Acer Nitro XV3 (XV273K)
ACER’S NEW NITRO XV3 IS ITS MOST AFFORDABLE 4K 144HZ GAMING PANEL YET.
IN THE MARKET for a 27-inch 4K 144Hz gaming monitor? Then things just got interesting. Such screens normally come with hefty four-figure price tags. But the new Acer Nitro XV3 is shaking things up.
It’s just one of three 27-inch 4K 144Hz models Acer now offers. And it’s by far the cheapest, coming in well under $1,500. Granted, it’s still expensive enough to be out of reach for many gamers. But when you consider that Acer’s own Predator X27 is nearly double the money, the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ actually is double the money, and the Acer Predator XB3 will cost you several hundred more, suddenly the new Nitro XV3 seems like a bit of a bargain.
At first glance, the new Acer Nitro XV3 looks like a dead ringer for its Acer Predator XB3 sibling. You get very much the same chassis and stand design bar minor cosmetic features, such as the ‘Acer’ rather than ‘Predator’ branding on the lower bezel and the cheaper Nitro model’s silver stand feet versus black items on the Predator.
The Nitro even comes with the same clip-on hood as the Predator, which is designed to minimise glare. Overall, it feels reasonably well put together, even if black plastic rather dominates proceedings, and boasts a robust and fully adjustable stand.
As for the panel specs, for the most part, the two screens look like dead ringers, too. In both cases it’s an IPS panel with 3,840 by 2,160 pixels, a maximum refresh of 144Hz, 1,000:1 static contrast and 90 per cent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour space. What’s more, both screens are HDR400 certified, which technically makes them HDR capable, but only in strict terms.
The HDR400 standard is the very lowest level of HDR compatibility and the peak brightness of 400 nits it implies is a long way off the 600 or 1000 nits produced by true HDR monitors. For the record, you don’t get USB Type-C connectivity, which is a bit of a pity.
Anyway, at this point you may be wondering why anyone would choose the more expensive Predator model over this Nitro XV3. The most obvious answer is adaptive sync technology. The Nitro XV3 makes do with AMD’s FreeSync, where the Predator packs Nvidia G-Sync.
Fire up the Acer Nitro XV3 and you’ll struggle to subjectively pick it from its more expensive siblings. That’s true even of the much more expensive Acer Predator X27 if you’re running in SDR rather than HDR mode. The more expensive X27’s local dimming capability and higher peak brightness give it a clear edge when it comes to displaying HDR content. It’s both brighter and capable of much, much stronger contrast.
If you absolutely must have the best possible HDR support, this isn’t the panel to go for. However, even the most expensive screens in this segment – ones that offer local dimming technology – are far from the last word in HDR rendering. HDR support in games and video content is hardly universal, either.
The primary conundrum facing the Acer Nitro XV3 is whether it gives too much up in return for the cost savings it offers versus other 27-inch 4K 144hz panels. For the most part, we’d say no.