HP 27-inch Curved Gaming Monitor - 165Hz, QHD (2560x1440), 1ms Response Time, AMD FreeSync, Eyesafe Display, VESA Mountable (X27qc, Black) - Perfect for Competitive Gaming & Home Office Setup

Upgrade to this 165Hz HP X27qc has been positive. Monitor build is basic black, but finish is nice looking. Adjustable height mechanism is high quality. When fully extended the monitor is 20" tall.Initial thoughts:- Plugged in the monitor via DisplayPort and woke up my HP Pavilion Gaming PC (Nvidia RTX 3060 card) and monitor automatically switched to 165Hz- Windows feels way faster. To test, grab a window bar and move the window around the screen- Start Menu open action and applications open actions all feel super fast and smooth- Changed monitor refresh rate to 120Hz in Windows 11 using "View advanced display info" -> "Display Adapter properties for Display 1"Trying out 120Hz to keep the video card cooler in Windows and Fortnite. Full 165Hz will use more power and generate more heat in my home office. All in all a great budget gaming monitor.Fortnite Pro Tip: Manually select a Fortnite framerate by going to Start -> Run -> %UserProfile%\AppData\Local\FortniteGame\Saved\Config\WindowsClient -> GameUserSettings.ini -> FrameRateLimit=120.000000BeautifulLove it! I had an Acer that had similar specs, but the picture quality of the Acer doesn't compare. Very impressed with it!Using this display in my setup for gaming and coding, screen size is great and color is nice and easy to adjust. Has some minor ghosting where pixels do tend to drag in darker areas. Still great refresh rate and games look amazing on my PC (GPU- RTX 3070). Also would be nice to have built in speakers, but a minor drawback especially considering the price. (Purchased on sale for $209 before tax.) very happy with the purchase.Got it when it was on sale, monitor prices go up extremely high when you look into 1440p monitors with high refresh rate AND good screens, so I settled for this one and I'm glad I did. Extremely easy to setup too.The screen feels large, is height and tilt adjustable, and definitely plays at 1440p 165hz. Only downside I can notice is the screen struggles when scrolling through a black page with white text, where the white text turns black while scrolling. But that's hardly a problem for what I bought it for anyway.Edit: It has now been a month and a half since I started using this monitor as my main monitor for everything from competitive FPS (Apex Legends, Valorant, Destiny 2) to casual (Divinity 2, Potion Permit, Genshin Impact) to office work (word, google docs, powerpoint) to media consumption (YouTube, Netflix).I am downgrading my review from 5 to 4 stars. It was fine initially with basic tasks and gcertain games. The monitor struggled with colors for sure, especially when scrolling through any websites that has white background and black text (so every website) but it didn't hamper my experience whatsoever. But for some games (it might come down to the color palettes different games use) like potion permit, I could see some sort of green and purple aura trailing the characters. This problem does not occur for the games I usually play (Apex, Genshin) but is noticeably irksome in games like potion permit and divinity, probably because these games use brighter colors, more contrasting colors.I am currently looking into switching to a 1080p, 240hz, 24.5" monitor with a more average color performance and better response times/motion blur reduction. It was nice trying 1440p for the first time, and I could tell immediately if any game I played accidentally switched itself to 1080p (it was like using 1600x900 on a 1920x1080p screen), I do not feel that it was worth the extra cost and the noticeable sacrifices in image quality. Regardless of it flaws, I am thankful this monitor exists and served to help me understand my personal preferences. I will not stop using it any time soon and keep it as my second monitor for when my new monitor arrives.P.S. the assembly was super easy and stand took up very little space on my already cramped desk. If anyone is looking for a budget 1440p monitor and absolutely set on the resolution, I wouldn't strike this one off the "save for later" list just yet.