When comparing ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ vs Acer Predator Z301C, the Slant community recommends ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ for most people. In the question“What are the best monitors?” ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ is ranked 8th while Acer Predator Z301C is ranked 35th. The most important reason people chose ASUS ROG Strix XG27VQ is:
The picture quality of the ASUS XG27VQ is one of the best among all gaming monitors in this price range. This is due to its VA panel that offers high native contrast ratio, excellent peak brightness, great gamma, and fair color accuracy. The XG27VQ does an excellent job of reproducing deep dark scenes, bright and vivid colors, and some eye-catching intermediate tones. The monitor can reproduce beautiful dark scenes thanks to its native contrast ratio of 3000:1 which allows it to display intense blacks. Colors look bright and vibrant thanks to the monitor's high peak brightness of 300 nits. Mid-tones look life-like because of the panel's nearly ideal average gamma of 2.25. Additionally, the monitor's color inaccuracies are almost invisible to the human eye as its average color error dE is only 2.6.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Superb picture quality
The picture quality of the ASUS XG27VQ is one of the best among all gaming monitors in this price range. This is due to its VA panel that offers high native contrast ratio, excellent peak brightness, great gamma, and fair color accuracy.
The XG27VQ does an excellent job of reproducing deep dark scenes, bright and vivid colors, and some eye-catching intermediate tones. The monitor can reproduce beautiful dark scenes thanks to its native contrast ratio of 3000:1 which allows it to display intense blacks. Colors look bright and vibrant thanks to the monitor's high peak brightness of 300 nits. Mid-tones look life-like because of the panel's nearly ideal average gamma of 2.25.
Additionally, the monitor's color inaccuracies are almost invisible to the human eye as its average color error dE is only 2.6.
Pro Supports FreeSync
FreeSync eliminates screen tearing and stutter, and reduces display lag because it allows the monitor to synchronize its refresh rate to the framerate of your Radeon GPU.
The ASUS XG27VQ supports the FreeSync in the 48-144 FPS range.
Pro Good motion handling
This monitor has multiple tools that enable it to display clear and blur-less motion even in the fastest FPS games, allowing this VA panel to compete against faster TN gaming monitors in this price range.
First, the artificial motion blur effect is virtually eliminated by the aid of ASUS's Extreme Low Motion Blur feature, which makes this LCD monitor behave more like CRT monitors.
Second, the monitor doesn't suffer from heavy ghosting as each pixel of the ASUS XG27VQ can change its color in 4ms.
Finally, the motion appears smooth and fluid because of the monitor's native refresh rate of 144 Hz, which enables it to display up to 144 frames each second.
Pro Well-built
The overall build quality of the ASUS XG27VQ suggests that this is a premium-class product. Each part feels rigid, as if the entire monitor was carved from a single piece of plastic.
Pro Has a desktop app
You can adjust all the monitor's settings using your keyboard and a mouse thanks to the ASUS's desktop application.
Pro Has a curved panel
The ASUS XG27VQ makes your overall gaming experience more immersive as its 1800R curved panel gives you the sensation of the screen surrounding you.
Additionally, the panel's curvature minimizes viewing angles on the sides of the monitor which noticeably improves the overall visual consistency of the panel.
Pro Has a crosshair
The ASUS XG27VQ has a crosshair feature which allows you to add a crosshair to any game. It could improve your performance in games like CS: GO and Rust, where you can no-scope your opponents.
Pro Exceptional gaming performance
The ASUS XG27VQ offers remarkable gaming performance as it combines superb overall picture quality with excellent motion handling capabilities, well-handled input lag, and high native refresh rate.
Pro Decent responsiveness
Even though no one has tested the monitor's input lag yet, it seems to be within the four-millisecond range according to the general user reviews and the input lag tests of other ASUS ROG monitors from 2016-2017. Such input lag makes the ASUS XG27VQ one of the most responsive monitors in its price range.
The input lag of a monitor corresponds to the time delay between a GPU producing a frame and the monitor processing it. The lower the input lag, the more responsive and connected your gaming experience will be.
Pro Features a USB 3.0 hub
You can use the monitor’s integrated USB 3.0 hub to interconnect or charge peripheral USB devices.
Pro Has speakers
Even though the monitor’s 6 W speakers aren’t particularly useful for gaming, occasionally they might come in handy.
Pro Has a curve
The monitor’s 1800R curvature makes the overall gaming experience more immersive as you can experience the panel surrounding you.
Pro Overclockable
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.
Pro Has an FPS counter
The monitor’s integrated FPS counter works flawlessly and doesn’t increase the display lag.
Pro Has G-Sync
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.
Pro Decent responsiveness
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.
Pro Excellent motion handling
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.
Pro Great for widescreen gaming
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.
Pro Exceptional picture quality
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.
Pro Excellent for gaming
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.
Pro Good for media editing
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.
Cons
Con Poor connectivity
The XG27VQ lacks USB connectivity, which might be a huge deal breaker in 2018.
Con LED ring is limited
You can't synchronize the RGB LED ring of the XG27VQ to other external RGB gadgets, like a graphics card, motherboard, or a cooler.
Con Overly aggressive design
Many users found the design of the ASUS XG27VQ to be overly aggressive and oversaturated with RGB elements.
Con Needs slight calibration
To unleash the monitor’s full potential, you’ll need to adjust some of its settings. Fortunately, all the key calibration parameters are available on the Internet.