Acer Predator X27: The Monitor That Has Everything

Displays have had a bit of a slow period over the last few years, nothing really caught the public’s attention. While there is a steady increase in interest for 4K resolution, there are now a wealth of additional technologies that have had people upgrading on a more regular basis. Acer has brought together nearly all the aspects of a modern display into a single package, and it’s impressive to say the least.

Being content with 4K resolution at 60Hz isn’t enough anymore; we need more. Acer’s Predator X27 will be one of the first wave of displays to be built around NVIDIA’s G-SYNC HDR technology with high refresh speeds. G-SYNC HDR is as the name suggests, a combination of NVIDIA’s variable refresh tech to prevent micro-stutter, but also HDR (High Dynamic Range) which adopts the 10-bit color standard that is slowly showing up in modern TVs. Mass Effect Andromeda was one of the first games to use HDR, so people will need a display to support it.

Twitch reflex games have been pushing for low response times too, hence the desire to break out of the tried and trusted 60Hz displays that we’ve been using for the last two decades. With that, Acer has managed to produce a 4K display capable of 144Hz refresh (4ms response time). It is unlikely this is a native 144Hz panel, so Acer is likely binning panels and overdriving them to reach said speeds.

The panel itself isn’t the familiar IPS range, but instead a VA type. Ordinarily, this would result in poorer color accuracy and viewing angles, but of course, Acer is applying yet another modern display tech to correct that with a Quantum Dot overlay. It’s safe to say that color accuracy won’t be a problem with 99% Adobe RGB and 96% DCI-P3 profiles supported, as well as support for the HDR10 video format. It’s not just a gaming monitor, but can be used for production too.

A variable zone LED backlighting system is used, separated into 384 zones, to further increase dynamic range as the backlight will only show through specific sections of the display. Coupled with an impressive 1000 nits of brightness, Predator X27 should be visible even in the brightest of rooms.

If a 27-inch 144Hz 4K G-SYNC HDR monitor with Quantum Dot and 384 zone backlight isn’t enough for you, let’s throw Tobii’s eye tracking into the mix as well, letting you control games just by looking at where you want to go. You will need a modern GPU to drive this thing, since DisplayPort 1.4 will be a minimum requirement as HDMI 2.0b will only push 4K at 60Hz. Acer really has thrown the kitchen sink at this display, the only thing missing is an ultrawide variant, but one can dream.

Pricing of this beast is, expectedly, unknown. In reality, we don’t expect it to come cheap, as each individual element adds a significant cost. If we had to guess, don’t be surprised to see prices in the $2000-$3000 range. Truth be told, it’s nice to actually see a display with desirable features instead of just pushing impossibly high resolutions (I’m looking at you 8K).