While it’s true that there has never been a better time to buy a great screen, booby traps lie in wait for the unwary
You might have noticed there are more products than we normally include in this month’s Labs. There are a couple of reasons for this, with one of the most notable being that I’m an optimistic fool: “Let’s make this truly comprehensive,” I thought to myself in mid-June. “How long can it really take to test 30-odd monitors?” The answer to that, I now know, is six weeks and a lot of early mornings.
But the second reason is that it’s so easy to buy the wrong monitor for your needs. By giving you several to choose from, having put them all through the same set of tests and printed those results side by side, you can make a truly informed decision. It could be that you were considering spending over £1,000 on a colouraccurate monitor until you read the review of the £399 BenQ and realised it was perfect for you. Perhaps you could even buy two.
On the other hand, you may have been on the verge of buying that BenQ and have now seen how it performs in the Adobe RGB tests – and realised that, for you, it would be far better to spend over £1,000 on one of the high-end “creative” monitors we review from p92.
All this I could have predicted from before the Labs began. What I hadn’t anticipated was just how universally good the monitors would be. Of course, you get what you pay for to a large extent, and yes there are a couple of displays here that I wouldn’t recommend simply due to the quality of rival offerings for a similar price. But my weeks of testing have hammered home that you don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds to buy a top-quality, colouraccurate screen. If you read the Iiyama and Philips reviews in isolation, you’ll see exactly what I mean.
There is, however, one “BUYER BEWARE!” signpost I would like to share. And it concerns Amazon. If that’s your first port of call for online purchases, be incredibly careful. For reasons best known to some frankly insane person at Amazon HQ, it bundles different monitors on the same page – so you can think you’re ordering a 32in 4K model but then discover that the item in your shopping basket is actually a 27in Full HD version with a similar, yet not identical, name. It’s madness, and we’ve steered well clear of listing Amazon where at all possible.
Fortunately, that doesn’t mean we’ve pointed you somewhere more expensive. In fact, I often found that Amazon was £50 to £100 dearer than two suppliers you will see pop up time and time again: Insight and Scan. You may find that odd. After all, Insight gained its reputation for selling to business customers, not individuals; but anyone can now order from its site. And you might think of Scan as a desktop PC maker, or component reseller, but head to its online store and you’ll find a wide variety of electronics to purchase.
So, while it’s never been easier to buy a fantastic monitor for very little cash, keep your eyes open: it’s also never been easier to be caught out or pay more than you need.
“My weeks of testing have hammered home that you don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds to buy a top-quality screen”