Acer Predator XB253Q GWbmiiprzx 24.5"Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS G-SYNC Compatible Monitor, VESA Certified DisplayHDR400, Up to 0.5ms, Up to 280Hz, 99% sRGB (1 x Display Port & 2 x HDMI 2.0 Ports)

This is a fantastic gaming monitor. I had a ten year old Dell that was a great monitor for its time, but was getting old and the backlight was getting splotchy. I tried the PG268Q. It had an intolerable, absurd amount of vertical gamma shift. I had the BenQ XL2420G, which was good for its time, but is still small, 1080p, and washed out, dull TN color. Tried the XB270HU which was pretty good but had a little backlight bleed, so I returned it. Tried the XR341CK...even got an AMD video card!...and it was GORGEOUS, but 75hz is just too slow for gaming. It's even too slow for internet video, I realized. 75hz syncs with nothing and 2016 is not the time to be running a new headline PC monitor at 60hz.Got this and my search is over. Looked at the Asus, but my experience with their video cards and routers has turned me off. The quality control is gone, their products are garbage now. You can read the reviews of the PG279Q and see for yourself. This monitor though, is pixel perfect. Nothing dead or stuck. $800 is way too much to pay for a monitor with such pathetic problems. I have no, NO backlight bleed. There is some silvery IPS glow, but that seems to be inevitable with IPS panels now, which is odd because my 10 year old Dell didn't do that, apparently they used to use a filter to stop that, but it adds a lot to the cost so they don't do it anymore. Wish they did, I'd definitely throw down another 100-200 for that filter.The color is great. I set mine to sRGB mode and turned the brightness down from 80 to 35 and I'm pretty happy with it. I think the XR341CK had the edge on color, but this is a GAMING monitor, it needs the responsiveness too. Definitely beats out any TN panel all day long by a huge margin, though. The pixel transition time seems to be slightly better than the 270HU was, which is good, and the new bezel and stand are big improvements. The red stand looks better in person, and so does the bezel too. I have a big center channel speaker so the split foot is a welcome update.Quick tip, I run my desktop at 120hz, I believe it syncs better with 24hz and 30hz video that way. Run games at 144hz and use the MSI Afterburner software to cap FPS at 144hz to avoid having Vsync kick in, even at 144hz I find the added input lag of Vsync intolerable. Put 27 inches, good color, and 144hz without tearing together, and you have something that in BF4, CS:GO, and GTA Online (I'm a sucker for the open world), is almost like cheating. Compared to a 24 inch TN panel I can easily tell the increased ability to see and shoot players online first, and it looks gorgeous to boot.

I don't do a lot of customer reviews for Amazon, but if you're thinking of buying this product you are probably doing a lot of research on this monitor and similar options, and especially for this model there really isn't a lot out there yet. I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts after a few days of ownership, hopefully they'll help you make an informed decision.If you're looking at this monitor, you've probably also considered the XB270HU and the PG279Q - really it's just these three on the market right now checking the 1440p, 144hz, gsync and IPS boxes. I liked the look of the ASUS the best, but the QC reports I'd seen had suggested that Acer currently has a leg up in that department. Not surprising, since they had some problems with the 270HU initially and have had time to sort out the bugs. I really didn't want to play the monitor lottery if I could avoid it, so that ruled out the 279Q for me. As for the 270HU, it only has one input, and that was honestly what made the decision for me - I need to plug more than one setup into this, and I didn't want to swap cables every time I did it. Plus, the 271HU overclocks to 165Hz, which is a nice to have in a world where I can actually drive 165 FPS at this resolution (someday).So my monitor came, I held my breath while I set it up and powered it on, ran a few tests and... it actually appears to be in perfect condition! I can't see any backlight bleed or dead pixels, at all. The brightness out of the box is too high and will need to be turned down, but I didn't adjust the colors much. There's been some discussion about the OSD being below par for this monitor, and while it isn't as user friendly as the Dells I'm more familiar with, it's totally fine and makes sense to navigate for the limited amount of time you need to use an OSD (hardly ever).One criticism I have; the stand is slightly prone to shake, if you are an aggressive typer at all (I am). This is a minor annoyance, but one I'd seen mentioned in a video review and that I've noticed. I do not notice it when gaming because it's not an activity where a lot of typing occurs.The picture quality itself is phenomenal. I'd never seen 144Hz or 1440p before owning this (my now secondary display is a 1080p 60hz IPS). If you're in the same boat, you will notice the difference immediately. It's evident on the desktop, just moving your cursor around - it's just so much smoother. You will never want to go back.The gsync while gaming is also phenomenal. I'm currently running an EVGA GTX 960 4 GB, which is not enough to drive high settings at 1440P. This is particularly evident in a demanding title like Witcher 3, which I own and cannot drive adequately with high settings at 1440P. With GSync however, the frames are smooth and you won't notice your FPS dips unless they are extreme. I can live with this until later this year when the Pascal nVidia cards arrive and I upgrade to something better suited for this thing.In conclusion, I would highly recommend this purchase if you spend a lot of time at your rig with gaming as the primary purpose. You are paying a lot to own a rig that can drive top tier games, so they should look as good as they possibly can - and this monitor will do that.