Acer Nitro QG240YS3 Gaming Monitor Review – Underbudget, Overperform

There’s this unspoken rule of having the word “gaming” associated with a product and peripheral that instantly make them higher in price. For a good reason. These products have better specs, and more features (some more superfluous than others) and are designed for power users who know they want better specs and more features that are willing to pay for that price.

But gaming shouldn’t be just for the well-fortuned folks, so it’s always interesting to see products designed for enthusiasts at a lower budget. What compromises are made, and what are the core features kept as its main selling point?

This leads us here to Acer’s latest offering under the Nitro line- the QG240YS3 monitor. Part of the new QG0 series of monitors released this year, these are monitors designed with high refresh rates all under RM1000. It’s significant in that you usually expect to pay more than 1K to start getting proper gaming features with a decent enough display panel. With this model, the display is pretty darn good for what you pay for- what matters more is how many features had to be pared down to place it at such an affordable price bracket.

And surprisingly, the Acer Nitro QG240YS3 has made the right compromises. And interestingly, this little monitor could has also surpassed some of the features seen in last year’s higher-end ultrawide monitor from Acer. While being significantly cheaper.

Technical Specs

  • Screen Size: 23.8″ 16:9
  • Max resolution: 1920×1080 180Hz (HDMI, DisplayPort)
  • Panel type: VA
  • AMD FreeSync
  • Dimension: 54.24 (W) x 41.23 (H) x 17.5 (D) cm
  • 3.5mm audio jack (no speakers)
  • Price: RM499

Build Quality

The Acer Nitro QG240YS3 is light, relatively small (especially if you’re used to staring at a 48-inch TV all day) and takes up a small footprint. Place this on a 1600mm desk and you probably can fit another one, maybe two more, for a multi-monitor setup.

The casing surrounding the panel is made of plastic, and while the “zero bezel” bezels are physically thin (less than 0.5mm at the thickest point), the panel itself has a bezel (the black gap between the lit screen and the actual plastic frame) of less than 0.5mm at its thickest, so expect a 1mm gap more or less should you go multi-monitor.

The stand included is thin but sturdy and made out of some form of metal. So long as you screw them all tight the monitor should be resting well. But that’s all you get with this budget monitor. There’s very little leeway in terms of angle adjustments (you can slightly tilt it up and down and that’s it). So no vertical placements, no VESA mountings. So it’s not as flexible to be used on other custom setups.

All the ports are nested on the right side of the screen (when you face the monitor panel), close to the on-screen-display (OSD) control. Surprisingly, instead of multiple buttons, you get an analog nub that’s clickable. This is a game-changer, navigating the OSD interface, designed to be navigated with a directional pad of sorts, is much more intuitive than having to press different buttons ordered in a row while doing the mental gymnastics to remember which one goes in which direction. It’s a vast improvement from last year’s Nitro monitors, and the fact that the budget series isn’t left out of this new trick is awesome to see.

The rest of the design for the monitor is spartan. There’s no gamer red seen anywhere physically, the Acer logo at the chin of the monitor panel is usually outshined by the bright display you probably forgot the branding is even there.

Display Quality

The Acer Nitro QG240YS3, despite its price point, actually packs some honestly good features with its display. But first, the display itself. It’s a VA panel which characteristically is good with contrast, and that is true with this monitor. It makes visuals pop- either due to it being darker or brighter.

And that’s done even better with the monitor support HDR10. When calibrated (it’s a long, arduous process on PC), the display looks stunning with darker blacks and brighter whites. The main selling point for this monitor may be its 180Hz display, but if you’re just a mainstream gamer who plays games at 60 or 120 fps, this is still a monitor you still get a lot of value from the screen’s quality.

Games with a bright aesthetic like Mini Motorways and OlliOlli World has its colours looking more vibrant, while games with darker and grungier presentation like Atomic Heart looks even more grim and dark.

Viewing angles could be better, but with the limited mounting situation it has going on you really won’t be using this monitor other than having it dead-set straight in front of your eyes, which makes this a non-issue.

The display resolution is capped at 1080p, which you can see it as a compromise given that most PC displays are going at 1440p and gaming TVs aim for 4K. But resolution beyond 1080p feels like diminishing returns in my view, and certainly because I can’t tell the difference between any of the said resolutions just by viewing with the naked eye alone. So for me, it’s a no-brainer to keep it at 1080p. Folks who want to buy a gaming monitor at this price point probably aren’t aiming for anything more than 1080p either, and that’s fine, because 1080p isn’t anciently outdated yet.

The display can go to 180Hz refresh rate naturally (no overclocking needed) on either HDMI 2.1 or DisplayPort 1.4. So instead of having DisplayPort as a requirement to get access to the high-framerate like the XZ342CUP we reviewed last year, now you can plug either cable.

But do you really need 180Hz? It’s a ridiculously high refresh rate and displays can now go up to a whopping 360Hz. And if you only play mainstream AAA games the answer to that is a resounding no. 60fps is good enough for that fluid sensation that you get from doubling the standard 30 fps cap. But go more than that and you’re there to search for a competitive edge. Esports titles like CS:GO and Dota 2 don’t have high specs, so a lot of PCs can run at high framerates to match that high refresh rates.

And it does offer a noticeable edge. Control inputs feel more precise, less input lag, less “I already press the button before the prompt goes why did it not register this is rigged!” moments. The latter is an experience I have had a lot with OlliOlli World, a skateboarding game with really tight input and the game starts with a recommendation to play it on a high refresh screen. I’m no esports gamer, but even I can feel the benefits of a higher refresh rate with that game- inputs register quicker.

For a more mainstream example, Doom Eternal, the FPS known for its high-speed arena combat, feels fluid in the controls and visually can keep up for the most part (unless you flick shot a lot which can cause the screen looking more blurry than it should- more on that later).

Expect shooters and fighting games feeling much more responsive when playing on a high refresh-rate monitor.

There is one issue that you may find with this monitor, the one big compromise. It has a response time of 4ms which is not as bad as gaming monitors come, but also not 1ms, what most gaming monitors are expected to have.

What this translates to is ghosting- smears of visuals as the monitor cannot change colours fast enough, exasperated by the high refresh rate it has. It’s not noticeable in games with motion blur on which helps mask this. If you’re deliberately taking pictures like we did then you’ll see ghosting a lot more than you should.

Is it a deal-breaker? Not that much from my testing. It’s only really noticeable when scrolling through a sharp-looking menu running at a high framerate. But do note that it’s an objective drawback and compromise you have to deal with in this otherwise stellar offering, especially at this price point.

Console Usability

The fact that this monitor can output at 180Hz and has HDR should make it very viable for use with a gaming console. And that is in fact true, in particular for the latest Gen 9 consoles (PS5, Xbox Series X|S). With one caveat.

On PS5, you don’t get Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) as the monitor uses HDMI 2.0 – PS5 requires HDMI 2.1 for VRR. It should be no problem for on Xbox Series consoles as it uses FreeSync Premium for VRR which the monitor has.

But outside of that, you get HDR and 120Hz support when using this monitor on consoles. Games like Gran Turismo 7, which supports HDR and 120Hz, look stunning in motion (so long as you don’t look too hard and start noticing the ghosting and image artefacts).

Should you wish to use consoles on a desktop seating with a smaller monitor, the Acer Nitro QG240YS3 can do the job. You can have the same monitor still plugged to a PC via DisplayPort still.

Verdict

The Acer Nitro QG240YS3 has to make compromises in order for it to be placed at such an aggressive price point. And for the most part, the trade-offs are fair. The monitor lacks flexibility in how you can place it with no mounting options. But it keeps everything else important about a high refresh rate display should intact.

Having a 180Hz refresh rate, HDR support, and high contrast on a display priced at just about RM500 is an absolute steal. The fact that it has one minor upgrade that makes it more usable than Acer’s monitor offering from last year makes that value even better. I reckon Acer made the right compromises to offer such an attractive package for gamers on a budget.

Review unit provided by Acer Malaysia

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