Black Friday monitor deals: What to expect and early sales

Black Friday is a great time for monitor deals. Whether you’re into watching movies or competitive gaming, a good monitor can make a huge difference. And you don’t have to wait until Black Friday proper to scoop up those delicious deals, either: The early sales are already here!

Choosing the right monitor specs can be downright stressful. From the various refresh rates to display sizes and response times, it can be a lot to take in. That’s why we put together a list of the best monitor deals, separated into standard monitor deals, luxurious OLED monitor deals, and gaming monitor deals. We’ve also included an FAQ section that addresses what to look for in a good monitor, after the deals.

Early Black Friday standard monitor deals

GTek 15-inch USB-C portable monitor, $44.99 ($40 off at Amazon, with coupon)

LG 24-inch IPS 1080p 100Hz monitor, $79.99 ($40 off at LG)

Dell 27-inch IPS 1070p monitor, $99.99 ($60 off at Best Buy)

Dell 32-inch 4K monitor, $249.99 ($110 off at Amazon)

Philips 44.5-inch ultrawide QHD monitor, $549.99 ($250 off at B&H photo)

My top pick: For those who don’t care about the beep-boops of gaming, there’s no faster way to add a little utility to your laptop setup than with a USB-C secondary monitor. The deal on the whitebox GTek model is unbeatable — I’ve spent more than that on a hotel breakfast, and it wasn’t anywhere near as good. On the other end of the spectrum, you can power up your productivity on the desktop with an absolutely massive Philips monitor, which is basically two mid-sized screens in one, plus an integrated webcam.

Early Black Friday gaming monitor deals

Acer 27-inch 1080p 240Hz curved gaming monitor, $121.68 ($80 off at Amazon, with coupon)

Lenovo 27-inch 1080p 144Hz curved gaming monitor, $129.99 ($140 off at Lenovo)

Dell 32-inch QHD 165Hz gaming monitor, $199.99 ($130 off at Best Buy)

Gigabyte 27-inch IPS 1440p 180Hz gaming monitor, $199.99 ($50 off at Newegg)

Samsung 34-inch ultrawide 165Hz gaming monitor, $229.99 ($321 off at Walmart)

My top pick: Here’s where you can find some seriously affordable monitors to upgrade your setup or expand it into multiple screens. The Gigabyte is my early pick, despite its relatively anemic discount. That extra resolution puts it at the current “sweet spot” of PC gaming, QHD, and the upgraded IPS screen means that it can pull double duty as a standard office or media production monitor. That makes it a great pick of you game on your work-from-home PC.

Early Black Friday OLED monitor deals

MSI 27-inch OLED QHD 240Hz gaming monitor, $499.99 ($200 off with MAG27E2 coupon code at Newegg)

Asus ROG 27-inch OLED 240Hz gaming monitor, $724.99 ($75 off at Amazon)

LG Ultragear 34-inch ultrawide OLED 240Hz gaming monitor, $799.99 ($500 off at Best Buy)

Acer Predator X34 34-inch ultrawide OLED 175Hz gaming monitor, $899.99 ($100 off at Newegg)

Alienware 34-inch ultrawide OLED 175Hz gaming monitor, $799.99 ($300 off at Dell)

My top pick: At this point there’s not a lot of variety in OLED monitor deals, possibly stemming from the fact that there’s just not a lot of variety in high-end gaming monitors with OLED panels. MSI’s 27-inch, $500 display is one of the cheapest OLED monitors we’ve ever seen, but it’s been going in and out of stock as people rush to get the deal.

The Acer Predator is the best bang for your buck, unless you absolutely need that extra refresh rate provided by the Asus ROG, at the expense of some screen real estate. At this size and resolution, odds are good that your gaming PC will struggle to push that many frames anyway.

FAQ
1.
When is Black Friday 2024?

Black Friday is on Friday, Nov 29th. If you consider yourself an avid deals hunter, we’d suggest going online in the early hours to take advantage of the best deals. Deals tend to change and expire at a breakneck pace.

2.
When is Cyber Monday 2024?

Cyber Monday is on Monday, December 2nd. For the best deals, we’d recommend logging on at midnight, as stock tends to deplete rather quickly.

3.
What other Black Friday retailers should I check out?

Amazon is going to have a slew of awesome deals. That’s a given. However, for monitors, you should definitely peruse the retail shopping pages of HP, Dell and Lenovo. Personally, I find myself going directly to the manufacturers more often than not. You can also widen your net and scope out other online retailers like Best Buy and Newegg.

4.
What should I look for in a monitor?

Let’s first talk about refresh rate, which is especially important if you’re looking for a gaming monitor. The refresh rate is how fast a monitor can redraw the image on its screen. The faster the refresh rate, the smoother your visuals will look. Most office monitors work well at the standard 60Hz, though you’ll notice smoothness improvements at higher speeds. For competitive first-person shooters, we’d recommend 120Hz as the minimum rate. Anything higher is good enough for the esports realm.

Resolution is another important feature to consider. Much like the refresh rate, the higher the number, the better. We’re talking about the quality of images and video here. 1080p is the bare minimum for most monitors. However, if you’re a video editor, bumping the resolution up to 4K makes a massive difference, as it allows you to see more detail.

The final thing is the screen size. 27 inches is the most common and a good size for a home office. For gaming monitors, 24 or 27 inches is best. Sometimes a larger screen causes eye strain and if you’re going to be staring at one for hours, it’s better to go a bit smaller. For 4K monitors, 32-inches is a good option, as it gives you quite a bit of screen to work with.

5.
Where can I find the highest rated monitors?

PCWorld reviews new monitors every month. So, if you want to see the models we’ve rated the highest, check out our rankings for the best monitors of 2022. We also have more granular picks on the best gaming monitors, as well as the best 4K monitors for desktop workstations. Come Black Friday, a lot of our top picks may be on sale, so don’t limit your shopping only to the deals we’ve called out above.

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