HyperX Armada 27 review: A solid first effort

❘ Published: 2022-08-24T10:15:00

HyperX/Dexerto

HyperX’s first-ever 27-inch gaming monitor might look like yet another gaming monitor, but coming in at $500, does this display has what it takes to compete in an extremely competitive market?

HP-owned gaming peripherals company HyperX has continued growing its offerings throughout 2022, with their first ever influencer collab and new microphones, while signing some of the biggest names in entertainment to their list of brand ambassadors.

Now, HyperX is back at it again, this time releasing its first-ever line of gaming monitors with the Armada 25, its 25-inch, 1080p monitor complete with a 240hz refresh rate, and the Armada 27, which comes in at 27 inches, 1440p resolution, and a 165Hz refresh rate.

We’ve been hands-on with the HyperX Armada 27 and while it’s not perfect, the panel is a good option for gamers looking to upgrade their older 1080p panels with something a bit more modern.

Key specs

Refresh Rate: 48-165hz
Response time: 1ms
Screen size: 27″
Resolution: 2560×1440
Aspect ratio: 16:9
Panel type: IPS
Contrast ratio: 1000:1
Color Depth: 8-Bit
Viewing angle: 178*
Color Gamut: DCI P3 95%
Price: $499.99

Setup

When it comes to setting up the HyperX Armada 27, there’s very little to complain about, and there’s a unique mounting system, too.

As soon as you open the box, you’re met with the HyperX Armada gaming mount, which allows you to place the monitor on your desk. The mount’s accessories, the power cable, HDMI cable, and even a custom branded DisplayPort cable come neatly organized inside of the cardboard organizer that safely sits atop the monitor itself.

The mount comes with a desk clamp or grommet-style mounting system, allowing users to choose the location of their monitor with ease. We chose the desk clamp, and quickly and easily slid it over the back side of our desk and tightened it up.

Setting up the rest of the mount is a breeze as well. We quickly added the rest of the mount as well as the spring-loaded arm with ease, tightening them up in the process with the pre-installed thumb screws.

Monitor height is adjustable by loosening the quick-release on the bottom-most cable management clip which we found a little weird at first but quickly realized that it can safely hold the weight of the Armada monitor mount and the eight-pound monitor.

From there, sliding the HyperX Armada 27 onto its quick-release plate is as easy as lining it up with the top of the mount and sliding it in. Although, we do recommend plugging the DisplayPort or HDMI and power cables into the monitor before mounting it.

The mount has plenty of high-quality cable management clips throughout the length of the monitor mount, allowing you to keep your desk nice and tidy.

Design

Keeping to the aesthetics of other popular monitors in its category, the HyperX Armada 27 gaming monitor comes complete with slim bezels, with a sub-three-inch thickness which is incredibly welcome.

The monitor’s controls are easily accessible on the right-hand side over on the back, with a toggle switch just below the power button that makes it easy to adjust settings on the fly.

As we mentioned earlier, the Armada 27 comes with the Armada gaming mount that clamps or slides into the grommet holes on your desk. It features 10-inches of height adjustment, which we believe will be perfect in just about every gaming setup and allows for the ability to use the monitor vertically.

But yet, we wish HyperX had included a traditional monitor stand, for those who might not want to set up the mounting system for the best of both worlds.

HyperX has the right mindset packaging the monitor with the Armada gaming mount, which is what a lot of gamers are opting for these days, but not including a traditional stand means that fans of the brand with low-quality wood, or glass desks will be unable to use it without splashing out for a different solution.

Picture Quality

Thanks to HyperX’s parent company, HP, which has years of experience creating high-quality monitors, the picture quality on the Armada 27’s IPS panel is right on par with other high-quality displays.

Testing the colors against our phone screen, we found about 95 percent of the colors we compared it against were dead-on accurate, with our favorite being the high-quality blacks provided by the Armada 27’s IPS panel.

We won’t fully recommend the HyperX Armada 27 for professional color grading or high-quality design work without a proper color-testing tool. But, for gaming, it looks fantastic. Though, the color reproduction might not hold a candle to other higher-end monitors which offer OLED panels.

Inputs & OSD

The HyperX Armada 27 comes complete with two HDMI 2.0 ports alongside a single Displayport 1.4, which provides users with 1440p at 165hz. It’s a shame to see no HDMI 2.1 connection here, as your shiny next-gen consoles will not have any VRR support, should you choose to use it for them.

When it comes to the OSD and controls on the monitor, we absolutely love that HyperX separated the toggle switch and power button, allowing you to move through the menu without worry that you’ll accidentally turn the monitor off while doing so.

We also found that the menu is very well explained, with no confusing abbreviations that made us second-guess what we were changing in each of the settings.

On top of your typical display and color calibrations, HyperX also added the ability to rotate the menu to match the orientation of your screen, making it easy to change things on the fly no matter how you have the HyperX Armada 27 set up.

Gaming Performance

During our testing, we found the 165hz refresh rate paired with the 1440p resolution and 1ms response time brought every game we tried out to the next level compared to our old and tired 60hz, 1080p panels.

Thanks to its high resolution, refresh rate, and HDR, playing Warzone on the Armada 27 gaming monitor was an absolute joy. Not only did the monitor help provide crisp and smooth gameplay, but HDR support allowed us to see our enemies and loot boxes better the entire time we were playing. It would have been nice to see a wider HDR color gamut here, with higher peak brightness, but it worked well all the same.

The same experience transferred over to single-player games as well, allowing us to immerse ourselves into Deathloop significantly better than the first time we dove into the game.

To help in first-person shooters, the Armada 27 comes equipped with the option to enable a crosshair to be displayed in the middle of the screen in the monitor’s OSD. HyperX has also provided multiple design options for the crosshair to customize it to your preference. This is a bit of a gimmick, rather than a feature that most would choose to use, so its addition here strikes us as being slightly odd.

The panel is also G-Sync compatible, and also works with Freesync, for those using AMD graphics cards. It would have been nice to see the dedicated G-Sync module installed here, which offers a greater range of variable refresh rates.

HyperX made sure that the quality of the monitor doesn’t rely on having everything enabled as well. With our Nintendo Switch hooked up to one of the HDMI 2.0 ports at 1080p and 60hz, we didn’t see any loss in image quality going down to the lower resolution.

However, if you were to use it over on your PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series X, then you will not be able to use variable refresh rates due to its lack of HDMI 2.1 ports.

Should you buy it?

If you’re in the market for a new, high-quality gaming monitor and have a desk that can support the clamp or grommet style mounting system, the HyperX Armada 27 provides good performance, but struggles to justify its $499 pricetag with the lack of HDMI 2.1 options, and instead opting for a stand which might not be suitable for some users.

7/10

The HyperX Armada 27 is a great first attempt at a gaming monitor from HyperX, but there’s a long road ahead if they want to crack this highly-competitive market.