Design | 8.0 |
Picture Quality | 7.1 |
Motion | 8.9 |
Inputs | 9.2 |
The Acer Predator XB3 has a great design and closely resembles the Acer Predator X27. The stand is wide with thin legs and supports the monitor well. Alternatively, you can VESA mount it using the provided adapter. The ergonomics of the stand are decent and allow you to place it in a comfortable position with ease. The back of the monitor is made of plastic. Finally, the monitor also has some nice LED bias lighting to create a nice ambiance. Just like the X27, this monitor has blinder screens to minimize glare, and the overall build quality is great.
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.
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 picture quality on the Acer Predator XB273K is decent. Just like all IPS monitors, the contrast ratio is low and prevents the monitor from delivering deep blacks in a dark room and the lack of a local dimming feature can't improve things. It can get bright in SDR. In HDR, brightness is decent, but bright highlights might not show off. Surprisingly for an IPS monitor, our unit didn't have the wide viewing angles one would expect, but the gray uniformity, the SDR color gamut, and the gradient handling are excellent. Finally, reflection handling is just decent, but this is why the blinders are there.
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 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 RBG 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: UserRec. 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:UserRec. 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
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.
Excellent motion handling on the Acer Predator XB273K. It has a very fast response time that delivers motion with very little motion blur trail behind fast-moving objects. The monitor is flicker-free at all backlight levels, which is great. Finally, the monitor has native G-SYNC support and can deliver nearly tear-free games if you have an NVIDIA graphics card.
Mode | Response Time Chart | Motion Blur Photo |
Response Time Off | Chart | Photo |
Response Time Normal | Chart | Photo |
Response Time Extreme | Chart | Photo |
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 Acer Predator XB273K has a large 27" panel with 4k resolution, which is great for any use and allows you to see your work in great detail. It has a very low input lag at its native resolution and it feels very responsive.
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.
You can control the volume of the Analog Audio Out through the OSD, if you wish.
The Acer Predator XB273K is a basic gaming monitor with few additional features. It has a set of speakers and supports HDR10. The OSD is easy to navigate and includes some basic extra features.
The Acer Predator XB273 has speakers and supports HDR 10, but other than that, it has limited extra features.
We tested the Acer Predator XB273K, which is a 4k IPS gaming monitor. There are many other variants of the Predator lineup, which all support G-SYNC but with different sizes, panel types, resolutions, and refresh rates, a selection of which are listed in the table below.
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their monitor doesn't correspond to our review, let us know and we will update the review. Note that some tests such as the gray uniformity may vary between individual units.
Model | Size | Panel Type | Resolution | Native Refresh |
XB273K | 27" | IPS | 4k | 120Hz |
XB271HU bmiprz | 27" | IPS | 1440p | 144Hz |
XB271HU Abmiprz | 27" | TN | 1440p | 144Hz |
X27 | 27" | IPS | 4k | 240Hz |
Z35P | 35" | VA | 3440x1440 | 100Hz |
The Acer Predator XB273K we reviewed was manufactured in January 2019.
The Acer Predator XB273K is a great gaming monitor, but there are better options available. See our recommendations for the best monitors, the best 27 inch gaming monitors, and the best budget monitors.
The Acer Predator X27 is a bit better than the Acer Predator XB273K. The X27 has wider viewing angles and a local dimming feature that helps dark room performance. The X27 has also wider coverage of the Adobe RGB space, which is important for those in the media and publishing business. The XB273K has a lower input lag, which is great for gamers.
The ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q is a bit better than the Acer Predator XB273K. The ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q has better ergonomic adjustments so you can place it comfortably on your desk. Its viewing angles are slightly wider than the Acer's, which is good if you often share your screen. Finally, it has an optional black frame insertion feature to help make motion crisper. The Acer Predator XB273K, on the other hand, has full 4k resolution and supports HDR so you can enjoy the newest HDR games.
The Gigabyte Aorus AD27QD is a bit better than the Acer Predator XB273K. The Aorus has a higher refresh rate, better ergonomics so you can place it to a comfortable position with ease, supports FreeSync, and has a BFI feature to help improve the appearance of motion. The Acer, on the other hand, has a better resolution and can display more details of your game on the screen. It also natively supports G-SYNC.
The Acer Predator XB273K is slightly better than the Acer Predator XB271HU. The XB273K has a higher resolution to display more details on your screen and supports HDR, great for HDR gaming. The XB271HU has a higher refresh rate, a BFI feature that helps improve the appearance of motion, and better ergonomics to help position it comfortably.
The Acer Predator XB273K and the BenQ EL2870U have different panels, each with advantages and disadvantages. In this case, however, the XB273K is much better in most aspects. The XB273 has a faster native refresh rate, better viewing angles, a faster response time that delivers crisper motion, and you can position it to your liking with ease. The BenQ is slightly larger.
The Predator XB273K is a good monitor for mixed usage. It has a 4k resolution that displays great detail, favoring multitasking. The input lag is very low and the monitor feels very responsive and supports G-SYNC to please gamers. Unfortunately, the contrast ratio is low and dark room performance is hurt. It can get fairly bright in SDR and its HDR brightness is decent, but can't make bright highlights show off in HDR movies.
This is a good monitor for office use. The 4k resolution and 27" screen allow you to easily multitask. The viewing angles are not as great as other IPS monitors but nonetheless, you can share your work with your colleagues without issue. It has good gray uniformity, which is great for web browsing and decent ergonomics and won't trouble you to place it comfortably.
This is a great monitor for playing games. It has a very low input lag and is very responsive, great for even competitive gamers. It supports G-SYNC for nearly tear-free gaming, but unfortunately, the input lag is higher at 60Hz and this might disappoint those with consoles. The response time is very fast and motion looks crisp without much motion blur behind fast-moving content, and the 4k resolution can display more details of your gaming arena.
This is a good monitor for consuming multimedia. It has an impressive 4k resolution that can display 4k movies at their native format, but unfortunately, the low contrast doesn't favor dark room viewing. The viewing angles are good for watching from the side although other IPS monitors perform better. It has a low input lag, decent reflection handling, and can get fairly bright for a bright room, which is where the monitor performs best.
The Predator XB273K is a good monitor for media creation. It has a good size screen with excellent resolution, so you can put more of your work on it. It has decent ergonomics and, although the viewing angles are not as good as other IPS monitors, you can still share your screen with clients or colleagues.
The XB273K is a decent monitor for HDR gaming. It's limited by the low contrast and bad black uniformity, but it gets decently bright in HDR. It supports G-SYNC for nearly tear-free gaming and has a very low input lag that makes it very responsive. Finally, the 4k resolution will display more of your game on your screen.