What to look for when buying a small 4k monitor

Panel type

When browsing monitors, you’ll undoubtedly have run into the terms “IPS”, “VA, and “TN” many times.

These are the pixel technologies that displays use to output color & light, all with their own pros and cons.

TN is the oldest of the panel types and is usually reserved today for gaming monitors with its ability to produce cheaper displays that can manage very low response times.

Outside of gaming, despite the cheaper cost, it’s less common to see TN panels used as they tend to provide lesser viewing angles & poorer color accuracy.

IPS is the most common choice in the market today. While slightly more expensive to produce, IPS are typically capable of excellent viewing angles and color.

IPS used to have issues with response times that made them less appealing to gamers, but these issues are virtually indistinguishable in today’s market, with plenty of IPS panels managing 1-5ms response times.

Although we think a majority of users will favor IPS the most (it’s popular for a reason), its 2 common drawbacks compared to TN are typically inferior contrast/blacks and occasionally (usually on cheaper displays) being able to see the backlight of the monitor on certain corners (referred to as IPS glow) but again, we think these points tend to pale in comparison to the positive qualities of IPS

VA is usually seen as a “balanced” pick between IPS and TN, and are still pretty common on the market.

VA’s shine in contrast the most, with very high ratios capable of producing excellent blacks (which makes them a popular panel type for TVs).

Their color accuracy, viewing angles, and brightness are usually better than TN, but slightly inferior to IPS.

For gamers, VA panels tend to carry higher latency which means they might only want to be considered by users focused on gamers that don’t need lightning-fast response times (i.e. non competitive or single-player titles).

Response time

Response time (or latency) is the time it takes for any action you take to be recognised on screen.

For example, if you press the space bar while using a display with 15ms latency, it will take 15mileseconds between the time you press the bar and you seeing the space input on the screen (on average, the full answer is more complex but this is a decent rule of thumb).

Most monitors today are very responsive, as you can imagine, the only area where response time is a key buying factor is in areas where even milliseconds matter, this is nearly exclusively gaming in today’s market (where 1-5ms is the usual range, and higher is still manageable for casual gamers).

For other types of users, you will likely be fine with whatever response time is included (if you’re not buying an incredibly cheap monitor, you can usually expect the response time to correspond with the rest of the specs in terms of quality).

Refresh rate

The refresh rate is how many times a second your monitor displays a new image or “frame” (if you’re familiar with movies, you may know that most are displayed in 24-30 frames per second, except some recent technology that outputs then at 60FPS).

The universal standard for refresh rate is 60Hz (60 “frames), however much highest refresh rates are available.

These are mostly with gamers in mind, but a lot of content looks great and much smoother at higher refresh rates. In relevance to this list, there are 4k 144Hz monitors on the market which will provide an amazign experience if you have the budget.

Color accuracy

Color accuracy, as the name implies, is what dictates how much the colors on your screen reflect what the content is designed to look like. Cheaper monitors have less color availabiltiy and accuracy and therefore will display colors with less vibrancy or look washed out (i.e. less accurate) than superior monitors.

The rating system for color accuracy is confusing for novice users so we generally try to make it clear in our individual reviews what is good or bad. But generally speaking, an sRGB or DCI-P3 gamut of above 90% (the 2 most common in monitors today) is good, but again, stick to individual reviews (and even user feedback) where possible.

Contrast ratio

This spec determines how different the brightest shade and darkest shade can appear; in other words, a high contrast ratio tends to lead toward deeper blacks and lighter colors.

Brightness

Brightness is (as you can probably guess) how bright the screen can get! 250-300 nits tends to be the typical range of most average displays. An important note to bear in mind is that brightness tends to work alongside the contrast ratio in providing whites that feel vibrant.

PPI

PPI, or pixels per inch, is the density of pixels on the screen you’re buying.

For example, a 24-inch 4K screen will have a much higher PPI than a 50-inch 4K display.

Now although high PPI is better, it doesn’t mean that you have to worry about it too much unless you work very closely to your screen or are focussed on never noticing pixels when viewing content.

Typically in today’s market, most monitors have a good enough resolution to appear decently crisp, we would only begin to seriously worry about the PPI if you fit into one of the categories above or if you are looking at a 1080p monitor above 24 inches.

Aspect ratio

Aspect ratio is the rate at which your screen is wide (first digit) to how long it is (second digit).

For example, the universal standard in today’s market for monitors is 16:9, which means a monitor has 16 inches/pixels wide for every 9 inches/pixels is has long (you will see this reflected in 1080p, 4k, and so on).

Generally speaking, you don’t have to worry about this spec very much because 16:9 is so common, the only time this becomes a consideration is if you’re interested in an ultrawide monitor which will allow you to view more content (typically for work, double-screen users).

Mounting options

While not all users will care, you may want to look out for what mounting options are available if you would consider doing this.

The usual standard is a VESA mount option which means the monitor will come with a very common pattern of screw holes for mounting.

Durability/dead pixels/warranty, etc.

Finally, be sure not to overlook the aspects related to the longevity of your monitor.

Does the build quality appear to be sturdy/decent (a heavier weight can be a good indication for non-portable picks) and how is the supplier’s warranty?

It’s often best to flick through some users’ reviews on this point (to see if the masses generally get good support, low dead pixels, etc.) as this is something any single tech reviewer like ourselves will only have so much experience with on any one product.