Displays "Pro" 24-27" IPS sRGB Monitor, Only Cheap

Before I start the thread in earnest, permit me a digression. Many moons ago, my mother bought a new bin for the kitchen. It didn't match the cooker it was next to, so she bought a new cooker. Which didn't match the fridge, so we needed a new fridge. Eventually the entire kitchen had been overhauled in a tasteful shade of avocado (hey, it was a different era) - all because of that £5 bin.

Why do I tell you that? Well, recently I bought a £9 colorimeter to have a play with display calibration. Now I've bought a £109 colorimeter; and here I am, opening a thread about new and better monitors...

Anyway: my current monitor is a Philips 'Brilliance' 240S1B1 TFT: 1920x1200, probably-six-bit-I-dunno, DVI-D and D-SUB inputs. Eight years old, £241 at the time, never been fantastic, hasn't improved with age.

For an upgrade, I have the following want-list:

• 24-27", preferably no larger.
• Reasonably cheap.
• IPS.
• 1440p.
• Pretty cheap.
• 99-percent of sRGB (Adobe RGB can go hang.)
• DisplayPort and HDMI inputs.
• 60Hz or better at full resolution over DisplayPort.
• Did I mention cheap?
• VESA mountable, so I can use it on my monitor arm.
• Matte anti-glare finish.
• Cheap.

When I say "cheap," I'm thinking around what I paid for the Philips only eight years better. I've only had a quick browse around, but I've found the following possibles on Amazon:

Iiyama XUB2792QSU-W1 ProLite, £280 - six pounds cheaper than the same thing in black. I remember Iiyama being a decent brand for them as can't afford an Eizo, back in the days of CRTs. 75Hz refresh with FreeSync support at 70Hz (no idea if FreeSync-via-Nvidia actually works on Linux - I know there's a readout in the settings that tells me that my current monitor doesn't do Gsync.) Downsides: Iiyama's being a bit cheeky by claiming it's a "10-bit" panel when it's actually eight-bit plus-cheating, but it reckons it hits 115% of the sRGB gamut anyway.

BenQ PD2700Q 27 Inch 1440p QHD Monitor for Graphic Design, £285. How can that not be great? It says "for graphic design" right there in the product name! Only 60Hz refresh, but 4ms response time to the 5ms of the Iiyama, with a claimed 100% coverage of sRGB/Rec. 709. It also claims to be a 10-bit panel, but I have my suspicions it's cheating like the Iiyama.

Asus PB278QR 27 inc Professional Monitor, £307. Even better than the BenQ "Graphic Designer," I can be a "Professional!" It's not entirely clear what you get for the extra £20 over the competition, though...

Workload, for any of 'em, is photo editing (though I'm using an entry-level DSLR, here, so let's not go overboard), general office use, bit of gaming.

Thoughts?

 

Fair bit more than I wanted to spend - and it seems to be £426 on Dell Home and £355 *ex VAT* on Dell Business, which is... huh, also £426. Not sure I've ever seen the home and business pricing match like that before!

Mixed reviews on Amazon, too, and that review you linked claims the overdrive mode that actually gives you 5ms GtG transition time is unusable in practice - which pushes it up to 8ms.

Just not sure there's enough to differentiate it from the rivals at £90 less.

Yeah, but my pair are crap anyway so what's the point in spending money I don't have to spend on a monitor better than my eyes?

 

Still £322, though.

Looking at the detailed specs, and assuming DisplaySpecifications is actually on the money, the Iiyama beats either of the Dells in sRGB coverage, response time, and input lag, and is cheaper to boot. All these monitors are 8-bit panels, too (again, according to DisplaySpecifications), with the three none-Dells offering 10-bit support via FRC while the Dell is eight-bit-is-yer-lot.

Going purely by the numbers, the Iiyama looks to be the one to beat.

EDIT:
Helpfully(!), this thread has one guy saying "the Iiyama's a pile of crap, I sent it back" and another saying "really impressed with the image quality." Was the first one unlucky, or the second lucky? Agh!

 

Nah, I'll buy from wherever's cheapest. I just tend to use Amazon for general pricing searches, user reviews, and to link to, 'cos everything's there: once I know what I want, I'll DuckDuckGo to find where to actually buy it. (Case in point: saved myself £20 on the Colormunki Display colorimeter I just bought by getting it from Wex instead of Amazon.)

It will, but I am the business. All marking it as a business expense means is that I get to shove it in the "loss" column of the P&L for tax purposes. I'm not VAT registered, so I can't claim VAT back - hence using the after-VAT pricing from Dell Business for comparison.

Almost certainly!

 

I hadn't - I'll check it out, ta!

EDIT:
Put me off a bit, that. "The color error of the XUB2792QSU-B1 is on the high side, at least for this class. We measure 3.75 based on CIE2000, which is just over the limit of 3 that we hold as 'visible to the naked eye'. The standard deviation is also on the high side compared to the competitors. The XUB2792QSU-B1 does not have a separate sRGB mode, so we were unable to test it either. There are various modes (standard, game, cinema, landscape, text) and there are limited possibilities to adjust the color temperature and color settings, but it is clear that this screen is not primarily intended for image editing."

I like the thought of FreeSync, though, and it's likely to be better than what I have now, and maybe the colours could be corrected with the shiny new colorimeter I'm getting...