Acer - XF251Q 24.5" LED FHD FreeSync Monitor (DVI, HDMI, VGA) - Black

I have had a chance to play around with the Acer XF251Q 24.5" monitor for a few days now, and I have enjoyed what I have seen. I am driving the monitor with a AMD Vega 64 Powercolor Red Devil GPU that is hooked up with the supplied HDMI cable. Since I am using an AMD graphics card I was able to test the full range of feature. NVidia owners can still benefit from the adaptive sync, but not to the level of Freesync/G-sync. First, I need to point out a few discrepancies in the listing for this monitor. The images shown for the listing have a picture that shows (2) USB 3.0 ports on the side - these are not present. I believe it is an image of one of the other monitors in the XF series from Acer. Best Buy is not the only site using this image, so I would assume its an honest mixup. There is also a little snippet in the listing about the monitor having a 144HZ refresh rate, but the Features section only lists 75Hz. This monitor is for sure 75Hz. This may get cleared up in the future, but at the time of this review, that is what I saw. *Onto the good - Construction and build quality are very nice. The stand is one of the nicest I have come across in an affordable monitor. It's very sturdy, and does not wobble a bit (others have noted that this makes it feel heavy - TBH the weight is necessary). The stand allows the monitor to adjust height, viewing angle, rotation (±45° from center), and easily switch from portrait to landscape. This has been a boon for me because I game and work in landscape, but my wife needs portrait for her work. The monitor has a sleek, understated design. It doesn't have eye-catching curvy looks, or a design that screams GAMER!!! What it does have are very nice clean lines that allows this monitor to look comfortable in a gaming or workstation setup. The 'frameless' design also helps set it apart. The bezel edge is just over 2mm thick (checked with caliper), which is pretty slim. There is still a black border around the image on the screen (just under 5mm, so >7mm from bezel edge to the image), This is right on par with many frameless monitors I have looked at (my other monitors have 1.5mm bezels, but still the same >7mm to the image). This black border is present whether due to the physical construction of the panel, or the LED backlight bleeding, or what I really can't remember. Most gaming monitors carry a large bezel (9-12mm), which isn't so great if you are planning a multi-monitor setup. I only use slim bezel monitors for this very reason (I am now up to 4 monitors for that whole wrap around feeling). The panel itself provides a great picture. At 24.5", 1080p is still a more than adequate resolution to game at. Most graphics cards struggle with 4K 60 @high settings, let alone ultra - so for now 1080 is still very worth it. I had plenty of time to play around with the various settings for the picture quality. I didn't have to adjust much, other than the brightness. This panel is actually pretty bright, and I feel like the 250 nit rating undersells it. I have had no trouble viewing with the lights on, or with natural light shining in at my back. The anti-glare matte finish also helps here. I was happy to see the blue light reduction feature on the monitor. I know this is something that has been implemented in Windows 10, but its still nice to see it incorporated. The panel also has several preset modes you can jump around through to adjust the color settings. You can also customize those presets to make it easy to tailor your changing display needs. I will be honest about the fact that I am lazy with settings, and I will likely just do a 'set it and forget' preset going forward. In games, with Freesync enabled, the image quality was excellent. I had no frame tearing, or framerate issues. Games I tested were Dirt Rally 2, Far Cry 5, and Shadow of War. The 1ms (gray to gray) response time was fantastic, and really did away with the motion blur/ghosting when I would spin around or do anything really fast paced. This is a big feature for TN panels, and I have to say it is making me regret my 5ms IPS gaming panels I bought last year. The viewing angle on the monitor is pretty standard for TN (170° horz, 160° vert), and you can't really get much more than that unless you jump to VA or IPS. I set the Acer up in the same position as my IPS panels (33° off center panel), and the angle of the monitor didn't seem to affect the image at all. It still looked nice and bright - again causing me regret for my IPS's. Another nice feature is the audio pass through over HDMI to the 3.5mm headset jack. This knocked down a little cable clutter for me, and freed up a speaker jack in the back of my computer. This passthrough appears to be for playback only - no microphone support. *Now the not so good - There's really not a whole lot of bad to say about this monitor, just minor pain points. I really wish they would have changed one of the HDMI ports to Displayport. Every mid to high end graphics card has one or more these days, so I wish that could be different. The menu buttons on bottom of the frame have no designation, so you rely on the OSD to figure out what each button does. Also, OSD only displays if you have a connected source that isn't flickering (I had this issue when I was fiddling with settings on my graphics card and the monitor at the same time). The speakers - they exist, and I guess can be useful in a pinch. I tried them out, and they were as I expected them to be. I would rather cut them out to save some cost, and weight. The headset hook does not like to stay attached - it really needs another mounting point near the bottom of the hook to hold it in place. I used a velcro strap to hold it to the stand frame, and that appears to be working nicely. My last issue is the inability to disable the power button LED. It's bright blue, so gaming at night is affected. I don't like having to put tape or post it notes over LED's when I should just be able to disable them. *Conclusion - This is a very good entry level gaming monitor, and it comes in at a pretty solid price bracket. It really shines with its quick response time, Freesync support, and quality construction. I would recommend this monitor for sure. I may even pick up a few more of these to replace my 1 year old IPS's.

Great monitor, great value! I love Best Buy! I'm so happy that I decided to go with this monitor. If you're a gamer you will love this! Awesome picture. AND this monitor has built in SPEAKERS!!! Not to mention it can completely rotate to vertical viewing. Buy it.

Very well designed moniter! Can easily run 1080p on my xbox and PC!

Very comfortable for my eyes also easy to move around

Decided I needed to get my existing monitors (3) off my desk to free up space and discovered none of the monitors I had were vesa mountable! Looking for some inexpensive replacements I found these on sale and also had thin bezels which look much better when all mounted together. Was A little more than I planned to initially spend (replacing 3 monitors) I really like the way it turned out and the space I have saved. Also these monitors do not have a glossy screen which is important due to the intense LED lighting utilized in the workshop area they are located. They do not reflect any lighting glare at all.

Works well and does well with high intensity gaming

The quality of the picture has been very good. The set up was pretty easy, it was pretty much plug and play. I don't use it for gaming, I use it more for streaming video. The viewing angle is nice, the color and image doesn't distort if you are not directly in front of the screen. The most visible upgrade from my old monitor is the color black. The color black on this screen is deep and dark, it doesn't give off that pixilated gray(ish) look when the color black is being displayed during a movie or game. The next plus is the size and the borderless design, it is very streamlined and weighs very little. The only downside I have encountered when installing, was the vesa compliant mounting option. The rear of the monitor has an indented/recessed screw bracket. The problem is attaching the wall mount plate on most vesa mounts to the back of the monitor. Due to the recessed screw bracket it doesn't allow for flush placement of the wall mount and you have to get longer screws and pretty much rig it to fit. it's a minor hassle but not a deal breaker.

This is a strong monitor. It is larger for desktop computer use and midsize to larger for a desktop gaming monitor. It is not curved and has a matte finish. The colors are very vivid, deep and accurate. The monitor is very easy to assemble and configure. The stand’s base it larger than most other monitor bases I’ve used and should be considered when making sure you have the room on your desk/stand for it. The stand allows you to raise and lower the monitor’s height and tilts up and down to find the best viewing angle. The monitor has many preset picture settings that allows you to find settings that appeal to your liking. The monitor also allows you to customize your setting as well. The only real issue I have with this monitor is the stand itself, because it is rather large. The stand doesn’t detract from the overall quality of the picture and the performance.