When buying a gaming monitor, it’s easy to dive headfirst into the specs, model numbers and variations, and come out the other side more confused than when you started. When really all you want is something that displays your games and media brilliantly, at a nippy refresh rate, for the right price.

This little Gigabyte G27Q is a perfect case in point. It might look a bit plain and uninteresting on paper, but contained within that relatively uninspiring chassis is a panel we liked so much, that we gave it 88% overall in our review.

We’ve just spotted it for $220 at Newegg, and you’re getting a great monitor for a very reasonable amount of money for that price.

So go on then, what’s so special about this plain-looking display? Well, for starters it’s got a 2560 x 1440 resolution IPS panel with 92% DCI-P3 coverage and a 12M : 1 dynamic contrast ratio. We found the color reproduction to be excellent, with a superb vibrancy that really made it stand out from the pack.

With a 144 Hz refresh rate it’s pretty nippy, too. While that might not be enough for esports pros, for the rest of us it’s more than quick enough to deliver those eye-popping colors at speed. FreeSync Premium support is a nice bonus, too.

HDR-wise, it’s only rated to VESA Display HD400. That being said, it’s still got plenty of separation and definition from dark to bright areas, and a 350 nits brightness rating. While it’d be nice if it handled HDR a little more expertly, contrast still looks pretty great on this particular display.

Then there’s connectivity. Two HDMI 2.0 ports and a DisplayPort 1.2 connection are fairly standard, but this monitor also has a pair of USB 3.0 Type-A downstream ports and one USB 3.0 Type-B upstream. 

That means you can easily attach all your peripherals to this little unit, and there’s a dedicated headphone jack for your cans. Which you may well need as the 2W integrated speakers are, like most display-integrated units, pretty rubbish.

Still, can’t have everything, ey? Especially not at this price, and while the Gigabyte G27Q is a little long in the tooth to feature in our best gaming monitors guide, even compared to the more recent competition it’s still a close-run thing when considering budget 1440p monitors.

It’s still got a lot of what you need, and very little of what you don’t.

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