The HP E45c G5 fits in either a traditional office setting or a home office, and can perform many operations that usually require dual monitors thanks to its split-screen modes.

I won't sugarcoat it: The MacBook Pro 16-inch is the most expensive laptop on this list. You're looking at Apple's most powerful laptop to date, additionally standing tall as one of the best laptops ever crafted overall. Boasting the longest lasting battery life that Laptop Mag has seen in any modern laptop at 18 hours and 56 minutes, alongside performance that could make any hardware-fanatic weep tears of joy, this is a terrifying monstrosity. Dell went so far as to ensure that the build quality and color reproduction are the best in the business as well. The monitor is factory calibrated, so it looks great without any tinkering, and that ultra-high resolution, along with the color handling of the monitor, makes any content look incredible – so incredible that sometimes, a footage almost looks 3D with the amount of detail you’re getting. Next up: how you'll actually connect your new monitor to your computer or other device. This equation is anything but simple, and often leads to confused buyers spending more than they need on marketing mumbo-jumbo.Another benefit is extra workspace. Even if your ultimate output isn't in 4K, working on a 4K panel can let you see your content at full resolution while leaving screen space for control menus, color palettes, video timelines, and other creation tools. Of course, you could relegate that stuff to a second monitor, but a 4K panel can enable single-display workflows that were impossible or awkward before. Curved monitors used to be a fancy thing just a few years ago, but these days, you can find certain models at an affordable price, so they’re an option if you want that extra bit of immersion regardless of your budget. Apple's Pro Display XDR provides exceptional color accuracy and build quality at a price that's competitive compared with reference-grade pro monitors, though beyond the budget of typical users. (The stand alone costs an extra grand!) It has no buttons, and ports are limited to USB-C and Thunderbolt. Don't even bother to connect a non-Mac computer to it. Are you a visual content creator, a photographer, or a graphic designer? Then you will definitely need a monitor that has the widest possible color coverage, usually given in percentage of various gamuts. sRGB is the gamut that covers the web, while DCI-P3 is the industry standard for films, and the Adobe gamut covers illustrators and photographers for the most part. Regardless of your use case, you need to get as close to 100% of your particular gamut as possible.

While 1080p was once the gold standard, today it’s just the baseline. If you’re happy to spend a little more, there are a few other options worth considering, especially if you want to improve screen space or gaming visuals. Resolution isn’t the be-all and end-all of monitor features, though. In fact, too much resolution on too small of a screen can often be annoying because it shrinks all images down and forces you to enlarge everything to easily read it. 1080p Some newer monitors have DisplayPort 2.0 ports, which support 8K resolution at a staggering 240Hz,16K with HDR at 60Hz, and 10K without HDR at 80Hz. The recently introduced DisplayPort 2.1 is largely the same as DisplayPort 2.0 but with the addition of USB4 compatibility. The 49-inch display size, 5,120 x 1,440 resolution, and 32:9 aspect ratio may sound absolutely ridiculous on paper, but after seeing it in person,we're convinced. With its impressively wide display and vibrant colors combined with its 1800Rcurvature, it's a dream and absolutely immersive to game on. In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 4.3 and 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.It is, to be fair, quite an investment, and it does require some pretty robust hardware to power it. But if you can afford to splurge, you won't regret getting it. Stay tuned for our full review. If you're just a typical PC gamer looking for the best image quality, getting a 4K monitor with 144Hz refresh is going to make your games look fantastic. If you're an esports competitor (or want to be someday), then the only thing that matters is pixel response and refresh rate. Even a 1080p resolution is acceptable so long as it has at least 1ms pixel response or lower. The refresh on 1080p monitors can go as high as 360Hz or even higher with the very latest monitors coming onto the market. For those who want more than that, though, there are plenty of sizes to choose from. Monitors that stretch 27 inches diagonally are increasingly popular, and there are plenty of options beyond 30 inches that are affordable. If you want to go extreme, we’ve even tried some great computer monitors that get close to 50 inches, like this ever-so-impressive 48-inch LG UltraGear OLED.

The U2723QE sells at a high enough price that you’re not likely to outfit a whole office with them. It would be a good choice for meeting-heavy managers (or other critical workers), especially ones involved in dealing with creative content as one aspect of their job. It’s not a full-on graphic-arts monitor, but it is fine for photo and video work in a pinch, and it's an easy attach/detach for a frequently toted laptop. Touch-screen desktop displays have gained some traction, but mostly in vertical markets. You'll pay a bit more for touch technology, but it's worth it if you care about the Windows touch experience. Look for a model equipped with a stand that lets you position the panel so it's almost parallel with your desktop if you need that kind of interaction. (Some touch models are designed without a stand, meant to be integrated into a specific environment with a custom stand or mounting arm.) (Credit: Zlata Ivleva) We don’t usually run into technology that’s so far ahead of the curve that we’re left dumbfounded, which is why the Dell UltraSharp UP3218K has impressed us even more. Finding one of the best monitors that can reach the raw gorgeousness this one can should be next to impossible. It’s not just the resolution, either.In recent years, prices have come down on VA and IPS panels, making TN mostly obsolete. You’ll still find it on some budget gaming monitors, but most display makers opt for VA or IPS now. VA With cathode-ray tubes (CRTs) long since replaced by flat panels, the key panel types used in desktop displays are twisted nematic (TN), in-plane switching (IPS) and iterations such as Fast IPS, vertical alignment (VA), and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) plus variations such as QD-OLED. (Credit: Joseph Maldonado) Let's pause for more about refresh rate. It means the number of times per second the screen is redrawn, measured in hertz or cycles per second, and is a key factor in interface choice. Until recently, most monitors topped out at 60Hz, and their default bundled cables were up to the task. But with gaming monitors now routinely pushing 144Hz or even 360Hz, and many non-gaming panels able to go above 60Hz, paying attention to the different flavors of HDMI and DisplayPort is more important than ever. The UP2720Q has the full complement of ergonomic features, and a wide range of ports that include two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one of which supports up to 90 watts of power delivery to charge an attached laptop. The real draw of this panel, though, is its colorimeter and calibration ability. Who It's For Built-in controls to navigate through the monitor’s menu and select different monitor modes are an interesting feature, but they shouldn’t feel clunky. Pay attention to port placement and cable management features to connect your new monitor in a neat and tidy manner. Some monitors go an extra step and include charging ports along the base or even turn the monitor base into a wireless charging pad for your phone.