Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Acer XB280HK bprz 28-inch Display Ultra HD 4K2K NVIDIA G-SYNC (3840 x 2160) Widescreen Monitor

I Could Not Imagine A Clearer, Quicker Picture

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2015

I decided to upgrade to a G-Sync 144hz display at the same time I purchased a Titan X. This was probably the best decision I could have made.

At the time of this review, this is the world's only G-Sync, 144hz, 1440p IPS monitor. And Acer nailed it. I'll break it down, but first let me state that Acer has released a driver for this monitor, and you should download it.

Pros:
-G-Sync, AND 144hz, AND IPS (ensures consistent viewing angles). All in one.
-Beautiful matte monitor finish. I hate glossy monitors.
-1440p. I chose this over 4k @60hz. Let me tell you. 144 vs 60 is night and day.
-Immediately detected and G-Sync was automatically enabled in Nvidia Control Panel
-Sharp design
-Sturdy, adjustable base
-I had no dead pixels, build quality is perfect.
-Best monitor I have EVER used.
-A word for the complainers.....light bleed happens in LED backlit screens. And it really doesn't matter at all. You can see it when the screen is dark but it doesn't affect anything. You'll likely never notice it.
-Shipped EXTREMELY fast. I love Amazon.
-Packaging was appropriately enormous and protective. I thought it was a part for my brother's Jeep when it came in. He had ordered a bull bar.

Cons:
-Bad Displayport Cable: The one shipped with my monitor would occasionally stop detecting my monitor. This had me so angry for days, downloading and reverting drivers, plugging in and out furiously, and regretting everything. Then I bought a gold-plated, longer displayport cable, and that completely solved the issue. Go ahead and grab a gold-plated cable anyway, they're so cheap on amazon.
-A lot of people, I mean a lot are complaining about small issues like having to RMA and send stuff back. Pay attention to them. I guess I got lucky. Then again people are WAY more likely to review if something is wrong.
-I wish I could play on this screen all day. Witcher 3 looks so amazing by the way. With this and a Titan X, everything runs smooth as butter on the highest settings. G-Sync is amazing. Be sure to turn off V Sync always!!!! You are better than that filth now!!

If you are still trying to make a decision, just buy it. It's a wonderful monitor. WORST case scenario, a dead pixel shows itself and you send it back, get it back soon, and enjoy the best monitor experience ever. Acer is a great company.

6 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Outstanding!

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2015

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

My Acer arrived yesterday and I immediately set it up. I thought the stand was great and sturdy for a single point stand. Others have said it was wobbly but unless the monitor has 2 stands at the ends of the monitor, I have never seen one that would not move it you pushed it hard. It is a nice stand in my opinion.

Luckily for me my tower is right on my desk so the provided Display Port cable and USB 3 cable were long enough. Some have said they were 6 feet long but I doubt that. I did not measure them but I would say 5 feet long at most, and they just looked short. If you have any distance between your tower and your monitor you may want to order a longer cable if you buy this monitor.

Now I am ready to fire it up and roll the dice. I did notice some bleed on the monitor when it was at the just black screen, but honestly I moved around to see what were subtle reflections of lights in the background, and what was really bleed. The screen is not glossy so it does reflect glare somewhat, but with a black screen and lights in the room you will be hard pressed to see what is bleed and what are just normal reflections. Since I do not ever just sit at the computer and look at a black screen with every other light turned off, this quickly made any talk of bleed issues a nonissue to me. The proof will be when fire it up and see the display and actual gaming.

Now everything is booted up and I use a plain solid orange color for the background of my desktop. Immediately I notice how vibrant the colors were and how crisp the words were. Already I am starting to feel real good. I searched for dead pixels and I thought I found one. However I was so impressed with the initial startup of the monitor that I really did not care about one pixel. Later it turned out that the tiny black spot was just a spot of dust so in the end I could not find a bad pixel. Even if I had I would have lived with it. Your mileage may vary. This monitor had a September 2015 manufacture date.

So now the initial examination is over and I am totally impressed. I used to have a Samsung TN 24” (16 x 10 format) fairly high end TN monitor but visually it could not even compare to this. I was happy with what I had and I did not mind the color shifting if you moved. Or the “fogging” if you looked at an angle. I always just looked straight ahead anyway so it did not bother me. Now though I can say what others have said, I will never go back to TN again regardless of performance or cost. Now that I see what it can be, I will not go back at least anytime soon. It truly was a case of you don’t know what you’re missing until you see the difference up close and personal. It was stunning.

Then I fired up Witcher 3 and set off to kill some bandits and monsters. I was totally blown away by the vibrancy and crispness of this display. Everything just “popped” on the monitor. Game play was smooth as silk but I never had issues with the old TN display either. I do not have FRAPS so I cannot say what the framerate was, but all play was as smooth as can be. I do have a 980 ti so I believe I have plenty of power to push games, and this monitor to the max. During gaming I could not see any bleed issues so again this became a nonissue for me. When something is displayed on the screen I could not see anything at all.

Overall I am totally thrilled with this monitor. The cost is high but if you are coming from a TN panel screen, you will not regret spending this money if you can afford it. You will see such a huge difference that once the money is spent you will not miss it, and you will see what you have been missing all along. Now I just have to sit back and wait shortly for Fallout 4. Life is good.

7 people found this helpful

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PYC

Great monitor... if you're lucky.

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2016

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

Oh the potential of this monitor. If you're lucky enough to end up with one that has no dead/stuck pixels and minimal backlight bleed, it's the perfect no compromises 1440p/144 Hz/IPS/G-sync gaming monitor. Unfortunately, this monitor continues to have QC issues, which is inexcusable for a high-end product like this one. But, if you're willing to play the manufacturing lottery, you can end up with a solid, future-proof, gamer's dream monitor.

Let me start off by commending Amazon for their excellent customer service. They didn't hesitate to send me replacements multiple times even though shipping is costly with this monitor's weight and size. I feel bad for costing Amazon money because of Acer’s mistakes, but they’ve earned my loyalty for the way they handled the situation.

The first monitor I received was pretty good, but had a slight amount of backlight bleed and also what seemed to be one dead pixel. Upon further investigation however, it actually looked to be some kind of a scratch in the rear-most layers of the LCD panel (see photo). When I positioned my mouse pointer near the apparent dead pixel, the dark area seemed to parallax in reference to the pointer which suggested that the defect was behind the pixels. The pixels themselves seemed to be fine because the dark area would affect different pixels depending on the viewing angle. I could live with the slight backlight bleed, but when you’re paying this much for a monitor, you expect it to be perfect from the get go. I requested a replacement.

The second monitor I received had similar "scratched" pixels (see photo). These were more subtle than the first monitor, but there was heavy backlight bleed (see photo) that couldn't go unnoticed during regular use. I ended up requesting a second replacement.

The third monitor was by far the worst out of the three. This time, there were two "stuck" pixels with defective green subpixels (see photo) in addition to two clusters of "scratched" pixels (see photo). On top of that, there was heavy backlight bleeding on this one as well. I sent this one back the same day I received it.

I actually wanted to try my luck one more time, but Amazon understandably put the item under review. I realized that I was relatively lucky with my first monitor and decided to just stick with that one. QC issues aside, this is an AMAZING monitor. My previous monitor was the ever popular ASUS VG248QE which introduced me to 144Hz gaming, but the TN display left me wanting more. When I found out about this monitor, I had to try it out and I was blown away. The color accuracy of IPS, the detail of 1440p resolution, the smoothness of 144 fps gaming, all with G-Sync... it’s hard to beat that. The more recent models also support ULMB for up to 120Hz instead of 100Hz which is great for FPS games. Once you try out any of these features, you can never go back.

I REALLY wanted a monitor without any defects, but I’ll just have to live with having a "scratched" pixel on my screen. It’s unfortunate that this monitor has had so many problems because the display is incredible. Sure it only has one Displayport input and doesn’t have the most aesthetically pleasing build, but once you start playing games on this thing, you’ll forget all about those minor drawbacks. Acer did release the XB271HU, however, which addresses these issues with an additional HDMI input and a nice matte finish so you might want to consider that model if you’re willing to pony up a bit more cash. I got a good price on this one though, so I’m happy with it. Hopefully Acer fixes whatever is causing so many defects on this model. If you're buying this monitor, good luck.

3 people found this helpful

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Jordan F.

Amazing monitor until it malfunctions and Acer refuses to fix the issue. Avoid Acer

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2014

Verified Purchase

TL;DR: Acer refuses to repair my monitor with horrible ghosting issues but insists that I keep sending it in for repair. No other options available. Amazon refunds. Avoid Acer unless you like terrible customer service.

I purchased this monitor back in November and absolutely loved it. It was beautifully crisp and smooth. Unfortunately, after about 2 months the monitor started to suffer from some terrible ghosting and motion blur. This was not a minor issue, as you can see from the photo I have attached. After going through a couple of weeks of troubleshooting I came to the conclusion that the monitor was the cause of the issues. I changed out every variable in the system (included video cards, display port cables and every possible software configuration/driver) that could be at fault and the issue did not exist on my other monitor.

I contacted Acer and they told me that I would have to send my monitor in for repair (7-10 business days to repair it). Initially, the support tech told me that I would have to pay for shipping to send the monitor in to have it repaired. Acer reluctantly agreed to pay for the shipping both ways and I sent the monitor off for repair. According to the case # Acer gave me my monitor was "under repair" for the better part of 5 days. I received it back after 15 days and open the box to find that Acer hadn't repaired my monitor. Instead, they "tested the monitor for 18 hours and found no issue." This was the first thing that Acer did that upset me. I send them a monitor to have it repaired and they fail to find the issue. That's fine, but instead of contacting me and allowing me to assist them in replicating the problem they just close the ticket box it up and send it back to me without doing anything. I set the monitor back up and still suffer the same issue. It was immediately noticeable.

I contact Acer again and tell them what has happened and they kindly tell me to send the monitor back in for repair. I inform them that I am afraid of sending my monitor back in and having it returned to me in the same manor as before. They tell me that the only thing they can do is open another repair ticket. At this point they tell me I have to contact level 2 support for assistance. The next day I contact level 2 and tell them the same stuff I told the last person and they give me the same reply. I tried to get them to help me diagnose the problem (since there's nothing wrong with the monitor according to them), and they told me to try a different cable, check my graphics card and update my drivers. Acer's tech support is more of just a "let me fill out a repair ticket" support.

At this point, I think I am being completely reasonable. How many times do they expect me to ship the monitor and let them have it for 2 weeks before getting it back without them even attempting to repair it? I told them that I was not interested in sending it back for repair and requested that I receive a replacement, refurbished monitor. According to Acer, the monitor that I have is functioning perfectly so I'm just exchanging one working monitor for another working monitor. Maybe I'm asking for too much of Acer but I just want a monitor that works properly, nothing else. The kind lady from Acer replied with, "I can't do that but I can open a repair ticket." I've been without a properly functioning monitor for around 5 weeks at this point. I told her that I was not interested and that I would be reaching out to Amazon to receive a refund.

Luckily for me, Amazon heard my side and refunded my money, despite being beyond the 60 day return period. I will NEVER purchase another Acer product. I have never encountered customer service that was less helpful or accommodating. Dealing with them was like pulling teeth. I'll gladly take my refund and purchase the ROG Swift. Kudos to Amazon for have exceptional customer service and taking care of customers even when they don't have to. I will gladly continue to buy from Amazon for this reason.

419 people found this helpful

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A

An investment that may be worth your money

Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2015

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

When I first bought this monitor, I was concerned that I was going to get plagued by some monitor with terrible QC and have to return it, however this was not at all the case!

First off, I got 2 of every cable in the box. Not sure if this was a mistake or not, but I got 2xPower Cables, 2xUSB 3.0 (A to B) Cables (for connecting the integrated usb 3.0 hub), and 2xDisplay Port Cables.

After unboxing the monitor, I plugged it in and checked for dead pixels. My monitor has no dead pixels. Then I turned on a black screen and tested for backlight bleed (or "ips glow"). And there was some slightly noticeable in the upper left hand corner, but only in a completely dark room while looking at a black screen, it is completely unnoticeable with regular use. I did notice how round every edge, there is the slightest bit of black fade, although it's by no means distracting and you won't notice it unless you're looking really hard at one of the screens edges. Apart from these things, the monitor was perfect.

Pros:
-2560x1440 Resolution. This is a huge one, because once you go to 1440p, you'll never want to go back to 1080p, it's just so nice.

-144hz refresh rate. For gaming, this is even more important than 1440p, but the 144hz is even very noticeable in basic tasks such as just moving the mouse. The whole screen feels more responsive because of the faster refresh rate. This is another one of those things where once you get a 144hz monitor, you'll never want to go back to 60hz.

-IPS panel. The IPS panel is great because you don't have to sit perfectly level and straight at your monitor to get good colors. TN panels that are typically used on 144hz monitors are fine for gaming, but for other things such as watching videos or even everyday use, it can get annoying because slouching back or simply not sitting fairly perfectly in front of your monitor can result in bad color fading/a bad viewing experience. This IPS panel also allows for fairly decent color reproduction so doing things like visual media creation/viewing is decent as opposed to many other monitors.

-G-Sync. This technology is SO useful for gaming. Before this monitor, if I ran my games at anything under 100fps, I would feel unsatisfied with a sluggish feel to my games, as well as the experience not always feeling smooth enough to me. With G-Sync on, I can play something at 70fps and be completely satisfied. It smooths out the gameplay significantly and makes it feel just that little bit more responsive. As far as I'm concerned, this g-sync is even more useful than, say a 30fps increase, since it not only feels like I'm playing at a higher framerate, but it really smooths out the viewing experience when you get hiccups (i.e. small, random frame drops/lag spikes), and prevents tearing as well.

-Comes with a very sturdy monitor stand that supports all of your ergonomic needs

-Fairly matte finish on the screen itself means that there is very little reflection from outside light sources onto the screen

-Overdrive. The default overdrive settings are phenomenal, and are what help make the monitor feel so responsive in the first place. You can increase the overdrive one step above the default, although in my personal experience, it didn't seem to make the monitor FEEL any more responsive (although TECHNICALLY, it was), but at the cost of poor color reproduction and introducing a little bit of ghosting. Regardless, the option is there if you need it.

-Ultra Low Motion Blur. To use ULMB, you have to disable g-sync, so while I find ULMB to be a neat (and effective) feature, I do not consider it more valuable than g-sync. With that said, I did try ULMB and it did work. Now this panel is 144hz to begin with, so the motion blur is already fairly minimal, but you can definitely notice a difference when you turn ULMB on. Like I said, it's a neat feature, although I wouldn't prefer it over g-sync. Regardless, the option is there.

-USB3.0 hub. This is just handy to have and definitely a nice add-on feature.

Cons:
-A LITTLE bit of noticeable ips glow in one corner of the screen as well as very slight fading around all the edges of the screen. Nothing to get too worked up over though.

-Somewhat limited OSD options. The only control you have over the picture is brightness, contrast, gamma, red, green and blue levels. While this isn't terrible, it certainly could be a little bit better for more fine tuning of the colors for the best possible color reproduction, although it certainly isn't bad to begin with.

-Screen is very hot out of the box. Out of the box, the screen is extremely hot, and the built in color modes don't really go as low as they should. After turning down the brightness to about 20%, the picture was decent though, so this isn't a huge deal, I just wish the "normal" color mode preset was closer to 6500k.

-Glossy Trim and Base. These glossy parts tend to attract finger prints and dust, would've preferred a matte finish.

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And that's pretty much it. So is it worth it? Well that's up to you. It is by no means a cheap investment, but it is an investment. You have to remember that monitors typically last longer than the lifecycle of regular computer hardware, so it might not be a bad idea to invest a little more. Also with the g-sync, it honestly feels like my computer is getting better performance in games, even though the hardware isn't doing any extra work.

6 people found this helpful

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Reba

June update: Two monitors bought, both sent back

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2015

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

UPDATE 2:

A third monitor (May 2015 manufacturing date), and there is dust and multiple dead pixels on the panel. There is backlight bleed, however I find it acceptable (certainly worse than the images shown on the online review examples). Sorry Acer, but your QC is simply atrocious. 2 out of 3 panels have significant panel defects (dust and dead pixels), while the third had extremely bad backlight bleed. Even if someone could handle the backlight issue on the 2nd monitor, a 66% defect rate on having dust in the panel is shocking. Best of luck to anyone hoping to order this monitor, it truly is lottery. I would recommend waiting out the PG279Q from Asus, which is aimed at having the exact same monitor specifications, but hopefully they will put forward proper QC

UPDATE:

The first monitor arrived with multiple dead pixels, and dust under the panel. Complete no brainer and shipped back for a replacement product. The dead pixels I can understand slipping through QC (it may have have 3-4 in a grouping), however the dirt under the panel was a 3-4mm 'tear' in the screen.

The second monitor arrived, this time the panel was flawless - no dead pixels or anomalies. I configured the brightness settings per TFT, updated the ICC profile (drops brightness), and the blacklight bleed was still beyond excessive. I have used IPS monitors for years so I am aware of standard glow, however this panel had 3 major bleeds (bottom right, top left, and right quadrant). In standard games it was not noticeable unless you looked for it, however in a dark room with a game with a black background it was extremely distracting. It was a close call, however spending $800 to settle was beyond my ability.

I will say that the monitor is gorgeous, 144HZ, IPS with GSync was incredible to play on - it was tough to send back, but I will wait out competitors in this space, or wait for improve QC by Acer. I cannot help but feel that Acer could have a gold mine on their hands with some improved quality in the production process - hopefully the ASUS equivalent will make it right. I would happily pay more for a flawless panel with the above attributes.

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C. Tracey

Almost perfect. (UPDATED)

Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2015

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

UPDATE: So I have now received two replacements and both in the end were worse than what I started with: the first had a SCRATCH on the screen plus some dead pixels, the second, I thought was perfect, no dead pixels, no scratch but then went to start a game up and the black screen said it all, the worst light bleeding I've ever seen. Idk why getting one that isn't messed up is so hard but this is ridiculous.

So there was a bit of a mess-up with my my order so I ended up receiving the monitor post two set delivery dates. Now, not the reason I docked a star but I felt it was worth mentioning as it seemed Amazon had some stock issues pertaining solely to this monitor.

Ok, so on to the monitor itself, it's almost perfect, IPS (great color) check, G-sync check, 1440p check, 144hz check, all with a relatively good response time (roughly 4ms). Setup was pretty easy as I following the TFT settings, my display port cable is actually fully functioning, and the stand was easy to install. Hey and guess what, it performs beautifully, G-sync provides some beautifully smooth gameplay and the color is phenomenal.

Now, onto the main reason I docked a star, QUALITY CONTROL, mine came with 6 dead pixels! Hell, I just noticed a 7th while writing this. With all the shipping problems I had I am fairly resilient towards sending it in and getting a replacement and unfortunately Amazon doesn't even have it in stock anymore for them to send me hopefully what would be a better one. Fortunately due to the pixel density of 1440p they aren't that noticeable so it's manageable for now but I may need to get this remedied. Some little cons are a little bit of light bleed (not bad at all), the gloss finish of the bezel and stand base, and the fairly flimsy build of the stand itself but these are all very minors things that definitely don't outweigh how great this monitor is.

So the conclusion, should you get this monitor? Do you want quite possibly the best 1440p gsync monitor out there? If so, then the answer is yes. Is it expensive, yes, does it have it's flaws, yes, but do these outweigh all of the benefits, NO. If I had gotten one without dead pixels I would've given it a 5 star, no doubt. Good luck with you're purchase, in the end you won't regret it.

4 people found this helpful

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John R. Reynolds

Acer XB280HK review

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2014

Verified Purchase

Replacing a Dell 3007WFP that's 8 years old with this new display. It's connected to a GeForce 970 (i7 4770k and 16GB of system memory).

I had two main concerns buying this panel. First was color quality: would a TN panel look as good or close to as good as my aging IPS-based Dell? After a night of tweaking, I've settled on these settings: brightness = 33, contrast = 60, gamma = 2.5, and color temp = normal. The blues are still overly bright, but overall I'd say it holds its own fairly well against my old Dell. My wife thinks it looks more vibrant, but again that's compared against an 8-year-old panel with many hours of use.

Second was the resolution, I was worried that playable frame rates in newer games with a single 970 would be out of reach. I've so far tested with Dragon Age: Inquisition, Wolfenstein, Far Cry 4, Rome 2, Shadow of Mordor, and Alien: Isolation, and the very demanding South Park Stick of Truth game <g>, and some are fine with most in-game options maxed out, some like Inquisition required I drop down to the preset of High (from Ultra on my Dell 30"). Because of my age I set the scaling to 150%, which caused some issues in certain games until I hit the compatibility tab on each game's .exe and checked the option to ignore display scaling (the mouse cursor would lock in Diablo 3, for example). For performance reasons, though, I've abandoned any form of anti-aliasing and honestly can't say I miss it. Even the cutscenes in Inquisition look great without it, and not using it frees up more of my 970's 4GB for textures.

As for G-sync, most games I've tested so far seem to 'feel' smoother and others it's hard to discern a difference between this and regular vertical sync. Diablo 3 is very good, just feels really smooth and at 3840x2160 the game and its UI looks fantastic. Part of this is likely that D3 runs at very high frame rates except during effects heavy scenes. Inquisition set at the preset of High with shadows at medium and no AA runs right around 30fps and likewise feels very smooth, no lag, no tearing. Wolfenstein runs great, Rome 2 is absolutely beautiful at this resolution and runs fine maxed out.

Some hardware reviewers have mentioned the stand being wobbly, but on my flat desk (are there other kinds of desks?) it seems just fine. The stand was easy to assemble, no tools required, and offers up all available types of adjustment for the display itself. Which is necessary, since with a TN panel you want to be seated as squarely as possible in front of it. I'm also using the display port cable that came in the box and it seems fine (there've been complaints that it's a cheap cable and often unusable).

I'm still not 100% convinced I'll be keeping it, I've played around with the notion of going with a LG 34UM95 instead since it requires far fewer rendered pixels to drive, but a 21:9 ratio panel is going to have compatibility issues with quite a few games and G-sync does feel different and better than the traditional 'sync' we've all used for so many years. I'm also an annual GPU upgrader, so my installed video card will only gain on the ability to render 8.3m pixels.

Edit: After another day of ownership, I'm now using these settings: brightness = 20, contrast = 55, gamma = gaming, color temp is user (red 45, green 50, blue 48).

47 people found this helpful

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Middle of Knowhere

This monitor is sturdy, gorgeously clear

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2015

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

Giving this 3 stars for 3 reasons, but first let me give the Pros:

This monitor is sturdy, gorgeously clear, and a pleasure to behold on the eyes. I used the custom calibration settings and ICC profile from TFTCentral.co.uk and can say it's great fun using in games. Being IPS I am also going to enjoy doing design work on the display. The size is a huge leap for me from my 22" Velocity Micro and the image quality is even more of a leap as the old display's resolution was 1650 x 1050. The Bezel is relatively thin (not sure why so many people complained) so having 2-3 of these suckers shouldn't be too much of an issue IMO; however, you will probably have about 1" of bezel total (1/2 per monitor) from display to display.

The stand is easily maneuverable except it doesn't seem to want to swivel on the base, which does swivel! Not really sure why this is.

Now to the bad points:

1. The displayport cable is woefully short. I tried using a cable I had laying around and no image came up. I am hoping that I just had a lame cable. I'll be buying a new one that is longer and hopefully it will work.

2. No USB 3 Uplink cable. For being such an expensive product Acer should have packaged all the cables with the display. This is a $10.00 item for a 6' cable at BestBuy. Guess I'll have to make a 2nd purchase.

3. Most egregious of all: The monitor has several (at least 4 that I can see) dead pixels right out of the box. I wouldn't mind so much if they were nearer to the edge of the display but they are closer to the middle. I will probably be sending it back for a new display--hopefully one without dead pixels.

I cannot speak to the light bleed yet as I've not played in the dark yet but on a black website (for pixel testing) I don't see any bleeding. Will have to see later.

All in all this is a good monitor but has QA issues. The longer cords can be bought but having to send this sucker back will be a major pain.

Stars will be added or further removed based on how the replacement process goes.

05/10/2015 UPDATE: I bought the USB 3.0 Uplink and 6.6 ft. Displayport cord at a local super furniture store for about 14 bucks total and they both work great. Again I needed a longer displayport cord, there wasn't anything wrong with the included one. ACER INCLUDE A USB UPLINK CABLE!

I additionally took a picture of the light bleed and this is with the TFT settings implemented. The bleed is really bad and noticeable when playing at night (I play mainly Elderscrolls Online). I'd really like to know how other users have reduced their light bleed through the TFT settings. If this isn't possible I'll definitely be sending the monitor back for a replacement.

05-11-2015 UPDATE:
I just wanted to update this some more after getting to use the monitor for some extensive gaming and other use:

Positives:
The colors are absolutely gorgeous, vivid, and amazing in every way. Textures in games pop and I can notice so many more details than on my old monitor.
Scaling: Magnifying webpages helps with reading and I notice no pixelation or what not. I know there have been reports of scaling issues with Windows.Watching videos is a delight as well.

OSD is easy enough. It's not terribly complicated but it's also not the easiest. Is OD G-Sync? If so why two names? How does ULMB not get turned on when I have OD/G-Sync off? When should I use ULMB over G-sync? This information would be a bit helpful to have either in the manual or as contextual information within the OSD. The Power LED: friggin' bright. I wish there was a way within the monitor to turn it off or dim it. I'll have to invest in a sticker. Yes the OSD is a mixed bag of positive and negative.

Just Negatives:
Horrible light bleed in the lower right corner. The screen is actually brown on when viewing dark scenes. The rest isn't so bad. Occasional flickering: I think this is from having the OD/G-sync too high maybe? I notice I get a nasty flicker when it's set to extreme and I'm just running around the game world. I'm unsure what is causing it so far, but I can get it to go away when setting G-sync/OD to normal/off and I still won't have tearing.

Replacement update: I went through amazon to get a replacement due to the dead pixels and light bleed. I already have a shipping label and an order for a new monitor has been created. This was hassle free and great. I'm upgrading this to 4 stars based on the Customer service and overall image quality but will refrain from 5 stars due to the issues stated above.

Final thoughts: The monitor has great picture quality. I think it will suit my needs for gaming and design work as it's IPS. The orange ring and plastic glossy frame does not bother me in the slightest. I almost wish the ring glowed. :) The monitor is easy to adjust physically (except for the swivel), and the OSD is navigable enough. Do I think QA could be better and the documentation for settings could be clearer? Yes. Do I think this is a worthwhile purchase? Yes. You're getting the best of both worlds: speed + color accuracy and even a USB 3.0 hub. The only thing left is to make an IPS G-sync display with 99% AdobeRGB integrated and other features designers would use such as those that come with the ASUS PA279Q. :)

57 people found this helpful

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Raul Becerra

WQHD IPS @ 144hz, G-Sync, ULMB = Gamers Win

Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2015

Size: 27-Inch WQHDVerified Purchase

The battle and compromise between TN refresh rates and IPS color reproduction can finally be forgotten.
With the Acer XB270HU, gamers finally get a monitor that does it both.
The World's first 1440p IPS Panel with 144hz Refresh Rate, G-Sync, and ULMB. (Yes, those are some monster specs!)
If you're going to buy this monitor, you should understand its technologies first, and actually use the monitor's features that you're paying for...
Here is what I think about this beast...

Let's start with the PROS:

27" 2560 x 1440p @ 144hz IPS Panel:
Perfect pixel density with a very fast and fluid experience, thanks to the 4ms response time and 144hz refresh rate.
IPS color reproduction and viewing angles that are far superior to any TN gaming panel.

G-Sync = Nvidia's Adaptive Refresh Rate Gaming:
This technology comes in handy when playing your favorite games Maxed out at Ultra Settings.
To me, G-sync makes even more sense on higher resolution monitors, such as this WQHD Monitor and other 4K variants.
G-Sync works by syncing your monitor's refresh rate to your GPU's frame rate...
If you're hovering between 45-60 FPS it still feels super smooth. I was shocked the first time when I ran Valley Benchmark at Ultra (8x AA) and saw i was at 40-45PFS and the screen still appeared like a solid 60 FPS... (I recommend to use G-Sync in whatever games you prefer eye candy versus high frame rates)
G-Sync is like going from DVD to Bluray... The smoothness is that evident, and you'll never want to play a demanding game without it again.

ULMB (Ultra Low Motion Blur):
This is a back-light strobing technology from Nvidia. (Strobe backlights eliminate motion blur on LCD displays)
You can run this mode @ 85hz and 100hz on this monitor, and you cannot run G-sync at the same time.
ULMB does makes your screen noticeably darker, however the stobing backlight reduces motion blur while gaming and will help you shoot people in the face easier when playing online shooters.
To use ULMB you want to make sure you tweak your in-game graphics settings that will allow your PC to render that specific game at over 100 FPS consistently, (Or 85 FPS, if you're running ULMB at 85hz) otherwise you will not get the benefit from ULMB as intended.
It may not be for you, but I recommend you give it a try when playing shooters in multiplayer.
For me, I exclusively play shooters in ULMB even if it means turning down my settings to Medium to make sure I get 100+ FPS in game at 100hz with ULMB.
(You would have to choose between G-Sync or ULMB for that specific game - You are able to configure this setting in the Nvidia Contol Panel to specify what games you want to run in G-Sync Mode or ULMB Mode exclusively. This comes in handy to avoid constantly changing settings on your Monitor's OSD between the both when playing certain games) Kudos Nvidia!

Flicker-Less Technology:
This monitor has Flicker-less technology which helps you avoid Eye Fatigue and Eye-Strain.
I noticed it right away after replacing my 120hz Alienware Monitor.
My eyes used to get tired on my Alienware monitor after 2+ hours of gaming.
Not the case with the XB270HU!

Now for the CONS:

DisplayPort only - Make sure your Video Card has Displayport.

The Base and Bezels are Glossy - Attracts dust and fingerprints. (Bezels are thin, so that's a plus)
It's not a reason for me to take 1 star off, but worth noting if you think the glossy finish will bother you...

Base/Stand feels like it should be sturdier for an $800 monitor. If your desk isn't very solid and you bump it, you might see the monitor wobble a little... (Again, not enough to deduct a star)

Light Bleed on lower right hand side on any Black Screen (IPS Glow, not unusual for these panels)
Mostly on right side of monitor on lower corner. Doesn't show when in game, therefore doesn't bother me a whole lot.

No 3D Vision support on this Monitor despite the 144hz refresh rate.
Evidently the 4MS response time is a tad bit slow to run 3D is what I've heard.

ULMB runs at 100hz max only on this monitor.
The ROG Swift runs ULMB at 120hz, but from what I've read people prefer to run ULMB at 100hz anyways to make sure the GPU can keep up at the consisent 100+FPS mark. (Also have read 120hz ULMB can introduce slight artifacts on other monitors, so it may be best at 100hz anyways)

Final Thoughts:
Feature loaded monitor that I'm enjoying.
It's expensive yes, but you should understand it's the first of it's kind.
You will have to decide if you will be using your monitor enough to justify such a purchase.
This monitor is not plagued by the Pixel Inversion issues I've read about the ROG Swift, so I went ahead and went with the XB270HU...
I recommend you read the TFTCentral's Review for the XB270HU if you have any other doubts about this Monitor.
Comes with Acer's 3 Year Warranty, I hope it lasts a long time...
If you're an Nvidia gamer and have the GPU horsepower to run this monitor I say go for it.

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