Acer just unveiled a range of new mini-LED and OLED gaming monitors, including the Acer Predator Z57, which is a colossal 57-inches in size and includes a massive 7,680 x 2,160 resolution. It’ll even run all those pixels at up to 120Hz, for a smooth as well as detailed view.
The Acer Predator Z57 also includes a curved panel with a 1000-inch radius (1000R) curve – not quite as tight as the LG 34GS95QE‘s 800R curve but still enough to project the sides of the panel nearly a foot in front of the middle. On demo at the CES 2024 trade show, we got hands and eyes on with the new panel.
Powering the panel is mini-LED technology that provides 2304 backlighting zones for incredibly granular control of brightness and contrast. At least that’s the theory. The demo unit Acer had setup wasn’t particularly obviously showcasing this contrast, with the panel looking like it was operating in fixed backlight mode with a quite washed out, grey look to the image, as you can see in our hand on images.
Still, bad demo setup aside, there should be a lot to like about this huge display, if you care primarily about resolution and visual splendour over blazing fast refresh rate. The panel still does 120Hz but that won’t do for esports in this day and age, and good luck running esports games at that resolution!
On the rear of the monitor is a token ring of RGB lighting while a huge V-shaped stand is require to keep this display from toppling over. Along with the depth of the screen, you’re going to need a larger than usual desk to accommodate this display.
Joining the Z57 is another new mini-LED display, the X34 V3. As its name suggests, it’s a 34-inch model that follows in the line of previous excellent Acer X34 models and sports a resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 with a maximum refresh rate of 180Hz.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this display is its speaker setup, which consists of a large speaker bar that hangs under the display. We’re all for adding quality speakers to monitors but these ones are only rated to 5W for the pair, which doesn’t seem all that powerful – they sounded a little beefier than most cheap monitor speakers but didn’t blow us away.
The final pair of new monitors are the two new OLEDs that are both 3,440 x 1,440 resolution screens with 240Hz refresh rates, with the main difference between the two being the screen size – 39-inch X39 versus 34-inch X34 X. Sadly, these weren’t available for us to test yet.
The four new displays will be launching in Q2 20224 in north America, with the Z57 priced at $2,499.99, the X34 V3 being $899.99, the X39 being $1,499,99 and the X34 X setting you back $1,299.99.