One of the cheapest panels of its kind.

This 27-inch 1440p IPS Electriq monitor hits the traditional sweet spot for a monitor in terms of resolutiion and refresh rate, and does so as one of the cheapest panels of its kind while retaining nice-to-haves such as an IPS panel, a competent port selection and a higher refresh rate that makes it quite a steal without compromising too much against panels of a similar price. At just £96 from Laptops Direct's eBay store with code SPRINGSAVE15, it's an absolute bargain for a screen that gets the basics right for use in a budget gaming setup, use as a second screen or any other way you intend to use it.

That 27-inch panel and a 2560x1440 resolution provides the ideal combination of screen size and resolution to provide excellent detail, without the need for a high-end GPU you'd want for a 4K panel. A 180Hz refresh rate also helps to keep motion smooth for fast-paced titles such as Counter-Strike 2. Oddly, ElectriQ haven't give any details on brightness on the product page, although its manual states 300 nits, which should allow for decent vibrancy. They also disclose some form of HDR support alongside a typical 1000:1 contrast ratio for reasonable dynamic range, making this a reasonable screen for detail and general visual fidelity.

VRR is included as well to smooth out the on-screen action regardless of frame-rate, with compatibility with AMD's FreeSync. Moreover, as an IPS screen, this panel also provides the excellent combo of great viewing angles and marvellous colour reproduction for a vibrant gaming experience. ElectriQ doesn't provide any accuracy figures, though, which is a bit of a shame, even for a cheaper panel.

This panel also comes with a stand that comes with basic tilt adjustment, although it comes with a reasonable port selection that features a pair of DP 1.4 ports, alongside a headphone jack for connecting up an external audio source. This ElectriQ monitor doesn't have speakers, so you're likely to need to make use of that port. There are also two HDMI ports, which are strangely listed as HDMI 2.1 ports. It's likely the case that these are HDMI 2.1 TMDS ports. As much as these may be HDMI 2.1 ports, there's no mention of support for the newer FRL standard. This essentially means they're operating as HDMI 2.0 ports, just under a different label, given HDMI 2.1 is backwards compatible with TMDS. In short, they don't support 4K/120Hz output, as we'd expect a port of this kind to, but are merely 'newer' versions of the older HDMI 2.0 standards. Given this panel doesn't hit the heights of 4K/120Hz on one side of the equation, it's not a sore miss.

If you want to grab one of the cheapest 27-inch 1440p gaming screens we've seen, this ElectriQ 27QHD180I is a bargain from Laptops Direct's eBay store.