Acer Nitro UM.HX2AA.201 27" WQHD 2560 x 1440 PC Gaming IPS Monitor | AMD FreeSync Premium | Refresh up to 240Hz | Up to 0.5ms | DisplayHDR 400 | sRGB 99% | 1 DisplayPort 1.4 and 2 HDMI 2.0 | XV272U W2bmi iprx
Here's what you need to know:
- Beautiful HDR mode. In fact, HDR is perfect for this monitor. With HDR enabled, deep blacks, pin-sharp colors, and accuracy—most importantly, increased brightness and contrast—are pretty much a must for this monitor. Factory settings are a bit grim for me. Manually increasing the brightness may distract the backlight more. Some reviewers say HDR doesn't make much difference, but it's true. I bet some people make custom color adjustments, including increasing the brightness, which makes the HDR noticeable "less" in this case, but also makes the blacks a little darker. Adjusting brightness/color settings or enabling HDR are good options if you don't want to mess with HDR, but I prefer HDR because I think it gives the best overall picture and I don't have to mess with factory settings.
-GSync has a 144Hz refresh rate. Some users say G-Sync and HDR don't work together on this monitor...but it's true. I enabled HDR with GSync and limited the frame rate to 120fps in the Nvidia Control Panel. I can see myself hitting 120fps in game and I can feel the difference between turning GSync on and off so I know it's working with HDR which I've never turned off.
- pure pictures. You can see the difference between 1080p and 2K. This is a very noticeable improvement, especially when it comes to gaming.
Viewing angles are excellent, with little to no blurring even when viewed from extreme angles
- Stable refresh rate, for the average person, you won't notice any noticeable ghosting or screen tearing in games with a lot of action, even with HDR enabled (this will reduce latency... I don't know how low latency is, but the advertised <1ms does not apply when other game/sports mode is enabled.
Note: Windows 10 has HDR as a built-in feature, which seems to be a problem, especially with an NVidia card. You will notice that the screen colors are "washed out" and the black color turns to "gray". It looks like a cheap TN card. I didn't find it too difficult to use just one of the monitors, but when two 2K monitors were connected to an RTX 3080, the screen would suddenly disappear when running certain games or applications. If this happens to you, you will not be watching. I think some viewers who complain about picture quality have caught Windows HDR error but don't know about it or how to fix it.
Here's what I did to reduce it:
1) Enable HDR on Windows and on the screen
2) NVidia Control Panel > Color Options... Select the "Restricted" option, then type YCBCR 4.2.2... This is because Windows supports the HDR10 standard. Unless you enable this option and go into restricted mode, there is only an 8-bit option. When this feature is enabled, you will notice a slight color change. Everything is brighter and less subtle.
Some games require Windows HDR to be disabled in order to play the game (eg Red Dead Redemption 2). If the screen suddenly goes dark, you can turn HDR for that screen on or off in Windows display settings when opening/closing apps, or you can toggle the screen on/off and back to full HDR in general. Note again that this is not a screen issue. HDR is still buggy and immature in Windows. If you google Windows 10 HDR you will get a lot of info on how to work with it (some differ from mine). My suggestion is
The coolest thing about this monitor is that you get superior picture quality that only an IPS panel can offer, and it does so with features like a 144Hz refresh rate and GSync enabled. To take advantage of an IPS panel, you need to enable HDR. It's also great that if your graphics card can't boost the frame rate enough in competitive shooters and you're worried about ghosting in competitive shooters with fast action and sudden screen movements, you can just press a button to switch modes (Sport Mode) (with HDR disabled) and you'll get TN-pad-like performance with incredibly fast response times and 144Hz/GSync compatible refresh rates. As a result, you lose some brightness and contrast. This is where one might want to crank up the contrast and brightness, turning blacks into dark grays... ie h. It looks like a cheap VA gamepad or TN panel with better colors and viewing angles.
That's the point of this monitor: It's the perfect combination of many compromises and it's very well executed. It's a budget IPS panel with a great picture, but HDR is required for a flawless IPS experience. It's totally fine. There's also a slight backlight bleed that often goes unnoticed. Again, it's a trade-off that you don't have to shell out $2,000 for this 2K IPS monitor with a fast refresh rate and 50% more backlighting than a premium IPS panel.
If you're a competitive gamer with 1ms response time and 144Hz GSync this monitor is fine, the downside is that HDR needs to be turned off (Sports Mode) but you'll have to give up fast IPS to play this game.
Personally I admit I mainly play Planet Coaster and RDR2 and in those games I have to use RTX 3080 to disable HDR.
Negative (if you know screen tech, it's not really a negative)
- Some backlight bleed (eg when the screen is on a black loading screen - you can see light leaking out of the frame in some places like someone shining a flashlight behind the screen, and some of that brightness is actually bleed. Backlight bleed is basically a warranty of any IPS screen. Only question is how much backlight this model has.
- Refresh rate increases when HDR is enabled (although you can still get 144Hz refresh rate and GSync with HDR, you have to switch to non-HDR mode for sub-1ms response time, which I absolutely don't want to do. Colors are faded, bad compared to IPS.
Here are the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of panels:
IPS (this screen)
Excellent optics and color accuracy. HDR. Black and white, white and white. Good refresh rate. Perfect viewing angle.
Backlight bleeding can be seen in dark games in dark rooms.
VA card
It can have good color accuracy and a "good" refresh rate/response time. Viewing angles aren't great, but they're good overall. From one point of view, there is a water wash, but it's not as bad as a TN panel. The contrast is usually between TN and IPS. Backlight leakage is not usually a problem. This is the ultimate "Master of Nothing" motherboard, often only sold as a 1080p gamepad. VA boards are good as long as they are good.
TN panel
Better contrast (black, white plus white). There is no noticeable backlight leakage. Combined with the latest high-end IPS panel, it delivers the fastest response time and highest refresh rate for competitive gaming. The combination of contrast ratio and refresh rate/response time for a TN panel is second to none
However, the disadvantages are not insignificant. The best and most expensive TN panels always suffer from poor viewing angles. Being directly in front of it will subtly and gradually wash out the edges and borders of the screen. For this reason, the ideal monitor for professional gaming is usually a 24-inch TN panel, because keeping the screen small hides all on-screen motion and reduces the gap that is created when the edges of the screen move away. The color accuracy is 'poor', creative professionals will never use them, and because of the low color/image quality they produce poor screens for watching movies, Netflix, etc.
These monitors are designed for the most demanding gamers. It really is a "tool".
In Sports Mode, the screen looks (and works) very similar to a TN panel (better colors/viewing angles, lower contrast). The rest of the time you benefit from all the advantages of the IPS panel mentioned above
So it's a very good screen. Monitors are a very subjective thing so there is no right answer to user preferences, but personally I wouldn't choose anything other than IPS as they broke the refresh rate cap last year. This is clearly the most advanced screen technology available. It's a great budget entry into the 144Hz 2K IPS area.
- 27-inch WQHD Widescreen IPS PC Gaming Monitor (2560 x 1440).
- Advanced AMD FreeSync technology
- Refresh rate: 240Hz (with DisplayPort) - 144Hz (with HDMI connection) | Response time: 1ms (G to G) - up to 0.5ms (G to G) | Pixel pitch: 0.233mm | 2 speakers, 2 watts each
- VESA mount compatible (100 x 100 mm) | Ergonomic Stand: Ergonomic Tilt: -5° to 15°, Height Adjustment Range: 4.7 inches, Swivel: 360°, Pivot Rotation: +/- 90°
- Connections: 1 DisplayPort 1.4, 2 HDMI 2.0, 1 Audio Out (DisplayPort and HDMI cables included)