Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx monitor – Specs, Pros / Cons: How Can A Gaming Monitor Be This Accurate?

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx monitor - Specs, Pros / Cons: How Can A Gaming Monitor Be This Accurate?

From: Severin Kolakov 15 February 2024 / 22:38 | 0

The Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx is a more modern take on the classic gaming monitor formula. While it’s got the classic gaming monitor characteristics down to a T. It’s got a Quad HD VA panel, which fits inside a 27-inch frame, which means that you get a detailed image. On the other hand, the 165Hz refresh rate and the 1ms response time make sure you’re competitive against your opponents in any game.

There’s also Adaptive Sync support, which is a standardized Variable Refresh Rate technology governed by VESA. Even AMD’s FreeSync uses the same backbone and is built on top of Adaptive Sync, so you’re good to go for plenty of tear-free gaming at high FPS and high resolution.

However, the Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx is much more than a gaming monitor, as it manages to do amazingly well in our color coverage and accuracy tests, as you’ll see by reading on. We managed to achieve a massive increase in color accuracy of more than three times.

You can check the current price of the Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx here: Buy from Amazon.com.au (#CommissionsEarned)

Specs sheet, Assembly, Drivers, OSD, Design, Connectivity
Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

Specs sheet, Assembly, Drivers, OSD, Design, Connectivity

Screen size	27 inch (68.58 cm)
Refresh rate	165Hz
Response time	1ms
Panel type	VA
Backlight type	LED
Screen finish	Matte
Resolution	2560 x 1440 (Quad HD)
Technologies	Curve: 1500R Contrast ratio: 100 000 000:1 (Dynamic) Brightness: 250cd/m² Viewing angles: H/V° 178/178 Tilt: -5 to 25° Swivel: -180 to 180° Height adjustment: 0 – 120 mm VESA mount: 100×100 Measurements (with stand): 363 x 611 x 76 mm Power consumption (Idle): 30W Built-in speakers: 2x 2W
I/O	2x HDMI 1x DisplayPort 1x Audio Jack

Assembly

You can put together the monitor with just your two hands, as you don’t need any screws.

Drivers and Software

The monitor is very plug-and-play, with no drivers necessary to make it work. However, Acer really wants you to install their Display Widget, which gives you better control over the monitor’s settings, with the additional bonus of being able to use your mouse and keyboard.

Design and Connectivity

Usually, Acer’s Nitro gaming monitors were all super-angular, with crazier shapes and those red accents. In fact, this is the same design language as their laptops. Now, the Nitro laptops are sleeker than before and don’t use as much color, so this has trickled down into their monitor design too. It’s entirely black and honestly looks more like an office monitor. The stand on it is pretty good, offering good adjustment, with Tilt, Pivot, and Height adjustment. With it, you can customize the positioning to your liking (Have the monitor at eye level with your back upright and straight), which leads to better posture and better spine health. The buttons for controlling the OSD menu are at the bottom, just below the Acer logo on the chin.

In terms of ports, there are two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and an audio jack.

Display quality, Buy our profiles, Verdict

The monitor uses a VA panel, which, compared to IPS panels, brings higher contrast. However, the brightness is significantly lower, measuring at 250 nits. However, VA panels still offer pretty high color coverage and good accuracy as you can see from the tests. Before that, let’s get you up to speed with color gamuts and our testing methods.

The correlated color temperature on a white screen after a Factory Reset in sRGB mode is 7170 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 Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx 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 Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx: 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 96% of the sRGB color gamut.

(Fig.1) Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx covers 96% of the Web colors (sRGB)

This means that if the Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx 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 Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx. 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 Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx, the Average color accuracy was 4.7 dE (Fig. 2), and with our Web Design and Office Work profile, it lowered to 1.4 dE (Fig. 3). This is a massive accuracy increase of 3.35x, while the 1.4 dE is well off below the 2.0 mark, so the Nitro is more than ready for color-sensitive work.

(Fig. 2) Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx in its factory condition

(Fig. 3) Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx 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 Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx.

*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

The Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx performs much better than we originally expected and you’re getting a lot of value. Currently, the monitor retails for around $235 on Amazon, and for the money, this monitor is a steal.

The QHD resolution and the 165Hz refresh rate mean that you get a detailed gaming experience that’s smooth and tear-free, thanks to the 1ms response time and the Adaptive Sync support.

Now, getting into the monitor’s Creator capabilities, the 96% sRGB color coverage ensures that all of the 3686400 pixels deliver incredible and deep colors. Once we start playing with the Display Profiles, the monitor becomes even better.

With the Web Design and Office Work profile, we managed to lower the dE value of the monitor from 4.7 to 1.4, which means the monitor is more than three times more accurate. The rest of our profiles are for when you’re not at the office or at the studio. The Gaming and Movies profile spices up the colors and makes everything more visible, including a correction to the black colors, which means you’ll see what’s hiding in the shadows.

Lastly, the Health-Guard is there to get rid of the Blue Light and PWM (Flickering). The former can affect your sleep by suppressing the release of melatonin, while the latter tire your eyes, as the constant flickering might not be seen, but your eyes and brain can certainly feel it, causing headaches after prolonged exposure.

You can check the current price of the Acer Nitro XZ270U Pbmiiphx: Buy from Amazon.com.au (#CommissionsEarned)