Top

The Best 24-Inch Monitor

The Asus ProArt PA248CRV showing a vinyard desktop background.
Dave Gershgorn/NYT Wirecutter

Top pick

The PA248CRV is a great laptop companion with 96 W of charging over USB-C, as well as a 16:10 aspect ratio for more screen space.

The Asus ProArt PA248CRV blends a sharp 1200p display with features such as 96-watt USB-C charging, a USB hub, and a sturdy stand for less than $300. The monitor also impressed us with its grayscale accuracy, as its shades of white and gray weren’t noticeably tinged with red, green, or blue.

It’s a newer version of a previous top pick. We previously recommended the Asus ProArt PA248CNV as a top pick in this guide, but that model is now out of stock at many retailers. The newer PA248CRV offers a few modest improvements, such as an improved 96 W of USB-C charging, better coverage of the DCI/P3 color gamut, and a slightly brighter display. If you can find the PA248CNV, it’s still a great monitor, it’s just being replaced with this new model.

It’s a great monitor for laptop owners. The PA248CRV has a USB-C port with 96 W of charging output, which can charge nearly any laptop at a normal rate, even higher-powered laptops such as the Dell XPS 15 and MacBook Pro. The monitor also has a USB hub with three USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and one USB-C port, perfect for connecting more devices to a laptop over the USB-C connection; we like these ports for adding accessories such as webcams and wireless-mouse dongles.

The back USB hub of the Asus ProArt PA248CNV.
Photo: Dave Gershgorn

Its stand is sturdy and fully adjustable. You can tilt or swivel the monitor, lift it up or push it down, and rotate it into portrait mode. A small clip on the back of the stand helps with cable management, as well.

Its display has nice brightness and contrast. Like all of our picks in this guide, the PA248CRV is a 24-inch IPS display. We measured a contrast ratio of 1083:1, which makes images with variation between light and dark look realistic and vibrant. The monitor can reach 350 nits of brightness, 50 nits brighter than the previous model and above the threshold for getting a good-looking picture in a typical office with some sunlight.

Our tests showed fantastic color accuracy. This monitor has accurate-enough color for most uses, especially if you’re writing documents, making presentations, and doing other office work. This is where the grayscale accuracy factors in—when you’re staring at a blank page wondering how to start your next paragraph, at least you won’t be noticing a strange red tint that sends you down a Google rabbit hole and further delays that project you were supposed to turn in last week. Luckily, this display is exceptionally color-accurate, even better than our previous pick in the Asus ProArt line. The table below outlines the color accuracy of this monitor in comparison with our budget pick.

Grayscale CMS (Color Management System) ColorChecker Saturation
BenQ GW2486TC 2.1 2.1 1.4 1.56
Asus ProArt PA248CRV 2.0 1.55 1.20 1.22
Asus ProArt PA24ACRV 1.94 1.18 1.88 2.39

Lower numbers are better. The Calman color-calibration software generates these scores by using the Delta E 2000 equation to determine the perceived difference between colors. Scores under 2.0 indicate that inaccuracies can be found when the viewer closely compares the results against the original, and scores under 1.0 mean that inaccuracies are imperceptible to the human eye.

It’s an especially great monitor for multi-display setups. If you’re considering a multi-monitor setup, note that the ProArt PA248CRV also supports daisy-chaining up to four displays. One DisplayPort cable connects your desktop to your first monitor, and then you can run a cable directly out of that monitor to the next one. You can link up to four PA248CRV units together this way (though you can’t mix in other monitor models). This flexibility is great if your desktop has only one DisplayPort connection, and it can reduce the nest of cables coming from your PC.

You’re covered for certain screen defects. Asus covers the PA248CRV with its Zero Bright Dot policy: The company will swap out your monitor if any stuck bright pixels appear on the display during the three-year warranty period. One of the best warranties in the industry, this policy helps guard against one of the most annoying monitor defects.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

You might want a larger, high-resolution monitor. As we mention in our How we picked and tested section, if you’re planning on using this monitor as your main work display, you might want to consider a higher-resolution 27-inch monitor. (Our top pick in our guide to the best 27-inch monitors is just a larger, higher-resolution version of this same monitor.) On that kind of monitor, you have more screen space, and text is a bit sharper and easier to read. But if you’re already working on a 1080p laptop screen or monitor and satisfied with the image quality, that’s great! The Asus ProArt PA248CRV is a high-quality replacement or upgrade.