IT Pro Verdict

The Iiyama ProLite XB2779QQS’s mediocre colour accuracy makes it unsuitable for photo or video editors, but otherwise, it’s a great 5K monitor. It looks gorgeous, and overall performance is superb for the price, so if you’re searching for your first 5K monitor this is a top buy.

Pros

+
Great value; Highly adjustable; Good brightness and colour coverage

Cons

-
Sub-par colour accuracy

Image 1 of 10

The iMac has always been a style icon, so Apple can hardly complain if Iiyama borrows many of its design cues from its latest incarnation - right down to the large black bezels, the silver strip at the bottom and the glorious 5K resolution. It does look striking on a desk, but it's a shame Iiyama stuck to those thick bezels: a three-sided borderless design would look even better.

Philips 241B7QPJKEB review: Cut-price perfection Best business monitors 2023: Upgrade to a proper screen BenQ SW2700PT review

Where this glamorous 27in 5K monitor does differ from its iMac inspiration is a fully adjustable stand. Along with pivot, tilt and height adjustment, the XB2779QQS offers full 360-degree rotation, instead of the more common 180-degree range. If even that's not good enough for you, a 100 x 100m VESA mount means you can replace the stand completely.

You access the OSD through a set of touch-sensitive buttons at the bottom right-hand corner. We've never been fans of this type of button, as they give no positive feedback and are easy to tap by accident. Still, the OSD provides a good range of settings: the only things we missed were RGB gain and pre-set gamma profiles.

Round the back, you get two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, each capable of supporting the monitor's full 5,120 x 2,880 resolution at 60Hz. That's a lot neater than the Philips 275P4VYKEB, which requires dual-DisplayPort inputs to drive its native 5K resolution - just make sure your graphics card has a DisplayPort 1.4 output. In addition, three HDMI ports each support resolutions up to 3,840 x 2,160 at 60Hz. There's also a pair of built-in 2.5W speakers; these aren't audiophile quality, but they're fine for notifications.

It's image quality that really matters though. The ProLite XB2779QQS is built around an 8-bit panel, with a glossy front that helps the contrast ratio and makes colours look more vibrant. However, it can result in unwanted glare in rooms with bright ambient light.

That said, the XB2779QQS can easily outshine most reflections. Our X-Rite i1Display Pro measured a maximum brightness of 500cd/m2, which is blinding even in a brightly sunlit room. For comparison, the Philips 275P4VYKEB managed "only" 310cd/m2, and we'd never call that a dim monitor.

Colour coverage is very good too. The XB2779QQS reproduced 99% of the sRGB gamut, 97.2% of the DCI P3 space and 85% of the Adobe RGB range. With a 1,196:1 contrast ratio, it all looks beautifully rich and vibrant.

The panel does have one weakness, and that's colour accuracy. With an average Delta E of 3.34, and a maximum of 6.22, this isn't a monitor you can rely on for colour-critical photo or video workflows. Here, its rivals are leagues ahead: the Philips achieved an average Delta E of 1.03.

Even though this monitor isn't aimed at gamers, its gaming performance is remarkably good. The panel's 4ms response time may not sound exceptional, but its perceived input lag is minimal, and with Overdrive set to +2 it responds well, with minimal inverse ghosting. Ideally, we'd recommend a 144Hz monitor for competitive gaming, but the XB2779QQS works well.

One final caveat: just remember that few graphics cards can pump out the full 5,120 x 2,880 pixels at 60Hz. Even on an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, we only managed to achieve 100fps in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with medium-to-low settings - and this isn't the most graphically intense game in the world.

Then again, compared to other 5K monitors, Iiyama's aggressive 730 price leaves enough room for a new graphics card as well. Because the XB2779QQS comfortably undercuts its 5K competitors: the LG UltraFine 5K Display and Philips 275P4VYKEB both currently cost around 1,200.

The ProLite XB2779QQS's mediocre colour accuracy makes it unsuitable for photo or video editors, but otherwise, it's a great 5K monitor. It looks gorgeous, and overall performance is superb for the price, so if you're searching for your first 5K monitor this is a top buy.