Acer Predator Monitors: Worth The Investment?

The Acer Predator monitor is a premium gaming monitor that offers incredible gaming and productivity performance. It is equipped with a high refresh rate, G-Sync compatibility, and a stylish design. The monitor also has a fully adjustable stand, making it easy to place in an ideal viewing position. The Acer Predator is available in different models, such as the XB271HU, X34, Z35, and X27U, each offering unique features and specifications. While the Acer Predator monitor delivers excellent gaming performance, it comes with a high price tag, which may be a deciding factor for potential buyers.

The Acer Predator monitor's high price tag

The Acer Predator monitor's price is influenced by its high-quality display. It offers a 27-inch or 31.5-inch screen with a 4K or WQHD resolution, providing sharp and detailed visuals. The monitor also boasts a fast refresh rate of 144Hz or 240Hz, depending on the model, ensuring smooth and responsive gameplay. Additionally, it has a quick response time, ranging from 1ms to 4ms, reducing motion blur and ghosting. These display features come at a premium, justifying the higher price tag compared to competitors.

Another factor contributing to the cost is the monitor's versatility. The Acer Predator supports various connectivity options, including HDMI 2.0, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, USB-C, and USB 3.0. This wide range of ports allows users to connect multiple devices, making it suitable for both gaming consoles and PCs. The monitor also includes built-in speakers, providing a convenient audio solution without the need for external speakers. These comprehensive connectivity and audio features enhance the overall value of the monitor.

The design and adjustability of the Acer Predator also impact its pricing. It features a fully adjustable stand that allows for height, tilt, swivel, and pivot adjustments, ensuring optimal viewing angles and ergonomics. The stand has a sturdy build quality and a sleek, bezel-free design, enhancing the overall aesthetics and user experience. Additionally, the monitor includes gamer-centric features such as NVIDIA G-Sync technology, which eliminates screen tearing and provides an ultra-smooth gaming experience. These design elements and additional features contribute to the monitor's higher price point.

While the Acer Predator monitor carries a high price tag, it offers a comprehensive set of features that cater to the needs of gamers and professionals alike. Its high-quality display, versatile connectivity, and ergonomic design make it a premium option in the market, justifying the higher cost compared to some of its competitors.

The monitor's gaming performance

The Acer Predator monitor has been praised for its gaming performance, with some reviews calling it "excellent" and "outstanding". The monitor's high refresh rate, fast response time, and support for variable refresh rate (VRR) technologies like FreeSync and G-Sync are often cited as its key advantages for gaming.

The Acer Predator's high refresh rate of 144Hz or more is a significant advantage for gaming, as it allows for smoother and more responsive gameplay. This is especially beneficial for competitive gaming, where a high refresh rate can provide an edge over opponents. Additionally, the monitor's support for VRR technologies like FreeSync and G-Sync helps to eliminate screen tearing and provide an even smoother gaming experience.

The Acer Predator also boasts an impressive response time, which is crucial for fast-paced games with rapid movements. A near-instantaneous response time ensures that motion looks smooth and fluid, with minimal motion blur or ghosting. This is a significant advantage for games that require precise reactions and twitch reflexes, such as first-person shooters or racing games.

The input lag of the Acer Predator monitor is generally low, especially at higher refresh rates. However, some reviews mention that the input lag increases at lower refresh rates, which can be a drawback for competitive gaming.

The monitor's performance in displaying dark scenes and black levels is also noteworthy. Its ability to display perfect blacks without any blooming makes it ideal for gaming or watching content in dark rooms. This feature enhances the immersion and mood of games with dark environments or night-time scenes.

Overall, the Acer Predator monitor is highly regarded for its gaming performance, offering a high refresh rate, fast response time, VRR support, and exceptional handling of dark scenes. These features combine to provide a smooth, responsive, and immersive gaming experience, making it a popular choice among gamers.

The monitor's design and features

The Acer Predator monitor has a stylish design with an all-black plastic body and a silver tripod stand. The stand provides 5.9 inches of height, 40 degrees of tilt, and 30 degrees of swivel adjustability, and allows you to pivot the cabinet 90 degrees for portrait-mode viewing. The monitor can also be removed from the stand and hung on a wall using the four VESA mounting holes and an optional mounting kit. The stand is easy to snap together and takes less than 5 minutes to set up. The monitor has a sturdy build and slim bezels. The screen is thin, with a thicker section on the back that houses the internal components, similar to other OLED monitors. The stand has wide-set feet, so it takes up a lot of space, but there is enough space to place a keyboard and mouse. The monitor has a fully adjustable stand, with a 30-degree adjustable tilt and the ability to pivot roughly 30 degrees to either side.

The monitor has a simple, functional design with an understated matte black aesthetic. It has a V-shaped stand with a rectangular cutout that can be used to help route cables off your desk. The back of the monitor features a rectangular LED light strip that can be customised or switched off entirely. The LED strip lights up with a cool blue glow. The monitor is also quite heavy, weighing in at 29.7 pounds, which adds to its sturdy feel.

The Acer Predator monitor has a single joystick underneath the centre of the monitor to control the on-screen display. The power button and five function buttons are located underneath the display on the right-hand side. The function buttons can be used as hotkeys for adjusting speaker volume, toggling between input sources, and selecting a pixel response overdrive mode. The monitor also has two USB-A ports on the left-hand side and a wall of downward-facing ports along the back, including HDMI, DisplayPort, USB-C, USB-B, and two USB-A ports. The downward-facing ports can be difficult to access, but they help to reduce strain on your cables. The monitor also has built-in speakers that get quite loud and have a metallic sound quality.

Overall, the Acer Predator monitor has a sleek, adjustable design with a sturdy build and a simple, functional interface.

The monitor's colour accuracy

The Acer Predator monitor has received mixed reviews for its colour accuracy. While some users have praised the monitor for its colour accuracy, others have criticised it for its misleading backlight bleed tests. One user review states that the backlight is absolutely fine and that they didn't notice any real backlight bleed, while another user mentions that they didn't notice any [backlight bleed] beyond a minor difference.

However, other reviews have noted that the monitor has middling colour accuracy and that its out-of-the-box colour accuracy was middling. The XB271HU model, in particular, has been noted to have skewed colour measurements, with red and green colours outside of their ideal CIE zones. Despite this, the monitor does not suffer from oversaturated colours, and any tinting can be adjusted using the monitor's advanced 6-Axis Colour settings.

The XB323QK model has been praised for its colour accuracy, with a Delta E<1 colour accuracy, a base DCI-P3 colour gamut of 90 per cent, and an sRGB colour gamut of 135 per cent. This level of colour accuracy is in line with similar premium gaming displays and is suitable for creative work such as photography and design.

The XB271HU model has also been noted to have good accuracy before calibration but still requires calibration for the most accurate colours.

The monitor's pros and cons

The Monitors Pros and Cons

The Acer Predator monitor is a sleek and stylish monitor that delivers excellent gaming performance. It has a fully adjustable stand, incredible ergonomics, and wide viewing angles, making it easy to adjust to an ideal viewing position. Its high refresh rate, incredible motion handling, and OLED screen make it an excellent choice for PC gamers.

Pros:

• The monitor has a stylish design with a fully adjustable stand, making it easy to place in an ideal viewing position.
• It offers excellent gaming performance with a high refresh rate, incredible motion handling, and a fast response time.
• The monitor has incredible ergonomics, making it very easy to adjust.
• It has wide viewing angles, fantastic reflection handling, and perfect black levels.
• The monitor supports VRR and G-SYNC compatibility, reducing screen tearing.
• It includes a USB-C port for easy laptop connection and a KVM switch for seamless device switching.

Cons:

• The monitor has limited peak brightness and may struggle in well-lit rooms or intense glare.
• There are text clarity issues, and OLEDs like this one risk permanent burn-in.
• The input lag increases at lower refresh rates, which is disappointing for competitive gaming.
• It has limited console compatibility and doesn't support VRR with the PS5 or Xbox Series X|S.
• The monitor is expensive, and there are cheaper alternatives with similar features.

Frequently asked questions