Acer KA222Qbi monitor – Specs, Pros / Cons: FreeSync and Good Color Coverage For This Price? Where Can I Buy It?

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis Acer KA222Qbi monitor - Specs, Pros / Cons: FreeSync and Good Color Coverage For This Price? Where Can I Buy It?

From: Severin Kolakov 09 April 2024 / 17:51 | 0

What type of monitor can you get for the lowest possible price? And more importantly, how good will it be? Today, we’ve got a super-budget option, the Acer KA222Qbi. It’s a more portable monitor, with a diagonal of 21.5 inches and a Full HD resolution. The combination of screen size and resolution means that you still get a pretty detailed image, as you’ll see when we talk about the display quality.

Besides that, the monitor has a little bit of Gaming DNA inside, with the 75Hz refresh rate and the 1ms response time, as well as the fact that it has FreeSync support. Soooo, while it will not provide the best possible gaming experience, akin to ots Nitro or Predator siblings, you can still enjoy great gameplay on it, as up to 75Hz, the technology has you covered, offering smooth, responsive, and tear-free gaming for anyone who can afford the Acer KA222Qbi.

What we feel is more important, is how well the monitor will do in our color tests, which will determine how suitable it is for professional studio work. Of course, not every monitor is expected to shine at these specific workloads, but it would be nice for the aspiring graphic designer to know that he doesn’t need to spend big sums in order to get a great setup.

You can check the current price of the Acer KA222Qbi here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Specs sheet, What’s in the box?, Drivers, OSD, Design, Connectivity
Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

Specs sheet, What’s in the box?, Drivers, OSD, Design, Connectivity

Screen size	21.5 inch (54.6 cm)
Refresh rate	75Hz
Response time	1ms
Panel type	IPS
Backlight type	LED
Screen finish	Matte
Resolution	1920 x 1080 (FHD)
Technologies	Contrast ratio: 1000:1 (Static); 100 000 000:1 (Dynamic) Brightness: 250 cd/m² (Typical) Viewing angles: H/V° 178/178 VESA mount: 100×100 Tilt: -5 to 15° Height adjustment: 0 – 130mm Measurements (with stand): 490 x 391 x 164 mm Power consumption (Idle): 15.5W
I/O	1x HDMI 1.4 1x VGA 1x Audio Jack

What’s in the box? Assembly

Drivers and Software

You can download the driver package from the monitor’s official Support Page. This includes only the drivers, but you can also download the Acer Display Widget from their website. It’s a way to get to your monitor settings through the OS, instead of fiddling with the OSD menu and the buttons on the back.

OSD Menu

Design and Connectivity

In terms of design, the monitor does have a bit of a gamer’s spin to it. The backside vent (yes, monitors need a bit of airflow too) is basically an upside-down V and we’ve seen it on other Nitro monitors. The stand is shorter, but thicker, offering only Tilt movement, instead of the full shebang that includes Height, Pivot, and Swivel. This also means that the VESA 100 x 100 mm mounting holes are visible. If you want more adjustment of the monitor, a wall mount or a good desk mount is a great option, as it leaves more open space where the stand would usually sit.

On the front, the top and side bezels are slim, while the chin is more pronounced. The ports on the back are rather simple, with one HDMI port, one VGA port, and a single 3.5 mm Combo Audio Jack.

Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

The Acer KA222Qbi is a compact monitor, with a 21.5-inch IPS panel. It offers a pixel density of 102.46 PPI, as well as a Retina distance of 33.55 inches or 85.21 cm. This means that you get a pretty detailed image for the price. However, it’s more important how the image looks and its colors, which is where our color tests come in. Let’s get you up to speed with our testing methodology as well as give you an understanding of color gamuts.

The correlated color temperature on a white screen after a Factory Reset in sRGB mode is 6410 K (Luminance 150 cd/m2 at 20% Brightness). The average gamma value is 2.18.

Color coverage

Here’s an illustration (Fig. 1). The whole “sail-shaped” map below consists of all the colors we can see, while the black crooked line shows all the colors from real-world scenes and nature around us.

Then, we’ve drawn some of the most important and interesting color spaces, compared to the colors the panel of Acer KA222Qbi can show:

Standard/For Web: sRGB – widely used color space for most consumer devices, ideal for Web design and development
For Print: AdobeRGB – used in professional photo editing, graphic design, and print
For Photographers/Video Editors: DCI-P3 – used in high-end film production, post-production, and digital cinema
Premium HDR: Rec.2020 – the widest consumer ITU color standard, covering a massive 75.8% of the visible spectrum, a benchmark for premium HDR content

Acer KA222Qbi: the yellow dashed triangle (– – – – – –) represents the range of colors this monitor can display. In our tests, we calculated the total color coverage of the monitor at 93% of the sRGB color gamut.

(Fig.1) Acer KA222Qbi covers 93% of the Web colors (sRGB)

This means that if the Acer KA222Qbi tries to show any color outside of its triangle, it will show the closest color to it that’s inside the triangle.

Color accuracy

Now let’s see how big is the difference between the real colors and the one you’ll see on the Acer KA222Qbi. We measure that distance in DeltaE – the bigger the number, the more different they look.

For the next illustration, we’ve chosen 24 common colors like dark and light skin, blue sky, green grass, etc.

Values below 2.0 are considered suitable for color-sensitive work. Before our calibration of the Acer KA222Qbi, the Average color accuracy was 4.5 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Web Design and Office Work profile, it lowered to 2.0 dE (Fig. 3). This makes for a 2.25X Increase in Accuracy, which is pretty big, and just on the cusp of being accurate enough to be used for professional Creator work. Due to its low price, we consider this to be an absolute victory, as it’s not often you can get such an inexpensive screen that can actually fit a Creator’s requirements.

(Fig. 2) Acer KA222Qbi in its factory condition

(Fig. 3) Acer KA222Qbi with our display profiles

Comparison in the sRGB color space (primaries and D65 white point specified in ITU-R BT.709, sRGB encoding curve).

Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Design & Gaming Profile

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom-tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate (they may seem strange at first but after a few minutes our brain will start recognizing them as accurate ones – that’s how Health-Guard differs from alternatives like f.lux).

Pro Tip: As the Health-Guard profile simulates paper and has as accurate as possible colors, it could be a great tool for prepress designers!

Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Health-Guard Profile

Gaming and Movies

We also have a third Gaming and Movies profile, which regulates the black colors, making dark areas in games and movies appear more visible, thus giving you a better viewing experience. Shooting at your opponent first can be a make-or-break moment, so make sure you’re best prepared with our profile.

Left: No Profile | Drag the slider to see the difference | Right: Design & Gaming Profile

BUY OUR DISPLAY PROFILES

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for the Acer KA222Qbi.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

$9.90 BUY NOW

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

$9.90 BUY NOW

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

$9.90 BUY NOW

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount

$19.90 BUY NOW

Verdict

Monitors are getting better, even at lower price points. While there’s a lot of innovation happening at the higher end, the really good and useful technology trickles its way down the hierarchy, so nowadays even the most budget screens can have higher refresh rates and VRR support. The Acer KA222Qbi comes with the gaming necessities, like a 75Hz refresh rate, which is similar to a lot of other budget gaming monitors. You also get a 1ms response time and FreeSync support, so even at lower framerates, you’ll game like a king.

In terms of its ability to handle color-related work, this Acer monitor brings 93% sRGB coverage, as well as a dE value of 2.0 after we apply our Web Design and Office Work profile. With a dE value of 2.0, you can be a pretty good Content Creator, limited only by your imagination and skills.

When you’re not designing stuff, you can enjoy games and movies, with our appropriately named Gaming and Movies profile. It brings out the pop inside every color while making darker scenes more visible, which is helpful for dark game environments and dark scenes in movies.

Lastly, the Health-Guard is there to reduce Blue Light and PWM (Flickering), as much as possible, so your eyes are always energized and healthy. However, you should still take a rest every hour or so, to let your eyes rest and recuperate.

You can check the current price of the Acer KA222Qbi: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)