This Black Friday, every headline act needs a backup dancer but this deal on the ASRock Phantom Gaming 27-inch gaming monitor is worth a seat in the front row

The ASRock Phantom Gaming 27-inch gaming monitor in a teal void bordered in white. on the top right corner, there's a banner that reads 'Black Friday deals'.

(Image credit: ASRock)

One of these days, I tell myself, I'm gonna upgrade my rig from the ground up. But, as my humble budget dictates, today is definitely not that day. Between now and then, I've got to conserve my funds and think about smart, incremental, quality-of-life-improving upgrades. One such purchase could be a second monitor for all of that Dragon Age: The Veilguard fanfiction I'm definitely not reading during the workday.

I've already written about my plans to upgrade my main gaming monitor to something all-singing, and all-dancing in 4K, but as that one song from the Book of Mormon goes, "Every hero needs a sidekick, every captain needs a mate, every dinner needs a side dish on a slightly smaller plate." So, without further ado, here's the best budget second monitor deal I've seen so far this week: the ASRock Phantom Gaming 27-inch monitor for not even $100 at Newegg.

ASRock is pretty new to the monitor song and dance, but Jeremy was impressed by their stab at a budget 34-inch ultrawide 165 Hz panel last year. The tech specs for this comparatively much less snazzy 27-inch 1080p monitor are no slouch either. For a start, you can do much more than just enjoy a crisp Word document…or camp out on your favourite fanfic, waiting for that new chapter to drop.

The ASRock Phantom Gaming 27-inch monitor is an IPS display just for a start, offering vivid colours if this is your only option for journeying into Tevinter. But at less than 100 bucks, you could definitely do much worse.

The Phantom Gaming monitor's 165 Hz rapid refresh rate is not too shabby either. Provided the rest of your hardware setup can handle The Veilguard's vaunted hair tech, FreeSync Premium will ensure that your frame and refresh rate remain stable even if you don't make full use of that upper 165 Hz limit. In other words, your adventures throughout Tevinter will remain screen-tear free.

The main downsides for this monitor are few in number. Number one, you can only tilt or swivel the monitor stand, and there's no way to adjust the height so you better pick its perch properly.

Number two, 27 inch wide 1080p monitors tend to offer far from fantastic pixel density, meaning this backup dancer may struggle if you recast it as your main monitor. Still, an understudy can help a lead actor shine, so this still isn't a bad shout for a second monitor.

To summarise, you're still getting a whole lot of bang for your buck with this budget pick. But, alas, there's nothing this monitor can do about those goofy Darkspawn designs though.

👉Check out all the Amazon Black Friday PC gaming deals right here👈

Jess has been writing about games for over ten years, spending the last seven working on print publications PLAY and Official PlayStation Magazine. When she’s not writing about all things hardware here, she’s getting cosy with a horror classic, ranting about a cult hit to a captive audience, or tinkering with some tabletop nonsense.