Acer Predator XB273K Monitor Review

The stand of the Acer Predator XB273K is wide and supports the monitor well. The legs are thin and give you space to put small things in front of the monitor.

The ergonomics of the Predator XB3 are mediocre. It has good height adjustment and excellent tilt range, and with a little effort you'll be able to place it in a comfortable position.

The back is plain and made of plastic. The hole at the bottom of the stand pole serves for cable management and there is a plastic cover to hide the inputs. Also, near the top of the stand pole, there is a small plastic clip that opens when you click it, so it can hold your headphones.

There's also a fan, similar to the Acer Predator X27, on the back of the monitor that helps with heat dissipation. It's always running, but is extremely quiet.

The borders on the Acer XB273K have an average thickness and there is no gap between the borders and the screen. The borders were measured without the blinder screens.

When the monitor is placed on its stand, it's quite thick and can't be placed close to a wall. If you VESA mount it, it won't protrude much. The height adjustment is on an angle, so the actual thickness varies depending on the height. The reported measurement is from the top. If measured from the bottom, the thickness is 7.7 inches.

The build quality of the Predator XB3 is good. There are no gaps or loose ends and the monitor feels very sturdy.

The native contrast ratio on the Predator XB3 is mediocre. Blacks look like gray in a dark room and the performance is in the lower range of IPS monitors similar to the LG 27UD58-B.

This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. The above video is provided for reference only.

The Acer Predator XB273K has good SDR peak brightness and you should have no issues placing it in a relatively bright room. You won't notice any variation in peak brightness with different content.

The HDR peak brightness for the Acer Predator XB273K is decent. It gets decently bright, but the monitor can't deliver bright highlights the way they are meant to be.

The horizontal viewing angles of the Predator XB273K are disappointing, which is surprising for an IPS monitor. In fact, it's the worst performance from the ones we've measured so far. Colors shift and brightness drops faster than other IPS monitors. But what hurts performance the most is that the black levels don't stay relatively constant throughout our test as they do in all other IPS monitors we've tested so far. Instead, black levels rise higher than our threshold when you look at the monitor from the right.

In normal use you shouldn't experience this, as it's rare that you look at a monitor at 45 degrees.

The vertical viewing angles are good, as expected from an IPS monitor. Black levels stay low and the image doesn't wash out. Unfortunately, when looking from above, you might experience some decrease in brightness and loss of color accuracy at relatively small angles. This doesn't happen when you look at the screen from below.

The gray uniformity of the Acer XB273K is excellent. There is some vignetting that you can spot at the corners, but the center of the screen is uniform so you shouldn't expect any dirty screen effect while browsing the web. In darker scenes, the uniformity is even better.

The black uniformity of the Acer Predator XB273K is bad. There is noticeable backlight bleed in the top left corner and generally along the edges. This is not unusual for IPS monitors, and it's only noticeable in dark scenes in a very dark room.

The out-of-the-box accuracy of this monitor is good. Although some inaccuracies are obvious in the grays and the color temperature is a little warm, color inaccuracies can hardly be spotted by the untrained eye. Gamma follows the target closely, but most bright scenes are brighter than they should be.

This monitor has remarkable accuracy after calibration. Any remaining inaccuracies are so small than only with the aid of a colorimeter you can detect them. Gamma follows the target curve very closely and the color temperature is very close to the 6500K target.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and shouldn't be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

sRGB Picture Mode: User (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: User

Excellent SDR color gamut, very similar to the Dell U3219Q. It can display the entire sRGB color space, which is great, and it has very good coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, which is great for professional photo editing. If you're looking for even better coverage of the Adobe RGB space, check out the Acer Predator X27.

sRGB Picture Mode: User
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: User

Excellent SDR color volume. The monitor can display most colors in its gamut at almost all brightness levels. Unfortunately, the low contrast doesn't allow it to display dark saturated colors very well.

DCI P3 Picture Mode: User
Rec. 2020 Picture Mode: User

Good HDR color gamut. The Acer XB273K can display a wide color gamut and although the coverage of the DCI-P3 color space is similar to the Acer Predator X27, in the wider Rec. 2020, the coverage is narrower.

DCI P3 Picture Mode:User
Rec. 2020 Picture Mode: User

Good HDR color volume, slightly better than the X27 in DCI P3. In Rec. 2020 the color volume isn't as good as the X27, and the XB273K is limited by its color gamut and its low native contrast ratio, so it can't produce colors as bright as pure white or display dark, saturated colors very well.

The Acer Predator XB273K doesn't have any signs of image retention. Our test depicts some faint image retention after 2 minutes of rest time and again after 6 minutes of rest time. As you can see in the following images, this isn't image retention, but rather noise detected from our test. Also, our scoring isn't correct since it penalizes for the noise it detected. In the next test bench update, we'll update this test.

Reference image
IR after 0 min recovery
IR after 2 min recovery
IR after 4 min recovery
IR after 6 min recovery
IR after 8 min recovery
IR after 10 min recovery

Excellent gradient handling, with inevitable signs of 8-bit banding.

There is some extremely minor vertical color bleed, but this isn't at all noticeable with regular content.

The Predator XB273K has decent reflection handling, just like the Acer VG271UP and the Gigabyte Aorus AD27QD. It's recommended, however, to avoid direct light and the included blinders can help to reduce glare from side sources.

The response time of the Acer Predator XB273K is extremely fast and motion is crisp with only a little blur trail behind fast-moving content. The level of overdrive can be changed between three settings: 'Off', 'Normal', and 'Extreme'. We recommend the 'Normal' setting, as the 'Extreme' setting has severe overshoot in some transitions, especially in dark scenes. You can see the charts and the motion photos for the three levels at the table above.

This monitor has a completely flicker-free backlight at all levels, so it's a good choice for those who are bothered by flicker. Unfortunately, there isn't an optional Black Frame Insertion feature to help make motion look crisper.

The Acer Predator XB273K has an excellent refresh rate and supports G-SYNC for a nearly tear-free gaming experience. The VRR range is excellent provided you use the DisplayPort. If you use the HDMI port, the 4k VRR maximum is 60Hz due to bandwidth limitations, and the HDMI VRR range at 1080p is 24Hz to 98Hz.

The Predator XB273K has remarkably low input lag. This is great news for competitive gamers when every millisecond counts. Unfortunately, the input lag at 60Hz is slightly high, which isn't good news for those who intend to use it with consoles.

We performed our HDR test at 98Hz, as it was the highest possible refresh rate the monitor could do on DisplayPort 1.4 on HDR 10-bit.

The Predator XB273 is a 27" 4k monitor that offers you great screen real estate and excellent detail for your games or your work. It's a good option for multitasking.