Acer XV275K P3 Review: 4K 160Hz Mini LED HDR Gaming Monitor

The Acer XV275K P3 is a 27" 4K 160Hz IPS gaming monitor with a 576-zone mini LED FALD backlight, VRR, USB-C (90W PD), HDMI 2.1, and more!

Bottom Line

The Acer XV275K P3 is a decent HDR gaming monitor for the price (when on sale), but there are other alternatives you should consider as well.

Design:
(5.0)
Display:
(4.7)
Performance:
(4.8)
Price/Value:
(3.5)
4.5

With more and more mini LED gaming monitors on the market, we’re finally seeing some competition when it comes to pricing! Let’s see how the Acer Nitro XV275K P3biipruzx (or Acer XV275K P3 for short) stacks up!

Image Quality

The monitor is based on the same panel as the Cooler Master Tempest GP27U and the KTC M27P20 Pro, and it uses the same 576-zone mini LED FALD (Full Array Local Dimming) backlight.

You also get an exceptional color gamut with 99% DCI-P3 and 99% Adobe RGB color space coverage for vibrant and saturated colors. In fact, these 4K mini LED displays are one of the widest color gamut monitors currently available.

This also means that regular content will be over-saturated with ~165% sRGB gamut volume. There’s an sRGB emulation mode that clamps the gamut down to 100% sRGB for better accuracy when viewing SDR content. It also has excellent Delta E < 2 factory calibration.

You’ll also find Rec.709, DCI, EBU and SMPTE-C color space modes, but unlike it’s the case with other mini LED models, the Adobe RGB mode is not available, sadly.

So, if you want to do color-critical work within Adobe RGB, you’ll need a colorimeter to profile the display.

Moving on, thanks to its IPS panel, the Acer XV275K P3 provides you with 178° wide viewing angles, meaning that the image will remain excellent regardless of the angle you’re looking at the screen. However, there’s some IPS glow and backlight bleeding, though this varies from unit to unit and it’s completely manageable in most cases.

The monitor has a strong peak brightness of 600-nits for SDR, which gets a boost up to 1200-nits in HDR content for punchy highlights. Make sure that the ‘Max. Brightness’ option is enabled in the OSD menu for higher brightness.

The static contrast ratio is only 1,000:1, but thanks to the 576-zone local dimming solution, the display can individually dim parts of the screen that are supposed to be dark without greatly affecting areas that are supposed to remain bright.

Edge lit Dimming vs Full array Dimming

As a result, you get a true HDR viewing experience with deep blacks and bright highlights at the same time, while the wide color gamut ensures gorgeous colors.

Since there are only 576 dimming zones and over 8 million pixels, in some demanding scenes (such as stars in the night sky, fireworks, etc.), the light from an illuminated object will bleed into the surrounding dimmed zones and create blooming.

Most users find the amount of blooming tolerable considering that it only occurs in demanding scenes. You can use local dimming in SDR mode too, but we recommend disabling it when not watching videos or playing games.

There are three local dimming settings under ‘Adaptive Dimming’: Low, Average and Fast with Low having the lowest amount of blooming (but also the lowest brightness and slowest transition between zones). The best setting will vary from content to content and your personal preference.

OLED displays have per-pixel dimming, so blooming, backlight bleeding and IPS glow are not an issue, but they have other drawbacks, such as the risk of burn-in, uncommon subpixel layouts resulting in text fringing and lower brightness. Further, there are no 27″ 4K high refresh rate OLED displays currently available.

Next, the 4K UHD resolution results in a high pixel density of 163 PPI (pixels per inch) on the 27″ viewable screen of the Acer XV275K P3 monitor, providing you with plenty of screen real estate with sharp details and text.

Keep in mind that you’ll need a high-end GPU in order to maintain high frame rates with decent picture settings at 4K UHD.

Performance

amd freesync logo

The Acer XV275K P3 has a rapid 1ms GtG pixel response time speed for no noticeable ghosting behind fast-moving objects.

There are three overdrive modes: Off, Normal and Extreme, which we recommend leaving at the default (Normal) mode for the best performance across the entire fresh rate range.

The monitor also supports variable refresh rate (VRR) through AMD’s FreeSync, NVIDIA’s G-SYNC Compatible and HDMI 2.1 VRR with a 48-160Hz range for tear-free gameplay, while input lag is imperceptible at ~5ms of delay.

Finally, the backlight of the monitor is flicker-free (unless local dimming is enabled) and there’s a low-blue light filter.

Features

Acer XV275KP3 OSD Menu

Beneath the bottom bezel of the screen on the right side, there’s a power button and four hotkeys for navigation through the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu, which are a bit clunky – we would’ve preferred a directional joystick.

You can download Acer’s Display Widget desktop application to make all your adjustments using a keyboard and mouse, though it is also somewhat buggy.

Besides the standard image adjustment tools (brightness, contrast, color temperature, etc.), the Acer XV275K P3 also offers some advanced settings, including gamma, 6-axis hue/saturation and sharpness.

Gaming features include various picture presets, crosshair overlays, a refresh rate tracker and Black Boost (improves visibility in dark scenes).

Design & Connectivity

Acer XV275KP3 Review

The stand of the monitor is sturdy and offers full ergonomic support, including up to 150mm height adjustment, +/- 25° swivel, -5°/25° tilt, 90° pivot and 75x75mm VESA mount compatibility.

The screen has a light matte anti-glare coating that prevents reflections without making the image too grainy.

Connectivity options are abundant and include DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC, two HDMI 2.1 ports with full 48 Gbps, a USB-C port with DP 1.4 Alt Mode and 90W Power Delivery, a headphone jack and a USB 3.0 hub (1 type B upstream + 2 type A downstream ports).

There’s also a built-in KVM functionality (the ‘USB Port Select’ option under ‘System’ settings in the OSD menu), RGB lighting at the rear of the monitor and an integrated cooling fan, but it’s silent.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Acer XV275K P3 price ranges from $550 to $800.

We recommend the Innocn 27M2V instead, which can be found for $500 – $750 with 1152 dimming zones.

If you’re after something cheaper, check out the Xiaomi G Pro 27i with a 27″ 1440p 180Hz IPS panel and 1152 dimming zones for ~$350 or the AOC Q27G3XMN with a 27″ 1440p 180Hz flat-screen VA panel with 336 dimming zones for ~$250.

Finally, you can find 27″ 1440p 360Hz OLED gaming monitors in this price range too, such as the MSI MAG 271QPX.

Visit our best HDR monitors buyer’s guide for more options and information.

Conclusion

Overall, the Acer XV275K P3 is worth considering when on sale for $550 – if the Innocn 27M2V is not available and if you don’t want an OLED display. At $800, it’s too expensive.

Specifications

Screen Size27-inch
Resolution3840×2160 (Ultra HD)
Panel TypeIPS
Aspect Ratio16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate160Hz
Response Time1ms (GtG)
Adaptive-SyncFreeSync Premium (48-160Hz)
PortsDisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1,
USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 90W PD)
Other PortsHeadphone Jack, 2x USB 3.0
Brightness600 cd/m²
Brightness (HDR)1200 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio1000:1 (static)
Colors1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC)
99% DCI-P3, 99% Adobe RGB
HDRVESA DisplayHDR 1000
Local Dimming576-zone mini LED FALD
VESAYes (75x75mm)

The Pros:

  • High peak brightness, high pixel density, wide color gamut
  • 576-zone mini LED FALD
  • Fast response time, low input lag
  • Plenty of features, including VRR up to 160FPS
  • Fully ergonomic stand and rich connectivity options, including USB-C with 90W PD and KVM

The Cons:

  • Minor blooming/haloing noticeable in certain scenes
  • Clunky OSD buttons

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Rob Shafer

Rob is a software engineer with a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Denver. He now works full-time managing DisplayNinja while coding his own projects on the side.