Acer Predator XB252Q High Speed 240Hz G-Sync Gaming Monitor Review
The Acer Predator XB252Q has reasonably good positioning of its control buttons to navigate the many pages for the panel's on-screen display and features. Many manufacturers place these function buttons at the very bottom, underneath the bezel, making them hard to reach and impossible to read any labeling to better understand button functions.
Acer kept the clean look on the front of the panel by concealing the buttons on the back. From left to right we have the main Power button, a raised or protruding OSD button, and three function buttons for volume, picture quality / game mode presets, and to switch between the HDMI or DisplayPort inputs. The protruding OSD activation button also works like a 4-way directional joystick to navigate through the OSD menus. This setup is surprisingly smart, easy to use, and intuitive, actually.
You can also set a visible refresh rate counter to validate your new speedy refresh rate. It appears in the upper right portion of the screen. However, the numbers are too large in our opinion and could really benefit from a slider to scale the dimensions. The monitor also features Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB) tech to help manage blurring during fast-paced movement and transitions. This one will depend on user preference in certain games. ULMB cannot be used while G-SYNC is enabled and its restricted to 85Hz, 100Hz and 120Hz.
Like a few other high end gaming monitors, the Acer Predator XB252Q offers a variety of custom crosshair overlays to help you aim or provide a means of aiming in games where there may be insufficient or poorly colored crosshairs.
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You can also set a visible refresh rate counter to validate your new speedy refresh rate. It appears in the upper right portion of the screen. However, the numbers are too large in our opinion and could really benefit from a slider to scale the dimensions. The monitor also features Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB) tech to help manage blurring during fast-paced movement and transitions. This one will depend on user preference in certain games. ULMB cannot be used while G-SYNC is enabled and its restricted to 85Hz, 100Hz and 120Hz.
Like a few other high end gaming monitors, the Acer Predator XB252Q offers a variety of custom crosshair overlays to help you aim or provide a means of aiming in games where there may be insufficient or poorly colored crosshairs.
Sample Test Screens
We used the Lagom LCD monitor test pages found at http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ for some of our testing. The Lagom LCD monitor test pages provide tests for saturation, banding, sharpness, color uniformity, and more.
We did not experience any banding issues and contrast is very solid for this type of monitor. Other panel types will offer deeper blacks and more vibrant color saturation but this was expected and not the strength of a TN panel. However, white levels and general contrast performance was solid enough. Speed is where this display does excel greatly, meeting its advertised 1ms response time without issue. We did notice some degree of color shift toward the edges of the display, but this is minimal and did not hinder gaming or movies.
So far, our testing paints the Acer Predator XB252Q as great monitor for high performance gamers and eSports pros looking to gain an edge. Now lets see if she walks the walk in our subjective tests.
