Cooler Master GM2711S 180Hz Gaming Monitor Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Cooler Master 27″ Quad HD 180Hz Adaptive Sync Monitor (CMI-GM2711S-EK) is available now from Scan.co.uk for a very reasonable £264.98. I think that’s a very competitive price for the level of performance and features on offer here, and honestly, it’s looking like one of the best all-around monitors in its class right now. It’s about the same price as the Gigabyte G27QC and the ASUS VG279Q3A, but it has a higher resolution like the Gigabyte monitor but with a higher refresh rate, it has an IPS panel like the ASUS, but with a faster response time, it has higher colour reproduction than both, a higher brightness, and a more ergonomic stand. What’s most important is that it has it all for around the same price, and that’s impossible to ignore.

Overview

Cooler Master is ticking all of the right boxes here, and this is easily one of the best mid-budget gaming monitors on the market right now. They’ve got more accurate and more colour reproduction than pretty much every gaming monitor in this price range, at least when it comes to the high refresh rate models, as you can get very colour-accurate panels with 60Hz refresh rates for the same money if that’s what you care for.

At 180Hz, it’s also one of the fastest monitors in this price range, with many still coming in at 144 or 165, and while you won’t see much difference in gameplay, the higher refresh rate does shave down the response times a little, and that’s always good for fast-paced gaming. Plus with the Ultra-Fast IPS technology, you can get the response time down to 0.5ms using the MPST mode, which is awesome.

The strongest competition is likely the AOC Gaming Q27G2S, it’s similarly equipped at 265Hz, and also has a similar peak brightness, but it has a stand that only allows for height adjustment, while Cooler Master offers a massive range of tilt, pivot, and a portrait mode on their stand, making this an ergonomic hero.

The A.R.T. coating on the screen is in another league for anti-glare too, as it still allows colours to pop from the screen, but even in a fiendishly bright-lit room, it manages to avoid any issues with glare, and the peak brightness was impressive, so it’s possible to game with a great looking screen in a sunlit room, and on the lowest brightness, you can game in a dark room without blinding yourself, while still retaining good contrast.

The only thing that lets it down is the HDR400 mode, but honestly, short of high-end HDR panels with multi-zone backlights, HDR is an overused marketing quirk that should be largely ignored. However, with good brightness, colour and contrast, the monitor looks more than good enough in SDR mode that you won’t care anyway.

Should I Buy One

Fantastic colour reproduction, a very high refresh rate, low latency, a stunning 2K resolution IPS panel, slim bezels, class-leading ergonomics, A.R.T. screen coating, and a very competitive price make this monitor impossible to ignore. If you’re eager to take your gaming to the next level, get this monitor.