Best Xiaomi Monitors and how to choose the one that’s best suited for you

A display or monitor is an essential part of our equipment. The continuous upgrade of graphics cards leads to increased display performance requirements, such as high resolution, high refresh rate, faster response time, and better color rendering, among others.

Purchase considerations

Before purchasing a monitor, you must consider your needs and budget, just the way you should do with any product. If your intention is to give it a simple use, it’s not necessary to look for extreme perfection or complicated specs.

The primary function of a screen is to visually represent content and its main uses include gaming, office, design, cinema and television, and gaming consoles like the PS4 or 5, Switch, Xbox… What do you plan to use it for?

Is it to work with Excel? Then you don't need NASA technology. Are you a gamer or do you edit videos professionally? Then you may want to invest more in the monitor.

Display panels

Existing display panels on the market are mainly divided into TN, VA, and IPS.

1. TN: This kind of display panel has a high-speed dynamic image quality conversion capability, generates a high-frequency refresh rate, reduces lag, and no afterimages appear. It’s often used in professional sports competitions, which is consistent with the pursuit of high refresh rates.
2. VA: The curved screen of this display panel has the advantage of allowing strong immersion in 3A games, cinema, and television. The static contrast ratio of 3000:1 has a clear image layer. On the other hand, the screen ratio is 21:9, which is more suitable for video editing, commerce, or split-screen use. On the downside, it should be noted that low-end VA panels have a slow response time and the color is slightly worse than IPS (because they lack that color accuracy). Still, VA panels are suitable for AV, 3A gaming, and office use.
3. IPS: The advantages of these display panels are uniform performance, strong color performance, good response time, and wide viewing angle. The main drawback is that there is light leakage. IPS is considered a panel material with solid all-around capabilities, and if you don't know what to buy, you’re unlikely to make a mistake in choosing it.

Screen resolution

The higher the resolution, the clearer and more delicate the image will be, and the sharper the screen will be. The most common screen resolutions are 4K> 2K> 1080P.

Although the higher the resolution, the better, gaming users should also pay attention to the performance of the graphics card itself. On the other hand, many users are using external monitors for laptops. In this regard, it’s important to be aware of the fact that the performance of desktop graphics cards is completely different from that of mobile terminals. Don’t confuse the two.

For example, the 1080Ti graphics card also uses the i7-8700K processor to run Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the average frame rate at 1080P resolution is 69FPS, the average frame rate at 2K resolution is 60 and the average frame rate at 4K resolution is 38. Therefore, the higher the resolution, the higher the pressure on the graphics card, and the optimization of each game is different, which requires specific analysis of specific games.

For everyday office work, ordinary design doesn’t require a high graphics card. As long as the computer used supports 2K and 4K output, it can be considered. But in the case of a design professional, the performance of the graphics card should also be taken into account.

Color range

What is the color gamut? It refers to the gamut of the CIELAB color space. The larger the color gamut, the more colors can be displayed, and the richer and brighter the image we see. For normal users, the color gamut need only be 72% NTSC and 100% sRGB is sufficient. To understand the color gamut, you first need to know the current standards.

1. sRGB: Most current web pages, Windows systems, and software are displayed in the sRGB standard, which is widely used. For general design users, it’s recommended to choose 100 % sRGB color gamut coverage. It was launched jointly by HP and Microsoft in 1996.
2. Adobe RGB: This is the color standard launched by Adobe in 1998. It has a wider color gamut and is mainly used in commercial printing. It’s suitable for professional photo post-production users.
3. DCI-P3: It’s a color standard used in the motion picture industry. It also has a wider color gamut than sRGB. The larger the color gamut, the more the color display of film and television production can be restored.
4. NTSC: Although it’s the old U.S. television standard, many companies still use it. 100% sRGB≈72% NTSC, 100% Adobe RGB≈95% NTSC.

A larger color gamut doesn’t mean that the monitor is better. Too large a color range will make the color oversaturated, e.g. green is more green, and red is more red. Therefore, choosing a wide color gamut depends on your own needs and preferences. It’s worth noting the division within the color gamut of the sRGB color gamut coverage and the volume of the color gamut.

Volume refers to the gamut of the color gamut standard, while coverage refers to the coverage of the color gamut standard. Maximum color gamut coverage is 100% sRGB, while promotion is greater than 100% sRGB. It's all about color gamut volume. For design users, the actual color gamut coverage of the display is very important.

Color depth

This refers to the color bit depth. Right now, common displays are 8-bit or 10-bit.

The higher the color depth, the more colors will be displayed and the smoother the color transition. The image is composed of three RGB colors, i.e. red, green, and blue. A single color has multiple color shades: cherry blossom red, poppy red, fire red…

• 8 bits: 256(R)×256(G)×256(B)≈167 000 colors.
• 10 bits: 1024(R)×1024(G)×1027(B)≈1070 million colors.

Most low-end monitors have an 8-bit color depth achieved by 6-jitter 8. FPC is the full name of the technology (Frame Rate Control), which can quickly switch between different colors.

Color standard

As the name suggests, it refers to the color accuracy, represented by △ E (delta E). The lower the value, the higher the color accuracy.

General monitors can reach △ E<3, which is difficult for human eyes to distinguish, but many monitors can reach an average of △E≤2, achieving an excellent result.

Response time

It refers to the speed at which the display responds to the input signal, expressed in milliseconds (ms). It has a grayscale response time and a black-and-white response time.

• Grayscale response time: Refers to the time it takes for the screen to change from not being completely black to not being completely white. Whether we are playing games or watching movies, we alternate between multiple colors or different shades of colors.
• Black and white response time: It’s the time for the display to change from black to white and then to black. To switch from black, and white, it only needs to increase the voltage for the liquid crystal molecules to produce the larger turning angle, so the time required is relatively short.

Currently, the display response time is represented by the GTG grayscale response time. However, many 2K monitors like to label themselves with a 1 ms response time, which is to quickly deflect molecules through the continuous application of voltage to the display (OD acceleration). Although it has a faster response time, excessive voltage could cause ghosting.

VBR, MBR, and MPRT technologies are the same. By reducing the response time achieved by image blur, the backlight changes from the original DC to PWM (strobe) dimming. Although it can reduce the smearing in the game, the disadvantage is that it reduces the image quality and hurts the eyes.

Update frequency

Many of today's phones, televisions, and laptop screens have already used a high refresh rate, which can make the game screen display smoother. Refresh rate refers to the number of times the screen refreshes per second.

Even though high refresh rate is now widely available, it’s not guaranteed to be used. First, the computer's graphics card may be strong and games may hover around 144 FPS. At the same time, the game must support 144 Hz. If it can’t be used in daily games, it’s also impossible to experiment. If it’s used for office work, daily web browsing at 144 Hz can also provide high fluidity.

Eye protection

The eye protection portion of the display is mainly low blue light and LCD backlight dimming.

Low blue light should be more common. It filters light with a wavelength of 415 nm-455 nm, leaving a beneficial blue light of 455 nm-480 nm. It is mainly divided into hardware technology and software technology.

Where to buy a Xiaomi monitor?

AliExpress

In this great platform, you will be able to access most of the models offered by the brand, whether it’s the global models or the monitors exclusively made for the Chinese market. You must keep in mind that when it comes to the Chinese models, you may find yourself with limited languages or Chinese-only options, monitor's own menus, etc.

Amazon

You will also find various models of the brand on the world's largest e-commerce platform.