Review on Acer Predator XB273 Pbmiprzx FHD 32" Gaming Monitor, 270Hz, Wide Screen, ‎XB323U Gxbmiiphzx, HDMI by John Herrera

So it pains me (literally) to write a negative review for this monitor as I really wanted to like it because it basically said everything I wanted in a new monitor (and especially considering how much I spent paid for it!). But I think maybe I'm just getting used to my 1440p 27" IPS Acer Predator from a few years ago with its perfectly smooth and sharp image (except for the amazing new color variety in the new IPS technology). At a larger size, even at a distance of 3ft, I really notice the lower pixel density, especially in terms of Windows fonts, documents and the browser (game graphics/fonts always looked great) This combined with the new higher overall brightness for HDR -Certification, in my opinion caused me to have a lot of eye strain and headaches, I tried to play around with the settings (another big problem) but nothing helped, lowering the brightness, using the built-in blue light filter in addition to the windows -Night light and scaling the OS to 125-150% helped a little but trying to read fonts, was still a problem. So overall great for gaming but not so much for productivity/general use. I wanted something forward looking and bigger (since 27 inches is way too small for my FOV) but since I don't play with HDR that's not what I need. Can I really comment Pros: - Gorgeous colors! Assassin's Creed Odyssey looks really great in water, especially with its blue/green diversity (blue/green has the most color diversity on this monitor thanks to the Adobe color space). Lots of customizable options (though not all). of them can be made under the same circumstances.) - Good size overall. With new games I could notice a lot more small details (although the old ones suffer a bit). - Arrived with no hardware issues. (EDIT: This may not be true compared to the version I used which I later received). Stable, ergonomic and beautiful stand without any strange additional LEDs. Disadvantages: Less pixel density (mainly noticeable around fonts). Too bright for general use. I think these two combinations give me eye pain/headaches. The menu buttons on the back are a silly decision. It was easier to load the Acer monitor widget, but even that doesn't have all the settings (like switching to sRGB or dynamic color mode). - Backlighting (common with IPS, of course, but seemed much more noticeable) on this monitor, especially on the sides. It must have some kind of dimmer, but I'm not sure if it actually worked). (EDIT: The new one I got had MUCH less bleeding than this one). - Comes with a generic DisplayPort cable (I think you'll want to get VESA certification if you really plan on using HDR). So yeah, I ended up going back and forth to my old 27-inch Predator sRGB monitor because at least I can play and work on it without laying down. I will try again with this size in 4K if I can get a new graphics card. UPDATE 2/21/22: After returning this one and trying the Samsung Odyssey G7 32-in and not liking this one either (the curve was too strong, VA flickering in dark scenes, some color distortion at the edges and also hurt my eyes), I decided to order a used version of this monitor from Revain (and thank the person who returned it for giving me a much better experience and also curse them for NOT sending back any cable or documentation. ). This used version was MUCH better than the one I got brand new. I still had to adjust some settings, but I was able to get this to the point where it didn't hurt my eyes. I still think the increased base brightness for these "HDR" monitors is part of the eye strain issue. But I think the new color technology could also be partly to blame for the oversaturated colors in media made for sRGB.