HP Omen 27qs 240 Hz Gaming Monitor Review: Solid Performance and Exceptional Value

27-inch QHD IPS gaming monitor with 240 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR and wide gamut color.

Reviews
By
published
HP Omen 27qs
Editor's Choice
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

To read about our monitor tests in-depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test PC Monitors. We cover brightness and contrast testing on page two.

Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level

Image 1 of 3
HP Omen 27qs
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

The Omen 27qs is bright in SDR mode with nearly 490 nits of peak output. Few users would crank the backlight this high, but the overhead is useful when turning on the backlight strobe for the MPRT feature. In HDR mode, this number rises to just over 500 nits.

The black level is about average for IPS monitors, which puts contrast just under 1,100:1. That’s decent performance, but you can increase it to 5,000:1 by turning on dynamic contrast. In SDR mode, it uses field dimming to do its thing, while in HDR mode, it has eight dimming zones emanating from the edge backlight array.

After Calibration to 200 nits

Image 1 of 3
HP Omen 27qs
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Calibration raised the contrast result slightly, but this difference is invisible to the naked eye. Note that all I did here was change the brightness setting to 200 nits. No other adjustments were made to the Standard picture mode because it is already spot-on. If you calibrate the Native mode as I did, the contrast ratio is the same 1,100:1.

ANSI contrast remains consistent at 1,063.4:1. This indicates good quality control and a premium grid polarizer in the TFT layer. This is about as good as it gets for IPS panels as a category.

Test Takeaway: The Omen 27qs has more than enough brightness to take advantage of its dynamic contrast features and deliver impactful SDR and HDR content. Black levels are IPS-average, as is overall contrast, which is consistently around 1,100:1 with no dynamic features turned on. The picture has solid depth and dimension with clear and saturated color.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test PC Monitors

MORE: How to Buy a PC Monitor

MORE: How to Choose the Best HDR Monitor

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.