The Acer X27 is easily one of the most serious 4K PC monitors we’ve yet come across and with the huge package of cutting-edge specs this piece of display hardware comes packed with, we’re definitely not expecting it to be cheap. That said, what you get for whatever it ends up costing is truly impressive across the board.
The X27 is being called “the perfect” gaming monitor by its manufacturer and we’re hard pressed to disagree on this assessment. Excepting the lack of an ultra-wide display format (something many gamers prefer), the X27 offers just about everything the serious 4K gamer could want, assuming they have the right type of GPU and other hardware specs in their PC machine to complement this display. Specifically, the X27 is designed to take maximum advantage of Nvidia HDR technology for monitors as it was originally presented at CES 2017 in January. Thus, this particular PC display offers up 27 inches of display space, a 16:9 aspect ratio, full 4K UHD resolution and HDR specs for contrast and wide color gamut. Acer has even included local dimming backlight technology in the X27 and most impressively of all, the X27 comes with a native 144Hz refresh rate instead of the standard 60Hz that has been the maximum limit of most 4K PC displays for more than a couple years so far. This monitor also of course supports G-Sync technology for maximum frame-rate synching compatibility with Nvidia’s new generations of 4K-friendly GPUs.
In basic terms, the Acer X27 is truly a 4K monitor for the next generations of 4K graphics cards and PC games.
Other more technical specs in the X27 include quantum dot color technology of the kind that really makes wide color gamut and high DCI-P3 color space coverage shine. In this monitor’s case Acer has installed an AU Optronics M270QAN02.2 AHVA panel for the quantum dots. The presence of this feature explicitly means deeper, richer black levels, HDR10 support and a promised 96% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, according to Acer. As for peak brightness, we weren’t exaggerating when we said that the X27 is truly and HDR monitor. It outclasses many 4K HDR TVs with a peak brightness rating of 1000 nits and also offers a very respectable 4ms response time for speed-conscious gamers.
In other words, in terms of the key specs mentioned above, we’re looking here at a monitor that can just as easily serve as either one insane piece of gaming technology or as a very powerful professional visual design monitor
Moving back to the LED backlight local dimming in the X27. Acer has given this monitor a whopping 327 local dimming zones, which is more than we’ve seen in even some of today’s best 4K HDR full-array LED backlit 4K TVs from brands like Samsung. Furthermore, due to other aspects of its display technology, the IPS screen of the X27 gives users 178 degree viewing angles with Tobii eye-tracking technology thrown in as a further bonus.
At a minimum, you’ll need to own one of Nvidia’s GTX 10-Series GPUs such as the GTX 1060, GTX 1070 and even more ideally the GTX 1080 graphics cards in order to really enjoy what the Acer X27 can deliver. DisplayPort 1.4 (which comes with these Nvidia GPUs and is also included in the X27) would be the ideal gaming connectivity medium for this monitor.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the X27’s HDMI 2.0 port isn’t even capable of handling this monitor’s 144Hz of refresh. Furthermore, even for feeding of graphics through the display’s DP 1.4 ports, 4:2:2 chroma subsampling is still used for image compression in order to fit 4K graphics at 144Hz.
Acer hasn’t yet introduced pricing and availability information for their new powerhouse of a 4K UHD HDR monitor but we can expect it to show up on sale before the fall and we have no doubt that this beast of a 4K PC display will cost well above $1000.
Here’s a further specs breakdown:
- Panel: 27″ IPS (AHVA)
- Resolution: 3840 × 2160
- Refresh Rate: 144 Hz (w/4:2:2 Choma Subsampling)
- Variable Refresh Rate: NVIDIA G-Sync HDR
- Response Time: 4 ms
- Brightness: 1000 cd/m²
- Contrast: Unknown
- Backlighting: Direct LED, 384 zones
- Quantum Dot: Yes
- HDR: HDR10 Support
- Viewing Angles: 178°/178° horizontal/vertical
- PPI: 163 pixels per inch
- Colors: 07 billion (10-bit)
- Color Saturation:
- sRGB: 100%
- Adobe RGB: 99%
- DCI-P3: 96%
- Rec. 2020: 82%
- Inputs: 2 × DisplayPort 1.4, 1 × HDMI 2.0
Story by 4k.com