At a Glance: Acer Predator X35 Review
Acer’s Predator X35 is without a doubt one of the most feature-rich gaming monitors that money can buy. At $2,499, however, it costs more than most enthusiast system builders spend on their entire PC including the display. Is Acer’s champion gaming display really worth its extraordinarily high price tag? Let’s find out.
Product Overview
Acer’s Predator X35 is essentially a clone of Acer’s 2015 Predator X34, but with a few upgrades. At this price, you probably expected a 4K display panel, but instead, the Predator X35 features the same 3,440×1,440 resolution as the Predator X34. The screen is slightly larger at 35 inches though. The display also has four RGB LED light strips built into the back.
Where this display really differs from its predecessor is in the panel itself. The display supports HDR 1000 and it has a fast 200Hz refresh rate to give you a responsive screen with exceptional clarity. The panel also has 512 light zones that can be dimmed independently, which further helps to improve the screen’s image quality. Acer built the screen with G-Sync support to smooth the image refresh rate all the way up to the 200Hz mark.
Our sister site PCMag tested one of these displays firsthand and collected some data on the monitor’s capabilities. The display comes with a pair of 4W speakers built-in, but PCMag said that the speakers were small and lacking in bass. This is usually the case with display speakers, but in this price range, I would have expected the speakers to be decent. PCMag also stumbled upon a strange glitch with the display. When the display went unused for a few days, it wouldn’t wake back up and work properly. This issue was resolved by pulling the power cable and plugging it back in, but it’s still disappointing to find issues of this nature in such a high-end product.
Conclusion
Overall, I can’t help but feel disappointed in Acer’s Predator X35. At $2,499, I would expect to be blown away by the high quality and performance of the display. This expensive display does perform really well and has a number of excellent features, but there are plenty of high-end displays including Asus’s ROG Strix XG438Q and ViewSonic’s VP3481 that cost less than half as much as the Predator X35 and also offer tons of features. Due to the high price tag, I wouldn’t recommend the Predator X35.
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