Innocn 27M2V review: This monitor could put the brand on the map

Price When Reviewed

$679.99

Best Prices Today: Innocn 27MV2

$799.99

Innocn has risen to relevance with aggressively priced shows that continuously undercut rivals on Amazon. Of course, low pricing raises the query: What’s the catch? The Innocn 27M2V, a 27-inch 4K, 160Hz Mini-LED monitor that routinely sells for simply $679.99, gives a stunning reply: There isn’t one.

Further studying: See our roundup of the best 4K monitors to study competing merchandise.

Innocn 27M2V specs

The Innocn 27M2V’s specs are typical for a high-end 4K monitor. It gives 3840×2160 decision, a most refresh charge of 160Hz, USB-C connectivity, and a dynamic Mini-LED backlight.

• Display measurement: 27-inch widescreen
• Native decision: 3840×2160
• Panel sort: Mini-LED
• Refresh charge: 160Hz
• Adaptive Sync: AMD FreeSync Premium Pro
• HDR: Yes, HDR10
• Ports: 1x USB-C with DisplayPort and 90 watts Power Delivery, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm audio jack
• VESA mount: 100x100mm
• Speakers: Yes, two 5-watt audio system
• Price: $799.99 MSRP, $679.99 on sale

These are premium options, however the Inncon 27M2V in all fairness priced. It carries an MSRP of $799.99 on Amazon however, in line with Amazon price-watching web site CamelCamelCamel, continuously dips to $679.99.

Innocn 27M2V design

The Innocn 27M2V stands out from most pc screens bought at the same value due to its distinctive silver faux-metallic exterior. It’s a departure from the extra widespread matte black or often white exteriors discovered on most competing screens. This selection provides a refreshing change of tempo. The design has knowledgeable and pseudo-ruggedized look, particularly on the rear panel, the place plastic ridges create an impression of added reinforcement.

However, the construct high quality doesn’t match as much as the design. The monitor is primarily made from plastic, and the kind of plastics used lack texture. They possess a slight sheen that jogs my memory of cheap plastic toys. It’s not a useful difficulty, however the construct high quality of the Innocn 27M2V isn’t on par with top-tier rivals. The Dell U2723QE, for instance, feels extra premium when dealt with, and the AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM has a daring design extra suited to a typical PC gaming setup.

Matt Smith

Several RGB-LED lights line the rear panel and add a contact of aptitude to the monitor’s in any other case wise design. The LED lights are shiny sufficient so as to add some drama to a desktop, even in a room with modest lighting, and a wide range of colours and lighting modes can be found by means of the monitor’s on-screen choices menu.

An ergonomic stand comes with the monitor and provides changes for top, tilt, and swivel. The stand’s changes function easily, and its weight ensures the monitor stays steady in your desktop. The stand base is compact, too, making certain it doesn’t occupy an excessive amount of desk area. Its top adjustment is considerably restricted, although, and taller customers may discover the monitor sits too low even on the stand’s most top. The monitor does provide a typical 100x100mm VESA mount to be used with third-party monitor stands or arms.

Innocn 27M2V options and menus

Innocn gives loads of video connectivity. The 27M2V is provided with a USB-C port that helps DisplayPort Alternate Mode and as much as 90 watts of USB energy supply. It’s complemented by two HDMI 2.0 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4, totaling 4 video inputs.

The USB-C port can drive two downstream USB-A ports on the rear of the monitor. That makes the monitor a USB-C hub, however the location of the USB-A ports makes them troublesome to entry. The USB-A ports could be pushed by a USB-B enter in case your PC lacks USB-C.

Matt Smith

The on-screen menu is navigated by means of a set of buttons positioned discreetly alongside the decrease proper aspect. They’re a bit much less intuitive than the joystick-style controls discovered on many trendy screens, however the buttons are simple to seek out and reply rapidly to person inputs.

Innocn provides an array of picture high quality choices that features a number of colour presets, exact gamma settings, colour temperature changes, and colour calibration. For avid gamers, the monitor additionally boasts options like a shadow enhance, which reinforces particulars in darkish areas to make foes seen. The 27M2V’s big selection of choices is spectacular given its value level and usually defeats competing screens.

The monitor has a “Smart Brightness” function that makes use of a lightweight sensor on the highest of the monitor’s bezel to detect ambient gentle and regulate brightness accordingly. It’s enabled by default in SDR mode, however doesn’t perform in HDR. I discovered it was too aggressive in dimming the monitor, so I turned it off.

However, there are some drawbacks. The placement of sure options, just like the native dimming setting (which is discovered underneath sport settings), is complicated, and a few choices have unclear labels or use abbreviations that received’t be acquainted to most customers. This turns into an issue, as Innocn’s guide leaves a lot to be desired, and the web documentation is equally missing. Fully understanding the monitor’s capabilities requires a little bit of experimentation.

The monitor is provided with a pair of 5-watt audio system that ship acceptable sound high quality. Their quantity is appropriate for a quiet workplace setting and their audio high quality meets primary wants, comparable to listening to podcasts or video conferencing. The monitor additionally gives a 3.5mm audio jack for relaying sound to exterior audio system.

How is the Innocn 27M2V’s SDR picture high quality?

The Innocn 27M2V’s 4K decision and Mini-LED decision promise wonderful picture high quality, and the monitor wholly delivers on that promise. It performs exceptionally nicely by each metric.

Matt Smith

First up is brightness, the place the Innocn 27M2V delivers a most SDR brightness of 645 nits. That’s the second-best amongst this pack of Mini-LED shows. In fact, the brightness of those shows is a bit irrelevant in typical use, as a result of they’re all shiny sufficient to stay usable even in a sunny room. Still, the excessive degree of brightness is nice in case you work in a totally lit room and in addition hints on the monitor’s robust HDR efficiency, which I’ll talk about later on this evaluate.

Matt Smith

The Innocn 27M2V delivered a most distinction ratio of 8150:1 in our normal SDR distinction take a look at. That’s a superb consequence that beats most Mini-LED screens within the Innocn’s value bracket, in addition to some which are dearer.

However, the complete story stays nuanced. Our normal SDR take a look at sample is a checkerboard. I’ve noticed that Mini-LED screens don’t show their most distinction ratio on this take a look at as a result of the LED backlight components bleed into darkish areas of the picture, inflicting a discount in distinction. The Innocn 27M2V is able to an infinite distinction ratio, however this solely happens when measuring shiny and darkish components on reverse ends of the show.

If that’s a bit complicated, don’t fear—it’s a nitpick. The monitor’s distinction is mostly wonderful, crushed solely by just a few different Mini-LED screens, such because the RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor, and OLED shows.

Matt Smith

Color gamut, however, requires no caveats. The Innocn 27M2V delivers a jaw-dropping colour gamut that spans 100 % of sRGB, 99 % of DCI-P3, and 99 % of AdobeRGB.

This stands out even amongst Mini-LED screens, which typically earn prime marks on this take a look at. Only the RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor barely outperforms the Innocn 27M2V. The Innocn’s distinctive colour gamut gives a vivid, saturated look that many viewers will adore.

Matt Smith

Color accuracy is great, too. This stunned me: Strong out-of-the-box colour accuracy suggests good high quality management, which isn’t what I count on from a finances model. It’s fantastic to see out-of-the-box colour accuracy that outperforms even better-known manufacturers like Acer and Cooler Master.

Excellent colour accuracy gives a extra lifelike picture and is helpful for professionals who have to know the colours they see on their monitor will look comparable on different shows. Also, as talked about earlier, the Innocn 27M2V has many picture high quality choices. These will additional support professionals who have to tweak the picture to satisfy their particular wants.

Sharpness gives extra excellent news. The 27-inch 4K panel packs in 163 pixels per inch, which is near the very best pixel density discovered on client screens (5K and 6K screens are extra pixel-dense, however extraordinarily costly). 4K motion pictures and video games look tack-sharp, and small fonts are simple to learn.

The Innocn 27M2V’s general picture high quality is hard to beat at any value. It delivers on all fronts: brightness, distinction, colour gamut, colour accuracy, and sharpness. RedMagic’s 4K Gaming Monitor performs a tad higher, however the hole is slim.

How is the Innocn 27M2V’s HDR picture high quality?

The Innocn 27M2V is VESA DisplayHDR 1000 licensed, the second-best degree of HDR certification at present accessible from VESA. HDR efficiency is sweet general, although there are just a few caveats.

First, the excellent news: the Innocn 27M2V is shiny, vivid, detailed, and colourful in HDR content material. I measured a formidable most brightness of 877 nits in HDR content material, which is a stable consequence. I’ve tried just a few HDR screens that do higher—I measured the RedMagic 4K Gaming Monitor at 1206 nits, and the Acer Predator X32FP at 947 nits—however the Innocn outperforms most HDR screens accessible at the moment.

It’s an vital consequence. High brightness is critical to supply higher element in shiny, vivid scenes. Viewing a clip from Top Gun: Maverick confirmed good element within the cockpit of Maverick’s fighter whereas daylight gleamed off its floor, whereas a clip from Interstellar confirmed robust particulars within the rings of shiny, scorching gasses surrounding a black gap.

The Innocn 27M2V isn’t excellent, nonetheless. While it could attain a brightness of 877 nits, I seen a fast discount in brightness when viewing a scene wherein your entire show is shiny, comparable to a snow-capped mountain. In this case, the utmost brightness leveled out at 530 nits. That’s nonetheless good for a monitor, however it might trigger a loss intimately when viewing HDR motion pictures and video games with scenes that demand a excessive degree of brightness throughout your entire show.

Fortunately, this drawback is mitigated by the 27M2V’s distinction. As talked about earlier, the monitor can hit the best minimal luminance of zero nits, which suggests it has an successfully infinite distinction ratio. That ensures wonderful element in each shiny and darkish HDR content material.

The 27M2V can present blooming, a problem which shows a comfortable glow round shiny objects on an in any other case darkish background, however the issue is far much less prevalent than with equally priced Mini-LED screens. How a lot this issues will depend on how you employ the monitor, as blooming is simpler to see in a darkened residence theater than a house workplace that’s partially or absolutely lit.

If this looks like lots, right here’s the takeaway: the Innocn HDR 27M2V isn’t the best possible Mini-LED monitor for HDR, nevertheless it delivers wonderful HDR bang-for-the-buck.

How is the Innocn 27M2V’s movement efficiency?

Matt Smith

The Innocn 27M2V has a most refresh charge of 160Hz and gives help for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro.

The 160Hz refresh charge delivers good movement readability. Fast-moving objects look detailed and quick digital camera pans by means of 3D scenes preserve many of the setting intact. It’s nowhere close to the readability accessible from cutting-edge PC gaming screens just like the Alienware AW2524H, which may hit a refresh charge of 500Hz, however avid gamers upgrading from a 60Hz monitor might be impressed.

A observe about buyer help

At this level, you could be questioning—okay, actually. What’s the catch? The Innocn 27M2V’s picture high quality doesn’t present one, however there’s a potential difficulty to notice: buyer help.

Innocn is a much less well-known firm with solely a primary presence in North America, and it reveals. The monitor’s packaging isn’t as strong as most, the person guide is skinny, and Innocn doesn’t present a buyer help quantity on its web site. Users who need assistance can solely get in contact over e mail.

Customer service is troublesome to account for in a evaluate. I skilled no issues, so I’ve no purpose to doubt the monitor’s high quality. Still, that is value contemplating if documentation and customer support are vital to you.

Should you purchase the Innocn 27M2V?

Innocn’s 27M2V is a wonderful choice for buyers trying to purchase a Mini-LED monitor on a finances. It delivers the advantages of Mini-LED, together with a excessive distinction ratio and good HDR efficiency, at a value that’s extra much like competing screens that lack a Mini-LED backlight. The monitor’s on-screen menu is a bit complicated and Innocn’s documentation is missing, however these comparatively minor points are forgivable given the monitor’s value. Innocn additionally manages to defeat finances Mini-LED alternate options just like the Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q and AOC Agon Pro AG274QZM, and neither of these rivals is a pushover.