The 27" 1440P vs 4K debate (I bought both)

My findings with my eyeball being (at this moment) exactly 35.5" (2.96') from the monitor screen is that I'm sticking with the 1440P 27" panel.

Why?

I run a triple monitor setup and noticed not only some lagginess with the 4K at 150% scaling, but strange behavior out of some applications. I also don't notice much image quality improvement on the desktop or in games from 1440P vs 4K. 4K is better, but not really enough to matter to me. I'd rather have the always-zero-lag Windows desktop experience and the 240Hz instead of the 144Hz on the 4K.

Should note, I also don't really care about 240Hz vs 144Hz. I'm pretty happy with anything 120 or up. More is better though, just as with 4K resolution. But neither 240Hz or 4K ended up being a next-level treat for my eyes. I'd probably prefer 4K over 240Hz if all things were equal and you had me pick one or the other as a feature though.

I mostly use my monitor for gaming and work, and screen sharing at 100% 1440P works for those at 1080P, while at 4K I found I had to change the resolution to 1080P or just use another monitor to screen share.

The price difference wasn't a huge factor for me, but getting a monitor that overall works better for me for cheaper is hard to complain about.

I do think a lot of the strong differing opinions on this whole 27" 4K vs 1440P debate is highly dependent on how far someone has their face from the screen. At 4K 150% and 1440P 100%, they both display the same amount onscreen in Windows, and for work either one is a must-have over 1080P. You do get a little crisper image at 4K, but it's pretty small at my viewing distance. I have better than 20/20 vision as well.

All that said, I am not against 27" 4K and either one is a good choice, but I wanted to post this to see what people think. One advantage of 4K is that 4K can do everything 1440P can do. You can run 1440P if you want and it looks good, there's just so many pixels to work with that it doesn't look bad. Same with 1080P on 4K.

I also had a 1440P QD-OLED and that wins for games no question. There's no debate on gaming for LCD vs OLED unless you have a 540Hz+ LCD maybe but then you got 1080P in most cases. I just didn't want to use OLED because at the desk because I'm all day and OLED is still not as resilient of a technology as LCD for intense use.

TLDR 27" 1440P 240Hz is still a true sweet spot in all regards in 2025. 27" 4K 144Hz is great, I like it, but you need to really appreciate the additional crispness, which is there. Be an easier pill to swallow if the 4K wasn't lower refresh and twice the price for so so gains in crispiness- I think I'd take it though if the price were $350 as I paid for the 1440P panel. 27" 1440P 360Hz QD-OLED is no doubt the best choice for someone that is just gaming after work or school.