Huawei MateView GT 27in review: Lost in the crowd

The Huawei MateView GT 27in comes as something of a pleasant surprise. At the time of writing, I had only recently tested Huawei’s gaming monitor, the 34in MateView GT. It was a resounding success and I was intrigued to see what else the brand had up its sleeve. I didn’t quite realise how quickly I’d get the answer.

As the name suggests, the MateView GT 27in is a 165Hz, 1440p curved gaming monitor that measures 27 inches across the diagonal. It joins an increasingly large crowd of very similar monitors that also opt for VA panel technology and a gentle curve.

These monitors are all launching at fiercely competitive prices, so where the 34in MateView GT had the floor very much to itself, the MateView GT 27in has a real fight on its hands.

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Huawei MateView GT 27in review: What do you get for the money?

The MateView GT 27in costs £350 in the UK. For the money you’re getting a 27in VA panel with a 1500R curve, a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, a refresh rate of 165Hz and AMD FreeSync support.

I also managed to get it working with Nvidia G-Sync. We’re still awaiting confirmation on response times, but for reference the 34in variant had a response time of 4ms G2G.

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While this monitor does possess an HDR mode it supports only HDR10 decoding and lacks even an entry-level DisplayHDR 400 certification. In terms of ports, HDMI 2 and DisplayPort 1.4 are present and correct on the rear of the panel (one of each), but the USB-C port I loved so much on the 34in MateView GT is not included here. There’s no USB hub to replace it, either, nor is there a 3.5mm headphone jack, which feels odd since the MateView GT 27in lacks built-in speakers.

The panel is attached to a stand that offers 110mm of height adjustment and 20 degrees of backwards tilt. These are the most vital options, to my mind, and they’re also the ones most commonly used by most of the MateView’s competitors.

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Huawei MateView GT 27in review: What do we like about it?

As with the MateView GT, the MateView GT 27in is a very tidy-looking monitor. The panel is slim, the bezels are thin and the matte black paint job suits my tastes far more than any outlandish over-designed gaming fare. That includes the stand, which besides being pleasingly straightforward, also offers a touch more upwards movement than rivals such as the HP X27qc – a crucial feature if you hope to achieve good posture while working.

None of these things matter much if a monitor doesn’t deliver in the performance department, however. There are definitely positives here: out of the box the MateView GT 27in reproduces 122% of the sRGB colour space and 87% of the DCI-P3 space, which means you’re getting vibrant colours from the off. Luminance peaks at around 396cd/m², which is very good for general use, even in brightly-lit environments.

There’s proof this monitor can produce colours accurately, too. Locking the MateView GT 27in into sRGB mode gives you an average Delta E colour variance score of 2.04, which is pretty well imperceptible to the naked eye. In fact, only rarely did the Delta E ever creep up to noticeable levels (3 or above), so aside from a few wayward red and yellow tones the MateView GT 27in is pretty accurate for the price.

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And, speaking anecdotally, it’s absolutely fine for casual gaming. I’ve been busy slogging my way through the Far Cry 6 campaign: the MateView GT 27in might not be ideal for a shooter (more on that later) but response times are quick and the panel itself is both colourful and fluid. Yara’s bright blues and deep greens look great.

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Huawei MateView GT 27in review: What could be better?

Unfortunately, the MateView GT 27in suffers from a few shortcomings on the performance front. Chief among these is the fact that the contrast tops out at around 2,500:1. Objectively, this isn’t a terrible figure but, by the standards of VA panels, it’s definitely on the low side.

Speaking of which: like most VA panels, the MateView GT 27in suffers from a hefty amount of ghosting. Selecting the monitor’s highest level of overdrive mitigates it a bit but competitive FPS players should steer clear. There’s also a noticeable amount of backlight bleed, beyond what you might expect from a VA panel such as this one; panel uniformity is equally uninspiring, with noticeable variation in the bottom left and right corners. None of this is surprising per se, but the fact remains that competitors offset these shortcomings with better performance or a stronger feature set.

Then there’s the monitor’s HDR mode. The bottom line is that engaging it has no noticeable effect other than locking the brightness to its maximum value. While this again doesn’t come as a surprise – the monitor has no HDR certification – I would prefer that Huawei simply did away with the option altogether, as is the case with the HP X27qc.

The only other issue is the connectivity situation, the lack of video ports being one real sticking point. The single HDMI port feels like a real shortcoming, since both of the rival panels I’ve reviewed recently offer at least two HDMI 2 ports and one DP 1.4 port. It’s also a shame that the MateView GT 27in doesn’t hold onto the USB-C port of its 34in sibling, especially since it lacks any other form of USB connectivity. And I can’t for the life of me work out why Huawei would ditch the humble 3.5mm jack.

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Huawei MateView GT 27in review: Should you buy it?

It dawned on me as I was testing the MateView GT 27in that for once, Huawei is on the back foot. This monitor may have been intended to undercut the opposition as the MateView GT has, but the balance between price and features is off. By stripping away ports and settling for what seems like a cheap panel, Huawei has done itself zero favours. Only a phenomenally low price tag would justify these decisions, but at £350 in the UK it’s actually a tad more expensive than its direct competitors.

As I write this review, the MateView GT 27in stands on my desk next to the Gigabyte G27QC (£319), an almost identical monitor that simply offers more bang for your buck. Then there’s the HP X27qc (£279), another similar monitor that performed well on test and – you guessed it – costs similarly little. I’d recommend either of these two monitors over this one without a second thought.

It’s a real shame, too, since the other MateView GT is a truly excellent budget ultrawide gaming monitor. And, worse still, this 27in model didn’t even need much to push it into recommendable territory – just one of the missing features would have done the trick. As it stands, however, the MateView GT 27in falls short.

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Editor’s note: This article initially claimed that Huawei’s website listed the MateView GT 27in as having two HDMI ports, rather than one. The website has since been corrected, and so this article has been updated to reflect that.