Hp 27QS - another dumpster fire monitor

[r0ach]

Back again with a new monitor review. I ordered an HP 27QS 1440p 240hz directly from the HP website. This model ships with a panel lottery of BOE + LG panel. I specifically told the person who took my order to only send me one with a BOE panel and not LG (it’s indicated with a sticker that says “Rev: B or Rev: L” on the outside of the box.

Fast forward a few days later and here’s my new HP monitor with an LG 240hz panel. Let’s skip the foreplay and head directly to the observation list:

- First thing you’re going to notice is that even if you reduce the brightness to nothingness, the whites are still blinding and overly bright while only the darker shades become muted. This is clearly a problem with LG panels and the reason why everyone hates them. They made the panel films too thin so it’s like you’re staring directly into the sun and likely one of the contributing factors for why these panels have ungodly high levels of eye strain.

- Next thing you’ll notice is that the text seems off and kinda fried. This is a problem I’ve seen on HP monitors going back some 10+ years ago, so this is likely their fault. Lowering sharpness just makes text too blurry instead. It’s not hugely off, something about the text is just not quite where you want it to be. Not really surprising HP would be incompetent at getting monitor firmware right when you Google their display head “Aaron Slessinger” and it’s all talking about promoting “DEI” white genocide SJW stuff instead of actually talking about monitors.

- Something also seems off with pixel density where you can usually see a huge increase from a 1080p SVA panel to a 1440p one, but even with all these pixels the image quality isn’t even an upgrade over a Samsung 1080p. Too large of canyon spacing in LG’s pixel structure or another HP firmware problem? Don’t know, don’t care. Both of these brands seem incapable of doing anything right nowadays.

- Strangely, while this panel’s pixel response times aren’t measured to be very different from the current 240hz BOE panels, this panel seems way faster in subjective use than the BOE screen in monitors like the $250 Acer W2 1440p 240hz or the Asus 260hz with BOE panel. I had to turn on strobing on the Acer W2 just to make FPS games playable at all (but that monitor seems to have issues with tearing other monitors don’t have, which could be a contributing factor and also why it only costs $250).

- As for things like mouse movement, this monitor has the same problem as lots of other new monitors I’ve tried where I notice lots of Chinese monitors with barebones OSD like Innocn 27G1S, Kooruis, Innoview (after you turn off DSC) or all the others feel like they’re giving you more linear and responsive mouse movement even though the input lag on the HP is claimed to be 2.6ms. They’re just putting too much bloat and weird stuff in the monitor firmwares now where the fly by night Chinese units feel better to play on than Asus, Acers, or HP. It does feel more responsive than both the Asus 1440p 260hz and Acer W2 240hz though.

- Other observations: SRGB clamp mode is very good and looks far better than native mode, but LG panel eye strain is so high it doesn’t even matter. The monitor might as well be shooting gamma rays into your eyeballs. Gee, I wonder why LG started using BOE panels in their own monitors like the new 27GR83Q instead?

[thisisapathetic]

Hey so did you return and get to try a BOE panel version of the 27qs? I'm very interested in this monitor.

Also I'm curious, have you tried the ASUS XG27AQM 240/270hz?

Thanks!