LG 27UD88-W vs Acer Predator Z301C

The screen can be very bright, at 320 nits, above the industry average of 240 nits. This means it can be used with no problems in well lit rooms. The screen is coated with a matte finish, preventing errant glare and reflections.

The bezel is barely visible, except for the bottom part of the screen, resulting in an elegant look and an illusion that the screen is bigger than it actually is.

The settings of the monitor are adjusted using a joystick at the bottom of the monitor. It's easy to reach, precise and all the controls are displayed on the screen. The OSD menu is clear and understandable.

The LG 27UD88 offers a wide choice of connectivity options. It includes two HDMI 2.0 ports, one Display port 1.2 and USB-C port that can be used as a video input port as well. There are also two USB 3.0 ports for external hardware or media devices.

It is made from plastic, but feels robust and solid. The back is white and the foot has a silver metallic finish. The stand has a large footprint, but should fit on most of the tables and still feel stable. Overall it looks premium more expensive than it actually is.

Height and tilt adjustment can be made on this screen, although the height adjustment interval is rather small. Pivot is also available, so it can be used in portrait mode, when needed.

The monitor has outstanding sharpness, brightness, color accuracy and an almost perfect sRGB color coverage. It comes factory pre-calibrated that will satisfy most users, but there are also plenty of calibration options if needed. The viewing angles are excellent at nearly 180 degrees, meaning pictures will look good even from extreme angles, without any noticeable color distortion.

This screen suits multi monitor setups particularly well, since it has almost no visible bezels.

Users will be able to find the best preset for their specific use of the monitor as it comes with 14 different ones. These include an sRGB preset, a preset for eased reading, for color blindness, multiple broadcasting standards and gaming presets. There are also several picture-by-picture presets, but only for two inputs at once. You can make your own presets as well and switching between them is quick and easy using the joystick at the bottom of the screen.

Laptop users with USB type-C connector can transmit video signals directly to the monitor. When connected, you can also use the monitor as a USB port for data transfer as well as charge your laptop if it supports type-C charging. All of this can be done simultaneously through just one wire.

The screen can produce 1.07 billion colours and covers 99% of the sRGB color spectrum. This means great performance in nearly every situation, from gaming to professional photo/video color correcting and post-processing. Color accuracy is one the best among its competitors, and is on par with more expensive monitors. This monitor comes factory calibrated for accurate color accuracy, but can be further adjusted with LG’s True Color Pro calibration software.

Even the most experienced gamers will like this monitor as27UD88 has one of the lowest input lags currently available for 4K display, measuring only at 9,8ms, making it ideal for virtually lag free gaming. The pixel response time measures at 5ms that is not the best result, but still is really good and should not cause any noticeable problems for majority of the users.

You can use the monitor’s integrated USB 3.0 hub to interconnect or charge peripheral USB devices.

Even though the monitor’s 6 W speakers aren’t particularly useful for gaming, occasionally they might come in handy.

The monitor’s 1800R curvature makes the overall gaming experience more immersive as you can experience the panel surrounding you.

You can increase the monitor’s native refresh rate from 144 Hz to 200 Hz using Acer’s overclocking feature. Such overclocking doesn’t pose any danger to your hardware and is simple to implement.

The monitor’s integrated FPS counter works flawlessly and doesn’t increase the display lag.

G-Sync allows the Acer Z301C to eliminate stutter and screen tearing by synchronizing its refresh rate to the framerate of your Nvidia video card.

This feature works with all the Nvidia’s graphics cards that are newer than the GTX 650Ti.

The monitor’s high responsiveness makes actions feel instant as its input lag of 6.8 ms is too low to be sensed even in fast-paced games.

The monitor’s input lag corresponds to the time delay needed by the monitor’s hardware to process a frame generated by a computer’s GPU.

The monitor does an excellent job of motion handling because of its low full pixel response time, integrated ULNB feature, and highly responsive 144 Hz panel.

The monitor doesn’t suffer from ghosting because its four milliseconds of full pixel response time ensures that fast-moving objects don’t leave overly long traces on the screen, as it allows each of the panel's pixel to change its color within only 4 ms.

The monitor’s ultra low motion blur feature eliminates the motion blur as it makes the monitor strobe and behave like CRT monitors.

The overall motion looks genuinely fluid because of the monitor’s 144 Hz panel, which refreshes so quickly, that the image transitions look perfectly smooth to the human eye.

For most new games, the Acer Z301C will give you the advantage of having a wider field of view compared to those who play on 1920x1080 panels. because of the monitor’s 2560x1080 resolution. It has a very noticeable impact in many FPS games where the extended side view lets you spot your enemies faster.

The Acer Z301C offers picture quality that few other gaming monitors can match. Its native contrast ratio, peak brightness, color accuracy, and gamma are superior to most of its competitors.

The monitor’s premium quality AMVA panel displays eye-catching images, with intensely deep blacks, vivid colors, and lifelike intermediate tones and highlights. The dark scenes look amazing thanks to the monitor’s contrast ratio of 2856:1. Colors look crisp as the Z301C can get up to 355 nits of brightness. The mid tones and highlights look saturated thanks to the panel's gamma which is only 2.3% off from being ideal.

Furthermore, the monitor's overall color inaccuracies are so minor that the human eye can’t detect those.

Because of its responsiveness, motion handling capabilities, and picture quality, the Acer Z301C is among the best gaming monitors on the market.

Additionally, the monitor comes with a bunch of gaming-specific features, such as G-Sync and an FPS counter.

The Acer Z301C is an excellent option for those who create media for web services as the monitor can display the full range of sRGB colors. The sRGB color space is the default for the majority of web applications, including YouTube and Twitch.