Gadgetory

hey guys Ibraheim Canucks and about a month ago we took a close look at the predator x34 that monster decent gaming monitor received quite a lot of attention because of its curve and of course the gaming performance unfortunately it was just simply too expensive for many gamers with a price tag of $1,200 well we have a new kid from Acer that's $200 cheaper yet it still offers a superlative gaming experience folks meet the Acer Z 35 this is a curved 35 inches monitor with a resolution of 2560 by 1080 that uses a new generation advanced mva panel but there's something more the refresh rate goes to an awesome 200 Hertz you heard that right 200 Hertz and as usual Acer added a little bit of sweetness with the addition of G sync so overall we're looking at an alternative to the ex 34 which offers a much faster panel but lacks the color reproduction offered by IPs and the X 30 for better resolution unfortunately due to bandwidth constraints of today's display interface connectors pushing such high refresh rates to a high resolution monitor like the ex 34 just isn't possible so Acer made this Z 35 one thing to mention is that the Z 35 uses a panel that natively runs at 144 Hertz but through the use of Acer's on-screen display menu it can effectively be overclocked to a maximum of 200 Hertz but achieving that 144 to 200 frames per second with in today's highly demanding titles will be challenging unless if you have a crazy GPU setup you could play around with graphics settings to increase that frame rate but it ultimately boils down to one question what's more important to you higher graphics quality or higher frame rate another concern is of course the dot pitch level of this monitor a 34 inch screen with a 34 40 by 1440 resolution like the one found on the X 34 would provide a lot of virtual real estate for productivity or more specifically video editing meanwhile the Z 35 2560 by 1080 screen just looks enlarged and will likely provide an inadequate experience for professionals you lose quite a lot of real estate especially if you want to have a duel or try windows setup something that the x34 can easily achieve due to its high resolution I think a sir went a little over-aggressive this time in the design department - don't get me wrong the ex35 is certainly gorgeous and has a pinch of aggressiveness though I prefer a more subtle approach since this a curved monitor it only offers 130 millimeter of height adjustment and thirty degrees of tilt from negative five to 25 degrees also the whole unit is rock solid which means you don't have to worry about it tipping over this is a 21 by 9 curved monitor and it looks great especially when gaming like the x34 the enhanced immersion by surrounding our vision with one continuous image is great although do note that the curve can add visual artifacts to menus and distort key elements of a game interface just like the x34 the z35 includes down firing LEDs that allow the bottom edge to glow in one or many different colors all of which can be customized within the OSD this feature actually plays a crucial role as much as the x34 or you can have it glow one color when g-sync is enabled and another when the feature is disabled in terms of Io we have four USB 3.0 ports with a single 3.0 upstream port Acer did the right job placing them right behind the panel for easier plug-and-play and on the bottom we have power in DisplayPort 1.2 HDMI 1.4 and audio out port connector respectively the OSD is pretty much the same found on the other predator monitors from our testing the physical buttons were easier to navigate with when you enter the OSD you're greeted with a small shortcut menu composing quick access features like three in game modes that can be programmed to your preference an adjustable overdrive that pushes more voltage through those liquid crystals forcing them to change from one state to another faster there's also volume adjust input selection and the option to enter the advanced setup within the advanced setup Acer greets you with the picture tab which lets you switch between different profiles adjust brightness contrast blue light dark boost and adaptive contrast the color tab lets you change the gamma color temperature saturation and six axis color the language OSD timeout trait display transparency and game mode can be set through their respective areas as well moving on to the Settings tab this is where the magic happens the user can switch between inputs turn on DTS for the included speakers change the ambient light underneath the panel to different colors adjust the wide mode and the best part overclocking the panel to 200 Hertz as I mentioned earlier you can only do this via DisplayPort 1.2 since HDMI port here is only limited to 60 Hertz as for performance there's really not much to complain about the picture uniformity on the z 35 was very good with a deviation of about only 20 percent which is good considering this monitors size there's no way you could see this with your naked eyes so what was it like gaming on a 200 Hertz display really good actually the combination of a 200 R radius curve with that 200 Hertz refresh rate along with g-sync support all makes it for one of the best experiences around for first-person shooters with strategy games the features like a curve and high speed panel aren't really useful in any way though that are 2560 by 1080 resolution can become a hindrance to coming from an X 34 it took me some time to get used to this resolution just because of how enlarged things look on Windows while the field of view in games is slightly more limited as well all in all I had a lot of fun gaming on this beast playing at 200 Hertz though requires a beefy video card setup unless if you have a high end GPU setup actually taking advantage of that 200 Hertz will prove to be challenging we used an msi 980ti lightning for the task and it was not up to it in many titles sacrifices will be needed on other areas in order to achieve those higher frame rates Acer's z35 gaming monitor gave me a lot to think about for one it's still expensive at $1000 but that gets you one of the best curved gaming monitors available on the market today the downside is of course that resolution and the amount of firepower you'll need to drive it to its fullest potential I've used plenty of 4k panels and ultra wide displays and it does take some time to get used to the curve in addition I can't really see using this thing for professional tasks since the curve tends to distort images of bed but for gamers it's really hard to think of a better option if you have the cash and the money for a serious gaming PC so what do you guys think about the Acer z35 is it worth $1,000 plus do you see yourself gaming and 200 Hertz I'd love to hear your thoughts I'm ebar with hurricane axe thank you so much for watching don't forget to subscribe for more similar content and we'll see you in the next one