The 10 Best Monitors of 2026, Ranked

A 24-inch screen suits a desk around 60cm deep, with your eyes about 60 to 70cm away. A 27-inch screen is the common choice for a home office and wants roughly 70cm of depth. A 32-inch screen or a 34-inch ultrawide needs a deep desk and sits further back to be comfortable. Ultrawide monitors suit working from home when you keep two documents open side by side, but a flat 27-inch QHD screen is simpler and usually cheaper.

At 27 inches, 4K gives noticeably sharper text and photos than QHD (2560 x 1440), and the gap grows at 32 inches. QHD is the sweet spot at 27 inches if you also game, because a 4K picture needs a strong graphics card. Full HD is fine at 24 inches and looks soft above that. Sharp 4K text also depends on your operating system scaling, which Windows and macOS both handle.

For office work, 60Hz is fine, and 75 to 100Hz makes scrolling and cursor movement feel smoother at no great cost. Competitive gamers benefit from 144Hz or more, which is where gaming monitors sit, and none of the ten here reaches that. For a PS5 or Xbox Series X, look for HDMI 2.1 to get 4K at 120Hz; a monitor with HDMI 2.0 or older tops out at 60Hz at 4K.

HDMI and DisplayPort work with almost any laptop, but the laptop then needs its own charger. A USB-C port with power delivery carries the picture, data and charging down one cable. Check that the monitor's wattage (65W, 90W or more) covers your laptop, and that your laptop's USB-C port supports video output. A built-in USB hub and KVM switch let one keyboard and mouse control two computers.

IPS panels have the best viewing angles and colour and are the safe choice. VA panels give deeper blacks and contrast at a lower price but show angle shifts and smearing in fast motion. OLED monitors have the best contrast and response, but they cost more and can suffer burn-in from static desktop elements. Entry-level HDR labels such as HDR10 and DisplayHDR 400 mean little without high brightness, so judge a monitor on its panel. For photo and video work, look for 95% or more of DCI-P3, or 99% of sRGB if you edit for the web.

A height-adjustable stand lets you put the top of the screen at eye level, which helps neck comfort over a long day. Many budget monitors tilt only, so if you want height adjustment, look for it in the spec or budget for a VESA monitor arm (most use a 100 x 100mm pattern). Built-in speakers are usually weak, so plan on headphones. Flicker-free and low blue light modes are common and help with eye strain. Before ordering, check that the amazon.co.uk listing is a computer monitor rather than a TV or portable screen, and that the model number matches the one you want.