Acer B326HK
MSRP $1100.00
“The contradictions we found in the Acer B326HK prove that while 4K monitors are the wave of the future, the present has its imperfections.”
Avg
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Wide sRGB range
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Lots of bonding
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Low price for a large 4K screen
Against
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The stand is adjustable only in height and tilt
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Average color accuracy
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The speakers are too quiet
As the PC industry’s biggest companies brace for an explosion of demand for all things UHD, each is frantically whipping their marketing and development departments into shape to compete for the top spot in what will inevitably become an all-out title-fest. from the 4K king.
Acer is an early contender for that crown. With two models already available, one for gamers and one for the budget-conscious, the company wants to up the ante with its 32-inch B326HK and target customers who want the best of what 4K has to offer, even if I’m still not sure what the “best” should look like.
Uniform, but determined
The first thing you notice about this monitor right out of the box is its aura of no-nonsense practicality. He seems to adhere to the mantra that function should always take precedence over form.
While the bezel isn’t the thinnest we’ve seen, it’s not the bulkiest either.
Solid and square, the B326HK’s body and color palette are minimalistic at best and a bit drab at worst. The frame isn’t the thinnest we’ve seen, but it’s not the bulkiest either, slipping neatly into the “not enough to notice, but still noticeable enough” category.
The screen’s excellent viewing angle is one of its high points, with image quality that barely begins to fade once your eyes are glued to the very edge of the screen. If you need to adjust a better angle, you’ll find that changing the tilt and height of the screen is easy thanks to Acer’s ErgoStand. The sliding mechanism from top to bottom is so simple that you can adjust it with just one hand.
A minor drawback is that unlike some of its competitors (as well as its gaming-oriented cousin, the XB280HK), the B326HK has no way to swivel from side to side independently of its base, nor can it quickly flip horizontally if you’re so inclined to use it. as a second screen. The ability to remove the four screws on the back and remount the screen at a 90° angle is still there, though the process is labor intensive and calling it a “feature” is an overstatement. However, both the screen and the stand are VESA compatible, so a stand is optional.
More ports than the port of New York
As expected from most high-end monitors these days, the B326HK comes equipped with a range of input options available. These include DVI-D, MHL compatible HDMI, DisplayPort 1.2 and mini-DisplayPort, all of which can be used independently for a single viewing experience or combined with each other simultaneously thanks to the integrated picture-in-picture option on the screen.
Four more USB 3.0 ports are located on the edge and bottom of the monitor, allowing quick and easy charging of your phone or tablet on the go.
One issue we noticed after hooking up the monitor was the poor performance of the built-in speakers, which when connected via HDMI barely registered above a few decibels with the volume on the test machine, with the screen itself at full max. The dedicated audio-in jack didn’t fare much better when it came from the iPhone and Macbook Pro.
That said, if you’ve got the capital to spend on a display like this ($1,099 list), chances are you can drop another $100 to snag a decent set of desktop speakers that should make up for any sonic weakness. Acer does not answer.
Too harsh for his own good
The display comes equipped with the same Acer eColor Management calibration system that has been integral to most of their other displays for at least the last five years. It’s difficult to use, and we were hoping that a monitor of this quality and price would come with its own custom set of on-screen tools built to effectively show off the full spectrum of features.
The Super Sharpness feature only works well with static text.
From this menu, you can access the usual array of customization options that are standard on Acer’s entry-level models up to the luxury line, including brightness, contrast and gamma adjustments, as well as a six-way saturation and hue wheel. it gives professionals the opportunity to bring things to absolute perfection if that’s the path they choose.
Our favorite feature is the ability to create custom color profiles that can be switched without interrupting and that you can change at will depending on the time of day, the work you’re doing, or if you just want to settle in for a good movie or game. Another interesting feature is Acer’s “Super Sharpness” which, when activated, automatically erases the edges of unclear text and makes small fonts much easier to decipher.
We tried the setting at both 4K and 1080p, and while I’d recommend those with eye strain to try it out during long periods of reading or typing, the effect lost its luster when we switched to anything that involved the slightest movement . .
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
When Super Sharpness is activated during 4K viewing Tower of cards streamed on Netflix, the compression artifacts (what few there were) became impossible to ignore and it felt like the screen was struggling to keep up and compensate when the actors moved from one edge of the screen to the other. In short, Super Sharpness only works with stationary text.
Image quality before calibration
The Acer B326HK amazes everyone who sees it, a performance made even better by the company’s decision to switch from a less vibrant (and cheaper) TN-based display to a slightly glossy and considerably more stunning IPS panel. Every color pops right off the screen thanks to a gamut that reaches an almost perfect 99 percent on the sRGB scale and an impressive 77 percent of AdobeRGB.
The B326HK’s large screen looks great at first glance.
In our tests, the gamma curve was equal to a value of 2.2, but this achievement was offset by the color difference, which had a sharper result of 3.03. A difference of less than one is generally unnoticeable. Contrast met our expectations with an average of 350-1 across all brightness settings, which, when cranked up to maximum, ranked higher than nearly every other display we tested at a 339.6-glowing cornea.
It’s easy to decry these results by comparing them to the other 32″ 4K monitor we reviewed, Samsung’s U32D970. That display was nearly perfect out of the box with deeper blacks, a 460:1 contrast ratio, and a gamut that covers 99 percent of sRGB and 96 percent of AdobeRGB. However, this is not a completely fair argument because Samsung’s masterpiece is twice as expensive.
Pictures, movies and 3D displays looked incredible, even with a few hints of pixel drag during some of the more intense scenes in the Avengerseverything in the frame oozed so much detail that it was hard to be disappointed when the Hulk appeared and smashed everything in front of him.
Gaming was just as spectacular as you’d expect on such a large and lush screen, but we did notice small amounts of frame stuttering when things got particularly chaotic during a test run Starcraft II. Still, the error was small enough not to be too damaging, and was compensated for by our ability to discern even the smallest details in our army when things finally got going.
Image quality after calibration
Somewhat surprisingly, while blacks were richer and seemed to contain more depth complexity at lower brightness levels after our run with the Spyder4Elite, once we raised the settings above 75 percent, we saw some issues.
Although it could be better, this monitor screams ‘I’m the next big thing’ at a relatively low price’.
At maximum brightness, the B326HK lost a decent amount of black core after calibration finished. Darker scenes lacked the clear edges we needed to distinguish one object from another, a problem that wasn’t improved much by fiddling with the contrast while trying to fix the problem manually.
Then again, do you really need your screen to emit nearly 340 lux? Probably not. In a dark room, it is advisable to set the brightness to 40-50 percent of the maximum.
Color difference sees a slight improvement, up to 2.46, and contrast a commendable jump to 410-1 and 420-1 at 50 percent and 100 percent, respectively. Color gamut ranked as high as 99 percent of sRGB, but lost a bit on the Adobe side, dropping to 75 percent after two consecutive tests.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The results show that while some areas of generic settings have seen a performance boost thanks to secondary calibration, the B326HK still holds its own on the laurels of its factory settings and doesn’t require a ton of tweaking if you’re looking for a monitor that rewards those looking for a simple plug and play experience.
Warranty
As with most of their high-end products, Acer offers a robust three-year warranty that covers defects or design flaws that could cause the unit itself to fail. This includes everything from dead pixels to mechanical failure of moving parts on the monitor, as well as any issues that might occur as a result of shipping damage when a unit is purchased directly from their online store.
Conclusion
As with any new technology in an emerging market, there will be winners, losers, and an infinite amount of experimentation lost in the midst of what is released in between. It took years of tinkering by thousands of engineers from a dozen different companies before flat-screen TVs finally took off, and we can assume that the 4K revolution will follow the same steps its older, lower-resolution ancestor did just a few short production cycles ago.
Acer found a way to take advantage of the relatively slim collection of comparable options available on the shelves in late 2014 by introducing one of the few large, affordable 4K monitors, but the B326HK’s shortcomings could leave it vulnerable to new competitors that could emerge next year.
At the end of the day, if you’re an early adopter and absolutely have to have something on your desk that screams “the next big thing,” Acer has put out a respectable product that will satisfy all but the pickiest of videophiles.
But if you’re willing to shell out the extra cash, competing monitors from Samsung provide an alternative with better overall picture quality. Acer’s 32-inch screen is also threatened by its own 28-inch screens, which offer similar image quality and the same resolution at a much lower price. The Acer B326HK makes the most sense for buyers who want a huge screen without breaking the bank.
Tall
- Wide sRGB range
- Lots of bonding
- Low price for a large 4K screen
Falls
- The stand is adjustable only in height and tilt
- Average color accuracy
- The speakers are too quiet
Editor’s recommendations
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn