by Lim, September 3, 2017 11:00 pm

ACER XF270HUA Review: A revision of the ACER XF270HU with a frameless panel design. A Gaming Monitor with an excellent price-performance ratio.

Introduction

So finally I had my hands on the Acer XF270HUA and I'm very positively surprised. A nice design (in my personal opinion better than Acers G-Sync model XG270HU), awesome colors, Freesync, 144 Hz, WQHD, and even the IPS glow on my unit is very good, even the lower panel frame construction is not perfect for an IPS panel. Many people complain about overdrive settings while using Freesync, so, does it really not work? Yup, they are right, but...! The Acer XF270HUA has 3 overdrive settings: Off, Normal, Extreme, and while you have connected an AMD graphics card, you cannot set to "Off" or "Extreme". This, however, isn't that important since "Normal" already is the best way to go since "Extreme" can cause some artifacts (as same as in the ufotest from blurbusters.com). Everything, else as always, you can find in the YouTube Review.

IMPORTANT(!) Updates and new information about the Acer XF270HUA can be found at the bottom of the article or in the table of contents (if available). Also available within the forum (click here).

Specifications

Panel Type	IPS
Backlight	EDGE LED / W-LED
Display size and format	27" Inch
Maximum Resolution	2560x1440 (WQHD)
Pixel density	108.8 (Pixel per inch)
Refresh rate	144 Hz native
Native color depth and color space	8-bit, 100% sRGB
Response time (GtG)	4 ms
Brightness	350cd/m2
Integrated speakers	Yes
Video inputs	2x HDMI 1.4, 1x DP 1.2, 1x DVI-D
Audio	3.5mm headphone (out)
USB Hub	Yes 4x
power consumption	??
Frame width	8 mm in total, 2mm frame
Warranty	2 years
Adjustability	Tilt, Height, Pivot, Swivel
Adaptive Sync	Freesync
Free-Sync Range	40-144 Hz
Contrast (Native)	1000:1
Vesa	Yes 100mm
Curved	No

Alternatives

Alternative 144Hz WQHD (2560x1440) IPS monitors to the Acer XF270HUA:
(All other alternatives are listed in the Gaming-Monitor-List. Future releases can be found here)

Find the Acer XF270HUA here: Buy on Amazon

With Freesync:

Eizo Foris FS2735 Review / Buy on Amazon
ASUS MG279Q Buy on Amazon

With G-Sync

ViewSonic XG2703-GS Review / Buy on Amazon
AOC Agon AG271QG Buy on Amazon
Acer Predator XB271HU Buy on Amazon
Asus PG279Q Review / Buy on Amazon

YouTube Video Review

Measurement data

Contrast, Brightness and Black Point:

Acer XF270HUA Luminance Contrast Black Level Acer XF270HUA Review measurement

Presets and Measurements:

Acer XF270HUA Presets

Measurements with optimal settings (without calibration):

Acer XF270HUA optimal settings

Measurements after calibration:

Acer XF270HUA calibrated

Comparison Charts

Maximum brightness in cd/m2

Asus PG258Q

488

Dell S2716DG

424

Acer XB271HUA

419

Asus PG278QR

399

Acer XF270HUA

379

Asus PG279Q

369

Viewsonic XG2703-GS

367

Samsung CFG70

361

Eizo Foris FS2735

333

Maximum contrast x:1

Samsung CFG70

2654

Acer XF270HUA

1214

Asus PG279Q

1181

Viewsonic XG2703-GS

1174

Eizo Foris FS2735

1084

Asus PG258Q

995

Asus PG278QR

964

Acer XB271HUA

784

Dell S2716DG

686

Black point with optimal settings (120 cd/m2 , 6500K)

Samsung CFG70

0,05

Eizo Foris FS2735

0,1

Viewsonic XG2703-GS

0,1

Acer XF270HUA

0,1

Asus PG279Q

0,12

Asus PG278QR

0,13

Asus PG258Q

0,13

Acer XB271HUA

0,16

Dell S2716DG

0,17

Ufo-Testpictures / Text-Scrolling / Chase-Square Test / Eiffeltower-Test / sRGB / Homogeneity

Pros & Cons

Pro:

- A good but not perfect panel frame construction
(especially the lower bezel pressures a bit against the panel)
- Very good foot stand and minimum height adjustment
- Frameless panel design (good to avoid IPS Glow)
- Very good IPS glow conditions on MY UNIT
- Very good image quality and colors
- Freesync with a range of 40-144 Hz
- Very good response time
- Very good viewing angles
- Very low input lag
- Own OSD presets
- 4 times USB 3.0
- Good contrast

Neutral:

- Not a perfect fluently grayscale
- Half matte panel coating
- OSD navigation

Contra:

- No overdrive changes possible with a connected AMD graphics card
(It's not a real issue since "normal" is the best setting which is selected)
- IPS Glow is typical for an IPS type monitor
- Bad gamma settings (2.4 / 2.6 / 1.8, while 1.8 is very bad and destroys the image quality completely - So you have to use Windows gamma tool as an AMD graphics card user)
- Homogeneity and gray uniformity could be a bit better

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8 comments

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1 Nicholas February 28, 2018 9:19 pm

A really novice question but what has a better overall picture between this and the Samsung CHG70?

Answer from Lim's Cave - February 28, 2018 11:49 pm

Both are very different monitors and it depends on the content and other factors like your environment (pitch black room or a brighter environment etc). The Acer has a better color stability and no color shift issues while the Samsung has. In dark image content (Sci-Fi or Horror titles or even darker areas in games like Witcher 3 in a cave for example) the Samsung usually wins because of the contrast ratio. The farther away you sit from the CHG70 away, the better the overall image quality and less VA glow. Same applies to the Acer (fewer IPS glow when increasing the distance to the panel). Personally, I still would prefer IPS simply because of the color stability and combined with it the viewing angles, which are usually much harsher than on a TV for example, where a VA panel mostly wins on a TV (also because good TVs have a stronger contrast ratio than current VA monitors).

You should check out my IPS vs VA (Viewsonic vs LG) comparison, this maybe can help.

2 Nicholas March 1, 2018 2:39 pm

Beautiful. In the video the VA looked miles better in the dark to my eye. I might steet toward the Samsung in that regard. I appreciate your input and all the reviews. If you have an Amazon link in your CHG70 video I will be sure to buy it from there.

Answer from Lim's Cave - March 5, 2018 2:16 pm

Thanks, mate :) Yes the Samsungs VA glow is better than on the CFG73 and far better than on the HP Omen X35 for example. But the VA Glow still is visible and depending on the "individual person" still an issue

3 astrix_au July 22, 2018 1:24 pm

I wrote to you on youtube about the overdrive on displayport, it seems to be working better for me but HDMI 2.0 seems to have no tearing at all. DP can start to have it at the 144hz limit even though I have enhanced sync on in Radeon settings on Fortnite anyway. I'll need to try more games.

I think that has possibly making me think the overdrive was bugged but it might be freesync having some issues on DP. Looking at UFO tests the overdrive pretty much looks the same but the freesync on HDMI 2.0 is just smoother and I still think has better overdrive :)

I'm gonna do some IL2 BOS soon so that will be interesting.

Lim what did you use to calibrate the monitor? Is it just the windows 10 Calibrator?

Answer from Lim's Cave - July 22, 2018 9:56 pm

I am really wondering why HDMI 2.0 works better for you :X

I am using basICColor mostly as well as DisplayCAL. BUT, ICC profiles are not really important (while most games do not read ICC profiles and it would only change the color temperature as well as gamma settings). Gamma + Color temperature + Brightness can be easily set within the OSD, so you do not really need to "calibrate" with software. You can use Windows calibration if you want a different gamma setting than offered in the OSD (:

4 astrix_au July 22, 2018 1:50 pm

I just noticed on your Youtube video you say there are 2x HDMI 1.4 which I'm afraid isn't the case Lim. There is 1x HDMI 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0 with freesync ranges of 40-70hz and 40-144hz respectively.
I was using HDMI 2.0 on my Rx vega 64 but been trying DP 1.2a but I think i'll be going back to HDMI 2.0 as it's freesync is smoother.

HDMI does give a darker image with the black set to Normal, the other setting is way to dark. So collaboration settings will be different.

Answer from Lim's Cave - July 22, 2018 9:54 pm

Good to know, thanks. I just could not notice that the image is darker when using HDMI, you're the first person from that I hear of that "problem". Will try to ask some owner of the Acer

5 Franklin Lora July 28, 2018 2:46 pm

Hello Lims Cave. What astrix_au was saying to you is true. I also have this monitor and when using DP and freesync the ghosting is HORRIBLE. Playing F1 2017 is just...awful. Also even using windows 10 normally like browsing the internet or opening windows and programs feels sooo slow compared to HDMI 2.0. And yes, i can confirm that this monitor has HDMI 2.0 with support for freesync 40-144hz and 2560x1440 resolution. To me HDMI 2.0 is just perfect, whereas DP has some problems with freesync and overdrive. Hope this helps.

Answer from Lim's Cave - July 30, 2018 12:08 am

I just did test DP (no HDMI) and I did not have any Ghosting issues tbh. I bought an RX580 just to test Freesync monitors :X But if HDMI works for you without any issues, then it should be still good without suffering from your mentioned issues.

Thanks for letting me know, will try to update the review asap

6 Franklin Lora August 2, 2018 1:30 pm

Well then...maybe is a problem with VEGA64 because the other people mentioning this issues they also happen to use a VEGA64 GPU. In any case HDMI 2.0 is working fine so far.

Answer from Lim's Cave - August 13, 2018 9:28 pm

Maybe.. It would be really awesome to own more graphics cards as a reviewer T_T Unfortunately obviously I cannot afford all those graphics cards to test Freesync issues within a specific line :/

7 Franklin Lora August 14, 2018 4:00 pm

I understand you're right. But just to let you know now I'm getting a lot of ghosting and horrible gameplay even with HDMI 2.0. I don't know what the H is going on but...is the first time I tried AMD and I have this issues that I never had when I was using NVIDIA. I bought AMD VEGA64 simply because of the freesync capability and now is not working...I think I'm going to sell my VEGA64 and go back to NVIDIA as I never had any issues with NVIDIA, never.

Answer from Lim's Cave - August 29, 2018 2:25 pm

Sounds really weird... Just wondering why you have such issues. Did you have also tried some older driver versions?

8 Confeter October 15, 2018 2:36 am

Hello ! Thanks for your review ! I Just want to know in term of response time, if it's the same as the XB version which is the G-Sync model of this screen. Because i know tftcentral tested the XB and give the response time result. Do you think XF and XB are the same ? Thank you :)

Answer from Lim's Cave - October 26, 2018 12:10 am

Yes, it is the same just that Freesync doesn't work as great as G-Sync because of variable refresh rates (especially on lower fps it can occur that you also will see some ghosting). Otherwise, on 144Hz it is perfect.