Acer Predator X34 monitor review: Going all-in on the curve --[Reported by Umva mag]

There’s a new generation of 34-inch OLED ultrawides hitting store shelves. They upgrade the maximum refresh rate to 240Hz, making them competitive with the latest 27-inch and 32-inch OLED widescreens. Acer’s Predator X34 is part of this new breed, but it stands out from the crowd with an extremely aggressive curve that’s sure to appeal to som — and greatly annoy others.

Acer Predator X34 specs and features

The Acer Predator X34 has an LG WOLED panel with a refresh rate up to 240Hz. Refresh rate aside, the panel’s performance is very similar to earlier panels, but it still looks great.

• Display size: 34-inch ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio
• Native resolution: 3440×1440
• Panel type: LG WOLED
• Refresh rate: Up to 240Hz
• Adaptive sync: AMD FreeSync Premium Pro
• HDR: VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certified
• Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 90 watts of USB Power Delivery, 1x USB-B upstream, 3x USB-A 3.2 downstream, 1x USB-C 3.2 downstream, 3.5mm audio-out
• VESA mount: 100x100mm
• Speakers: 2x 5-watt speakers
• Price: $1,199.99 MSRP

Acer tacks on useful extras including a USB-C port with up to 90 watts of USB Power Delivery and a pair of 5-watt speakers. However, the monitor’s listed MSRP of $1,199.99 is expensive, and it’s currently found on Amazon for over $1,000. That’s on the high end of pricing for a 34-inch ultrawide.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best gaming monitors to learn about competing products.

Acer Predator X34 design

The Acer Predator X34 doesn’t make a strong impression right out of the box. It looks fine, but Acer hasn’t developed a cohesive design language that competes with brands like Alienware, Samsung, or LG. When placed next to those brands, the Predator monitor appears somewhat generic. It has sharp, aggressive lines that indicate its gaming-focused intent, but lacks distinctive flair. There’s no RGB-LED lighting, either, which is unusual for a gaming monitor above $1,000.

One feature that immediately stands out is the monitor’s aggressive 800R curve. A lower number indicates a more pronounced curvature, and 800R is significantly more aggressive than most competing monitors, most of which have a 1500R or 1800R curve. This is a divisive design choice. An extreme curve can enhance immersion in certain genres of games, like first-person shooters or simulation titles, but may be distracting on the Windows desktop and in productivity apps. Personally, I’m not a fan of the curve.

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Acer ships the Predator X34 with an ergonomic stand that offers a good range of height, tilt, and swivel adjustment. The stand is sturdy, and I found its operation was smooth. However, like the recently reviewed MSI MPG 341CQPX, the Predator X34 uses a wide stand that takes up too much space on a desk. There’s no need for the stand to be this large, and I prefer a smaller, flatter, more compact design. Of course, it’s possible to use a third-party stand or monitor arm, as the monitor supports a 100x100mm VESA mount.

Acer Predator X34 connectivity and menus

The Acer Predator X34 comes equipped with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4, and one USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode, providing a total of four video inputs. All these inputs are capable of handling the monitor’s maximum resolution and refresh rate.

The USB-C port supports DisplayPort Alternate Mode and offers up to 90 watts of USB power delivery. While this isn’t quite as high as the MSI MPG 341CQPX, which provides up to 98 watts, the extra eight watts are unlikely to make a noticeable difference in most cases. The USB-C port allows you to connect and charge a laptop or tablet that supports USB-C.

Connecting over USB-C turns the monitor into a USB hub with two additional USB-A downstream ports and one USB-C downstream. If your PC lacks USB-C, you can instead access these ports with a USB-B upstream connection. The monitor also has a KVM switch. A 3.5mm audio-out jack rounds out the connectivity options. This is a good range of connectivity for a gaming monitor.

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As usual, the monitor’s on-screen menu is controlled through a joystick located in the center of the bottom bezel. The joystick is responsive, and I found Acer’s menus easy to navigate. The font size in the menus could be larger, but good contrast helps with readability. The Predator X34 includes a typical array of image quality and gaming options, such as color calibration controls, an on-screen crosshair, and a dark stabilizer feature, which increases brightness in dark areas so you can see details hidden in shadows.

You can also control the monitor’s settings through Acer’s Display Widget software, which is available for Windows. Many major monitor brands now offer similar software for controlling features directly in the operating system, and while Acer’s Display Widget may not be the most polished or attractive option, it gets the job done.

The monitor also includes a uniform brightness mode. This reduces the maximum brightness of the panel but ensures consistency, preventing noticeable fluctuations in brightness when switching between bright and dark scenes in a game or between windows in light and dark modes.

Audio is provided by a pair of 5-watt speakers. While they don’t sound amazing, they are louder and more capable than average. The speakers are fine for casual listening, such as podcasts or background music, but for gaming, you’ll still want to use a headset or external speakers for better sound quality.

Acer Predator X34 SDR image quality

The Acer Predator X34 has a LG WOLED panel with a maximum refresh rate of up to 240Hz at 3440×1440 resolution. It performs similarly to other LG WOLED panels, with strengths in brightness and contrast, but a color gamut that’s a bit more narrow than Samsung QD-OLED panels.

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SDR brightness is a traditional weak spot for OLED panels (whether it’s Samsung’s QD-OLED panel technology or LG’s WOLED). The Predator X34 is not an exception to this, but it does score towards the high end of what OLED panels deliver in SDR.

The SDR brightness of 287 nits is inching close to 300 nits, and it makes the Predator X34 X usable in most rooms with light control. With that said, though, rooms with many large windows may still challenge the monitor’s brightness on a sunny day. Also, the monitor’s extreme curve can amplify glare at particular angles, so it’s wise not to place a lamp directly behind where you’ll view the monitor.

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The Predator X34, like other modern OLED monitors, has an effectively infinite contrast ratio. It can reach a perfect minimum luminance of zero nits, which means dark areas of the screen appear perfectly black. The contrast ratio greatly improves immersion and provides a rich, attractive image in a wide variety of content, from photos to Netflix and games. But, since all OLED panels can achieve this, the Predator X34 doesn’t have a noticeable advantage or disadvantage against its direct competitors.

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LG WOLED panels tend to have a strong color gamut, but not as strong as QD-OLED. The same is true for the Predator X34. It was able to display 96 percent of DCI-P3 and 89 percent of AdobeRGB. Though good, that’s less than the MSI MPG 341C, which has a QD-OLED panel that hit 98 percent of DCI-P3 and 95 percent of AdobeRGB.

Gamers shouldn’t worry about this much, as the Predator X34 still looks vibrant and punchy. However, creators who want wide color support might prefer an alternative that can handle a wider color gamut.

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The Acer Predator X34 achieves a great result in color accuracy. Though it’s not the best we’ve seen, any result close to a color error of one is outstanding, and indicates a monitor accurate enough that even the most eagle-eyed viewers will have a hard time spotting any problems. I certainly couldn’t, and I found the monitor’s image to appear lifelike and realistic.

I also measured a gamma curve of 2.3 and a default color temperature of 6400K at 50 percent of the monitor’s maximum SDR brightness. These figures slightly miss the preferred target of 2.2 and 6500K, and they mean the out-of-box image is a bit darker and warmer than preferred. It’s a minor difference, it’s similar to the error I’ve measured from other OLED monitors, and most people won’t notice it. The monitor also has options to help you calibrate gamma and color temperature to your preference.

Sharpness is okay. OLED panels have an unusual subpixel layout as compared to older panel types, and this can cause pixelation in small fonts, as well as odd off-color artifacts across high-contrast edges. However, 1440p is still a reasonably crisp resolution, and these problems aren’t always noticeable. It tends to look sharper in movies and games than on the Windows desktop. Also keep in mind that 3440×1440 is the only resolution available from 34-inch OLED ultrawides right now, and all of Acer’s competitors share this issue.

The Acer Predator X34 is a great SDR monitor, though not any better than past OLED monitors. That’s fine, because OLED monitors are among the most gorgeous, vivid, and saturated display panels ever sold. Brightness is their sole downside, but the SDR brightness on tap here is stronger than most OLED monitors, and should be enough so long as you’re not trying to use the Predator X34 X in a very bright, sunlit room.

Acer Predator X34 HDR image quality

The Acer Predator X34 X supports HDR and has VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. Based on my results, though, I’m a bit surprised it wasn’t able to achieve a higher level of certification, like True Black 600.

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I measured maximum sustained brightness of 709 nits in a 10 percent window, meaning 10 percent of the Acer Predator X34 was lit. That decreased quite a bit as more of the display was lit, which is typical for all OLED monitors. Still, a 10 percent window result of 709 nits is solid for an OLED display and towards the top of the pack.

In general, the Acer Predator X34 looked good in HDR content. It delivered great brightness in highlights, like a flash of lightning, as well as convincing brightness in scenes with a mix of dark and bright elements. It will only look dim in uniformly bright scenes, like a snow-capped mountain.

With that said, I have a couple nitpicks. First, the Acer Predator X34 doesn’t offer many HDR modes. HDR is on, or off. When it’s on, you also have the option to control HDR brightness. But that’s otherwise all you get. Most monitors have several HDR modes. Also, I didn’t find the Predator’s SDR tone mapping to be great when viewing SDR on the Windows desktop. Compared to other monitors I’ve tested recently, like the MSI MPG 341CQPX and Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDP, the Predator seemed flat and dull when displaying SDR with HDR turned on. This is a common problem, but one some competitors have improved on.

Still, the Acer Predator X34 provides solid HDR performance overall.

Acer Predator X34 motion performance

The Acer Predator X34 supports a refresh rate of up to 240Hz, which is arguably the monitor’s headline feature. There’s a handful of 34-inch OLED ultrawides with a refresh rate of 240Hz, like MSI’s MPG 341CQPX, but older models only support between 144Hz and 185Hz.

And, yes, the Predator’s motion clarity is excellent. A higher refresh rate improves fluidity, reduces input lag, and reduces motion blur. OLED monitors also have fast pixel response times, which minimizes another source of blur. As a result, fine details are generally visible on the Acer Predator X34. Fast-scrolling test images from League of Legends and DOTA 2, for instance, show that character names and hitpoint bars are generally readable, though names can become hard to make out when they don’t contrast well with the background. Motion clarity isn’t as good as a 360Hz OLED, like the Alienware AW2725DF, but it’s great.

Acer provides official support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. However, the monitor works with G-Sync, too, and was detected as a G-Sync-capable monitor when I connected it to a laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050. I would have liked to see official support, though: It gives shoppers peace of mind.

Should you buy the Acer Predator X34?

The Acer Predator X34 is a great OLED gaming monitor with impressive SDR image quality, good HDR image quality, and a 240Hz refresh rate that can deliver excellent motion clarity. It also provides a USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and up to 90 watts of Power Delivery, so it’s easy to connect a laptop or tablet that supports USB-C. The monitor’s aggressive 800R curve will be divisive, however, since it’s a benefit in some situations but a distraction in others. Acer’s pricing is also rather high, with a listed MSRP of $1,199.99. That makes it hard to recommend over less expensive competition, like MSI’s MPG 341CQPX. But if you find it on sale at a more competitive price, or you want an aggressive curve, the Predator X34 will prove a good choice.