In this article, we’re going to be doing a comparison between the Acer XB271HU and Asus PG279Q. Now, as far as I’m concerned these are your go-to monitors if you’re looking to upgrade right now. They bring together a combination of IPS, G-Sync, and high refresh rate. There’s 144 hertz native Refresh rate that is overclockable up to 165 Hz. So this is something that I have been dying for so long, and I know a lot of you guys have as well, and I’m here to let you know they did it.
The gaming experience on this display is phenomenal, and I’ve been gaming with my DELL U3415W for the past year, and I’m contemplating making the switch. So without further ado, we’ll be going straight into the features, starting with the build quality.
The build quality of the Acer is superb. Straight out of the box I was very impressed with the stand; it’s a kind of duck foot kind of deal that is very similar to the previous integrations of the ROG panels that they have done in the past so very pleased with the stand. It’s quite girthy, but it does provide a very stable platform for the monitor. The bezels as well are extremely thin are both on the top left and right-hand sides even the bottom bezel which is slightly thicker is still very tidy looking. Now the reason that they’ve been able to keep that bottom bezel tidy-looking is that they’ve incorporated the on-screen display controls on the back right-hand panel. These consist of four or five buttons as well as a joystick, and this wasn’t something that I was terribly comfortable with when I first got it it’s not something I’ve used before but I was able to draw really on it over a couple of weeks of testing.
The joystick was phenomenal concerning being able to navigate to the menu quickly and efficiently with a minimal amount of ‘miss-clicks.’ So that being said let’s move on to the aesthetics of the Asus gaming monitor and I can tell you now at least in my opinion it is gorgeous.
It’s something that I value- having a nice slick looking design on a monitor is a game orientated. Performance is always appreciated, but these add-ons are great. I want something that is slick, minimal and will mesh with my setup and that’s exactly what the Asus does. The Asus ROG logo on the bottom of the monitor which looks very nice can be turned on and off using the display on-screen options. It is not distracting, but you can also turn that off and have it conceding as just a nice premium looking monitor. Overall the Asus monitor was extremely polished and premium. It feels, looks and smells very premium. Now moving on to the build quality of the Acer, they have finally listened to the gaming community and gotten the message that glossy plastic does not look good, so they’ve gotten rid of the very orange, very plastic, very glossy stand of the Acer XB270HU and replaced it with a full-metal construction red chromium stand that is very hefty, very solid and so much more better than the previous integration.
It does look like it was inspired by the Australian military, so if you are an Australian gamer who gets mad at Lance this might be the monitor for you. But apart from that, I was very pleased taking it out of the box how hefty and solid it did feel. It looks good as well. The bezels on the monitor are extremely thin. Now by extremely thin I mean these are the thinnest bezels I have ever seen on a monitor be it IPS, TN, whatever. They are very thin, and they give very good credit to the infinity display idea. The left, right, and top bezels are extremely thin, and it does look like the monitor is floating in the air. But it is let down by the bottom bezel, so the way that Acer has done the on-screen display is that the on-screen display is on the bottom bezel. Now it is quite thick, and it does take away from that very slim profile that they have developed with a left, right and top bezels which are a bit of a letdown, but it still does look very pleasing.
The OSD is controlled by six tactile buttons on the bottom right-hand side of the monitor, and I have absolutely no complaints with how they feel or operate. But moving on to the aesthetics I’m not as thrilled with this one as I was with the Asus. I think that while they have done very well with the bezels on the left, right and top sides the bottom line is just it does stand out and stick out like a thought sort of thump especially with the Predator logo printed in the middle of it and I am not a fan of that kind of gamer orientated look.
You actually get a bit of flex when pressing down on the plastic finish of the bottom bezel and it’s very much the same case on the 27-inch model that I had here as well there is quite a bit of flex within the bottom bezel as well as the logo it feels like you can pick off the plastic, the silver covering of the logo as well. So it does feel like Acer got quite some callers to bring that price down to make it more competitive within the market. The Dell monitor on the other hand that I have seen has the plastic bezel incredibly flushed, and it doesn’t flex onto your fingers. Now you’re not going to be flexing and prodding your monitor all the time, but stuff like that made me kind of take a step back and thought Acer had taken a few steps backward with this monitor.
Overall the build quality and aesthetics I’m going to have to give to the Asus with a glowing recommendation compared to the Acer. It does feel like Asus have gone and polished all the corners are made them strong. The monitor is perfect, and I have no grievances with the monitor at all regarding its physical appearance whereas with the Acer I do feel like they cut a few corners and it does impact on the overall finish of the product. Now one thing I think I should mention to the Acer monitor was the amount of wobble that I discovered while I was typing at my desk. Now my desk is fairly steady. I’ve had my 34-inch Dell on there for a while and that you would think would be quite susceptible to typing and the wobble that you might get. But the Acer I found was the worst out of all three monitors. I tried both monitors at an equal height, on the same level, same positions on the desk and the Acer just does have a tendency to wobble while you’re typing.
So if you were intent on getting this monitor make sure you have a very solid desk to support the monitor on. Now I don’t know if this is consistent across all monitors but the sample that I had you did get some wobble which was a bit frustrating.
Now let’s talk about the panel quality of the monitor. Let me say straight off the bat that both monitors- once they’re calibrated, are very very very similar concerning the picture that they produce. When I first got the Asus out of the box, I was blown away by how vivid and crisp the image was compared to the Dell that I have right here. With the Acer, I wasn’t as impressed when I got the monitor straight out of the box there was a very yellow tint to the whites which was a little bit concerning. But after some calibration, it was fine, so the image quality regarding both of the monitors are very very similar so you won’t be able to tell the difference. However, I did feel that the Asus had a slight edge regarding how crispy and punchy the colors were, and I found myself gravitating towards using the Asus as my primary monitor while I had both on my desk. So while I say that both are the same kind of league the Asus does edged out the Acer regarding panel quality that’s my opinion. Now let’s talk about the on-screen display.
Now there are a couple of ways in which the monitors differentiate themselves regarding panel quality, the build quality, but I think the biggest one by far is the on-screen display. The Asus on screen display is excellent, and the Acer on-screen display is one of the worst I have ever used. It feels clunky, uninsured of poorly thought out and there’s sort variety of reasons. Number one being that the icons in which the menus are defined by the functionalities defined by our very ambiguous. It results in a lot of miss-clicks and a lot of you trying to figure out where exactly why in context the rest of the menu. The Asus, on the other hand, was very clearly thought out, and that with the inclusion of the joystick means it was a very fluid, a quick experience.
In software development there’s the 80 20 rule where 80%of the usage is defined by 20% of the functionality and I think that Asus stood by that and this fact that most of the functionality that you would use is very clearly displayed to you whereas for the Acer you have to go digging around and trying to find out where everything is, and it’s very frustrating. Every time I went into the OSD I’ve got quite frustrated basically. Regarding functionality both are pretty much the same. Both offer light burst; both offer a way to overclock the monitor which is through the on-screen display, and it’s easy to do on both of the monitors. All you do is select the setting, increase that too from 144 to 165 and it’s done. It’s simple, no extra software anything, it’s very easy. Again it’s the same on both monitors, so there’s no difference.
In conclusion, the Asus is better by a country mile. It’s not perfect- they’re a couple of quirks, but I found the experience of using the Asus so much more enjoyable than the Acer. And that’s one of the reasons why I gravitated towards the Asus, in the end, was that the on-screen display was a lot easier to use. Now granted you’re not going to be spending a hell of a lot of time on the on-screen display, but it still affects in the general ease of use of the monitor. Now concerning the video and picture modes available I found that a lot of the pictures modes on the Acer just they weren’t good, they weren’t useful including the gamer mode. So both of the monitors have a gamer mode setting in which you can turn on the on-screen cursor or FPS counter that both work equally well. But it’s not something that I would use every day because I found it quite distracting especially playing stuff like counter-strike. It’s just it’s not very usable, and I prefer just having my screen like this.
But concerning the video modes, Acer’s video modes were pretty atrocious. The standard movie setting I didn’t use any of those because it just muddles the colors the fact that they just didn’t look nice at all. So I used a custom setting after I calibrated it myself and I suggest you do that as well both on the Asus and the Acer. The Asus does provide a much more usable set of modes used, but I still would suggest calibrating the monitor to your exact specifications. Now let’s talk about the most exciting thing about these monitors and that is how they perform from a gameplay perspective, so both of these monitors whether you get the ASUS or the Acer you going to end up with the same gameplay experience as the other. Both are phenomenal. Like, seriously good. I wasn’t sold on the idea of G-Sync from the geek guy. I was curious about it but I’ve never actually used in combination with high refresh rates, and I can tell you now that I will be getting a G-Sync panel this year because it is it does make a tangible difference. The gameplay feels a lot smoother, a lot crisper especially in first person shooter games. Now I was playing Battlefield 4, Metro Last Light, BioShock Infinite and each of them I enjoyed more as a direct result of the G-Sync and higher frames which weren’t what I was expecting. I was waiting for the same level of enjoyment or something like this which is six limited to 60 hertz and not G-Sync but at the end of the day I enjoyed my time to game a lot more with the G-Sync and with the higher refresh rate, so that’s something that I’m going to have to evaluate in my own set up this year. Concerning the gameplay performance on the Asus v.s. the Acer, again both are the same.
So if you were looking for a cheaper option and all you are concerned about was the performance of the monitor, go for the Acer. It’s built well. You are compromising on a few little premium features, and I do feel the Asus is a more well-rounded product, and it feels like a more well-rounded product. But regarding the gameplay experience both are the same. There you have it the Acer XB271HU and the Asus ROG PG279Q. Now for which one I would recommend personally I would go with the Asus. If you’re concerned with how it looks and the on-screen display, I do feel like the Asus is a more well-rounded product compared to the Acer. I felt like with the Acer that they kind of quite a few corners to get that couple hundred dollars less than the Asus and that really shows in terms of the build quality from the shakes, the flex of the front bezel and the on-screen display which is really where I think they really did cut the corners. The Asus even for a couple of hundred dollars more I think justifies its premium price over the Acer because it does just feel like a better product. So regarding what I would recommend, I would say go for the Asus. However, if your only concern with the gameplay and you don’t mind cutting back on a couple of those premium features then go for the Acer. It’s still a fantastic monitor, and you’re not going to go wrong with either.