Koorui 24E4 Review
A decent budget gaming monitor
Verdict
The Koorui 24E4 is a decent budget gaming monitor. It flaunts good looks with a well-built frame and easy to navigate OSD. What’s more, its 165Hz refresh rate provides smooth motion, while its colours are pretty accurate. Just watch out for its middling contrast and brightness, which leaves images looking a little dim and washed out.
Pros
- Sleek design
- Solid refresh rate and general image quality
- Excellent OSD
Cons
- Middling contrast
- Images can look a tad dim
Key Features
- Solid construction:The 24E4 features a sturdy plastic stand and well-made frame.
- 165Hz refresh rate:It also comes with a high refresh rate compared to more standard 60Hz monitors to provide some rather smooth motion.
- Full HD resolution:The 24E4’s 1080p resolution allows it to serve up decently detailed images.
Introduction
When you think of big name gaming monitor brands, Koorui might not be the first name that pops into your head.
Nevertheless, Koorui has developed a reputation for releasing affordable monitors that seem to sell well on online retailers. One such monitor here is the 24E4 which retails for £170/$159.99, putting it right in the mix against similarly specced competition from bigger name brands.
It’s got a good spec sheet to match with all the features gamers love, including VRR support, a high refresh rate, and good looks too – whether that makes it one of the best monitors out there though remains to be seen. Let’s find out.
Design and Features
- Minimalistic design
- Lightweight chassis and solid construction
- Okay port selection
The Koorui 24E4 doesn’t exactly have the most exciting looks to it for a gaming display. Its frame is quite non-descript that makes it look like 99% of other monitors at this price point, and there’s no form of RGB lighting. The only real piece of flair it features is the Koorui logo in the bottom corner, and interesting text in the bottom corner that reads ‘SUPER GAMING. Fighting for your dreams’.
The chassis here feels solid, as do the plastics used in the 24E4’s construction. A weight of 3.14kg makes it comparatively lightweight. The 24-inch panel also provides an ideal screen size for more competitive titles where you’ll need to focus, while the 24E4 also looks modern thanks to its minimal bezels, apart from its large chin on the bottom side.
This Koorui monitor was also easy to assemble with only a handful of screws needed to put it together, even if I’m prone to losing them in the process. It’s also worth noting that once put together, it becomes clear that the 24E4’s stand provides a sturdy base. It only offers tilt adjustment, but that’s in line with other monitors at this price, gaming or not.
The connectivity options on offer may only total three ports, but it’s a better selection than other office-based monitors in a similar price bracket, such as the Dell SE2422HX. As opposed to getting a VGA port alongside the customary HDMI port, the 24E4 brings with it a DisplayPort. This is to allow the monitor to access its higher refresh rate, which is arguably the whole reason why you’d consider a panel like this in the first place.
You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack on this monitor, which is vital, as there are no built-in speakers. You’ll need to hook up an external audio setup instead.
The OSD on offer was wonderfully easy to navigate, and it was easy to access settings such as brightness and contrast with just a few button taps. This Koorui monitor also comes with built-in crosshairs in the middle of the screen, which is handy for FPS games and making sure your aiming is as good as it can be.
In terms of extra creature comforts, the addition of a 165Hz refresh rate is solid for the price, providing smoother motion than the much more conventional 60Hz office-based screens. It’s also above some other panels at 144Hz, too. This was a welcome addition in everything from games to office use, where fast motion feels sharper than at 60Hz. Having VRR support with AMD FreeSync built in is handy, as is the compatibility with Nvidia G-Sync to ensure that this panel offers an experience without screen tearing and juddering across both Team Red and Team Green GPUs.
Image Quality
- Middling contrast ratio
- Accurate mainstream colours for gaming
- Decent gaming experience
The Koorui 24E4 offers a solid set of quoted specs. It features a VA panel, which typically suffers when it comes to viewing angles, but can provide good contrast and picture quality. Those expectations held up here.
The resolution comes in at 1920×1080 (Full HD) which is expected at this price point. The out of the box brightness comes in at just 165 nits, which is a little low. However, you’re able to crank up the brightness to a slightly more impressive 234 nits. It’s still not quite bright enough to ward off sun glare, but it’s reasonable for an affordable monitor used indoors.
But while the Koorui 24E4 is limited in terms of brightness, it’s capable of displaying deep blacks. With a colorimeter, I recorded a black level of 0.11, which is an excellent result – you’ll struggle to get much better unless you opt for a substantially more expensive OLED or Mini LED monitor. This all means that the Koorui 24E4 performs impressively well at displaying true blacks, whereas weaker monitors will look a smidgen more grey.
The subpar brightness and excellent black level combine for a decent contrast ratio of 1610:1. You can certainly get more vibrant monitors elsewhere, such as the Philips 241E1SC which has a contrast of 2600:1 at a more affordable price. The Koorui 24E4 demands a higher fee due to the faster refresh rate, which is only really worthwhile if you’ve got a gaming PC powerful enough to run games at a high frame rate.
In terms of colour coverage, this Koorui monitor fails to meet our 80% target for specialist colour gamut coverage such as DCI-P3, and so isn’t a suitable option for creative professionals dealing with colour-sensitive work. However, its 93% result in the sRGB space means it’s rather accurate in displaying the mainstream colours required for gaming. On this front, I’m impressed with the 24E4. In addition, its colour temperature of 5700K meant that images displayed are a tad warm, but it’s still decent for a monitor that’s this affordable.
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Should you buy it?
You want smooth motion: If it’s super smooth output you’re after, the Koorui 24E4’s 165Hz refresh rate offers it in spades.
You want vibrant images: However, if it’s sharp images you want, the middling brightness and contrast of the 24E4 may leave you looking elsewhere, such as the Philips 241E1SC.
Final Thoughts
With the sea of gaming monitors that already exist at this price point from bigger name brands, it’s a little difficult to see why you’d consider the Koorui 24E4 compared to those other options, apart from its 165Hz refresh rate.
It offers smooth output on a panel that’s otherwise just okay, even for the relatively affordable outlay here. On the plus side though, this monitor at least offers a sleek, minimalistic look to it with an okay port selection.
However, it’s on the side of actual image quality where the 24E4 isn’t that good. While it may be a reasonably colour accurate panel and its peak brightness is okay, this Koorui option doesn’t exactly offer much else with a middling contrast ratio. For a budget monitor with a better picture, check out the Philips 241E1SC. Otherwise, check out our Best Monitor guide.
How we test
We use every monitor we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by using it for both everyday tasks and more specialist, colour-sensitive work.
We also check its colours and image quality with a colorimeter to test its coverage and the display’s quality.
We used it as our main monitor for at least a week.
We used a colorimeter to get benchmark results.
We used our own expert judgement for image quality.
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FAQs
No, the Koorui 24E4 doesn’t have speakers built in.
Koorui monitors are manufactured by a Chinese firm called HKC.
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
