When choosing a monitor for home or work use, you have to determine what is more important to you: refresh rate, resolution, or maybe color accuracy? The latter characteristic has always been the privilege of expensive professional monitors, but today we review the Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx, which allows you not only to play high-speed games, but also to work with graphics.
| Technical specifications of Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx | |
| Diagonal | 27″ |
| Panel type | Agile-Splendor IPS |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Viewing angle | 178°/ 178° |
| Pixel pitch | 0.233 mm |
| Resolution | 2560 ×1440 (WQHD) |
| Pixel density | 108 ppi |
| Brightness (typical) | 400 nits |
| Dynamic contrast | 100M to 1 MAX (ACM) |
| Static contrast | 1000 to 1 |
| Color depth | 8 bits |
| Color coverage | 95% DCI-P3 |
| Delta E | <1 |
| Response time | up to 0.5 ms |
| Regulation | Rotation to vertical orientation – 90° Horizontal rotation – 40° Tilt – 30° |
| Other | Adaptive Contrast Management (ACM), Adaptive-Sync technology, AMD FreeSync Premium, ComfyView, Flicker-free technology, Low Blue Light, Kensington |
| Power supply | Internal |
| Energy consumption | 35 W |
| Dimensions | 629 x 441 x 307.2 mm |
| VESA mounts | 100 x 100 mm |
| Weight (with stand) | 6 kg |
Content
It’s a pleasant surprise that Acer didn’t pack its Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx monitor in a recycled cardboard section, which often spoils the first impression of a product and raises concerns about its integrity during shipping.
Opening a classic cardboard box, we see an improvised sandwich made of white foam. In its upper half there are support elements: A V-shaped base and a leg. Cables are also located there: AC power, DisplayPort, and HDMI. The panel itself is waiting to be turned on for the first time in the center between the plates.
No additional skills or tools are required to assemble the monitor. All you need to do is connect the V-base and stand with a locking bolt, and then attach the stand to the panel in one motion.
The design seems to be robust, as the lower part of it is metal. The Predator logo is on the vertical base, and the cable organizer is hidden behind it.
The manufacturer has taken into account the most common whims that users may have when placing the monitor in its place. It can be adjusted in height by 15 centimeters and can be fixed in portrait orientation at 90°. You can also swivel the monitor by 40° and adjust the tilt angle from -5° to 25°.
If these options don’t seem enough, there’s no reason to go the alternative route by connecting the monitor to third-party solutions using a 100×100 mm VESA mount.
The Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx is controlled and customized with four buttons and a joystick. They are located on the back right side of the screen, just above the light indicator. To some extent, this is even a redundant solution because some competitive models are limited to one joystick. But it’s good that there is a separate power button, which for some reason has begun to disappear in many modern monitors.
The width of the bottom bezel is 22 mm, and the Predator branding shines in its center. On the left side there are informative stickers Agile-Splendor IPS and ΔE Color Accuracy. We will analyze what they mean later when testing the display.
The design of the Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx is minimalist, so there are almost no unnecessary elements. This will appeal to all those who are tired of annoying backlighting, polygonal design quirks, and crazy angles.
The main edges of the ventilation grille on the back of the monitor resemble the design of the bottom V-shaped rack. We can see two different textures on the plastic surface. The lower part is classic — porous, and the upper part diverges from the center with horizontal lines. There is also a glossy inscription Acer.
It was at this stage that the manufacturer had to save money because Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx did not have room for even a few simple USB Type-A, not to mention Type-C. We have one port for image transmission DP 1.2, which allows you to display WQHD images at 180 Hz. We also have two HDMI 2.0 ports with a maximum frequency of 144 Hz at a resolution of 2560×1440 pixels.
The 3.5 mm jack allows you to connect external speakers or wired headphones to the monitor. In addition, there is a place for two built-in speakers of two watts each. They produce a rather mediocre sound and motivate you to use any other speaker system.
A 27-inch diagonal with a WQHD resolution (2560×1440 pixels) can be considered the golden mean for both budget-conscious gamers and ordinary users. A large proportion of buyers would rather not pay money for monitors with a curvature radius, considering it a marketing gimmick that has no practical benefit.
Despite the fact that in this price range you can increasingly find quite interesting options with VA panels, many people trust proven IPS matrices. In our case, we use the Agile-Splendor IPS panel type
Unlike traditional IPS displays, this matrix uses high-speed technology that reduces response time to 0.5 ms and maintains the DCI-P3 color gamut at a high level. This results in a smooth image and correct color reproduction.
The model is capable of operating at 180 Hz when connected to DisplayPort 1.2. This will be appreciated by gamers because there are never too many frames in the next online battle, where every millisecond counts.
A special printout with the results of the factory calibration is supplied with the monitor, which will delight users who do not mind working with images and need accuracy in color reproduction. It was a surprise for me to see such a «bonus» in the gaming segment. In this instance, the average Delta E was 0.5. This means that the color accuracy meets the professional requirements for working with colors.
The manufacturer claims that DCI-P3 in the Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx is 95%, but the measurement results showed 93.2% color space coverage. This is a good result, although it falls a little short of the official specifications. The monitor is capable of displaying 16.7 million colors because the matrix is 8-bit and without FRC, so you shouldn’t expect much smoothness in gradients.
The pixel density of 109 ppi is enough for average multimedia scenarios and office tasks. However, it may not be enough for a picky user to work with very small texts.
The monitor supports HDR400, but don’t forget that this is a basic implementation of the technology, as the maximum brightness is 400 nits. It’s not very comfortable to work in a room in bright light. The monitor has a glow effect — a typical situation in this price segment.
In 180 Hz mode, the matrix demonstrates good results and fast objects are not blurred in motion. In Over Drive — Extreme mode, I didn’t notice any obvious artifacts in the form of plumes behind objects, although you can see the difference in the image on the screenshot by synchronizing the shutter speed with the refresh rate.
The Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx is configured using the rear panel, which contains a joystick and three additional control keys. Many modern models have already abandoned such solutions because you can only use the joystick for all manipulations.
The menu itself is compactly placed in the lower-left corner. At the beginning, it presents three main items: mode selection, brightness, image source, and the main menu. It is here that we can customize the monitor more flexibly in the six available sections.
In addition to the basic parameters, there are some interesting «features»: HDR, ACM, Low Blue Light, FreeSync, Ultra Low Latency, frame rate display and a separate intelligent reticle. It’s strange that the developers have hidden the volume settings for the internal speakers in a separate section. It would be more appropriate to bind it to one of the buttons on the back.
At maximum brightness and 180 Hertz, the monitor consumes about 33 watts. Lowering the refresh rate to 60 Hz has almost no effect on the final result and will save you only 2-3 watts. In general, this is a typical situation for all monitors, not just those with IPS matrices.
By reducing the brightness to 50%, Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx power consumption drops to 19 watts, and the minimum backlight limits the figure to 11.7 watts. Turning on the built-in speakers at maximum volume, the power meter recorded an increase in consumption of only 1 W, which raises doubts about the manufacturer’s claim of a 2 x 2 W audio system format. In general, the monitor demonstrates standard indicators, as for a 27″ model.
In gaming scenarios, the Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx left a pleasant impression, the image was rich and smooth. There was no desire to overclock the matrix to further improve the response time. In the sRGB color space, some shades look too saturated, and I had to deliberately lower this parameter in the driver.
Although the manufacturer emphasizes the 95% color coverage of DCI-P3, unlike specialized monitors, there is no sRGB emulation mode. In this case, the desire to please the widest possible audience may be unnecessary because according to the classic analogy: a generalist will always be worse than a specialist. This also applies to technology.
The diagonal and pixel density are enough to not turn on zoom. In the dark, the Low blue light function allowed us not to strain our eyes unnecessarily.
Acer Predator XB273U V3bmiiprx is sold at a price starting at 9999 UAH. For this money, there are not many worthy competitors with an IPS matrix Philips Evnia 27M2N5500 demonstrates faster response times, higher static contrast, and 1.07 billion colors as it supports 8-bit+ FRC.
LG UltraGear 27GS75Q-B does not support screen rotation, but is compatible with NVIDIA G-Sync technology.