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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 March 2016
I've heard that Acer has better commitment to QA and it's more likely that you are going to get proper Predator rather than Swift. And I must admit in my case it's true. The one I received has incomparably less backlight bleeding than all the PG279Qs I had (they were the latest batches ranging from December 15 to January 16). It is still present tho, just not as visible and looks more grayish than yellowish. Of course there's silver IPS glow as well, but that's standard and totally expectable. I did not spot any dead pixels or artifacts. So finally I got an acceptable panel, far from perfection but it's decent enough to keep. Unfortunately, it was spoiled by issues which I have not experienced with Asus ROG Swift. These include very shaky stand, you can literally see the screen bobbling as you type! I was going to use a mounting arm for it in the future so that might be solution, but hey, not for a £600 monitor! Furthermore, looks like Acer managed to get rid of bulky power brick by mounting the power supply inside the monitor itself. You have a I/O switch right above the OSD buttons and are able to switch it on and off quickly. Initially I liked that idea but as a result many people report the coil whine coming from it, and I'm one of them. The noise increases as you increase the refresh rate. For example, it remains quiet up to 144hz but as soon as you turn 165hz on, you can experience the annoying buzz. To conclude the cons, I find the blue power LED annoying as its too bright and distracting during the night use.
In terms of build quality, except the bobbling stand and LED, it does feel high end, although slightly cheaper than PG279Q. On the other hand, you compromise that with approximately £80 lower price. Even the red "gaming" elements don't look so cheesy in real.
How is the gaming? G-Sync makes the games butter smooth and IPS colours reproduction looks incredibly well. It's a huge jump from 1080p 60hz and extremely immersive experience.
So in conclusion, for paying slightly less you can feel cheaper build quality comparing to PG279Q but it's more likely that you will end up with decent panel without major defects. The gaming experience and picture quality is identical with both monitors.
UPDATE: I had a chance to do side-by-side comparison with Asus PG279Q, both at similar calibration settings, same brightness and contrast etc. As I mentioned above, although Acer's panel has significant amounts of backlight bleed, it is much less noticeable comparing to Asus Swift. I was amazed by it, but now I found out that it might be due to some weird practice used by them to hide it. Looks like XB271HU is extremely bright, like some "foggy" white tint is always present. In turn the colours seem washed out and not as vibrant as on Asus' panel. On Swift black is black, whereas on Predator it's pale. I admit, it makes the bleeding almost invisible but for what price? Pictures below which I've taken under various circumstances will explain it better than words, so just take a look. I'd love to hear some feedback from other XB271HU owners, as now I'm curious whether it's common thing or only a case with my monitor.
Don't get me wrong. This is a stunning monitor, however, similarly to its Asus competitor it all depends if you are lucky to get the flawless one. Just a quick note, I've decided to purchase Acer after I went through 3 defective PG279Q. Both manufacturers use the same panel for their monitors so they face similar issues, such as BLB, dead pixels, yellowish tint and so on. I'm not sure, whether its due to very new technology or simply poor quality of the panels supplied to them but as I said, if you decide to buy one of these you are entering a lottery.
I've heard that Acer has better commitment to QA and it's more likely that you are going to get proper Predator rather than Swift. And I must admit in my case it's true. The one I received has incomparably less backlight bleeding than all the PG279Qs I had (they were the latest batches ranging from December 15 to January 16). It is still present tho, just not as visible and looks more grayish than yellowish. Of course there's silver IPS glow as well, but that's standard and totally expectable. I did not spot any dead pixels or artifacts. So finally I got an acceptable panel, far from perfection but it's decent enough to keep. Unfortunately, it was spoiled by issues which I have not experienced with Asus ROG Swift. These include very shaky stand, you can literally see the screen bobbling as you type! I was going to use a mounting arm for it in the future so that might be solution, but hey, not for a £600 monitor! Furthermore, looks like Acer managed to get rid of bulky power brick by mounting the power supply inside the monitor itself. You have a I/O switch right above the OSD buttons and are able to switch it on and off quickly. Initially I liked that idea but as a result many people report the coil whine coming from it, and I'm one of them. The noise increases as you increase the refresh rate. For example, it remains quiet up to 144hz but as soon as you turn 165hz on, you can experience the annoying buzz. To conclude the cons, I find the blue power LED annoying as its too bright and distracting during the night use.
In terms of build quality, except the bobbling stand and LED, it does feel high end, although slightly cheaper than PG279Q. On the other hand, you compromise that with approximately £80 lower price. Even the red "gaming" elements don't look so cheesy in real.
How is the gaming? G-Sync makes the games butter smooth and IPS colours reproduction looks incredibly well. It's a huge jump from 1080p 60hz and extremely immersive experience.
So in conclusion, for paying slightly less you can feel cheaper build quality comparing to PG279Q but it's more likely that you will end up with decent panel without major defects. The gaming experience and picture quality is identical with both monitors.
UPDATE: I had a chance to do side-by-side comparison with Asus PG279Q, both at similar calibration settings, same brightness and contrast etc. As I mentioned above, although Acer's panel has significant amounts of backlight bleed, it is much less noticeable comparing to Asus Swift. I was amazed by it, but now I found out that it might be due to some weird practice used by them to hide it. Looks like XB271HU is extremely bright, like some "foggy" white tint is always present. In turn the colours seem washed out and not as vibrant as on Asus' panel. On Swift black is black, whereas on Predator it's pale. I admit, it makes the bleeding almost invisible but for what price? Pictures below which I've taken under various circumstances will explain it better than words, so just take a look. I'd love to hear some feedback from other XB271HU owners, as now I'm curious whether it's common thing or only a case with my monitor.
I've heard that Acer has better commitment to QA and it's more likely that you are going to get proper Predator rather than Swift. And I must admit in my case it's true. The one I received has incomparably less backlight bleeding than all the PG279Qs I had (they were the latest batches ranging from December 15 to January 16). It is still present tho, just not as visible and looks more grayish than yellowish. Of course there's silver IPS glow as well, but that's standard and totally expectable. I did not spot any dead pixels or artifacts. So finally I got an acceptable panel, far from perfection but it's decent enough to keep. Unfortunately, it was spoiled by issues which I have not experienced with Asus ROG Swift. These include very shaky stand, you can literally see the screen bobbling as you type! I was going to use a mounting arm for it in the future so that might be solution, but hey, not for a £600 monitor! Furthermore, looks like Acer managed to get rid of bulky power brick by mounting the power supply inside the monitor itself. You have a I/O switch right above the OSD buttons and are able to switch it on and off quickly. Initially I liked that idea but as a result many people report the coil whine coming from it, and I'm one of them. The noise increases as you increase the refresh rate. For example, it remains quiet up to 144hz but as soon as you turn 165hz on, you can experience the annoying buzz. To conclude the cons, I find the blue power LED annoying as its too bright and distracting during the night use.
In terms of build quality, except the bobbling stand and LED, it does feel high end, although slightly cheaper than PG279Q. On the other hand, you compromise that with approximately £80 lower price. Even the red "gaming" elements don't look so cheesy in real.
How is the gaming? G-Sync makes the games butter smooth and IPS colours reproduction looks incredibly well. It's a huge jump from 1080p 60hz and extremely immersive experience.
So in conclusion, for paying slightly less you can feel cheaper build quality comparing to PG279Q but it's more likely that you will end up with decent panel without major defects. The gaming experience and picture quality is identical with both monitors.
UPDATE: I had a chance to do side-by-side comparison with Asus PG279Q, both at similar calibration settings, same brightness and contrast etc. As I mentioned above, although Acer's panel has significant amounts of backlight bleed, it is much less noticeable comparing to Asus Swift. I was amazed by it, but now I found out that it might be due to some weird practice used by them to hide it. Looks like XB271HU is extremely bright, like some "foggy" white tint is always present. In turn the colours seem washed out and not as vibrant as on Asus' panel. On Swift black is black, whereas on Predator it's pale. I admit, it makes the bleeding almost invisible but for what price? Pictures below which I've taken under various circumstances will explain it better than words, so just take a look. I'd love to hear some feedback from other XB271HU owners, as now I'm curious whether it's common thing or only a case with my monitor.
At the moment closer to gaming IPS perfection than PG279Q (Updated)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 March 2016
Don't get me wrong. This is a stunning monitor, however, similarly to its Asus competitor it all depends if you are lucky to get the flawless one. Just a quick note, I've decided to purchase Acer after I went through 3 defective PG279Q. Both manufacturers use the same panel for their monitors so they face similar issues, such as BLB, dead pixels, yellowish tint and so on. I'm not sure, whether its due to very new technology or simply poor quality of the panels supplied to them but as I said, if you decide to buy one of these you are entering a lottery.Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 March 2016
I've heard that Acer has better commitment to QA and it's more likely that you are going to get proper Predator rather than Swift. And I must admit in my case it's true. The one I received has incomparably less backlight bleeding than all the PG279Qs I had (they were the latest batches ranging from December 15 to January 16). It is still present tho, just not as visible and looks more grayish than yellowish. Of course there's silver IPS glow as well, but that's standard and totally expectable. I did not spot any dead pixels or artifacts. So finally I got an acceptable panel, far from perfection but it's decent enough to keep. Unfortunately, it was spoiled by issues which I have not experienced with Asus ROG Swift. These include very shaky stand, you can literally see the screen bobbling as you type! I was going to use a mounting arm for it in the future so that might be solution, but hey, not for a £600 monitor! Furthermore, looks like Acer managed to get rid of bulky power brick by mounting the power supply inside the monitor itself. You have a I/O switch right above the OSD buttons and are able to switch it on and off quickly. Initially I liked that idea but as a result many people report the coil whine coming from it, and I'm one of them. The noise increases as you increase the refresh rate. For example, it remains quiet up to 144hz but as soon as you turn 165hz on, you can experience the annoying buzz. To conclude the cons, I find the blue power LED annoying as its too bright and distracting during the night use.
In terms of build quality, except the bobbling stand and LED, it does feel high end, although slightly cheaper than PG279Q. On the other hand, you compromise that with approximately £80 lower price. Even the red "gaming" elements don't look so cheesy in real.
How is the gaming? G-Sync makes the games butter smooth and IPS colours reproduction looks incredibly well. It's a huge jump from 1080p 60hz and extremely immersive experience.
So in conclusion, for paying slightly less you can feel cheaper build quality comparing to PG279Q but it's more likely that you will end up with decent panel without major defects. The gaming experience and picture quality is identical with both monitors.
UPDATE: I had a chance to do side-by-side comparison with Asus PG279Q, both at similar calibration settings, same brightness and contrast etc. As I mentioned above, although Acer's panel has significant amounts of backlight bleed, it is much less noticeable comparing to Asus Swift. I was amazed by it, but now I found out that it might be due to some weird practice used by them to hide it. Looks like XB271HU is extremely bright, like some "foggy" white tint is always present. In turn the colours seem washed out and not as vibrant as on Asus' panel. On Swift black is black, whereas on Predator it's pale. I admit, it makes the bleeding almost invisible but for what price? Pictures below which I've taken under various circumstances will explain it better than words, so just take a look. I'd love to hear some feedback from other XB271HU owners, as now I'm curious whether it's common thing or only a case with my monitor.
Images in this review
