The best HDR monitors

Computer monitors are starting to support high dynamic range (HDR), which means they can handle more detail in the brightest and darkest parts of an image, along with a wide color gamut. HDR has proven a revolution among HDTVs, and every high-end television now supports it.

Our selection of the best HDR monitors is still a bit slim as of now, but there are a few available. Here’s the best you can buy right now.

The Best

Samsung CF791

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Samsung’s outstanding CF791 isn’t on this list because it supports HDR. It’s on this list because the 34-incher display is our favorite ultrawide monitor – and it just so happens to support HDR. Bonus!

Everything we like about the CF791 contributes to its excellence when displaying HDR content. Its contrast ratio is higher than its competitors. This monitor also uses quantum dots to deliver inky blacks, a wide color gamut, and great color accuracy. It offers a 100Hz panel and FreeSync support, which should appeal to gamers with Radeon video cards. Samsung quotes a maximum brightness of 300cd/m2, and our own testing registered a maximum of 299 lux.

Originally priced at $1,000, the CF791 can be found online for $750. It’s near the end of its lifespan and will likely be replaced by a successor in early 2018, but until then, you may be able to find this monitor at a (relatively) low price. We highly recommend it even if you don’t care about HDR.

Our full review

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The Rest

Samsung CHG90

If you’d worried the 34-inch Samsung CF791 is too small (hah!), we have good news. Samsung also makes a 49-inch ultrawide, the CHG90. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s 49 inches wide diagonally, with a 32:9 aspect ratio and 3,840 x 1,080 resolution. It’s like placing two 27-inch, 1080p monitors side-by-side, but without the bezel.

The technology inside the CHG90 is much like the CF791, using the quantum dots to deliver great contrast, a wide color gamut, and solid color accuracy. Its image quality isn’t all that sharp, which is the CHG90’s main weakness. However, its quoted brightness is higher than the CF791, at 350cd/m2. VESA recently certified it as the first DisplayHDR 600 monitor. The panel even has FreeSync support, and refreshes at 144Hz, so its good for fast-paced games.

Though it MSRPs at $1,500, recently sales have dropped the CHG90 to $1,000. That’s a lot of money, but given its incredible size, it seems reasonably priced. If you want a huge, HDR-compatible screen, this is the one to buy.

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LG 32UD99-W

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The two monitors we’ve mentioned so far are ultrawides – great for gaming and movies, but not everyone’s first choice. If you want a more traditional, 16:9 screen, the LG 32UD99-W is a good pick. It offers a 31.5-inch, 4K panel, along with HDR10 support and a wide color gamut.

Our testing found the offered decent contrast, a large color gamut, and good color accuracy straight out of the box. Yet the LG 32UD99-W seems best for people who don’t mind getting their hands dirty with technical details. It offers a wide range of settings, and its color accuracy went from good to outstanding after calibration.

LG also promises a maximum luminance of 550 nits. In our testing, we saw up to 360 nits. That’s quite better than average, and it means the LG can handle detail in HDR content better than the Samsung CF791, which isn’t as bright. It’s a 4K screen, too, so you can view 4K HDR films just as you would on a television.

The downside is the price. You’ll have to pay at least $900, and most retailers sell the LG 32UD99-W for closer to its $1,000 MSRP. We’d rather buy one of the Samsungs, but if you want a more traditional monitor, the LG 32UD99-W is one of the best.

Our full review

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Acer ET322QK

We’ve talked about some great monitors on this list, but they’re all expensive. Most people can’t justify spending as much on a monitor as they might on a television. Luckily, the new Acer ET322QK offers an affordable choice.

With an MSRP of $500 and a real-world price of $450 at many retails, you might expect compromise on size and pixel count. Nope. This Acer is a 32-inch, 4K monitor. It even offers AMD FreeSync support for gamers, though the panel refreshes at the usual 60Hz.

So, what’s the catch? We haven’t tested the ET322QK in our office, so we can’t say whether its color accuracy or gamut match LG’s 32UD99-W. What we can say, though, is that Acer only quotes a brightness of 300 nits. That’s on par with the Samsung CF791, but lower than the LG, so images won’t appear as bright and HDR content won’t squeeze in as much detail.

Still, it’s hard to ignore this monitor’s feature set and bargain price. This might be the compromise budget-minded buyers are looking for.

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Wait! Before you buy!

All the monitors above are good picks, but don’t expect them to match today’s HDR-compatible HDTVs. PC displays aren’t bright enough to make the most of HDR. You’ll see more detail than you would in a non-HDR monitor, but extremely bright scenes will still look washed out, and colors won’t pop as they do on a quality television. We’ve mused more on the subject already, and we’re expecting to hear quite a bit more about HDR monitors heading into CES 2018. In the end, we suggest you pick the monitor that’s best for you overall, and treat HDR as a nice but unnecessary bonus – for now, at least.

Editors’ Recommendations

• HDR monitors are here, but don’t get your wallet out yet
• Vizio M-Series (M65-EO) review
• LG 32UD99-W review
• LG dishes out holiday cheer with a 27-inch FreeSync display for AMD gamers
• The CineHome HT2550 boasts Ultra HD 4K resolution at an entry-level price