First thing is color capability. Go only for 100% of sRGB/Rec.709, and as much P3 percentage as you can. P3 is a wider color gamut than Rec.709, if it's close to P3, it can be made to do for most things color-wise.
Colorist's Grade 1 Reference monitors must have refresh rates to match the various framerates in use ... so 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 48, 50, 59.94, and 60 fps.
However, for most users, having a few is great but not necessary, unless you need to check frame-specific things where having the screen and image refreshing differently doesn't work as precisely as you need. But again, most folks won't notice the difference.
So ... one that has a range of refresh rates you can set to match the framerates you use is nice, but probably not absolultely necessary.
Curved/flat is a matter of taste. How close are you? How wide is the screen? I know people that love a curved monitor, others that immediately shipped it back.
Minimum contrast ratio is always a "what's the best I can afford ... " situation. Though the manufacturer's number may or may not be ... reliable. A pro colorist firm like Flanders or Eizo will give you hard specs. Asus ... on their upper monitors, mostly reliable. Others, especially in the 'consumer' grade of cheaper monitors, may not be nearly as accurate as you might prefer.
Probably something that hits 500nits or better is wise if possible. And if it has HLG capabilities for a year or two from now when that becomes more common is not a bad thing.
Not that the above is all that helpful, but hey ... good luck!
As in my work, color is a biggie, and ... I naturally would like to start testing HDR reliably, I'd love a modest priced HDR capable monitor. The really solid ones are still north of $17,000 USD. Sigh. Not an option.
The better less expensive ones are one Asus model, another by ... can't remember suddenly! ... and the LG TV's from the C9/CX series I think it is ... if the signal to them is provided by an AJA or BlackMagic breakout card or box, that stores a LUT created in say ColourSpace for setting image accuracy. Still, either way, by the time you have the monitor, breakout device/software ... minimum of $3500 or so for a monitor that can mostly sorta do (kind of at least) grading for HLG.
I hate all the qualifiers but ... that's the accurate situation. As the only monitors where you can completely disable ABL ... auto brightness limiting ... in HDR playing are those above mentioned Flanders/Eizo and Sony grade 1 reference monitors. So all lesser monitors will be adjusting screen brightness on you without your control during HDR working. Subtle mostly, but there.
Neil
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