Your monitor is where you make every editing decision. If it’s showing you inaccurate colors, wrong brightness, or poor contrast, every adjustment you make is based on a lie. A good monitor is arguably more important than a good camera.

Here’s what actually matters when buying one.

The Specs That Matter

Color Accuracy (Delta E)

This is the most important specification for photography. Delta E measures how closely the displayed colors match the target colors. Lower is better.

  • Delta E < 2: Excellent. Color differences are imperceptible to the human eye.
  • Delta E 2-4: Good. Differences visible if you’re looking for them, but fine for most work.
  • Delta E > 4: Avoid for serious photo editing. Colors are noticeably wrong.

Look for monitors that are factory-calibrated with a Delta E < 2 and ship with a calibration report.

Color Gamut Coverage

Color gamut is the range of colors a monitor can display.

  • sRGB: The standard for web and most screen display. A monitor covering 99-100% sRGB is essential.
  • Adobe RGB: Wider gamut used in print workflows. Covers more greens and cyans. If you print your work, 90%+ Adobe RGB coverage matters.
  • DCI-P3: A wide gamut standard increasingly used for HDR content. Nice to have, not essential for still photography.

For most photographers, 100% sRGB with 95%+ Adobe RGB is the sweet spot.

Panel Type

  • IPS (In-Plane Switching): The standard for photo editing. Wide viewing angles, accurate colors, good contrast. This is what you want.
  • VA (Vertical Alignment): Higher contrast ratios than IPS but narrower viewing angles and potential color shift when viewed from the side. Acceptable but not ideal.
  • TN (Twisted Nematic): Avoid for photo work. Poor viewing angles and color accuracy.
  • OLED: Excellent contrast, perfect blacks, wide color gamut. The best image quality but expensive and can have burn-in issues with static interfaces like Lightroom panels.

Resolution

  • 1920x1080 (Full HD): Usable but you’ll be scrolling constantly and images look soft at larger screen sizes.
  • 2560x1440 (QHD): The sweet spot for 27-inch monitors. Sharp enough for detailed work, not so demanding on your GPU.
  • 3840x2160 (4K): Beautiful detail, especially on 27-32 inch screens. Requires a capable GPU and you may need to use display scaling.

For photo editing, I recommend at minimum 2560x1440 at 27 inches.

The Specs That Don’t Matter (for Photography)

  • Refresh rate: 60Hz is fine. 144Hz is for gaming, not photo editing.
  • Response time: Irrelevant for static images.
  • HDR certification: Mostly marketing unless you’re editing HDR content specifically.
  • Curved screen: Personal preference but offers no advantage for photo editing. Some photographers find it introduces subtle distortion.

Recommendations by Budget

Budget ($200-400): Dell S2722QC or ASUS ProArt PA278QV

Both offer solid color accuracy, IPS panels, and good factory calibration for the price. The Dell offers 4K resolution; the ASUS is QHD with wider gamut coverage. Either is a huge upgrade from a typical consumer monitor.

Mid-Range ($400-800): BenQ SW270C or Dell UltraSharp U2723QE

This is where monitors get genuinely good for professional work. Hardware calibration support, wide gamut, excellent factory calibration, and included calibration reports. The BenQ SW270C includes a hood to block ambient light, which is a surprisingly valuable feature.

Professional ($800-1500): BenQ SW321C or EIZO ColorEdge CS2740

True professional monitors with hardware calibration, 4K resolution, near-perfect color accuracy, and build quality designed for years of daily use. EIZO includes a 5-year warranty and their monitors hold calibration longer than most competitors.

Calibration Matters More Than the Monitor

Even a $1,500 monitor drifts out of calibration over time as the backlight ages. A $150-200 hardware calibrator (like the Calibrite ColorChecker Display or Datacolor SpyderX) ensures your monitor stays accurate.

Buy the best monitor you can afford, then calibrate it monthly. A calibrated $400 monitor is more accurate than an uncalibrated $1,000 monitor.

The Dual Monitor Question

If you edit on dual monitors, only the primary (calibrated) monitor should be used for color decisions. The secondary monitor is for palettes, file browsers, and reference images. Don’t trust colors on your secondary screen unless it’s also calibrated to the same standard.