentioned in this collection. As such, it’s our pick for the best-looking budget 4K monitor you buy on the market right now.
One of the best things about the Dell S2721QS is, well, its design. The stand itself looks quite trendy thanks to its silver finish and the trapezoid-like base. The bezels are also on the relatively thinner side, which is again, pretty good. The plastic bezels surrounding the display measure about 0.04 inches (1mm) thick on three sides. It’s, however, worth pointing out that the panel itself has black borders that measure an extra 0.2 inches (5mm). Not a deal-breaker but something to make a note of, indeed. The Dell S2721QS’s bottom bezel, in the meantime, is slightly thicker at 15mm.
The back of the monitor also looks quite elegant which is something that we don’t usually see on a lot of monitors. There’s also texturing here that looks pretty good overall. If there’s one thing we could change about this particular then that would be the colors used for the materials. While the bezels surrounding the panel are black-colored, the base itself is silver and the back panel is grey-ish white in color. We wish Dell would’ve used a single color scheme that would’ve made things look a lot better overall.
As far as the ports are concerned, the Dell S2721QS has two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The S2721QS also has two bottom-firing speakers, which we think are a solid addition. The overall panel quality of this particular monitor is said to be pretty good. In terms of the specifications, we’re looking at a 27-inch IPS panel with a W-LED backlight. It’s got a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 for an aspect ratio of 16:9. The panel has a peak brightness of 350 nits and a 1,300:1 contrast ratio. It’s not the best monitor for gaming due to the limited refresh rate support and 4ms response time, but we think it’s still pretty good for casual gamers who are looking to do some gaming occasionally.
Just like a lot of other monitors mentioned in this collection, setting this up is also fairly easy and requires no tools whatsoever. Overall, there’s a lot to like about the Dell S2721QS monitor. The best thing about this is, of course, its design. We think it looks very modern and it’ll have absolutely no issues blending in to most setups out there. It’s slightly more expensive than some other monitors mentioned in this collection, so keep that in mind. As always, you can hit the link below to find the best price for it online right now.
Best budget 4K monitor for creators: HP U28
While all the monitors mentioned in this collection have pretty good quality, not all of them are geared towards creative professionals. There are only a handful of 4K HDR monitors in this price range that are reliable for creative workloads. If you are somebody who’s looking to upgrade their monitor for creative workflows, then we think the HP U28 is a good option to consider. It gets the job done very well and has good color accuracy for both sRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces.
In terms of specifications, the HP U28 sports an IPS panel with a W-LED backlight. We’re looking at a 16:9 28-inch panel with a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160. Just like a lot of other monitors mentioned in this collection, the HP U28 only offers support for up to 60Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time, so it’s not the best option for gamers. That being said, we think casual gamers won’t have any issues with this panel whatsoever.
The HP U28 also has a peak brightness of 400 nits and a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. This particular monitor has a pretty basic design, so there’s not a lot to talk about it. It’s got fairly slim bezels around the display and a very basic-looking base. Unlike the Dell monitor we saw earlier, this one has a very simple-looking design overall. That, however, isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it’ll allow the monitor to blend into most setups without any issues. The HP U28 stand offers a good amount of adjustment options. You can raise the screen to adjust the height or even flip it to switch the monitor to portrait mode. The monitor can also be tilted at varying angles in all directions. This allows the monitor to be adjusted well according to your needs.
As far as the ports are concerned, the HP U28 sports a single HDMI 2.0 port and a DisplayPort 1.2. You also get a USB Type-C port with this monitor which is great. This Typ-C port offers Power Delivery at up to 65W, meaning it can power a laptop or any other device too. In addition to the USB Type-C port, you get USB Type-A ports on the monitor too, which is great.
The overall panel quality of the HP U28 is also pretty good. It’s set to Photography / P3 mode out of the box but this can be changed very easily without any issues. The default P3 mode itself is said to look great and is suited for most workloads. That being said, you can easily switch over to the sRGB mode if that’s your preferred mode for monitors. The HP U28 is slightly on the expensive side when compared to some other options mentioned in this collection, but we think it still falls under the budget category with its $400 price tag. This one also tends to be available at discounted prices, so be sure to hit the link below to find the best price for it online right now.
Alternate best 4K monitor for creators: ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV
ASUS’ ProArt lineup has a ton of great products for creative professionals. A lot of these products, however, are considered to be somewhat expensive. The ProArt Display PA279CV monitor, on the other hand, is quite affordable. As such, you won’t have to shell out an absurd amount of money to buy a good quality professional-grade gaming monitor. This one also costs around the same price as the HP U28 monitor we mentioned above, so we think it definitely deserves a spot in our collection of the best budget 4K monitors out there right now.
One of the best things about this particular monitor is its design. This is arguably one of the best-looking 4K monitors in this price range. We think it definitely looks better than most other options that we’ve mentioned in this collection, and it comes to the Dell S2721QS that we’ve added as our pick for the best-looking 4K monitor. The ASUS ProArt monitor has a textured back panel and a contrasting stand that looks great overall. The stand also allows the user to adjust the panel in a variety of ways, so that’s good too.
The ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV has little-to-no-bezels on all three sides of the display except for the bottom panel, and we think it adds to the overall aesthetics. The overall image quality of the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV is said to be pretty good. It features an IPS panel that delivers 10-bit color rendering and is capable of handling more than a billion different shades. It also has an anti-glare coating which makes it better than a lot of monitors that don’t have one. We’re looking at a 60Hz refresh rate for this panel along with a 5ms response time. While this is fine for day-to-day usage and casual gaming, we think enthusiast gamers should consider checking other options out there.
The ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV delivers excellent image quality out of the box with very deltaE values of error. It delivers a peak brightness of around 300 nits, which we think is just on par with a lot of other monitors in this price range. The PA279CV is said to cover up to 98-percent of the sRGB color space, 77.9% of the DCI-P3 gamut, and 74.5% of the Adobe RGB space. You can also easily calibrate the panel manually according to your requirements.
The connectivity options of this monitor include as many as four USB-A ports, a single USB-C port, two HDMI, and a single DisplayPort for connecting your PC. Overall, we think the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV offers plenty of great features that are absolutely worth considering. It’s also a great panel overall for creative professionals that is available at a not-so-expensive price. Besides that, this monitor is also often available at discounted prices on Amazon, so be sure to hit the link below to find the best price for it right now online.
Best budget 4K monitor with USB Type-C: Samsung S80UA
The Samsung S80UA is yet another great 4K monitor that we think is a great addition to this particular collection. This is one of those monitors that deliver a good overall experience without breaking your bank. In fact, at $430, MSRP, the Samsung S80UA is definitely worth considering, especially for those who are looking to buy a 4K monitor with a USB Type-C port. This monitor comes with a USB-C hub that adds more ports to the setup, so we think it’s much better than a lot of other options out there.
As far as the specifications are concerned, the Samsung S80UA sports a 27-inch IPS display with a W-LED backlight. This one has a 16:9 aspect ratio with a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160. We’re only looking at 60Hz refresh rate support with a 5ms response time, so we’d say it’s just as good as a lot of other monitors mentioned in this collection for gaming. While this is good for casual gamers, we think more serious gamers should consider checking out our collection of the best 4K gaming monitors on the market right now. That one has a lot of good options to consider, albeit a bit expensive.
The Samsung S80UA has a peak brightness of 300 nits and a contrast ratio of 1,000:1. The overall image quality of this monitor is said to be pretty good. It’s has received pretty good reviews overall from the community, so we think it should definitely be on your list of monitors if you are looking to buy something new. It’s probably not going to be the best option for creative professionals, but we think casual users looking to buy a monitor for day-to-day workloads, media consumption, and more will find this to be a great option to consider.
The design of this particular monitor is also pretty simple with not a lot going on. The back of the monitor has a simple black texture with lots of space for all the cables and ports. The USB hub is right on top and it’s easily accessible. The monitor comes with a pretty good stand that allows the users to adjust the panel in a variety of ways. In addition to being able to adjust the height of the monitor, you can also tilt the panel or put it on portrait mode too. In addition to the USB Type-C hub that we talked about, the Samsung S80UA also comes with a single DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0 port. The monitor comes with a USB-C and an HDMI cable out of the box but you’ll have to buy the DisplayPort cable separately if you need it.
Overall, there’s a lot to like about the Samsung S80UA UHD monitor. We think it offers a good set of features for the price. The overall panel quality is also said to be pretty good out of the box without no need for any manual color calibration for day-to-day workloads.
Best budget 4K curved monitor: Samsung UR59C
The Samsung UR59C isn’t the best 4K monitor out there on the market, but we think it gets a lot of things right to deliver a good overall experience. It also has a lot of great features on offer, including a curved panel. This is the only decent curved monitor that’s available in this price range, so we think it’s definitely worth checking out.
In terms of specifications, the Samsung UR59C comes with a 32-inch VA panel with a W-LED backlight. It’s a 16:9 aspect ratio panel with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and support for up to 60Hz. In addition to the 60Hz refresh rate, the Samsung UR59C has a 4ms response time. This means it’s not the fastest display on the market right now. That being said, we think it’s still pretty good casual gamers who are looking to indulge in occasional gaming sessions. Another thing to note about the Samsung UR59C is that its panel has a curve radius of 1500mm. This natural curve won’t take that long to get used to if you’re coming from a normal flat panel.
In terms of the design, we think the Samsung UR59C has a fairly simple design with no sharp edges or striking features. We think it’s one of those monitors that’ll easily fit into even the most sophisticated setups out there. The overall picture quality of the monitor is also crystal clear, thanks to a combination of image processing and an anti-glare layer on top. The panel also has fairly thin bezels surrounding the main display which adds to the overall immersion.
Samsung has spent a good amount of time paying attention to little details to deliver a good experience overall. The input panel of the monitor, for instance, is hidden under the circular snap-on cover at the back. The monitor also lets you route the cables down the hollow upright to keep them out of sight. You get a single DisplayPort 1.4 port and an HDMI 2.0 port along with a headphone jack. This particular monitor doesn’t have built-in speakers, so keep that in mind. It’s not a deal-breaker since a lot of other monitors at this price don’t have built-in speakers either, but we think it’s worth making a note of.
Gaming on the Samsung UR59C is also a great experience. The lack of a high-refresh-rate panel could be a turn-off for enthusiast gamers, but we think it’s perfectly serviceable for casual gamers. The Samsung UR59C has received rave reviews when it comes to panel quality, so you’ll definitely have a great experience gaming on it. It goes without saying that consuming content on this monitor is also going to be a great experience thanks to the crisp image quality and the natural curve design. Overall, it’s safe to say that the Samsung UR59C is a solid option to consider, especially if you want a curved panel in this price range. Curved monitors are hard to come by in this price range, so we think this is a great option.
Best budget 4K monitors to buy: Final Thoughts
Well, that brings us to the conclusion of this particular collection. 4K monitors, as we mentioned earlier, are no longer a luxury and are easily available at reasonable prices on the market. We think the Samsung UR55 is the best overall 4K monitor out there right now for those who are looking to buy something that’s affordable, yet offers a good set of features. The LG 32UN500-W is also a great option to consider while gamers can check out the ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q gaming monitor. We’ve also added some other monitor options in this collection including some monitors for creators, so be sure to check it out.
If you don’t mind buying FHD or QHD monitors, then we suggest you check out our collection of the best monitors too. This particular collection is bound to have more options, and you may end up finding some budget options as well. If you are building a new setup from scratch then you can also check out some of our other collection articles including the best webcams and the best mechanical keyboards. Alternatively, you can also join our XDA Computing Forums to discuss your setup or get more product recommendations from the experts in our community.