Best 4K Monitor 2024: The top six high-resolution monitors

The Acer Predator X32 FP isn’t just the best 4K monitor for gaming, it’s very close to being the best 4K monitor all-around, with just a lack of suave looks holding it back.

The Mini LED technology behind this display means its exceedingly colourful and impressively bright. The 576 local dimming zones provide solid HDR performance too. Gamers are well served with the 4K resolution being teamed up with a strong 160Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. The results are superbly accurate imagery, the batting back of significant motion blur and just wondrous visuals in games and out.

The Predator X32 FP may be a tad chunky but it enables a wonderful set of ports, with four HDMI 2.1 ports, four USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, DisplayPort 1.4 feed, a Type-C connector and audio jack.

Reviewer: Alun Taylor
Full Review: Acer Predator X32 FP review

The Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 is a luxurious big-screen OLED option, and we think that makes it the best TV-sized 4K monitor around.

It’s big on specificationations with a 4K resolution, 138Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync Premium. It’s a combo that makes this luscious OLED great for gaming but also ideal for kicking back and watching a movie or three. What also boosts this monitor’s TV-like chops is a solid 10W speaker system meaning that, unlike many rivals, you can go without teaming this display up with a external speaker.

This Evnia model is just as stylish as many TVs, with slender bezels and an equally slender frame and stand. It’s got some delightful lighting on the back to give your room a splash of colour at night, while a strong range of ports, with a KVM switch, make it easy to use this Philips with many devices.

The display itself offers wide colour gamut coverage and strong accuracy. The brightness doesn’t quite match Mini LED rivals, but OLED offers vivid colour nonetheless.

Reviewer: Alun Taylor
Full Review: Philips Evnia 42M2N8900 review

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (2024) is our favourite 4K monitor for entertainment thanks to its powerful processor, terrific video performance, and outstanding gaming performance. 

The Odyssey OLED G8 stands out as one of the most elegantly styled gaming monitors on the market with its thin design, minimal bezel, and premium silver metallic finish. There’s also a ring of LEDs surrounding the stand attachment point to create ambience when gaming. 

Turn the monitor around and you’ll find one 1.4 DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, two USB Type-A ports, and one USB Type-B port. The HDMI ports support both 4K/120Hz and 1080p/240Hz feeds, though the connections can be a bit awkward to get to with them being positioned right in front of the stand neck. 

Like the Odyssey G9, the Odyssey OLED G8 includes a 5W stereo speaker system that delivers great detail and just enough dynamic range to give you a sense of the scale of your enemies and the heft of the weaponry they’re using when gaming. 

When it comes to image quality, Samsung’s latest Quantum Dot OLED panel delivers an incredibly high dynamic range that makes dark game environments feel more intense and immersive. The OLED G8 is equipped with the same picture processing engine found in Samsung’s flagship 8K TV, enhancing the monitor’s colour performance and enabling the reproduction of subtle shadowy details in dark areas without noise or shading coarseness. 

The monitor has a stunningly fine control over brightness and colour, creating an incredible sense of sharpness and detail when playing 4K games, while lower resolution graphics are upscaled astonishingly effectively. The OLED display also features advanced burn-in protection thanks to the new Pulsating Heat Pipe cooling system. 

There’s sadly no Dolby Vision on board, though the monitor does support the premium HDR10+ system, along with HDR10 and HLG. 

The monitor runs on the same Tizen-based operating system as Samsung’s TVs, making it more of a home entertainment centre than a basic monitor. There is a wide range of apps available, though a few key options are absent, including Freeview Play, BBC iPlayer, and All4. There’s also support for Samsung’s Bixby and Amazon’s Alexa voice assistants, allowing you to skip the menus and control the monitor with voice commands. 

Reviewer: John Archer 

Full Review: Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (2024)

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 (2023) is a monitor that brings the high-end specifications in spades. It’s the Mini LED technology that really shines, giving it the title of the top Mini LED 4K monitor around.

The headline numbers are a lush 4K resolution across a massive 43-inch panel. Samsung’s Quantum Mini LED technology means you get up to a strong 490 nits, lavish detail and stunning colour. That’s not all though, with impressive colour accuracy for those wanting to dabble in creative work and there’s a decent 144Hz refresh rate for gamers too.

Samsung’s software smarts are onboard too, offering access to TV streaming apps and gaming services via the new Samsung Gaming Hub. You also get a solid port selection, with DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1 (with Arc support), USB 3.0, Ethernet and a headphone jack. All of that for under £900/$800 is quite a combination.

Reviewer: Ryan Jones
Full Review: Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 (2023) review

The Samsung Odyssey Ark (2022) is one of the best 4K monitors that we’ve ever reviewed, packing a larger-than-life screen and a bold design. The 55-inch curved design may not suit everyone, but we thought that it provided an excellent viewing experience. It’s worth noting that Samsung recommends that you sit at least 80cm away from the screen, meaning that you will want to make sure you position this monitor in a way that gives you enough room so as to not overly strain your neck.

It features a 165Hz refresh rate that is suitable for single-player gaming and casual esports, as well as watching video content. While it’s not as smooth as the 200Hz refresh rate on the Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ, we thought that it performed well during real-world use, being fast and smooth enough for most gamers.

The Odyssey Ark can also be configured in a few different modes, making it a fairly versatile monitor. You can changge the display to 21:9 or 32:9 if you’re looking to play games or watch media with a wider view, or if you want to sit closer to the screen. There is a Multi View mode, which beefs up conventional picture-by-picture options. When the screen is horizontal it can be split into four quarters and display different sections in each zone. Swing the panel into a vertical position – which Samsung refers to as Cockpit Mode – and deploy three stacked screens on top of each other. 

Arguably the most important aspect of a gaming monitor is the image quality; we thought that the Odyssey Ark delivered a brilliant performance out of the box, with an incredible black point of 0.02 nits and a contrast ratio of 4500:1. This allowed the Ark to render intense blacks with plenty of vibrancy in the colours, a far better experience than any conventional IPS or VA screen. The 4K resolution also provided an incredibly crisp and detailed experience no matter what was on-screen. 

Overall, the Samsung Odyssey Ark (2022) is a fantastic 4K monitor that is more than capable of running various games or being used for entertainment. Its versatile design means that it can be used in a plethora of capacities, and its large screen allows you to watch (or play) from a far distance away. 

Reviewer: Mike Jennings
Full Review: Samsung Odyssey Ark (2022)

The Acer Predator XB323QK is a fantastic 4K monitor that is supremely crisp and colourful and could be one of the most versatile screens we’ve had the honour of reviewing. The IPS panel has a 3840 x 2160 resolution and a 31.5-inch format, giving it robust viewing angles and plenty of speed. The maximum refresh rate is 144Hz, putting it below the 240Hz Samsung Odyssey Neo G8, but the quoted response rates proved very effective at 1ms GtG and 0.5ms MPRT.

The port selection on the Predator XB323QK is ideal for gamers and creatives alike; there are two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 video input, one USB-C port that supports 65W charging, one USB-B and two USB-A 3.1 data ports alongside a 3.5mmm audio jack. Those DisplayPorts and HDMI ports will be more than suitable for 4K 120Hz VRR gaming with the latest consoles and will allow for more displays in your set-up, making this a multitalented machine. 

The back of the Predator XB323QK is home to a bright RGB light strip that runs along the top and sides of the rear housing. While this will not have any effect on the performance, we enjoyed toggling through the pulse, strobe and throb settings to find which colour and style worked best for us. Installing the Acer Light Sense app allows you to sync the light show with what the screen is displaying or to work in time to music, giving this monitor a lot more personality than some of its rivals. 

The main downside of this monitor is its HDR performance. We found it to be perfunctory at best, coming out as saturated and unnaturally vivid during tiles like Halo Infinite and Cyberpunk 2077, but with little else to note. Since the Predator XB323QK sports a £999 price tag, we still think that this is one of the best all-around monitors on the market, once you take HDR out of the equation. 

If you’re looking for something that does feature fantastic image quality and you don’t mind spending a little more money, the Samsung M8 Smart Monitor or Samsung Odyssey Ark (2022) may be the way to go. If you’re after something that hits almost everything on the checklist and costs under £1,000, the Acer Predator XB323QK is what we would recommend. 

Reviewer: Alun Taylor
Full Review: Acer Predator XB323QK