KTC M27P6 Mini-LED Gaming Monitor Evaluation

We’re all trying to find the most effective bang for our buck, however discovering it in a gaming monitor could be a problem. There are extra choices than ever, and a number of choices for any set of specs you could possibly identify. But with its ultra-bright mini-LED panel, full-array native dimming, and twin 4K/1080p resolutions, the KTC M27P6 units itself aside as a monitor you want to learn about if you happen to’re purchasing this yr. At round $500, it’s not the most cost effective, however it could simply be the most effective worth gaming monitor you should buy proper now.

KTC M27P6 – Design and Features

Before diving into the M27P6, a little bit background on KTC is so as. If you’re like me, you’ve most likely seen KTC in Amazon listings alongside different manufacturers, like InnoCn and Sansui. But, even supposing it doesn’t but have the identify recognition of bigger manufacturers, KTC has been working within the background for practically three a long time. In reality, you will have used one in all its panels already with out realizing it, as the corporate is the unique gear producer (OEM) for numerous giant manufacturers, together with family names like ViewSonic.

That’s price highlighting since you don’t sometimes assume “top-tier quality” when these listings present up. But from unboxing onward, the M27P6 exhibits itself to be a powerful possibility that surpasses expectations at each flip. From construct high quality to brightness, colour accuracy to distinction, it challenges among the greatest displays I’ve examined – together with at the least one which ideas the scales above $1,000. Few folks would contemplate $450 to $500 a “budget” monitor, however with every little thing it presents and what you’ll sometimes pay, it stands out as the most effective values thus far this yr.

With that form of financial savings, you’ll sometimes anticipate to see reduce corners and tough edges. But from unboxing onward, the M27P6 exceeds expectations. One of probably the most frequent areas manufacturers skimp on to decrease prices is the stand and the chassis that homes the monitor. That’s undoubtedly not the case right here. The arm of the stand is manufactured from plastic however holds its place effectively and comes with the identical vary of ergonomic changes you could possibly anticipate from a flagship gaming monitor.

In follow, which means you are not sacrificing something for its comparatively decrease price. It comes with 5 inches of peak adjustment, 45° of swivel, -5° to +20° of tilt, and might be rotated into portrait orientation to behave as a second monitor. Stylistically, its white colour and contoured design jogs my memory a whole lot of Alienware’s displays. Instead of the same old tripod base, it makes use of a big flat plate that, whereas it does take up further desk house, is slim and low profile sufficient that it is easy to place absolutely anything on high of it. So it does not meaningfully restrict something with this design. It seems to be good and doesn’t trace in any respect towards the monitor’s affordability.

Another space that tends to be scaled again is connectivity, however once more, KTC goes the other way. The monitor comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4, a USB Type-C that helps each video and as much as 65 watts of energy supply and even contains an built-in USB hub with two USB 3.0 Type-A ports for peripherals, a Type-B to attach again to your PC, and a headphone jack. The monitor additionally has KVM performance to rapidly swap peripherals between two methods, similar to a PC and console.

KTC has used a “fast IPS” panel right here, backed by a mini-LED backlight with 1,152-zone full array native dimming (FALD). OLED displays have captured many of the highlight over the past couple years, however mini-LED is unquestionably on the rise because it turns into extra inexpensive and better high quality over time. The M27P6 is an particularly good instance of this, because it’s extremely vibrant, presents glorious distinction with minimal blooming, and implausible colours that seem particularly vibrant because of its quantum dot enhancement layer. For HDR gaming and flicks, it actually does not get significantly better at this worth level, which makes the M27P6 particularly interesting.

Frankly, for the price of entry, the specs on this monitor are greater than a little bit spectacular. KTC charges it as providing a typical brightness of 1,400cd/m² in HDR mode. Though as I’ll talk about within the efficiency part, it truly exceeds that by a major margin in peak brightness. It’s rated to cowl 98% of the DCI-P3 colour house, 100% of sRGB, and 97% of Adobe RGB. In addition, it comes with one of many tightest manufacturing unit calibrations I’ve encountered in an out-of-the-box monitor no matter worth.

As if that weren’t sufficient, it is also a dual-mode monitor, which implies it might probably run at both 4K or 1080p decision at excessive refresh charges. In its 4K mode, it is in a position to attain 160 Hz. When set to 1080p, nonetheless, this jumps to 320 Hz. This might be extraordinarily helpful if you happen to play quite a lot of video games that span from single-player or slower-paced multiplayer titles to aggressive shooters like CS:GO. For most avid gamers, 160 Hz goes to be greater than sufficient and permits the monitor to realize a really clean body price with good responsiveness. For esports, 320 Hz all however eliminates movement blur and maximizes responsiveness.

The monitor lacks any official certifications for AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync, however it works effectively with each. I primarily use the monitor with my Nvidia RTX 5090 but in addition examined it with an AMD gaming laptop computer and didn’t observe any glitches or inconsistencies on both system.

If there’s one space that does really feel run of the mill, it is the M27P6’s OSD. It presents your ordinary vary of brightness, distinction, saturation, and sharpness settings, in addition to a variety of various image presets for various content material varieties. But its gaming choices are pretty restricted. You have your normal on-screen reticle and shadow equalizer. But, other than that, there is not very a lot.

There are a few surprising surprises, nonetheless. For instance, despite the fact that the monitor is DisplayHDR 1400 licensed, it features a DisplayHDR 600 mode. I used to be puzzled by this at first, however given how vibrant the monitor can get, it made sense the longer I used it. If you’re gaming in a darker room, unclamping its peak brightness may cause highlights to be nearly eye-searing at instances.

I used to be additionally happy to see that its native dimming might be turned on in SDR mode. While not everybody enjoys FALD in SDR, I discovered that even setting it to Low resulted in a lot greater distinction for deep, nearly OLED-like blacks. Standard and excessive end in sizable drops in brightness in SDR, however when left to low, blooming is hardly seen, so it’s price leaving on on a regular basis, for my part.

Another excessive level of its configuration choices is that every little thing might be managed with software program. While navigating its OSD with the joystick isn’t particularly cumbersome, the choice to make use of software program and assign keyboard shortcuts is at all times a welcome addition.

KTC M27P6 – Performance

As the sooner part most likely made clear, I discovered the KTC M27P6 to be exceptionally spectacular for its worth. It could solely be “budget” compared in opposition to flagship gaming displays, however that’s precisely it: it does evaluate with these shows, just like the BenQ MOBIUZ EX321UX, whereas costing half as a lot.

Let’s start with the mini-LED show and its backlight. I examined the monitor utilizing my Datacolor SpyderPro colorimeter. In SDR, I measured a peak brightness of 707 nits. In HDR mode, nonetheless, that jumped as much as a peak brightness of 1,612 nits in a 100% white window. Decreasing the dimensions of the window to about 75%, it hit 1,762 nits, which was the very best I recorded. It’s one of many uncommon instances in PC tech the place a product is over-delivering on its spec sheet.

Local dimming is price utilizing for HDR at a minimal, however like I discussed earlier, I believe it’s price leaving it on on a regular basis for the most effective image. With native dimming disabled, the M27P6 performs like every other IPS monitor and has a distinction ratio of about 1,000:1. Blacks seem extra like darkish gray. But with native dimming on excessive, I recorded a peak distinction of 6,834:1, providing a lot deeper shadows and a considerably wider dynamic vary. It’s inferior to OLED with its capability to manage the brightness of particular person pixels, however it’s additionally not vulnerable to burn in or dramatic shifts in brightness relying on how a lot white is on the display.

Mini-LED has its personal well-known disadvantage, nonetheless: blooming. Even with 1,152 native dimming zones, every tiny backlight must illuminate a gaggle of pixels as an alternative of people like OLED. Because of this, mini-LED displays may cause mild objects in darkish scenes to have an look of glowing or “blooming” with spilled mild.

The M27P6 isn’t exempt from this, however it presents sufficient native dimming zones that the detrimental results on image high quality are mitigated. In gaming and flicks, it’s solely actually seen in excessive circumstances the place a vibrant object seems on a very black background. These moments are often fleeting and, although it’s possible you’ll have to get used to them, weren’t one thing I personally discovered very distracting.

There are instances when it’s extra noticeable, however it’s largely exterior of gaming, similar to if you’re transferring the cursor on a darkish gray background. On Low, it’s hardly noticeable whereas normal is barely extra so. Even on excessive, nonetheless, it’s actually not unhealthy and is without doubt one of the higher implementations of a mini-LED and FALD I’ve seen in a gaming monitor.

Brightness and distinction each impress, however the place it actually obtained me was its colour accuracy. I search for a median accuracy of Delta E < 2, which is mostly thought of acceptable for skilled colour delicate work. For gaming and content material, most customers gained’t start to note something showing off till that Delta E common jumps to higher than 3 or 4.

In its native mode, which is enabled out of the field, the M27P6 measured at a median Delta E of two.69. Given that accuracy is additionally often one of many qualities left on the chopping room flooring on many inexpensive gaming displays, I contemplate this end result that most individuals will discover pleasant with none additional changes. Setting the monitor to its devoted sRGB mode, nonetheless, dropped this to Delta E < 1.71. Its DCI-P3 mode dropped it to < 1.64. These are nice outcomes for any monitor, and are particularly good when you think about that the M27P6 is especially geared toward avid gamers.

Its responsiveness isn’t going to rival any OLED, however it’s going to be completely wonderful in both of its two modes for many avid gamers. In the BlurBusters TestUFO ghosting test, at 4K, we don’t see the identical stage of readability as an OLED and there’s a little bit of smearing. The outcomes are good for an IPS show, nonetheless, and it’s quick sufficient that ghosting isn’t a priority in real-world gaming. In its 1080p mode, it’s barely higher, highlighting the affect of its sooner 320 Hz refresh price.

The capability to swap modes undoubtedly provides worth to the M27P6, although I’d like to see a single-mode 4K providing with these identical specs and a cheaper price sooner or later. Changing to 1080p mode is finished with a toggle within the OSD and might be tied to a keyboard shortcut if you happen to go for the software program as an alternative. The loss in crispness is predicted, however as a result of it’s dropping from 4K to 1080p, the brand new image is pressured to stretch one-fourth of the pixels throughout the identical 27-inches. Swapping quantities to an A/B comparability that’s akin to smearing the image in a skinny layer of Vaseline.

It doesn’t look nice, however if you happen to’re a aggressive participant, having the choice to weigh its efficiency in direction of seems to be or responsiveness is a pleasant function to have. Since there’s not an equal mannequin with solely 4K, you’re caught paying for this function even if you happen to by no means plan to make use of it.

After spending a number of weeks with the monitor, I’ve to say that I’ve been pleasantly shocked. I hadn’t tried a KTC monitor earlier than the M27P6 and wasn’t certain what to anticipate. It exceeded my expectations in practically each means. The image high quality is nice, whether or not you’re getting work finished or taking part in video games. Whether you decide to go away native dimming on exterior of video games comes down to non-public style, however with native dimming enabled, it will get within the ballpark of contemporary OLED displays, and that’s saying one thing.

It does fall quick in distinction and dynamic vary, however it’s not large, and what you lose in black ranges is made up for in brightness and resilience in opposition to burn in. It’s simply not a priority. The black ranges are additionally a lot higher than IPS or VA can present on their very own, so that you’re nonetheless taking a look at a greater HDR expertise than normal gaming displays can present. And whereas blooming remains to be current, the excessive dimming zone depend reduces its affect in order that most individuals ought to be capable to simply reside with it when it’s seen and neglect about it when it’s not.

Christopher Coke has been a daily contributor to IGN since 2019 and has been masking video games and expertise since 2013. He has lined tech starting from gaming controllers to graphics playing cards, gaming chairs and gaming displays, headphones, IEMs, and extra for websites similar to MMORPG.com, Tom’s Hardware, Popular Science, USA Today’s Reviewed, and Popular Mechanics. Find Chris on Twitter @gamebynight.