Acer XB281HK

GMac11 · 22 Apr 2016 at 20:17

A general wondering does anyone own or have they used one of these monitors?

I picked one up for £470 but it won't be arriving until next week. I understand it's TN etc etc but I figure it's gotta be worth a try, I have had a succession of IPS/PLS panels in the last few years and I haven't been able to get accustomed to the IPS glow.

So thought if I'm going 4k/Gsync I may as well save a few quid and try this out, or a couple of hundred quid to be more exact.

Quite a lot of professional reviews online but very few user reviews that I can find.

VEGACORTEZ · 23 Apr 2016 at 07:15

I had the previous model and it was great for TN. Flat 2.2 gamma, great colours and greyscale once calibrated. Superb response times for 60hz, overshoot free. I now have their 32" g-sync 4k one and again superb. I wouldn't worry at all.

GMac11 · 23 Apr 2016 at 08:55

Funny you should say that because I was very close to getting the 32 but I couldn't bring myself to spend that on a monitor,although I'd say it's well worth it.
Plus I had a benq 32, albeit it was 1440p but it was too darned big for any sort of desk work.
What made you change up?

VEGACORTEZ · 23 Apr 2016 at 16:52

IPS with very low glow in the corners is better than the TN for picture to me. The gamma shift top to bottom on TN can be annoying. The main thing is i felt that 28" wasn't big enough to fully appreciate the 4k goodness for me personally although 32" is not quite as sharp. Your arms for using keyboard and mouse dictate how close the monitor can get and 32" suits my needs perfectly. The only thing you miss are the TN response times being quicker so games are less blurry on movement. I have no issue sat 2.5-3 ft from the 32" screen personally but that's just me. Either way both were fantastic but bigger size coupled with low glow IPS was a winner for me.

GMac11 · 29 Apr 2016 at 23:28

Got the monitor on Tuesday and have been mucking around with it since but haven't had a real chance to put it through its paces, have a free Saturday so bring it on!
Initial impressions are almost what I expected or better. On the desktop you definitely notice the lower colour fidelity but I have to admit while gaming or watching videos I definitely don't miss my PLS panel at all.
One curious thing I noticed that even though the colours aren't as full, partiularly on F1 2014, the image just seems to have more depth - IMO I would put this down to 3840x2160 resolution. The higher resution just gives more 'natural' depth almost.
And the G Sync module is just heaven. Just Cause 3 is a delight to play (I even get playable FPS at 4k on my 980(regular not Ti) with the lack of screen tearing. And on F1 I never even noticec I had screen tearing during races until I compared the 2 monitors!

danielanthony · 30 Apr 2016 at 10:48

I've got the 32" version, it's great, I had a HP wide screen before but no gsync. This is much smoother and the colours are great, I'm comparing this to my 5k iMac btw. Mainly using it for my lab machine with a bit of gaming, much prefer 4K over widescreen resolution.