The Innocn 27C1U is a superb monitor which offers excellent value for money. It is particularly appealing for anyone that works from a laptop and wants a desktop environment when not mobile.

The Innocn 27C1U is a 60Hz 4K 27-inch monitor with a wide range of connectivity. With this being a relatively young Chinese brand, I had relatively low expectations about this monitor, thinking it would be your standard budget quality hardware you see on Amazon.

I have come away pleasantly surprised, and this is an ideal choice for anyone that wants a second monitor to use with a laptop.

I don’t have a huge amount of experience with monitor reviews. My main work monitor is the premium Samsung C49RG90, and the other monitors I use are budget/mid-range 4K displays.

From my limited experience, I am very impressed with the overall design and built quality of the Innocn 27C1U.

Assembly was incredibly easy; you have three main parts, the monitor, base and stand. These all slot together easily and are held in place with built-in thumb screws. No tools are needed.

The stand slots into a recessed square, and if you don’t want to use the included stand, this recess is where you will find the 75 x 75 VESA mount points.

The monitor has a very slim bezel around three edges and a reasonably thin bezel on the bottom edge.

Then on the lower left of the monitor, you have the control buttons. These work perfectly well, but it did take a bit of time to get used to them. I much prefer the joystick-like control that Samsung uses as it is far more intuitive.

Using the stand, you have a wide range of adjustments. This includes:

This uses an external 150W power supply, which helps keep the overall bulk of the monitor down.

On the rear lower part of the monitor, you will find all the ports. This includes two HDMI, one Display Port and a USB-C port which can be used for the display and will provide 65W power delivery.

You then have a USB-B port which goes back to your computer then two USB-A ports for hub connectivity.

Within the packaging, you get DisplayPort, USB-C, and USB A-B cables.

The highlight of this monitor to me is the USB-C display input which also provides 65W power delivery. This allows me to plug my Huawei Matebook 14 into it via USB-C, outputting a signal and charging the laptop at the same time.

This is a £300 4K monitor, so you are not getting any super fancy features that have become popular in recent times.

This only does 60Hz, and there doesn’t appear to be FreeSync compatibility, so it is not really geared towards gaming, but it will work well for general use and office work. It is HDR capable, but it is only HDR400, which is the lowest HDR standard and basically just means this can do 400 cd/m2 peak brightness.

I don’t have a colourimeter to hand, but Innocn claims 100% sRGB and 98% DCI-P3 coverage and includes the calibration results within the packaging. While I can’t personally vouch for these claims, I am impressed with the overall quality of the colours.

I have used this for a few weeks working from my kitchen table while I have some work done in my office. I have been more than happy with the performance. The panel quality, subjectively, appears to be excellent, there is good backlight uniformity, and colours are bright and punchy.

Windows automatically sets the scaling to 150%, and I have found that it does this with monitors up to 30 inches. Even at 30 inches, trying to set 100% is going to cause some significant strain on your eyes. Therefore, as much as I think I prefer larger 30-inch monitors, there seems to be little benefit from them.

This has a matte finish which reduces glare and is something I much prefer as I find that reflections and glare have a tendency to trigger migraines or headaches.

You also have the option to use Picture-in-Picture mode. I didn’t use it extensively but did use it while setting up a new mini PC I am reviewing. I was able to do all the basic set-up using the small PIP display while continuing to work as normal on the laptop.

The monitor does have 2x5W speakers, but I’d avoid them unless absolutely necessary.

The Innocn 27C1U is available from Amazon UK for around £330 or Amazon US for about $400.

At the time of writing (11/6), Amazon UK has a £30 off voucher, taking this to £300. In the US, there is a $40 voucher available.

The LG 27UN83A-W is very similar, with the same resolution, refresh rate and USB-C connectivity (though only 60W PD). It also has the benefit of FreeSync. However, it costs £380, which is 26% more than the Innocn, and it is currently out of stock.

Then there is the BenQ EW2780U for £400, which has USB-C but can only do 320nits peak brightness and lacks the USB hub functionality.

Beyond that, there is nothing I can find at a similar price point with the USB-C connectivity.

There are quite a lot of frameless 27-inch 4K monitors available at reasonable prices without the USB-C.

If you just want a normal 27-inch 4K monitor, then the Dell S2721QS is hard to ignore at around £320 on Amazon.

Overall I think the Innocn 27C1U is a superb monitor which offers excellent value for money. It is particularly appealing for anyone that works from a laptop and wants a desktop environment when not mobile.

There is almost nothing else I can find at this price point with USB-C connectivity, and even without it, there are few, if any, better alternatives.

Last update on 2022-06-19 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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