Chip Chick
In the market for a new gaming monitor? With resolutions going up and HDR becoming more and more widespread, it’s getting harder to tell which monitor makes the most sense to buy. For those that are trying to weigh their options carefully, the new Acer Predator Z35P seems like it might hit the sweet spot.
One of Acer’s many monitors that were announced at or before Computex 2017, the Z35P is a 35″ 3,440 x 1,440 widescreen monitor with a gentle 1800R curve — not as pronounced as ones we’ve seen in years past, which is probably a good thing. Getting deeper into the numbers, it has a 100 Hz refresh rate (using the DisplayPort) and a 4 ms GTG time, and is capable of emitting 300 nits of brightness. It also covers 100 percent of the sRGB color spectrum, which is promising for gaming.
The only dicey part is that it’s a VA panel. VA panels have come under fire for ghosting because of slower switching from darks to brights, and for not having as deep of blacks as other kinds of panels. Like with the Z35, Acer will try to mitigate some of those problems with Nvidia’s G-Sync and ultra low motion blur technologies. G-Sync ties frame rate to performance, while ULMB is supposed to keep things like motion blur in check.
The monitor comes with its own speaker system, too — a pair of 9W speakers with Acer’s own TrueHarmony audio processing. It’s no Dolby software, but then again, this isn’t the super top of the line monitor, either.
The Z35P does have tilt (-4 to 35 degrees) and swivel (-20 to 20 degrees), in case you need to do a little repositioning on your desk. The monitor can also be raised up by as much as five inches.
Like most other companies, Acer does have more fully featured monitors this year, including one with HDR and a 4K panel. But, for the more value minded, it’s still debatable how much of a difference 4K makes, even at this size, and HDR-ready displays can be very bright for something that won’t be that far from your face. The Z35P seems positioned as a more reasonable in-between monitor that delivers exactly what gamers will need, without going overboard.
Still, the Z35P isn’t what you’d call cheap. It’s available now for $1,100.
UPDATE 07/10/2017: Acer has informed us that the Predator Z35P does not have Nvidia’s ultra low motion blur technology. We regret the error.
Check out more of our Computex 2017 coverage right here!
Disclosure: Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), an organizer of COMPUTEX, covered our travel expenses to attend COMPUTEX 2017. All thoughts and opinions are 100% our own.
