KTC 27M1 review: Not your typical budget gaming monitor

Price When Reviewed

$229.99

Best Prices Today: KTC 27M1

Buying a price range gaming monitor (or any price range monitor!) isn’t straightforward, as you face actually lots of of shows with almost similar specs. The KTC 27M1 manages to face out from this crowd with a number of uncommon options. It’s not good, however it’s a good selection in order for you an affordable do-it-all monitor.

Read on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the best gaming monitors for comparability.

KTC 27M1 specs and options

The KTC 27M1 is a 27-inch gaming monitor with a 2560×1440 decision. It additionally helps a refresh fee as much as 210Hz alongside Adaptive Sync, FreeSync, and G-Sync. In brief, the show specs cowl all the pieces I’d count on from a price range gaming show, after which some.

• Display measurement: 27-inch 16:9 facet ratio
• Native decision: 2560×1440
• Panel sort: Fast IPS-LCD
• Refresh fee: 210Hz
• Adaptive sync: Yes, Adaptive Sync, FreeSync, G-Sync
• HDR: Yes
• Ports: 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x 3.5mm headphone
• Audio: 2x two-watt audio system
• Extra options: Ergonomic stand, headphone hanger, shielding hood
• Price: $229.99 retail

However, the KTC 27M1 expands its attraction with a number of added options. It has a headphone hanger and a show hood (although the hood isn’t good, as I’ll talk about in a second). The ergonomic stand additionally gives extra adjustment than most accessible at this value.

Speaking of value, the KTC 27M1 retails at $229.99 on Amazon, which is aggressive. Less costly displays can be found however sometimes keep on with 1080p decision and/or a decrease refresh fee. Most 1440p displays with a 180Hz to 240Hz refresh fee retail for $180 to $250.

KTC 27M1 design

The KTC 27M1’s design appears typical at first look. It’s primarily constructed from matte-black plastic and features a few delicate design thrives, together with a silver strip on the rear with “Key to Combat” engraved on the appropriate aspect. It’s all somewhat regular for an affordable gaming monitor.

However, a couple of oddities stand out. The stand is barely slanted away from the person. That’s a bit odd, however it really has a bonus. This design locations the monitor barely additional away from the person, which is useful in case your desk is slim. The stand additionally has a clicky swivel operation with a variety of operation (60 levels in both path) and a carrying deal with.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

The monitor has a hood, too—kinda. A show hood is a defend that attaches to the highest or sides of a show. It’s usually meant to cut back ambient gentle on a show in order that the picture appears brighter and extra correct. And that’s form of true right here, too, besides that the hood is lacking the highest. It nonetheless does scale back ambient gentle a bit, however I’m a bit puzzled why the highest of the hood is absent.

Getting again to the stand, it’s nice. The base is small and flat, but the stand presents a wider vary of ergonomic adjustment than most displays. In addition to as much as 120 levels of swivel it additionally presents 40 levels of tilt and150mm of top adjustment. It can pivot 90 levels into portrait orientation, too. Most aggressive displays additionally supply ergonomic adjustment, however the 27M1 strikes greater than most. A 100x100mm VESA mount can be accessible to be used with third-party monitor stands and arms.

Oh, and the rear of the monitor features a headphone hook. It feels flimsy however it does the job.

KTC 27M1 connectivity

KTC’s uncommon but arguably advantageous selections proceed with the monitor’s connectivity. It has two HDMI 2.0 ports and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports for a complete of 4 video inputs. Most price range displays solely have two or three video inputs.

It’s not all excellent news, although. The HDMI 2.0 ports solely assist a refresh fee as much as 144Hz at 2560×1440. To be honest, it’s seemingly these ports will probably be used with recreation consoles, which don’t exceed 144Hz anyway.

The monitor additionally has a 3.5mm headphone jack. There aren’t any USB ports, although, which is a minor disappointment. A USB 2.0 port is included however solely used for firmware upgrades.

KTC 27M1 menus

Like most displays, the KTC 27M1 has a joystick tucked round the appropriate flank for navigating the on-screen menus. It’s responsive and simple to achieve, although the identical is true with different displays. The menus are well-labeled and have a daring, high-contrast font that I discovered straightforward to learn.

The menu system gives a suitable vary of picture high quality choices. These embody 4 exact gamma presets, although the colour temperature presets solely goal imprecise labels akin to “Warm” and “Cool.” The monitor additionally has six-axis coloration saturation calibration. The monitor has an sRGB coloration gamut preset, however doesn’t supply a preset for AdobeRGB, DCI-P3, Rec.709, or different widespread coloration gamuts.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

There’s additionally a typical vary of gaming options akin to an on-screen crosshair, timer, and FPS counter. A 4:3 facet ratio mode is accessible, too.

While the on-screen menu system is nice, the KTC doesn’t have a Windows or MacOS app that can be utilized to regulate the monitor’s options. That’s a characteristic that better-known manufacturers, akin to Alienware and Asus, can supply.

KTC 27M1 audio

The KTC 27M1 has a pair of 2-watt audio system however, as is often true for a monitor (at any value), they’re not nice. They aren’t loud even at most quantity and have a skinny, tinny sound. The audio system are tremendous for listening to a podcast, maybe, however not match for gaming.

KTC 27M1 SDR picture high quality

The KTC 27M1 has a 27-inch IPS-LCD show with a decision of 2560×1440…and people specs really don’t say a lot concerning the monitor’s picture high quality. IPS-LCD shows can differ loads in brightness, coloration, and distinction. So, how does the KTC 27M1 carry out?

Matthew Smith / Foundry

KTC comes out weapons blazing with a most SDR brightness of 535 nits. That’s an enormous degree of brightness and, frankly, approach too vibrant for many conditions. However, in case you want a monitor to make use of in a really vibrant room, the KTC 27M1 might do the trick. The monitor additionally has an anti-glare end to cut back glare.

Unfortunately, the brightness can be a draw back. Why? Because the monitor’s minimal brightness dips no decrease than 85 nits. That is likely to be too vibrant in case you use the monitor in a really darkish room.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

I measured a most distinction ratio of 1520:1 at 50 p.c of most brightness, and that distinction ratio was constant at totally different brightness settings.

A distinction ratio of 1520:1 is nice for a price range IPS-LCD show. The monitor’s black ranges are noticeably elevated, although, so the show suffers the “IPS glow” downside which causes darkish scenes to look hazy and grey.

However, because the graph exhibits, the identical is true for different IPS displays on this value bracket.

The Lenovo Legion R27fc-30 deserves particular point out as a result of its a lot greater distinction ratio. That’s because of the monitor’s Vertical Alignment (VA) panel, a kind of panel that has higher distinction and is the second hottest possibility, after IPS, for a price range monitor’s show panel. However, as the opposite graphs present, the Legion falls brief in another areas—so there’s a little bit of a give and take.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

The KTC 27M1 presents a wholesome coloration gamut that is available in at 100 p.c of sRGB, 94 p.c of DCI-P3, and 89 p.c of AdobeRGB.

While this isn’t top-tier efficiency in 2025 (many displays can hit 95 to 98 p.c of DCI-P3 and 90 to 95 p.c of AdobeRGB), it is a good degree of efficiency for a price range monitor. It’s additionally sufficient to make video games look vivid and saturated.

Matthew Smith / Foundry

Color accuracy brings extra excellent news, because the KTC 27M1 delivered a frankly stunning degree of coloration accuracy. While coloration accuracy is usually nice even amongst cheap IPS-LCD shows, the KTC 27M1 stands out with top-tier coloration accuracy efficiency.

That’s to not say the picture high quality is ideal. I measured a default gamma of two.3, which is off the goal of two.2 (and this was within the monitor’s gamma 2.2 mode). Color temperature was additionally approach too excessive at 7700Ok, off the goal of 6500Ok. Using the Warm coloration temperature mode solely lowered the consequence to 7100Ok. So, in case you choose a heat picture, you’re seemingly going to want to do some further software program calibration.

Sharpness is okay however not distinctive. The monitor’s 2560×1440 decision works out to about 110 pixels per inch. Obviously, that’s not as pixel-dense as a 4K monitor, which gives about 163 pixels per inch. At this value, although, 1440p is a tremendous decision. It’s additionally match for gaming, specifically, as a result of 4K decision is far more demanding on GPU {hardware} than 1440p.

While it has oddities, such because the unusually excessive minimal brightness and somewhat cool coloration temperature, the KTC 27M1 presents good SDR picture high quality total. It is strongest in coloration efficiency and accuracy but in addition gives distinctive brightness. I used to be somewhat happy with the picture high quality in most conditions, because it struck me as vivid and alluring.

KTC 27M1 HDR picture high quality

The KTC 27M1 can show an HDR sign, however HDR will not be promoted within the monitor’s advertising and marketing, and the monitor lacks VESA DisplayHDR certification. It’s no shock, then, that the monitor’s HDR leaves loads to be desired. HDR scenes look a bit brighter than in SDR, however the monitor lacks each the brightness and distinction to supply the additional element HDR is meant to supply in vibrant parts of a scene. The coloration gamut additionally isn’t vast sufficient to deal with HDR content material appropriately.

However, the identical is true of all price range displays. You’ll have to spend extra on an OLED or Mini-LED monitor, such because the Acer Predator X34 X0, in order for you good HDR efficiency.

KTC 27M1 movement efficiency

The KTC 27M1 can attain a refresh fee of 210Hz with overclock, or 200Hz with out. That’s an uncommon quantity, however I didn’t discover something uncommon concerning the monitor’s movement readability. The 210Hz refresh fee can present wonderful fluidity in fast-paced video games and results in a responsive, quick really feel.

Keep in thoughts, nonetheless, that the utmost refresh fee is barely accessible over DisplayPort. HDMI is proscribed to 144Hz.

The monitor additionally helps Adaptive Sync, AMD FreeSync, and Nvidia G-Sync for easy body pacing. It labored as anticipated in my testing with an AMD Radeon 7800 XT. This is desk stakes for a gaming monitor, although.

KTC gives an enhanced pixel response time mode, which boosts readability however may trigger distracting artifacts and an over-sharpened look. It additionally has an MPRT mode that inserts black frames between common frames to cut back movement blur. One draw back of MPRT is that it reduces perceived brightness by roughly half, however the KTC’s excessive brightness implies that isn’t actually a difficulty. With that stated, MPRT is one thing of an acquired style, as it might probably create a “double image” impact.

While the KTC 27M1’s total movement efficiency received’t win awards, it’s stable for a price range gaming monitor. Fast-paced video games look moderately crisp and particulars are often legible, although quick textual content or tiny interface parts (like HP bars) is usually a bit exhausting to discern. It’s an enormous leap from any 60Hz show and aggressive within the price range gaming monitor enviornment.

Should you purchase the KTC 27M1?

While it’s not one of the best choose for each recreation, the KTC 27M1 has good picture high quality and distinctive options that assist it stand out.

Like most IPS-LCD displays, the KTC 27M1 has a modest distinction ratio and has bother dealing with darkish scenes. The 27M1 additionally lacks USB connectivity and doesn’t have a software program utility for controlling monitor choices.

Yet the KTC 27M1 strikes again with a superb stand that has a variety of ergonomic adjustment, a complete of 4 video inputs, and powerful coloration efficiency. It has a show hood, although it solely covers two sides of the monitor.

I believe the KTC 27M1 is a very sensible choice in order for you a do-it-all price range monitor for gaming and work. It presents the ergonomic adjustment and coloration accuracy consumers may search for in a price range content material creation monitor alongside enhanced movement readability and fluidity.