Xiaomi G Pro 27i monitor review: Excellent HDR on a budget

Mini-LED screens are one of the vital fascinating niches within the monitor market proper now. These shows use an array of LED lights behind the display to dynamically modify distinction. Though this know-how is often costly to implement, a couple of price range choices have emerged, such because the Xiaomi G Professional 27i. It’s not rather more costly than fashions missing a Mini-LED backlight, both.

Xiaomi G Professional 27i specs and options

Many of the Xiaomi G Professional 27i’s specs are typical for a 27-inch gaming monitor priced beneath $500. The 27-inch widescreen panel has a decision of 2560×1440 and helps a refresh fee of as much as 180Hz. There are actually tons of of screens out there with an analogous decision and refresh fee.

• Show measurement: 27-inch 16:9 widescreen
• Native decision: 2560×1440
• Panel kind: Quick IPS with Mini-LED backlight with 1,152 dimming zones
• Refresh fee: As much as 180Hz
• Adaptive sync: AMD FreeSync
• HDR: VESA DisplayHDR 1000
• Ports: 2x HDMI 2.0, 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x 3.5mm audio out
• VESA mount: 100x100mm
• Audio system: None
• Value: $329.99 MSRP

The Mini-LED backlight is Xiaomi’s secret sauce. Regardless of its value of simply $330, the Xiaomi G Professional 27i options 1,152 dynamic dimming zones. If you happen to needed that many dimming zones in 2023, you’d must pay three or 4 instances greater than what Xiaomi is asking at the moment.

Additional studying: See our roundup of the most effective gaming screens to study competing merchandise.

Xiaomi G Professional 27i design

A look on the Xiaomi G Professional 27i makes it clear the corporate’s designers took notes from Alienware. The monitor’s mixture of stark white and charcoal-black supplies, together with the distinctive retro-futuristic font utilized by the quantity “27” discovered on the again of the show, offers off a vibe much like Alienware’s distinctive “Legend” design language.

I’ve at all times felt Alienware’s screens are among the many best-looking within the trade at the moment, so emulating that design is a recipe for achievement. I used to be additionally stunned by how good the monitor appears to be like and feels given its $330 value. Not solely is it enticing, but it surely additionally holds up properly when dealt with, as Xiaomi makes use of supplies and textures that assist the monitor stand out from the group. It consists of RGB-LED lighting on the rear of the show panel for additional aptitude, although I didn’t discover it to be particularly brilliant.

Xiaomi ships the monitor with a practical ergonomic stand that adjusts for top, tilt, swivel, and may rotate 90 levels to be used in portrait orientation. Most screens priced equally supply an analogous vary of changes, but it surely’s good to see Xiaomi didn’t sacrifice ergonomics to maintain the value low.

Nevertheless, Xiaomi opts for a slightly large stand base which takes up extra desk area than essential. It’s flat, no less than, so you’ll be able to nonetheless make some use of the area it occupies, however I desire the smaller hexagonal stand discovered on some current Alienware screens just like the Alienware AW2725QF.

The stand can also be tougher to arrange than regular, because it’s not secured with the everyday thumb screw however as an alternative with 4 Phillips-head screws (a screwdriver is offered). A 100x100mm VESA mount is accessible to be used with third-party monitor stands and arms.

Xiaomi G Professional 27i connectivity and menus

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i has two HDMI 2.0 ports and two DisplayPort 1.4 ports for a complete of 4 video inputs. Solely the DisplayPort connections can deal with the monitor’s full decision and refresh fee of 180Hz, whereas the HDMI ports are restricted to 144Hz. Ideally, all ports ought to help the total decision and refresh fee, however sticking with HDMI 2.0 is a compromise made by many reasonably priced screens.

Whereas the monitor presents loads of video connectivity, it lacks USB connectivity — there’s no USB-C, USB-B, or USB-A. This omission isn’t shocking, as many cheap screens skip USB ports altogether. Nevertheless, with USB-C gaining popularity annually, it might have been good to see it included. The Innocn 27M2V, a 27-inch 4K Mini-LED monitor, presents a USB-C port.

A 3.5mm audio-out jack rounds out the connectivity choices. The Xiaomi doesn’t have built-in audio system.

The on-screen menu system is managed through a responsive joystick positioned on the best facet of the monitor. Like many monitor menu methods, Xiaomi depends on small textual content that may be a bit troublesome to learn from a distance. Nevertheless, the monitor presents a great vary of choices, together with picture changes for colour and gamma.

Gaming options are missing, although: The monitor has a Darkish Scene Increase function to make foes simpler to identify in darkish areas, but it surely lacks an on-screen crosshair, timer, or FPS counter. It additionally doesn’t help the choice show measurement and side ratio modes discovered on OLED gaming screens and lacks any picture-in-picture or picture-by-picture mode.

Whereas the on-screen menu system is nice, Xiaomi doesn’t supply a Home windows software program utility to regulate the monitor’s settings. Many monitor manufacturers, together with Alienware, Acer, Gigabyte, LG, and BenQ, now supply some kind of Home windows utility, which is often extra handy to make use of than the on-screen menu. Xiaomi’s lack of a Home windows utility for this monitor isn’t an enormous deal in case you don’t plan to alter settings usually, however in case you do, it’s a letdown.

Xiaomi G Professional 27i SDR picture high quality

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i’s Mini-LED backlight permits it to realize VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification, which is great for an reasonably priced gaming monitor. Nevertheless, SDR continues to be the primary use case for many PC video games and productiveness apps, in order that’s the place we are going to start.

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i is exceptionally brilliant at its most setting. I measured a peak brightness of virtually 800 nits, which obliterates the competitors.

After all, it’s price asking whether or not this degree of brightness is helpful. In principle, this might be useful in case you’re utilizing the monitor subsequent to a sunward-facing window or in an especially brilliant room, however in any other case, I don’t assume this degree of SDR brightness is critical. Personally, I discovered it snug at round 25 % to 30 % of its most brightness.

Nonetheless, if you need brilliant, Xiaomi delivers.

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i delivered a decent distinction ratio of 8,530:1 at 50 % of its most brightness. This can be a good outcome for an reasonably priced monitor, and in lots of conditions, it gained’t look a lot totally different from an OLED show. Xiaomi’s robust distinction, mixed with its brightness, makes it particularly well-suited to be used in brighter rooms. When used this fashion, darkish parts of the show seem extraordinarily deep, providing an awesome sense of immersion.

Nevertheless, the monitor faces stiff competitors from the AOC Q27G3XMN, one other reasonably priced Mini-LED show. The AOC has far fewer backlight zones than the Xiaomi (336 vs. 1,152), however in testing, the AOC achieved a greater distinction ratio at default settings. This was true throughout each increased and decrease brightness ranges. The Innocn 27M2V, an older 4K Mini-LED monitor, fell behind the Xiaomi, although it nonetheless carried out properly for the value.

Colour gamut is arguably the Xiaomi G Professional 27i’s biggest energy, because the monitor has a colourful Quantum Dot panel, which is outstanding at this value level and delivers a colour gamut far wider than most rivals. We’re speaking 99 % of DCI-P3 and 98 % of Adobe RGB. These outcomes are among the many finest out there at any value and defeat even QD-OLED screens, which many think about the gold customary for a monitor’s colour gamut.

The Xiaomi’s glorious colour gamut supplies vivid, saturated visuals in video games, but it surely’s much more helpful for content material creators working with pictures, movies, or digital artwork. The monitor permits you to see a wider vary of colours than is typical for competitively priced shows. The Innocn 27M2V is a robust rival to Xiaomi on this space and likewise has 4K decision (which many content material creators will desire), but it surely’s roughly $150 dearer.

Colour accuracy, however, was a weak point, as Xiaomi’s default colour accuracy was behind its closest rivals. This may be adjusted with calibration, and I managed to enhance the colour accuracy, bringing the typical colour error right down to 1.66 with some tweaks. That degree of colour accuracy is robust, although nonetheless not on the prime of the pack.

I had some points with gamma and colour temperature. Initially, I measured a default gamma curve of two.9, which was far off the goal of two.2 and indicated an excessively darkish picture. This didn’t match what I used to be seeing, so I investigated additional. After some troubleshooting, I discovered that the Mini-LED backlight took a second to settle into the proper brightness when shifting between gamma check photographs, which skewed the outcomes. Turning off the dynamic Mini-LED backlight modified the gamma outcome to 2.3, which is far nearer to the goal and supplies a extra correct picture. To be clear, I imagine a gamma 2.3 can also be what the panel produced with the Mini-LED backlight turned on however, due to the way it operated, I couldn’t get a outcome I trusted.

The default colour temperature additionally skewed heat at 5900K, which may give the picture a pink or rosy tint. This, too, is adjustable, and you may dial within the colour temperature to fit your desire. However I used to be by no means capable of hit my goal colour temperature of 6500K: The monitor was at all times a bit too cool or too heat.

Sharpness is ok. The Xiaomi’s 2560×1440 decision is a standard alternative for an reasonably priced 27-inch monitor, offering a pixel density of about 109 pixels per inch. That’s sufficient to look sharp in most conditions, although textual content can appear barely pixelated at instances. I feel 1440p is a stable compromise for an reasonably priced 27-inch monitor, offering good sharpness at a decision that price range and midrange video playing cards can deal with extra simply.

Whereas the Xiaomi G Professional 27i’s SDR picture high quality is stable, particularly for a monitor at its value level, it has strengths and weaknesses. It’s the other of a show just like the Dell U2724DE. That Dell has picture high quality that’s good all-around however by no means the most effective. The Xiaomi, however, is outstanding in some areas (like brightness and colour gamut) however not so sizzling in others (like colour accuracy and colour temperature).

Xiaomi G Professional 27i HDR picture high quality

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i claims VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification, which is great for a monitor at this value level. The monitor principally lived as much as the expectations set by this certification, although it’s not with out flaws.

HDR brightness is spectacular. It achieved a sustained brightness of as much as 902 nits when displaying a full-screen HDR picture calibrated for over 1,000 nits. Its HDR brightness ranges throughout the board are glorious for the value, although inferior to the AOC Q27G3XMN.

Nevertheless, the Xiaomi G Professional 27i’s HDR picture high quality is difficult to beat for the value. This isn’t solely because of its excessive HDR brightness but in addition using Quantum Dots, which supplies an distinctive colour gamut that advantages HDR. Total, the HDR picture tends to seem barely hotter than it ought to, however to not the extent that almost all viewers would discover.

There’s one notable flaw, although, and it’s frequent to Mini-LED screens: blooming. The Mini-LED backlight’s dimming zones are bigger than the person pixels on the show, so when small brilliant objects seem on a darkish background, a noticeable halo can “bloom” round them. The reverse can occur, too — when viewing brilliant textual content on a darkish display, the textual content could seem dimmer than it ought to. It occurs most steadily round textual content, like subtitles, or small interface components, like a mini-map in a technique sport.

I anticipated the Xiaomi’s dimming zones would decrease blooming, however I didn’t discover that to be the case. If something, it appeared to carry out worse than the Innocn 27M2V, which additionally has 1,152 dimming zones, and was merely on par with the AOC Q27G3XMN, which has simply 336. This was most noticeable within the case of inverse blooming: In some circumstances the Xiaomi had a troublesome time displaying small, brilliant objects at an acceptable degree of brightness.

Xiaomi G Professional 27i movement efficiency

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i incorporates a quick IPS show panel with a most refresh fee of 180Hz. It additionally helps AMD FreeSync and Adaptive Sync, which ought to work unofficially with Nvidia video playing cards.

Movement efficiency is nice, although your impression will rely in your perspective. The 180Hz refresh fee delivers a a lot smoother expertise than a 60Hz monitor, with much less seen ghosting behind small fast-moving objects. Nevertheless, the Xiaomi’s movement readability isn’t any higher than different screens with an analogous refresh fee.

Testing with scrolling photographs from video games like League of Legends and Dota 2 confirmed that character sprites and background terrain had been straightforward to make out, however the character names and well being bars might be a bit powerful to see, particularly once they didn’t distinction properly with the background. Once more, that is typical for a 180Hz show. Nevertheless, at this value level, it’s potential to seek out 240Hz screens that ship even higher movement readability.

The Mini-LED backlight may current points for movement readability, particularly when a small, brilliant object strikes shortly throughout a darkish scene. Sure colours on gray-ish scenes additionally appear to set off this conduct. In both case, the blooming round brilliant objects could make ghosting extra noticeable. Moreover, relying on the dimensions of the item and its velocity, the transition between backlight zones can generally turn into apparent, giving a “chunky” or uneven look to movement.

Do you have to purchase the Xiaomi G Professional 27i?

The Xiaomi G Professional 27i is an efficient alternative in case you’re searching for an reasonably priced monitor that delivers stable HDR efficiency and achieves a class-leading colour gamut. In these areas, the monitor is ready to match and even surpass the efficiency of shows priced a number of instances increased, which is, after all, spectacular. The Xiaomi can also be surprisingly properly designed given its price range pricing.

Nevertheless, like many Mini-LED screens, the Xiaomi G Professional 27i can’t keep away from some frequent flaws. Regardless of its 1,152 dimming zones, blooming continues to be seen round brilliant objects on a darkish display, and the reverse can happen with darkish objects on a brilliant display. Movement efficiency can also be simply okay, and aggressive players on a price range could desire to stay with a 1080p monitor that lacks Mini-LED however presents the next refresh fee, such because the Alienware AW2724HF.

That leaves the Xiaomi G Professional 27i with a well-defined area of interest. It’s an reasonably priced alternative for HDR video games and films, and a stable decide for content material creators who need an distinctive colour gamut at a low value.