Iiyama ProLite GB2488HSU-B1 review

The Iiyama ProLite GB2488HSU-B1 is a 24in 144Hz monitor targeted at gamers. At £232, it’s more expensive than many models in this size range, but it’s still significantly cheaper than other 144Hz monitors such as the £300-plus BenQ XL2420Z.

For gamers, the main selling point of Iiyama’s screen will be its 144Hz refresh rate. This is chiefly useful so that you can run games at very high frame rates with vertical sync turned on, so you can have ultra-smooth frame rates without the tearing associated with a normal 60Hz monitor not being able to display as many frames as the graphics card is producing. To take advantage of such a high-refresh-rate screen you’ll need to have a graphics card capable of playing games at such high frame rates.

The monitor did justice to a selection of high-frame-rate videos and games we tested on it, with no hint of screen tearing or juddering. You notice the extra Hz even when shifting around windows on the Desktop, where everything is a bit smoother, but there’s not enough difference from a 60Hz panel to make the screen worth buying unless you’re a serious gamer.

The screen’s colour accuracy is in line with the typical performance of a TN (twisted nematic) LCD panel. Out of the box it displayed 93.1 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut, covering most shades but just missing the mark on reds and purples. After calibration, it was able to display 98.7 percent of the colour gamut, which is a good result for a monitor in this price range and in line with the more expensive 144Hz BenQ.

The monitor is good and bright, showing high white levels of 276cd/m2 in our tests. It was fairly close to the BenQ XL2420Z in terms of black and contrast levels, too. We measured contrast of 652:1 and a 0.29cd/m2 black level. This contrast level is slightly lower than that of the BenQ gaming screen, but the difference is hardly noticeable; lighting effects and shadows in games still looked amazing on this screen, and there was little to choose between the two monitors when playing games side by side.

The screen has a good selection of ports, with a pair of HDMI inputs, a DVI port, DisplayPort and a two-port USB hub. There’s no VGA port, although this should not be a huge loss for gamers with high-end graphics cards with digital outputs. The screen has a large degree of height and rotation adjustment, which is useful as the screen’s viewing angles aren’t particularly wide.

The Iiyama ProLite GB2488HSU-B1 is an excellent-value gaming monitor. If you don’t play games there’s no reason to choose this over the cheaper Iiyama Prolite XB2483HSU-B1, but if you do you’ll find the higher tear-free frame rates made possible by the 144Hz mode a revelation. For making us fall in love with first-person shooters all over again, the GB2488HSU-B1 wins a Best Buy award.