Acer Predator X34 OLED Review

Acer Predator X34 OLED – Design and Features

The Acer Predator X34 OLED is a 34-inch ultra-wide gaming monitor designed to behave because the flagship mannequin for the model. It comes with premium specs to ship a implausible gaming expertise and is designed with a gaming-first ethos. It includes a deep and immersive curve to create a gaming expertise that appears to attract you in. This identical high quality makes it more difficult to make use of for productiveness, so it gained’t be a great match for everybody, however for pure gaming it guarantees an thrilling and interesting expertise.

The monitor’s on-paper specs are implausible. Since it makes use of an OLED panel, it guarantees deep midnight blacks and a large dynamic vary that is in a position to reveal element even in deep shadows. OLED at present presents the very best picture high quality out there in gaming displays, and this most up-to-date era of panels, as is used right here on this show, is much less vulnerable to burn-in and different drawbacks like textual content readability. What you are left with is implausible distinction, unimaginable colours, and excessive peak brightness rated at a powerful 1,300 nits.

Breaking that down a bit additional, the X34 OLED is rated to cowl 99% of the DCI-P3 coloration gamut and 100% of sRGB. It includes a devoted sRGB mode for creators, as properly DCI-P3 and Rec.709 modes to behave as a reference for color-critical work. OLED displays are properly regarded for the richness and vibrancy of their colours, and the X34 isn’t any exception. It comes well-calibrated out of the field, and its colours, whereas not oversaturated, seem very vivid.

Its brightness, whereas rated for 1300 nits, will solely hit this in very, very small parts of the display when working in HDR mode for normal definition content material similar to regular net shopping. It as a substitute averages round 250 nits, which is comparatively dim in comparison with an equally matched LCD monitor however typical of OLEDs resulting from energy draw and warmth. Generally, that is brilliant sufficient to make use of in a well-lit room comfortably, however the monitor shouldn’t be positioned in direct daylight.

The monitor has an ultra-wide design and measures 34 inches diagonally with a 21:9 facet ratio. It has the huge equal of 1440p decision, and because of the further width, requires extra GPU energy to run successfully. It has a decision of three,440 x 1,440 pixels, which places it in between a conventional 16:9 1440p monitor and 4K when it comes to how troublesome it’s to run. To attain its most body price, you may want a beefy GPU or be keen to decrease graphics settings in demanding video games. Even so, it is a fantastic decision for a display of this dimension and ends in a really crisp and detailed image.

The Predator X34 OLED is fantastically responsive. OLED panels are naturally very quick, and Acer charges the monitor with a 0.01ms response time. I lack the instruments to precisely take a look at at such a low latency; nonetheless, it is typical for OLED panels to measure at 0.03ms, whereas different gaming displays would possibly high out at 0.5ms (extra generally, 1ms). This results in bottomed out enter latency, so, in a shooter for instance, the clicks of your mouse seem on display as gunshots measurably quicker than IPS, VA, or TN based mostly gaming displays.

The X34 pairs this with a 240Hz refresh price, which means that it refreshes the display 240 instances each second. As I alluded to above, it will be very troublesome to realize such a excessive body price in any sort of demanding sport, even with the highest of the road GPU, until you might be working DLSS and body era. Even in case you do not all the time hit this (it is sometimes solely possible in esports and really non-demanding video games), setting that top refresh price ends in decrease enter latency total, so there’s nonetheless profit to leaving that setting enabled. The greater your precise body price goes, movement readability will get progressively higher. For aggressive video games, this monitor is kind of good.

The X34’s most defining characteristic is its deep 800R curve. The overwhelming majority of curved gaming displays are available in at 1800R or 1500R, each of that are pretty mild. An 800R curvature could be very pronounced and wraps into your peripheral imaginative and prescient to enhance your immersion on the identical time, however causes noticeable warping of textual content and pictures alongside its curve. For gaming, this does not matter for the reason that wraparound impact is interesting, however for productiveness, it positively takes some getting used to. While some individuals do not thoughts it, many discover it distracting in comparison with a shallower curve or perhaps a flat panel.

The monitor helps a beneficiant array of connectivity choices. There are two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB Type-C with DisplayPort that’s additionally in a position to provide as much as 90 watts of energy. There’s additionally a built-in USB hub that provides two USB Type-A ports and a further USB Type-C. This hub additionally acts as a KVM, so you’ll be able to take related equipment between hosts with the push of a button. The X34 additionally features a headphone jack and sports activities two 5-watt audio system that get comparatively loud and, whereas not as full-bodied as a separate pair of audio system, are higher than most others you’ll discover constructed right into a gaming monitor.

The monitor additionally comes with an honest stand that’s comparatively skinny, although it does have two lengthy legs that protrude out to extend its total footprint in your desk. It presents the flexibility to regulate top up and down a bit over 4 inches, tilt from -5 to +15 levels, and pivot with a variety of 15 levels as properly. The meeting is tool-less and straightforward to do, even in case you’ve by no means arrange your personal monitor earlier than. I like to recommend having an additional set of fingers if in any respect attainable to keep away from needing to put the monitor down on its face or risking placing stress on its very fragile panel.

The OSD is easy and navigated utilizing a joystick constructed into the show. It’s pretty customary fare at this level with a lot of totally different image presets based mostly on the style, in addition to the flexibility to regulate the gamma and saturation settings. It presents a sharpness setting in addition to an OLED Care menu to toggle its totally different protecting options on and off. There’s additionally a uniform brightness setting, which limits total brightness and reduces the fluctuations that happen when increasing full display content material. I did not discover this to be very noticeable, so I left it turned off, however in case you’re delicate, the choice is there.

It’s additionally value noting that Acer has an installable software program suite to regulate many of those settings referred to as Acer Display Widget. In fact, there are few monitor manufacturers the place the configuration software program appears like greater than an afterthought, and this is not an exception. Still, you may discover most of your most used choices right here, so it is an efficient various in case you hate fiddling round with the precise OSD.

Acer Predator X34 OLED – Performance

The Acer Predator X34 OLED is a gaming monitor at the start. That works to its profit, but it surely may also be a detriment in different areas, just like the aforementioned productiveness issues I outlined within the earlier part. You additionally see that manifest in another methods.

For pure gaming, it is nice, however you need to be ready to both put slightly work in or make a handful of concessions in case you plan on utilizing this as your day by day driver for each work and play.

For starters, although its calibration is not dangerous, it is not probably the most coloration correct out-of-the-box, and would profit from calibration for inventive work. Grayscale accuracy measured a Delta E common of 4.78, tending towards the inexperienced finish of the spectrum. Color accuracy was a bit higher with a Delta E common of three.12. With a calibration run utilizing my SpyderPro colorimeter, I used to be in a position to dial that in to a mean of 1.21, so it’s attainable to get superb outcomes (usually, something beneath a mean of two.0 is taken into account well-calibrated).

Response time is superb with no ghosting by any means. I might anticipate nothing much less from an OLED gaming monitor, and notably one which runs at 240Hz. Testing within the BlurBuster’s TestUFO Ghosting Test, there was no ghosting by any means. In-game, it is equally crisp with movement readability that’s on par with the competitors, which is to say: pretty much as good as any monitor might be at this level. Now, your ability will must be equally matched to this degree of readability. Making a headshot mid-spin remains to be a ability that takes equally matched response time, however this removes yet another glass ceiling for pro-level play.

The expertise of day by day driving the monitor goes to differ from individual to individual. As I discussed earlier than, for productiveness, that textual content warping might be distracting. I attempted utilizing it for a little bit of every little thing throughout my take a look at window, and it is not a monitor I might select if I used to be going to be writing or studying. Most of the time I used to be at my PC for inventive work and video enhancing specifically, it was significantly better.

I particularly appreciated it for video enhancing. The potential to see extra of the timeline and have it wrap round visually a bit extra made enhancing extra environment friendly. Though I might be remiss to go away out that this could even be true if the curve wasn’t there in any respect. Simply having the ability to view extra of the timeline at any given level permits that effectivity. The curve simply enhances the expertise… if it is to your style.

And that proper there’s the crux of this monitor. You have to like the curve, and it is not a on condition that you’ll, even in case you take pleasure in different less-curved displays. 800R is deep. It’s made to simulate having two curved displays in encompass mode with out a bezel in between. If you have been a PC gamer for a very long time and have tried this your self, then you definitely’re more likely to really feel proper at dwelling. If the thought sounds ludicrous, then it is in all probability greatest to stay to a shallower curve.

I fall into that camp, having tried this setup myself only some years in the past. Regretfully, I solely had 32-inch curved displays to attempt it with, and it dominated not simply my desk however what felt like half of my workplace, and since they had been every 1440p, it was extraordinarily troublesome to run. It simply wasn’t sensible. But for driving video games, flight sims, and even many first-person video games like Doom Eternal, it was fairly immersive. It may also be fairly darn enrapturing.

So I prefer it. I actually prefer it. It’s an ideal match for video games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, however as somebody drawn to such a curvature within the first place, I additionally discover so much to take pleasure in with it in different genres too. I discovered myself scooting nearer to the display than I often sit in Baldur’s Gate 3, so it will occupy extra of my peripheral imaginative and prescient. In Battlefield 2042, it felt a bit unusual at first, however quickly I used to be immersed within the sport, feeling like I had my very own wraparound view of the livid fray earlier than me.

At least for me. That’s the factor. This kind of show is so subjective that I might solely suggest choosing it up blind when you have a return coverage you’ll be able to depend on. The high quality of the monitor itself is superb, however the expertise of utilizing it’s one thing you actually cannot know with out making an attempt it or one other that’s related for your self. If you prefer it, you may in all probability come to downright adore it in time. If you do not, you might simply discover that your costly new gaming monitor is simply plain untenable.