Acer XF251Q Monitor Review

The Acer XF251Q has a good design. The stand has a large footprint but supports the monitor well. It has great ergonomics, and can easily be adjusted to an optimal viewing position. There is an included headphone bracket that attaches to the stand, which is great. It is mostly made of plastic, but it has a good build quality and there shouldn't be any issues.

The stand has a large footprint, and it supports the monitor very well. The is very little wobble when knocked or when adjusting settings.

Great ergonomics. The Acer XF251Q can easily be adjusted to an optimal viewing position. It can rotate to a portrait/landscape orientation, and unlike some monitors with this feature, it can rotate in either direction.

The back is plain with a simple design. There is a small hole in the stand that works well for cable management. There is also a headphone bracket that can be clipped on to the top of the stand.

The borders are thin, with very little gap between the edge of the bezel and the display. This is a great display for a multi-monitor setup.

The stand leans slightly back, so the monitor appears thicker when viewed from the side. It is significantly thicker when on the stand than when VESA mounted.

The monitor has a good build quality. It is mostly made from plastic, but it is solid and seems well built, similar to the ASUS VG245H.

Mediocre contrast ratio, but one of the best TN monitors we've tested so far; only slightly worse than the ASUS VG245H.

There is no local dimming feature on this monitor. The video is for reference only.

The Acer XF251Q has decent peak brightness, with no variation in brightness with different content, which is great. The peak brightness is very similar to the ASUS VG245H.

HDR is not supported on this monitor.

Disappointing horizontal viewing angles typical of TN monitors. The brightness drops by half at about 45°, which is mediocre, but the black levels increase sharply after about 30°, and the colors shift significantly at about the same angle.

Disappointing vertical viewing angles; slightly better than the ASUS VG245H but worse than the ViewSonic XG2402. The XF251Q is definitely best viewed at eye level.

The Acer XF251Q bmiirx has good gray uniformity. The edges of the screen are quite a bit darker due to the poor vertical viewing angles. The center of the screen is more uniform, and there is very little dirty screen effect (DSE). In near-dark scenes, the uniformity is better, and there is almost no DSE.

Decent black uniformity, one of the best we've ever tested on a monitor. There is some clouding visible across the entire screen, but there is very little flashlighting, which is great.

Out of the box, the Acer XF251Q bmiirx has poor accuracy. The white balance dE and color dE are very high, to the point where we expect most people will notice the errors. The gamma does not follow the target curve at all, but despite the strange look of the curve we don't expect this to be noticeable for most people.

After calibration, nearly all of the white balance and color errors were corrected. Gamma follows the target curve nearly perfectly, but some scenes will be too bright. The color temperature is nearly spot-on the 6500 K target. Some colors are still inaccurate, but this shouldn't be noticeable by most people.

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

s.RGB Picture Mode: User (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: User

Great SDR color gamut. Excellent s.RGB coverage, but it doesn't quite cover the entire gamut. Coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space isn't as good, and is not ideal for professional photo or video editing.

s.RGB Picture Mode: User
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: User

Great SDR color volume. It is mainly limited by the native contrast, as it can't produce deep, dark colors very well. Like many monitors, it can't produce very bright blues, but overall it fills out its gamut well in most luminance levels.

HDR is not supported on this monitor.

HDR is not supported on this monitor.

There are no signs of temporary image retention, even immediately after displaying our high-contrast static test image for 10 minutes.

The Acer XF251Q bmiirx has very good gradient reproduction. There is some noticeable banding in darker colors, but this shouldn't be very noticeable under most viewing conditions.

Perfect color control, as there is no measurable color bleed.

Very good reflection handling. There should be no issues using this monitor in a bright room.

Over Drive Off
Over Drive Off Motion Photo
Over Drive Normal
Over Drive Normal Motion Photo
Over Drive Extreme
Over Drive Extreme Motion Photo

The XF251Q has an excellent fast response time, but there is significant overshoot with any Over Drive setting. This causes some noticeable haloing around moving objects, as seen in the above motion photos.

When connected to a FreeSync compatible device, like a PC with an AMD graphics card or an Xbox One S/X, the Over Drive option is locked to 'Normal'. On our test PC it was impossible to change the setting even with FreeSync disabled. On the Xbox On S/X however, disabling FreeSync allowed us to change the Over Drive setting.

The Acer XF251Q bmiirx is completely flicker-free, as it directly dims the backlight without using PWM. Unfortunately, it does not have an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur.

The Acer XF251Q has a 75 Hz native refresh rate, which while better than a 60 Hz monitor, might not be fast enough for more serious gamers. It supports FreeSync VRR, but has a limited range, and no LFC as the VRR minimum is too close to the native refresh rate. This means that in more intense scenes, there may be tearing if the frame rate drops below 40 fps

Update 01/15/2019: Unfortunately, the XF251Q is not compatible with NVIDIA's new FreeSync drivers, as it does not have a DisplayPort connection.

Excellent low input lag, even with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz. Non-native resolutions are not properly supported, as they are always upscaled to 1080p without you knowing, and there is no option to disable upscaling.

The Acer XF251Q has a 24.5" screen and a 1080p resolution, good for casual use, but many users may find this too small for more serious work.

There are two HDMI inputs and a VGA port, but no DisplayPort or DVI. There is a 3.5mm analog audio out port, it is a headphone port with adjustable volume on the monitor's on screen display.

There are a few additional additional features on the XF251Q. It has built-in speakers, but does not support HDR.

• Game Modes: There are three preset configurations for Action, Racing, and Sports, and a fourth setting that can be customized to your liking.
• Aim Point: There are three selectable cross-hairs that can be added, good for FPS games that don't have one.

• User Guide
• Audio cable
• VGA Cable
• Power Cable
• HDMI Cable
• Headphone Bracket