The 4 Best Monitors For Photo Editing - Black Friday 2024

The best monitor for photo editing is the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CRV. It's a 4k, 27-inch monitor that's designed specifically with content creation in mind. It has picture modes with various color spaces that you may work with, from the basic sRGB color space to the wider Rec. 2020 color space. Colors are accurate before any calibration, and it also displays a wide range of colors in the Adobe RGB color space, but some colors are oversaturated. Another advantage is that its high 4k resolution delivers clear and detailed images.

It has a few features to help your workflow, like an extremely ergonomic stand and a big USB hub to which you can connect various devices, including a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort Alt Mode with 90W of power delivery. It's a good choice if you want to edit in a well-lit room as it gets bright enough to combat glare, but it has more limited picture quality in dark rooms due to its terrible local dimming feature. If that's important to you, the Acer Nitro XV275K P3biipruzx has much better picture quality in dark rooms, but it tends to cost more and doesn't have as many picture modes.

If you find the ASUS ProArt Display PA279CRV too much out of your price range, the Gigabyte M27U is a good choice that you can often find for a lower cost. It's a 4k, 27-inch display like the ASUS, but there are a few differences. It has one less USB-C port that's limited to 15W of power delivery, which isn't enough to charge your laptop while working on it. That said, it still has three USB-A ports to which you can connect other devices, and it has a KVM switch that makes it easy to switch between different sources.

Although this monitor is designed with gaming in mind, it's still good for editing, as it has an accurate sRGB mode. This is useful if you're getting into content creation for the first time, but calibrating it still results in the best accuracy. Besides that, it gets bright enough to fight glare in a well-lit room and has decent reflection handling. However, it has worse ergonomics than the ASUS, as it doesn't offer any swivel adjustment. You can look into the Dell S2722QC if that's important to you, but the Dell lacks a dedicated sRGB mode.

If you're looking for a low-cost monitor for photo editing, there are a few good options you can get, like the ASUS ProArt Display PA278CV. It has a lower 1440p resolution than the Gigabyte M27U, so images aren't as detailed. It doesn't support HDR either, but that doesn't make a difference if you're editing content in SDR anyway. Besides that, this monitor is focused on photo editing as it has a dedicated sRGB mode with better accuracy than the Gigabyte, so you won't have to calibrate it for the most accurate colors.

It has similar productivity features to the Gigabyte, too. It has a USB hub with four USB-A ports and a USB-C port with 65W of power delivery, so you can easily connect your laptop. It even has a DisplayPort output to daisy chain a second display. However, if you don't need the extra features like the USB-C or DisplayPort output, you can also check out the ASUS ProArt Display PA278QV, which is cheaper and performs similarly.

If you need a simple and cheap monitor for photo editing, like if you're equipping your setup for the first time and you're on a tight budget, then check out the Dell P2425H. It's a basic monitor that has a smaller screen and lower 1080p resolution than the ASUS ProArt Display PA278CV, but this is what you have to expect for an entry-level display. It doesn't have a dedicated sRGB mode either, so while you need to calibrate it for the best accuracy, colors are still fairly accurate before any sort of calibration.

It has a few neat features for a low-cost monitor, like its extremely ergonomic stand that makes it easy to adjust. It even has a USB hub so you can connect your devices, including a USB-C port, but it doesn't support DisplayPort Alt Mode to display an image from a laptop. Although it doesn't get bright enough to fight a ton of glare, it has good enough reflection handling if you want to use it in a room with a few lights around.