The 3 Best Mini LED Monitors - Black Friday 2024

The best Mini LED monitor we've tested is the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 S32BG85. It's a premium 32-inch, 4k monitor that's great for a variety of uses, whether you want to game or sit back and watch your favorite content. It has 1,196 dimming zones, more than most monitors, but the number of zones doesn't guarantee good performance either. Regardless, it has a decent local dimming feature that helps deepen blacks and makes highlights pop against the rest of the image, but really small highlights are muted, and it has black crush. Still, it has great picture quality and displays a wide range of colors for a great HDR experience.

In terms of gaming, it has a fast response time for sharp motion, but there's some ghosting. It has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, and there aren't any compatibility issues with the Xbox Series X|S and PS5. It also offers a high 240Hz refresh rate that's great even for competitive gamers, but you need a powerful graphics card to take full advantage of it. However, if you don't want something with such a high refresh rate, you can also check out the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 S32BG75, which performs similarly, costs less, but has a lower 165Hz refresh rate.

If the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 S32BG85 is too expensive for you, you can often find the Acer Nitro XV275K P3biipruzx for a lower cost, and it's worth getting when it goes on sale. It's another 4k monitor that's different in a few ways from the Samsung because it has a lower 160Hz refresh rate, so it doesn't feel as smooth, and it has a smaller 27-inch screen. It also has a lower native contrast ratio, but its local dimming feature does enough to compensate for that, as it displays deep blacks against bright highlights. Even though it has 576 dimming zones, which is less than the Samsung, it still provides great picture quality with local dimming enabled, and there isn't much blooming either.

This monitor actually gets much brighter than the Samsung, so highlights truly stand out. It's also a great choice if you want to use it in a well-lit room. Motion looks sharp thanks to its fast response time, and while it works well with the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, it has increased input lag with 60Hz signals. This is disappointing for playing games from consoles at 60Hz, but it isn't an issue for playing games at 120Hz.

There are some Mini LED monitors that are becoming accessible at budget-friendly prices, like the AOC Q27G3XMN. The main trade-off of getting this versus the Acer Nitro XV275K P3biipruzx is that it has a lower 1440p resolution, so images are less detailed. On top of that, it has fewer features, as it lacks HDMI 2.1 bandwidth to take full advantage of gaming consoles. That said, if you're after pure picture quality, this monitor punches above its weight, as it features a good local dimming feature, even better than the monitors mentioned above, despite having 336 dimming zones. It displays deep blacks with very bright highlights, but there's some blooming around bright objects.

It has a slightly higher 180Hz refresh rate than the Acer. However, although it has a fast overall response time, there's some smearing with fast-moving objects. One thing to note is that this monitor sometimes goes out of stock and is hard to find. If you can't find it, also consider the Acer Nitro XV275U P3biipx, which is a similar monitor that costs less but has worse motion handling.