Acer Predator X34A Review - The Ultimate Monitor

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the Predator x34a the top end gaming monitor from Acer packing resolution of 3440 x440 a rich IPS panel and a refresh rate of 100 htz this could well be the ultimate display but is it the best display on the market and how does it compare to the Asus pg348q join me for the full review to find out hey what's up guys and welcome back to another video in the studio now today we're doing the video I've been waiting so so long to do and I know a lot of you guys have been waiting for this as well and it's the review of this beautiful thing right here which is the ACA Predator x34a now of course everyone really knows the story about the ACA Predator when it came out the x34 was regarded as the best gaming monitor out there but there's been a few issues quality control contr issues there has been an Asus rival that had more adjustments and now we're at the stage where ASA have released the x34a which is a slight tweak slight revision to the original x34 mainly bringing with it a better stand that has all the adjustments you would ever want but is this a good gaming monitor is this the best gaming Monitor and how does it compare to the pg 348 Q from Asus all will be revealed in this video but before we get there it's time to take a proper look at the monitor itself and to do that we have to put it on the desk and immediately you'll notice this is one good looking display whether it's on or whether it is off this is a very minimalist design I mean Predator branded stuff is often quite over the top and other than the Predator logo that's right in the middle of the monitor which personally I don't really like I can get over it it's not a massive deal but personally I'd prefer if it just said Acer but this of course is part of the Predator line so it has the preditor branding but aside from that I really like the overall look and appearance of the display the stand itself it does a very good job of supporting the monitor this time on the x34a it's got all the adjustments you would want so it's got swivel so left and right tilt up and down and it's also got height adjust so no matter what sort of size desk you've got as long as you can accommodate a large 21 by9 for uh 1440 uh 3440 by 1440 display uh then you're going to get on with this very well and you shouldn't have any problems but if you do it does have a Visa Mount so you can mount this on a third party display uh Mount if you prefer as for the bezel on the display there's not really much to complain about here for the most part it's very very small there is a sort of faux bezel so while you've got your outer bezel that you can see when the monitor is off when you do turn on the display there is a slight Black Box around the outside of the display area but it's still very minimalist and I don't think anyone's really going to have any complaints but it certainly is worth noting that once you get this thing turned on you will notice that there is a slight Black Box area but pretty much all the competition is doing this anyway and it's not really that much of a big deal so overall I really do like the front of the display but there is one massive thing to mention before we talk about the image quality and that is the curvature now I've said this many many times before curved TVs maybe if you have a Onan TV that's very big and you've got it in the right position then it might help but for most people I'd still recommend just looking at a flat TV when it comes to monitors though curving them can make a big difference to actually making them that little bit more comfortable now the reason for this is just because it's such a wide display and it's such a large display and it takes up quite a large amount of your peripheral vision if you have it flat I find the corners can appear a little bit too far away whereas the curve does help just make the monitor that little bit more comfortable to use and while some people definitely prefer a flat display I am definitely someone that prefers a curved display this one features a curvature of around about 3,800 R and while this isn't the most aggress aggressive curve uh you can get the ASA Predator z35 has a much more aggressive curve this strikes a very good balance between a curve that's comfortable to use and it's practical to use for General use and still being immersive in video games so overall I have to say I really do like the curvature as we move to the back of the monitor you'll find that we have a various amount of ports we've got USB hub we've got an audio jack for plugging anything in uh via HDMI which is sadly only HDMI 1.4 then still being able to rout our sound through some speakers or something like that but the only Port really that you're going to want to use here is the display port which is what you need for the g-sync and what you need for the full resolution or 3440 x440 at 100 htz now other notable things about the monitor include the onscreen display and the onscreen menus or the buttons to control the menus these are located under the front of the display on the right hand side and they're not too bad I mean once you've learned the system you can sort of navigate around fairly easily and it's fairly well laid fairly well laid out and it's fairly clear but it's rival the pg348q from Asus is Miles Ahead here this is one area where that is definitely the superior monitor because on that the menu was very clear everything was well laid out but navigating it was so seamless and so intuitive it was really easy to use sadly the buttons on this x34 they just can't really compete but realistically people are probably going to set up their monitor once leave it like that and so the buttons aren't really going to make that much of a difference to their buying decision but make no mistake the pg348 Q does have the superior menu options here so then that's pretty much everything you need to know about the display and how to set it up but of course the most important thing is what this thing is like to use what it's like to game on and how good the image quality is well this features over 100% of the srgb color space well I say over it's 100% of the srgb color space which means that you're going to get rich and vibrant colors thanks to that IPS panel now everything is suitable sharp because 3440 x440 is probably the optimum at the moment resolution ratio I would say on a display like this 34 in fit very nicely on your desk there are some larger monitors coming out like the 38 in one uh from LG but for most people I think this is going to strike the perfect balance and I know I've already touched on it but the curvature really does help to fill your peripheral vision and even if you're just doing spreadsheets I mean I was doing my tax information only yesterday and it helps so much to be able to just clip two applications to the left and right hand sides of the screen and still have plenty of screen real estate to work in yes for productivity two displays is still probably better but this is the overall all round best performer uh when it comes to ticking all the right boxes and for gaming of course that resolution is still the best out there at the moment because you're getting that fill immersion from the ultrawide display while it's being easier to to drive than 4K and if you are going to use this for General use then you're going to have a great experience but if you do tend to watch a lot of 16x9 content then of course you're going to get black bars but then vice versa if you like watching some 21 by9 content so I'm a big fan of Philip Bloom and the sort of work that he does if you go on his YouTube channel all of his stuff is pretty much in 21 by9 and all of it looks fantastic on this monitor but it's the real gaming performance that you are no doubt interested in and how this compares to its Rival Well the gaming performance is truly truly breathtaking and there is one massive flaw in it okay and I say massive flaw it's not really a massive flaw but some people will point this out and they'd be correct this monitor is not as responsive as a 144 HZ uh 1440p TN panel okay it's not if you want to play Esports then they may well complain about this display but unless you're going to do this is by far one of the best gaming monitors I have ever used because that color accuracy that wideness of the display the immersion it gives you the resolution and the fact that you can drive it if you have a half decent uh graphics card at uh that higher 100 HZ refresh rate it's it's just it's just honestly it is so so beautiful and I said it in the pg348 uh Q review that it sort of made me remember why I got into PC gaming in the first place and it's so true of this monitor as well as long as your game supports it it's just so so nice just to sit back and relax and play a game on this display the color accuracy does such wonders and having used a TN panel for the last three weeks or so um just cuz I've sort of been in a different location it just makes such a big difference to have a good quality IPS panel but being able to retain that high refresh rate as well for gaming and that level of responsiveness is just truly truly magical it really really is and of course this is a Monas that comes with Nvidia g-sync now don't get me wrong it is a very expensive technology but it does make a huge difference when you're playing games at slightly lower frame rates or if you just want the absolute smoothest gaming experience possible then at the moment I still think that is NVIDIA g-sync and when you combine that all together with an ultrawide that runs at 100 HZ with the color richness of an IPS panel it is a truly fantastic combination so I've been playing some Gears of War recently I've been playing Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and that game has a slight weirdness whereby it does support ultrawide but some of the UI elements are sort of stretched a little bit and it's just a little bit weird so you can expect some anomalies like that um on a monitor like this and then I've been playing a whole range of other titles as well and it's just a truly truly magical Mar it really is but of course it's really really expensive it's getting close to double the cost of some truly brilliant 4K gaming monitors um and some truly truly good gsync monitors as well you mean this is around about £1,000 and you can get g-sync uh 1440p IPS monitors for £500 so whether you want to spend the amount of money well that purely comes down to you but it is in my opinion the best way to go at the moment on a monitor like this but while all of that stuff is all well and good I'm more than aware that a lot of people watching this video are watching this wondering whether they should buy this Monitor and this is a review sample of course as as all the monitors and pretty much all the products I test these days the review samples they come in they stay with me for 2 or 3 weeks and then they go back I mean some stuff smaller ticket items mice and stuff obviously I get to keep but monitors they always go back um with one or two exceptions but yeah something like this yeah you wouldn't be able to keep it but the reason this is relevant cuz I'm aware there are people watching this video wanting to know whether they should spend close to ,000 or of course your Regional equivalent on a monitor and this is a crazy amount of money for a lot of people this is an entire month's wage so should you spend it on this monitor well very difficult question to say because there are very few things wrong with this monitor can list a few of them right now no HDMI 2.0 with hdcp 2.2 so 4K Blu-ray player plugging in an X Xbox out Xbox One S I should point out out of the picture and this monitor as well makes a very small buzzing noise even even when the speakers in the monitor are completely off I don't know why it's very minute it's slightly annoying at best I mean if you you've got any sort of noise in your room at all you will not hear it um so it's not really a big deal but and of course there's quality control issues I mean it's the same for this Monitor and it's same for the pg348q they both use the same panel I believe and while the panel production is going to get better over time there's still plenty of people reporting issues with these monitors things like backlight bleed things like dead pixels to which I have one dead pixel over there in the bottom right hand corner and they're wondering where they're spending ,000 of their cash on a mon like this is worth it and there's only two ways of putting this if you want the best of the best out there this and the pg348q are exactly that they are the best of the best and assuming you get a decent one with no quality to control issues I think it's the best gaming experience you can have and whether that's worth the ,000 uh price ticket that's entirely down to you I can't say whether that's the case but this is the best gaming experience I think and one of the best monitors out there I think the best monitor generally speaking out there is actually the Asus because I think it has a better onc screen menu that's easier to control and it doesn't have that slight buzzing noise and personally I I think it looks a little bit better but this is around about £50 cheaper which is probably makes it the one I would go for it's very tricky to say I think it's very it's easier to say that you wouldn't be disappointed with either but if you had to give me one if you said which monitor if you can have any monitor out of these two which one would you want I would take the Asus but either is a very good purchase um assuming you want the best of the best and have the money to spend and there we go I think that is been the end of this video I haven't done this level of rambling have I for a very long time I guess it's it's just I I take this very very seriously when people are potentially spending this amount of money on a monitor and that's why it's got a little bit rambly but to make it nice and concise for you in one sentence this wins The editor's Choice Award if you want a gaming monitor that can do everything this is definitely the second best monitor I have ever tested but the actual core gaming experience is pretty much exactly the same as that on the pg348q so there we go if you've enjoyed this video please like it um if you haven't disliked it subscribe for more videos just like this I'll leave the Amazon um affiliate link um down in the description down below if you want to actually go and buy this or at least look at it in a little little bit more detail if you have any comments I'm always happy to help it's @ PC Centric on Twitter or all over social media or in the comment section down below must thank you to corset for sponsoring this channel as always appreciate it and of course thank you to ASA for providing this review sample and yeah plenty more monitor videos to come as always plenty more videos to come and I'll see you in the next videothis is the Predator x34a the top end gaming monitor from Acer packing resolution of 3440 x440 a rich IPS panel and a refresh rate of 100 htz this could well be the ultimate display but is it the best display on the market and how does it compare to the Asus pg348q join me for the full review to find out hey what's up guys and welcome back to another video in the studio now today we're doing the video I've been waiting so so long to do and I know a lot of you guys have been waiting for this as well and it's the review of this beautiful thing right here which is the ACA Predator x34a now of course everyone really knows the story about the ACA Predator when it came out the x34 was regarded as the best gaming monitor out there but there's been a few issues quality control contr issues there has been an Asus rival that had more adjustments and now we're at the stage where ASA have released the x34a which is a slight tweak slight revision to the original x34 mainly bringing with it a better stand that has all the adjustments you would ever want but is this a good gaming monitor is this the best gaming Monitor and how does it compare to the pg 348 Q from Asus all will be revealed in this video but before we get there it's time to take a proper look at the monitor itself and to do that we have to put it on the desk and immediately you'll notice this is one good looking display whether it's on or whether it is off this is a very minimalist design I mean Predator branded stuff is often quite over the top and other than the Predator logo that's right in the middle of the monitor which personally I don't really like I can get over it it's not a massive deal but personally I'd prefer if it just said Acer but this of course is part of the Predator line so it has the preditor branding but aside from that I really like the overall look and appearance of the display the stand itself it does a very good job of supporting the monitor this time on the x34a it's got all the adjustments you would want so it's got swivel so left and right tilt up and down and it's also got height adjust so no matter what sort of size desk you've got as long as you can accommodate a large 21 by9 for uh 1440 uh 3440 by 1440 display uh then you're going to get on with this very well and you shouldn't have any problems but if you do it does have a Visa Mount so you can mount this on a third party display uh Mount if you prefer as for the bezel on the display there's not really much to complain about here for the most part it's very very small there is a sort of faux bezel so while you've got your outer bezel that you can see when the monitor is off when you do turn on the display there is a slight Black Box around the outside of the display area but it's still very minimalist and I don't think anyone's really going to have any complaints but it certainly is worth noting that once you get this thing turned on you will notice that there is a slight Black Box area but pretty much all the competition is doing this anyway and it's not really that much of a big deal so overall I really do like the front of the display but there is one massive thing to mention before we talk about the image quality and that is the curvature now I've said this many many times before curved TVs maybe if you have a Onan TV that's very big and you've got it in the right position then it might help but for most people I'd still recommend just looking at a flat TV when it comes to monitors though curving them can make a big difference to actually making them that little bit more comfortable now the reason for this is just because it's such a wide display and it's such a large display and it takes up quite a large amount of your peripheral vision if you have it flat I find the corners can appear a little bit too far away whereas the curve does help just make the monitor that little bit more comfortable to use and while some people definitely prefer a flat display I am definitely someone that prefers a curved display this one features a curvature of around about 3,800 R and while this isn't the most aggress aggressive curve uh you can get the ASA Predator z35 has a much more aggressive curve this strikes a very good balance between a curve that's comfortable to use and it's practical to use for General use and still being immersive in video games so overall I have to say I really do like the curvature as we move to the back of the monitor you'll find that we have a various amount of ports we've got USB hub we've got an audio jack for plugging anything in uh via HDMI which is sadly only HDMI 1.4 then still being able to rout our sound through some speakers or something like that but the only Port really that you're going to want to use here is the display port which is what you need for the g-sync and what you need for the full resolution or 3440 x440 at 100 htz now other notable things about the monitor include the onscreen display and the onscreen menus or the buttons to control the menus these are located under the front of the display on the right hand side and they're not too bad I mean once you've learned the system you can sort of navigate around fairly easily and it's fairly well laid fairly well laid out and it's fairly clear but it's rival the pg348q from Asus is Miles Ahead here this is one area where that is definitely the superior monitor because on that the menu was very clear everything was well laid out but navigating it was so seamless and so intuitive it was really easy to use sadly the buttons on this x34 they just can't really compete but realistically people are probably going to set up their monitor once leave it like that and so the buttons aren't really going to make that much of a difference to their buying decision but make no mistake the pg348 Q does have the superior menu options here so then that's pretty much everything you need to know about the display and how to set it up but of course the most important thing is what this thing is like to use what it's like to game on and how good the image quality is well this features over 100% of the srgb color space well I say over it's 100% of the srgb color space which means that you're going to get rich and vibrant colors thanks to that IPS panel now everything is suitable sharp because 3440 x440 is probably the optimum at the moment resolution ratio I would say on a display like this 34 in fit very nicely on your desk there are some larger monitors coming out like the 38 in one uh from LG but for most people I think this is going to strike the perfect balance and I know I've already touched on it but the curvature really does help to fill your peripheral vision and even if you're just doing spreadsheets I mean I was doing my tax information only yesterday and it helps so much to be able to just clip two applications to the left and right hand sides of the screen and still have plenty of screen real estate to work in yes for productivity two displays is still probably better but this is the overall all round best performer uh when it comes to ticking all the right boxes and for gaming of course that resolution is still the best out there at the moment because you're getting that fill immersion from the ultrawide display while it's being easier to to drive than 4K and if you are going to use this for General use then you're going to have a great experience but if you do tend to watch a lot of 16x9 content then of course you're going to get black bars but then vice versa if you like watching some 21 by9 content so I'm a big fan of Philip Bloom and the sort of work that he does if you go on his YouTube channel all of his stuff is pretty much in 21 by9 and all of it looks fantastic on this monitor but it's the real gaming performance that you are no doubt interested in and how this compares to its Rival Well the gaming performance is truly truly breathtaking and there is one massive flaw in it okay and I say massive flaw it's not really a massive flaw but some people will point this out and they'd be correct this monitor is not as responsive as a 144 HZ uh 1440p TN panel okay it's not if you want to play Esports then they may well complain about this display but unless you're going to do this is by far one of the best gaming monitors I have ever used because that color accuracy that wideness of the display the immersion it gives you the resolution and the fact that you can drive it if you have a half decent uh graphics card at uh that higher 100 HZ refresh rate it's it's just it's just honestly it is so so beautiful and I said it in the pg348 uh Q review that it sort of made me remember why I got into PC gaming in the first place and it's so true of this monitor as well as long as your game supports it it's just so so nice just to sit back and relax and play a game on this display the color accuracy does such wonders and having used a TN panel for the last three weeks or so um just cuz I've sort of been in a different location it just makes such a big difference to have a good quality IPS panel but being able to retain that high refresh rate as well for gaming and that level of responsiveness is just truly truly magical it really really is and of course this is a Monas that comes with Nvidia g-sync now don't get me wrong it is a very expensive technology but it does make a huge difference when you're playing games at slightly lower frame rates or if you just want the absolute smoothest gaming experience possible then at the moment I still think that is NVIDIA g-sync and when you combine that all together with an ultrawide that runs at 100 HZ with the color richness of an IPS panel it is a truly fantastic combination so I've been playing some Gears of War recently I've been playing Call of Duty Black Ops 3 and that game has a slight weirdness whereby it does support ultrawide but some of the UI elements are sort of stretched a little bit and it's just a little bit weird so you can expect some anomalies like that um on a monitor like this and then I've been playing a whole range of other titles as well and it's just a truly truly magical Mar it really is but of course it's really really expensive it's getting close to double the cost of some truly brilliant 4K gaming monitors um and some truly truly good gsync monitors as well you mean this is around about £1,000 and you can get g-sync uh 1440p IPS monitors for £500 so whether you want to spend the amount of money well that purely comes down to you but it is in my opinion the best way to go at the moment on a monitor like this but while all of that stuff is all well and good I'm more than aware that a lot of people watching this video are watching this wondering whether they should buy this Monitor and this is a review sample of course as as all the monitors and pretty much all the products I test these days the review samples they come in they stay with me for 2 or 3 weeks and then they go back I mean some stuff smaller ticket items mice and stuff obviously I get to keep but monitors they always go back um with one or two exceptions but yeah something like this yeah you wouldn't be able to keep it but the reason this is relevant cuz I'm aware there are people watching this video wanting to know whether they should spend close to ,000 or of course your Regional equivalent on a monitor and this is a crazy amount of money for a lot of people this is an entire month's wage so should you spend it on this monitor well very difficult question to say because there are very few things wrong with this monitor can list a few of them right now no HDMI 2.0 with hdcp 2.2 so 4K Blu-ray player plugging in an X Xbox out Xbox One S I should point out out of the picture and this monitor as well makes a very small buzzing noise even even when the speakers in the monitor are completely off I don't know why it's very minute it's slightly annoying at best I mean if you you've got any sort of noise in your room at all you will not hear it um so it's not really a big deal but and of course there's quality control issues I mean it's the same for this Monitor and it's same for the pg348q they both use the same panel I believe and while the panel production is going to get better over time there's still plenty of people reporting issues with these monitors things like backlight bleed things like dead pixels to which I have one dead pixel over there in the bottom right hand corner and they're wondering where they're spending ,000 of their cash on a mon like this is worth it and there's only two ways of putting this if you want the best of the best out there this and the pg348q are exactly that they are the best of the best and assuming you get a decent one with no quality to control issues I think it's the best gaming experience you can have and whether that's worth the ,000 uh price ticket that's entirely down to you I can't say whether that's the case but this is the best gaming experience I think and one of the best monitors out there I think the best monitor generally speaking out there is actually the Asus because I think it has a better onc screen menu that's easier to control and it doesn't have that slight buzzing noise and personally I I think it looks a little bit better but this is around about £50 cheaper which is probably makes it the one I would go for it's very tricky to say I think it's very it's easier to say that you wouldn't be disappointed with either but if you had to give me one if you said which monitor if you can have any monitor out of these two which one would you want I would take the Asus but either is a very good purchase um assuming you want the best of the best and have the money to spend and there we go I think that is been the end of this video I haven't done this level of rambling have I for a very long time I guess it's it's just I I take this very very seriously when people are potentially spending this amount of money on a monitor and that's why it's got a little bit rambly but to make it nice and concise for you in one sentence this wins The editor's Choice Award if you want a gaming monitor that can do everything this is definitely the second best monitor I have ever tested but the actual core gaming experience is pretty much exactly the same as that on the pg348q so there we go if you've enjoyed this video please like it um if you haven't disliked it subscribe for more videos just like this I'll leave the Amazon um affiliate link um down in the description down below if you want to actually go and buy this or at least look at it in a little little bit more detail if you have any comments I'm always happy to help it's @ PC Centric on Twitter or all over social media or in the comment section down below must thank you to corset for sponsoring this channel as always appreciate it and of course thank you to ASA for providing this review sample and yeah plenty more monitor videos to come as always plenty more videos to come and I'll see you in the next video\n"