Acer didn’t so much break as blast through our suggested price ceiling of £250. We were eventually persuaded to review the G24 on the basis that it’s a unique product that deserves inclusion in a gaming and media round-up. Although the price is high, we’re not going to argue about the uniqueness. The G24’s bezel is a bright metallic orange, designed to match the even more extrovert styling of Acer’s Predator gaming PC, and includes a stylised designer stand which reinforces the aggressive gaming theme. It doesn’t look bad, but paired with a Mac the combination looks unusual – and we’re not convinced by the bright blue power LED. (Note that it’s a very difficult finish to photograph – you really need to see this monitor in the real world to appreciate the look.)

Ergonomically, the G24 has unusual side-to-side rocker-style OSD switches. These take a little getting used to, and unfortunately they also feel rather flimsy. But the OSD is easy on the eye and easy to use. Aside from the LG, it’s one of the best-looking OSDs we’ve seen, and once you make sense of the buttons it’s also relatively intuitive. As with similarly priced displays, there’s a selection of colour modes for different applications, including gaming/video. Around the back are HDMI, DVI-D and D-Sub sockets. These cover the basics for media and gaming, but at this price SCART and component video would have been a bonus.

The panel itself offers very high speed 2ms switching with a glossy surface finish. People either seem to love or hate gloss; there’s no gloss-free option here, so if you’re a hater you won’t be pleased, even though gloss reliably seems to make blacks appear darker and richer. Both video and games are reassuringly free of smear. The image is very involving, with deep blacks and rich colours – you can certainly watch and enjoy a DVD from start to finish without strain. Acer claims a dynamic contrast ratio of 50,000:1, which seems like specmanship for the sake of it – you’re unlikely to notice a huge difference between this panel and other panels with less pimped-up contrast ratios. But overall image performance is very good.