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The gaming monitor genre has plenty of extremely expensive or extremely cheap products. Most users shop on price and gravitate to the two ends of the spectrum. If you dig a bit more, though, some products deliver nearly all the performance of the top displays but cost only a little more than the budget ones. The HP Omen 27qs is a standout example.
(Image credit: HP)
In the response and lag tests, I found it matched lag numbers with most of the 360 and 500 Hz screens I’ve reviewed and only differed in measured draw time. And the visual difference is largely eliminated thanks to one of the best overdrives available. With precise tuning, it eliminates trail artifacts and delivers extremely high motion resolution. For gamers who prefer MPRT or backlight strobing, HP has also paid attention to that feature with a clean implementation and plenty of brightness to compensate for narrower pulse widths. The Omen 27qs’s video processing easily matches the very best monitors I’ve tested.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)
I was equally impressed with image quality. Out-of-box accuracy is at the professional level with visually perfect grayscale, gamma and color gamut. The default picture mode uses sRGB color for SDR content which is the correct choice. Users who prefer a wide gamut for all material can choose the Native mode and apply a few tweaks to have perfect color. The contrast is about average for IPS panels, but a greater dynamic range is available thanks to field dimming for SDR and edge zone dimming for HDR. The picture is superb in every respect.
The Omen 27qs is around $430 at this time, so it’s not the least expensive 27-inch QHD monitor out there. But it sells for less than competing 240 Hz screens and offers better color and video processing than just about anything else. It just does everything well. If you’re looking for the price/performance sweet spot, the HP Omen 27qs is there.
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.
