is an editor covering deals and gaming hardware. He joined in 2018, and after a two-year stint at Polygon, he rejoined The Verge in May 2025.
Most people know at least two things about 5K monitors: they look great, and they’re usually expensive. The Apple Studio Display is the most popular model, and it costs $1,599. But I’ve been testing one that’s similar in some important ways and costs just $355 (!?) at its cheapest-ever price. Unsurprisingly, at a fraction of the cost, it has a fraction of the features.
This budget-friendly monitor doesn’t come from Apple, Samsung, LG, Asus, or other brands you may have in your home. It’s called the H27P3, and it’s from a brand called KTC, which I hadn’t heard of before I got my hands on it. Nevertheless, its low price is impressive. The 27-inch 60Hz 5K IPS screen delivers 217 pixels per inch (PPI) — just one pixel per inch shy of the pricier options. Who knew that there was a color-accurate, pixel-dense display out there that won’t send creators or the 5K-curious among us into extreme debt?
The H27P3 may be worth considering if you just need a good screen. Just know that this is not a premium device. Its design looks like my budget-friendly gaming monitor, it has a limited port selection (and speed) that pales in comparison to pricier models, and its clumsy onscreen menus make accessing its marquee features more difficult than it should be.
You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but having a semi-affordable 5K monitor option with 217 PPI for macOS is handy, thanks to how the operating system scales visuals on high-resolution screens. MacOS recognizes the 5K monitor, but renders the interface 2,560 x 1,440 to make text and windows more legible. Everything looks noticeably sharper onscreen than on a native 1440p monitor.
Using the H27P3 in place of my MacBook Air’s screen is easy thanks to a single-cable USB-C connection. I typically cycle through numerous Google Chrome tabs for work, as well as Slack and Affinity Photo, and each application looks noticeably better in terms of text, UI elements, and image clarity. I see now how using 5K could really spoil you. 1440p looks a little fuzzy by comparison.
That said, I’m perfectly happy with 1440p. It’s my resolution of choice because my Windows 11 desktop plays games at QHD really well, so I elected years ago to get monitors that prioritize fast refresh rate over pixel density. Swapping it out for a 5K display in Windows 11 was a mixed bag for my needs. I immediately noticed improvements in text and image clarity, and Windows recommended 200 percent scale magnification to ensure the UI was easy to read.
Previous Next
1 / 2 The H27P3 is a good monitor, whether you want to use it as a second screen, or as a laptop replacement.
There aren’t any 5K gaming monitors, and this one’s no exception. Its 60Hz refresh rate is typical for 5K monitors, but it feels sluggish since most of my devices’ screens support 90Hz or higher. While the H27P3 supports 120Hz, it only does so at a lower 2K resolution. I prefer the 60Hz mode. This IPS panel has an awfully slow response time. KTC told The Verge that its gray-to-gray (GtG) response time is between 10 and 14 milliseconds. It looks smoother, but if you’re the one controlling the mouse and keyboard, you’ll feel the latency between when you make an input and see it reflected. Also, it’s a real pain to switch back and forth between 5K and 2K and not something that can be done in OS-level display settings. It can only be done through this monitor’s onscreen display (OSD).
... continue reading