of best gaming monitor Provides great performance with many bells and whistles on the market. But sometimes it’s better to keep it simple. After all, once you have a photo you like, how much do you want to mess with it? When a display offers out-of-the-box speed, quick response, and excellent image accuracy, what else do you really need? If you agree, there are some great deals out there.
NZXT is a well-known peripherals maker that recently delved into the monitor genre with their Canvas display line.I have seen Canvas 32Q The QHD/165 Hz panel came out a while ago and I noticed it offers all the right things for a great gaming experience at a good price, without the frills that add complexity.Canvas 27F adheres to the same design goals and is clean and fun at a low price. 27 inch FHD/IPS screen at 240 Hz. Adaptive-Sync And HDR400.
NZXT Canvas 27F Specs
| Panel type/backlight | IPS/W-LED, edge array |
| Screen size/aspect ratio | 27 inches/16:9 |
| Maximum resolution and refresh rate | 1920×1080@240Hz |
| Free Sync: 48-240Hz | |
| G-Sync compatible | |
| Native color depth and color gamut | 8bit/sRGB |
| HDR10, Display HDR 400 | |
| Response time (MPRT) | 1ms |
| Brightness (mfr) | 400 nits |
| Contrast (mfr) | 1,000:1 |
| speaker | none |
| video input | 1x DisplayPort 1.2 |
| 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB-C | |
| audio | 3.5mm headphone output |
| USB3.0 | 1x up, 2x down |
| power consumption | 21.5w, brightness @ 200 nits |
| panel dimensions | 24.2 x 20.7 x 8.8 inches |
| Width x Height x Depth with Base | (615×527×223mm) |
| panel thickness | 2.7 inches (69mm) |
| bezel width | Top/Side: 0.3″ (7mm) |
| Bottom: 0.8 inch (21mm) | |
| weight | 13.4 lbs (6.1kg) |
| guarantee | 3 years |
Like the Canvas 32Q, the 27F is either black or white and comes with a stand or arm. Pricing at the time of this writing is $230 for the panel, $40 for the stand, and $100 for the arm. A dual arm adds $170 in total. However you slice it, the level of performance offered is a bargain.
The panel is a snappy IPS part with FHD resolution. It has a relatively low pixel density of 82 pixels per inch, but a refresh rate of 240 Hz makes it easy to achieve high frame rates without spending four figures on your video card. You won’t get the ultra-fine detail of a QHD or UHD screen, but the fluid motion at 240 fps is a huge advantage when playing fast-paced games.
The Canvas 27F includes HDR10 support and peak output of over 400 nits. The colors are sRGB, so you don’t get the extra punch of a wide-gamut display, but you get decent saturation in HDR mode, thanks to the accurate panel, which is close to industry standards for color gamut, white point, and gamma. In fact, no calibration is required to display colorful, well-rendered images.
Video processing is covered by both AMD FreeSync When Nvidia G-Sync Supports 48-240 Hz range. The Canvas 27F isn’t certified by Nvidia, but we had no issues testing it with both Nvidia and AMD based PCs. The response time is claimed to be 1 ms MPRT, and there is no reason to doubt this. It’s one of the fastest monitors I’ve tested, with a total recorded latency of just 20ms.
Here’s a short list of extra features for this monitor. A frame counter is displayed, but the aimpoint is not. There is no LED lighting and no internal speakers. However, it does have two HDMI inputs, DisplayPort, USB, and a headphone jack. You also get a solidly built, well-designed display that has everything you need for top-shelf gaming.
assembly and accessories
My Canvas 27F sample shipped in separate boxes containing the panel, stand, and arm, and while my review of the Canvas 32Q left the stand, I found that the two weren’t identical. The 27F is lighter and requires a smaller stand with fewer springs to control the height adjustment. Everything is easy to assemble and the stand requires no tools. However, the arm is bolted to the panel with his four fasteners, so plus his screwdriver is handy. Cable complements include DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-C, and USB-A/B in addition to external power.
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NZXT’s no-frills approach extends to the minimalist design of Canvas 27F in a positive way. The front bezel is 7mm wide, coplanar on the top and sides, and at the bottom he has a 21mm trim strip that includes his NZXT logo finished in glossy black.
At the back, the simple elegance continues with a central smoothly tapered component bulge with a 100mm VESA mounting point. The NZXT logo is molded in a polished finish against black plastic that absorbs all light. A small joystick is located on the bottom right and is used to control all monitor functions.
The stand is solid and does not wobble. -5/20 degree tilt and 20 degree swivel plus 120 mm height adjustment. A 90-degree portrait mode is also available. The movement is what you’d expect from much more expensive hardware, with solid, smooth resistance.
The input panels are top and bottom and contain one DisplayPort 1.2, two HDMI 2.0 ports and one USB-C port. The latter can be a video input that mimics DisplayPort and provides support for peripherals. It also has USB 3.0, one upstream, two down, and a headphone jack. All video inputs can run at full resolution and 240 Hz.
OSD function
The Canvas 27F’s OSD is divided into five sub-menus accessed by pressing the rear joystick. It’s completely text-based and very well organized, but I did find one quirk. Sliders do not have numbers associated with them. This means that clicks should be counted if you want to record your settings for later use.
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The Canvas 27F has eight image modes that use different combinations of gamma and brightness to make it better suited for different tasks. All tests and games used the default standard. It’s so accurate out of the box that my calibration makes little difference. There are color temperature presets that include sliders.
This menu also has gaming options including three overdrive (response time) settings, frame counter (refresh rate), and MPRT. MPRT is a backlight strobe that cancels Adaptive-Sync like most gaming monitors. It outperforms most of the examples I’ve tried because it has minimal fading artifacts. But at 240 Hz, that’s completely unnecessary. Setting the overdrive to Fast, an intermediate option, provides flawless motion handling without ghosting or loss of resolution.
Other settings include a FreeSync/Adaptive-Sync toggle, the ability to turn off the power LED, auto source detection for video inputs, and volume control for the headphone jack.
NZXT Canvas 27F Calibration Settings
No need to adjust Canvas 27F, but I do, so I did it anyway. You can leave all settings at default and enjoy accuracy that rivals many calibrated displays. Using a custom color temperature improved our test results slightly, but had no visual effect. My settings are shown below. To reach the indicated value, count down from 100 with the slider all the way up, or count up from zero.
The HDR signal automatically switches the Canvas 27F, making all image controls available. We do not recommend changing it, but change it if necessary. For HDR testing and gameplay purposes, I left everything at default values.
| picture mode | standard |
|---|---|
| Brightness 200 nits | 34 |
| Brightness 120 nits | 14 |
| Brightness 100 nits | 9 |
| Brightness 80 nits | 4 (minimum 64 nits) |
| contrast | 50 |
| gamma | 2.2 |
| color temperature custom | 96 red, 96 green, 100 blue |
Games and hands-on
If you plan to use a 1920 x 1080 monitor for desktop productivity, 27 inches is the maximum recommended size. Anything larger has too little pixel density to make small text legible or render details in photos and videos. The Canvas 27F’s pixel structure is noticeable when you sit closer than 3 feet, but images are sharp thanks to a grain-free anti-glare layer that prevents reflections from brightening the image.
The colors are exemplary and I didn’t realize that Canvas doesn’t have a wide color gamut. That’s because of its accuracy and solid contrast. I work with an sRGB monitor (BenQ PD3200) every day and have never wanted more color when it comes to productivity.
Without my intervention, the Windows and Nvidia control panels recognized the Canvas 27F’s 240 Hz capabilities. After several days of testing and using it, I never had any issues.Adaptive-Sync worked flawlessly on both G-Sync and FreeSync platforms. HDR also appeared fine when selected in the Windows Control Panel or when I selected the option in-game.
Doom Eternal was my first go-to game for testing video processing, and Canvas 27F was excellent during hours of play in horde mode. I’m content with fast monitors to the point that 240 Hz is the minimum refresh rate. At 1920 x 1080 resolution, my GeForce RTX 3090 card had no problem sustaining 200+ fps of fun. I fixed the frame counter at 240 many times. You will be addicted to the quick response and blur-free movement unique to canvas. I didn’t need MPRT backlight strobes, nor did Adaptive-Sync allow for frame tearing. The overdrive worked perfectly at the fast (medium) setting, with no artifacts or ghosting.
HDR games have slightly better visual quality than SDR, mainly due to the increased brightness. All image parameters can be adjusted in HDR mode, but few monitors allow this. I preferred to max out the brightness slider and leave it at the factory default. The photos weren’t grainy by any means, but the highlights stood out thanks to his nearly 500 nits of incredible light output on the Canvas 27F.
dark material like a nighttime stealth mission in call of duty ww2, had little impact. Without the dimming option, black levels and shadow areas were more gray than black. Details were clearly rendered and I had no trouble seeing what I wanted to see. But there was no foreboding that came with the inky levels. Given the Canvas 27F’s gaming performance and low price, this is a forgivable drawback.
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