Acer XB280HK 4K G-SYNC Gaming Monitor Review

Like most monitors, Acer provides a number of controls in the XB280HK's OSD so users can tune and optimize on-screen images to their liking. There are multiple pre-set options available (ECO mode, movie, gaming, user defined), as well as typical brightness and contrast controls, and controls for the features like ULMB (ultra low motion blur).

Acer incorporated physical buttons into the XB280HK, which is our preferred solution. Many monitor makers have used touch-sensitive buttons that don't always register key-presses. They look good, but having to press a touch-sensitive button multiple times just to register some input can get annoying, really fast. The physical buttons on the Acer XB280HK make navigating the on-screen menus quick and easy.

  

Navigating the OSD controls is pretty straightforward thanks to the mostly plain-English prompts and labels at the bottom, with prompts explaining what each button will do. Should you want to tweak something on the Acer XB280HK, you'll most likely be able to fine the necessary setting quickly and easily.


Calibration
Menus and Options




Sample Test Screens
 
For part of our testing of the Acer XB280HK, we used the Lagom LCD monitor test pages found at http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/. The Lagom LCD monitor test pages provide tests for saturation, banding, sharpness, uniformity and more.

Our testing showed that contrast on the Acer XB280HK was very good. The display was also extremely sharp (thanks it its relatively high resolution and pixel density) and it offered decent black levels too. The white level performance of Acer XB280HK was good as well. Banding was not an issue at all. And the monitor showed very slight, minimal signs of pixel walk when viewed up close. There was some ever-so-slight backlight bleed visible when viewing black screens in the dark at the upper right corner, but it was not noticeable during real-world use.

Overall, most users should be very pleased with the performance of the Acer XB280HK, though it is a TN panel, so professionals seeking perfect color accuracy may not be as happy. With that said, for a TN panel, the Acer XB280HK is still rather impressive.

Marco Chiappetta

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com

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