Dell 27 Plus 4K Monitor (S2725QS) vs LG UltraGear 27GS95QE

The Dell 27 Plus 4K is the monitor to buy when the job is everything at once: documents, browsing, photos and the occasional game. A 27-inch 4K panel puts about 163 pixels into every inch, which makes small text noticeably crisper than the 1440p screens that used to fill this price slot. Dell runs it at up to 120Hz with AMD FreeSync Premium, so scrolling and cursor movement look smoother than on a 60Hz office monitor.

Color and brightness suit general work. Dell rates the IPS panel at 99% sRGB, 350 nits typical brightness and 1500:1 contrast, which is plenty for a lit room and fine for casual photo editing, though not wide-gamut video work. The stand adjusts for height, tilt, swivel and pivot into portrait, and a 100 x 100 VESA mount takes an arm.

The gaps are connectivity and HDR. Inputs are two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4, with no USB-C, so a laptop needs a cable or dock instead of one-cable charging and video. At 350 nits, HDR will not look like HDR on an OLED. Our tracked price since June 26 has run from $218.49 to $294.99.

The UltraGear 27GS95QE is the step up for anyone who games more than they work. It uses an LG WOLED panel, so every pixel makes its own light and switches off for black. LG rates the contrast at 1,500,000:1 and the response time at 0.03ms gray to gray, and at 240Hz motion is far clearer than on the Dell.

The resolution is 2560 x 1440, which is the practical choice for high frame rates: a mid-range graphics card can push 1440p toward 240 frames per second, where 4K would need a flagship card. It is certified G-Sync Compatible and FreeSync Premium Pro. LG lists 275 nits typical brightness with up to 1000 nits for small HDR highlights, and the screen keeps a matte anti-glare coating.

The trade-offs come with OLED. Static elements such as taskbars and HUDs carry a burn-in risk over years of heavy use. The panel is 26.5 inches measured diagonally, despite the 27 in the name. WOLED subpixels can show colored fringes on small text, so this is a weaker document monitor than the Dell. Our tracked price since Aug 12 has run from $639 to $679.