Looking for 24-28" monitor advice for 1080p > 400€

Hello everyone,

I am looking for advice on buying a new monitor. Since I "only" have a maximum of 400€ to spend on it, I am guessing that a good 1440p (not even gonna mention 4k) panel will be above my price range; although if you do have a suggestion for 1440p below 400€, I am all ears ;)

I sit a bit over 1m (3-4ft I think) away from my monitor, so 23" will be just slightly too small for my liking, as I already possess a 23" monitor and I am looking for something a bit bigger, so I would prefer something around 24"-28" in size.

Firstly, can you honestly recommend ~27" for 1080p or will my pixels be the size of bricks? I think the distance should make up for it, but I'd like to hear what you think or what experiences you have made.

Secondly, I would like a monitor that doesn't leave dark trails when scrolling. With my current monitor I have dark trails when I am scrolling through black on white text, which makes reading long texts a bit more hard on my eyes because every time I scroll I have to refocus the text because of the blurriness.

Thirdly, I would prefer if it had FreeSync support as I am a happy owner of an RX 480 and would like to eliminate some of the tearing I am experiencing in many games. I have heard it just makes for a better experience overall because it's smoother.
Regarding refresh rates, I think I am ok with 60Hz, but if you think higher refresh rates make a big difference or have suggestions for something higher than that then I am happy for ideas as long as It doesn't drive the price to insanity, because 400€ is actually already more than I have on hand right now but I would wait for it if you deem it worthwhile. ;)

Then, last but not least, I would prefer a height adjustable stand because I am a tall person and I would like to have more options than
1. Look down and get neck pain or
2. Put some stuff under it, obscuring lots of deskspace ;)

Thanks in advance, feel free to ignore parts of my wishes if you have other ideas or have better recommendations, I am open to your suggestions :)

400€ for a 1080p monitor is very expensive, you can get 27" 4K monitors with freesync for that price such as this:

and this

If you look around you could possibly find a good 1440p panel which also has freesync.

Oh wow, I certainly didn't expect 4k in this price category. I just remember the "cheap korean 4k monitor" for 800$, which kind of scared me off ;)

I guess then I am looking for a good freesync 1440p panel, thanks for the initial advice!

4k for monitors have really gone down in price, especially in the 27-28" range, hell even 40" 4K TVs are fairly cheap now. But 1440p can be a problem as most of the panels with freesync are 144Hz and are usually more expensive than 4k 60Hz monitors with freesync, the cheapest i could find after doing a little research is 500€.

If you don't find using an ultrawide, then this one is pretty good:

2560x1080@75Hz with FreeSync but ultrawide monitors can be a pain to use as not a lot of games support the resolution and 16:9 content is letterboxed but if you could live with that its a pretty good monitor. I have a slightly older model than this one though.

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So I am in the price range that it above low and below premium, and 4k is too expensive still :P
I am having trouble finding something with a decent featureset that doesn't exceed what I want and what I can give, and I am not exactly sure where to look.
Prad's last monitor review is from like 2013 and that was the resource I used to use, so do you know some EU based review site or shop dedicated to monitors so I can filter through some stuff to come up with a selection? I haven't exactly kept up with monitors for quite some time.

I'm not aware of any good review sites but from personal experience I tend to prefer LG monitors as the build quality of the monitors/panel are usually very good and prices are fairly competitive. I would say to avoid Asus monitors if you can, especially in the PB series. I have a PB287Q which is a 4K panel and it really isn't very good at all, my brother just bought an LG 27UD68P 27" 4K and it puts the Asus panel to shame.

In the past I've had LG, Samsung, Asus, ViewSonic, and BenQ monitors and the only monitors that were consistently good were the LG panels, BenQs were also fairly good too. The Samsung, Asus, and ViewSonic monitors I had were not very good and I was not 100% happy with them.

Second this...
If you are too iffy about ultrawide, there is 24MP68VQ-P for around 200... There is also a 27" variant, but I think it's not worth it price wise...

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Thanks a lot for your recommendations, I decided to jump for two of the LG 24MP68VQ-P, they seem like a very good deal to me :)
The ergonomics are a bit disappointing but I can put some stuff under it and later invest into some desk arms.

Can't go too wrong with LG and having dual monitors is pretty much a requirement for me so having two of those will really help you, especially for productivity tasks. Plus you can put guides, maps or whatever on the second monitor while gaming so you can use it as a reference.

Also these monitors are 75mm x 75mm VESA mount compatible so could get a dual monitor arm in the future and it will really help with the ergonomics of the setup as you can adjust the position and height of each monitor on the fly.

Yeah, basically all of what you said. I need dual monitors for productivity and multitasking with or without gaming, and I am definitely going to invest in some proper monitor arms too, once I have the budget. Those things are like the best workspace inventions ever.
Probably going to combine that investment with a standing desk with motors.

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Would love have a standing desk with a motor as currently I can lift the height of my monitors so they'll work if I stand but the keyboard/mouse is obviously too low down but those desks are really expensive.

They are rapidly getting cheaper, you can already get a good one for "only" around 500$-800$, which I think is a very worthwhile investment for massively improved health in a place that I use for several hours every day.
Depending on where you live, it's relatively easy to reduce one's own expenses and live a somewhat minimalistic, healthy lifestyle, and have some money left over to improve time intensive areas of your everyday life. 800$ is quite a bit, but it's a long term investment that can massively improve your health in later stages of your life.

Just so we are clear, I don't have that monitor. It's just that if I need to buy a monitor today, I would go for this one specifically, the 24"...
Also, this one have HDMI freesync, not sure if it have display port as well, or it's HDMI only...

It's only HDMI, but I can live with that for now.