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This Mini LED gaming monitor is $400 after a $200 Black Friday discount

A great price for a 1440p 165Hz monitor that can hit 1000 nits.

ktc 27-inch gaming monitor
Image credit: KTC/Digital Foundry

Over the past few weeks I've been testing an impressive Mini LED gaming monitor from KTC. Like other Mini LED screens, the M27T20 uses thousands of tiny LEDs measuring less than 0.2mm, boosting HDR performance by allowing greater differences between the lighter and darker elements on screen together... but unlike other Mini LED screens, this one is downright affordable with a Black Friday $200 discount making the M27T20 just $400.

That's a hugely competitive price for a 27-inch Mini LED gaming monitor that also includes a 1440p resolution, 165Hz refresh rate, FreeSync/G-Sync support and an impressive 1000 nits of peak brightness.

As you might expect from a monitor with Full Array Local Dimming, you get a much more impactful HDR image than your standard LED-backlit display. Having 576 zones dividing the 27-inch display means that there's minimal ghosting around bright highlights - think of the moon in a dark sky or your mouse pointer on a black desktop background - which allow for some impressive contrast levels in combination with the VA panel screen. There are even higher zone-count Mini LED monitors on the market, but 576 zones is already enough to see a benefit.

VA panels normally pay the penalty in terms of viewing angles and pixel response times, but these were actually quite good for the category and I didn't notice any issues even playing Counter-Strike 2 at 144Hz with local dimming enabled (165Hz requires local dimming be disabled). I'd still recommend a Fast IPS or OLED monitor for more competitively-minded players, but the KTC monitor at least lacks the noticeable smears of older VA panels.

Colour accuracy was also good, with the included calibration report and my own testing indicating Delta E values less than 2.0, meaning generally imperceptible deviations from a perfect display. There's also near-total (99 percent) coverage of the sRGB and AdobeRGB colour gamuts, with 93 percent DCI P3 coverage too. Finally, the included stand includes portrait mode rotation, swivel, tilt and height adjustments.

monitor stats, including 576-zone mini led backlight, 27-inch 1440p screen, 93% dci p3 coverage, 165Hz refresh rate, 90W USB-C charging, 1000 nits peak brightness, FreeSync/G-Sync, tilt/swivel/height/pivot adjustment, KVM switch and 2x2W speakers
Some good specs for the price. | Image credit: KTC

There are also some interesting features here, including 90W USB-C charging (good enough to keep an M1-Pro-equipped MacBook Pro 16 topped up during regular use) and a KVM switch which allows you to switch your monitor, keyboard and mouse amongst multiple connected computers. The monitor also includes built-in speakers, which were fine but certainly useful if you fancy playing a quick console game and don't want to rig up a headset or external speakers.

Speaking of consoles, both PS5 and Xbox Series X support 1440p 120Hz with the monitor set to its native resolution via HDMI 2.0, but the M27T20 also includes a 4K display mode that downscales to match the panel's 1440p native resolution, allowing for HDR content to be played from the consoles at 60Hz - a good option to have. However, I'd recommend a monitor with higher bandwidth HDMI 2.1 ports if console gaming is your primary focus.

This Mini LED monitor from KTC is an awesome choice for anyone that wants a great HDR gaming experience on PC, and it's well worth trying after this $200 Black Friday price reduction.

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About the Author
Will Judd avatar

Will Judd

Deputy Editor, Digital Foundry

A bizarre British-American hybrid, Will turns caffeine into technology articles through a little-known process called 'writing'. His favourite games are Counter-Strike, StarCraft and Fallout 2. Will also tweets the latest tech deals at @DigitalFoundry.

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