Thu, 12 May 2011 Acer S273HL review
Acer’s S273HL has an eye-catching metallic stand that will look good in any room; it even has a built-in backlight
- Manufacturer: Acer
- Pros: Attractive, well-thought out design; great image quality, birght and vivid; large widescreen display
- Cons: No DVI interface for older Mac models; no headphone socket built into the monitor
- Min specs: 27in flat-panel; 1920 x 1080; 0.3114mm pixel pitch; 2ms response rate (grey-to-grey); 1000:1 contrast ratio (‘12,000,000 with Adaptive Contrast Management’); 170/160 degree viewing angle; 300cd/m2 brightness; 1 x VGA D-Sub, 2 x HDMI connectors; 645 x 190 x 469mm; 5.8kg; 3-year warranty
- Price: 400
- Star rating:
A recent price cut fortunately brought Acer’s S273HL just under our £300 price limit. That was good timing, as this is a stylish and versatile widescreen display that will particularly appeal to home users.
The S273HL impresses as soon as you lift it out of the box. It has a sturdy and distinctive metallic stand that not only supports the large 27in screen, but also has a set of control buttons that allow you to activate the onscreen menu options. Acer has clearly thought hard about the little details here, as the stand even has its own built-in backlight to illuminate the control buttons. And when you turn it around you’ll find that all the video and audio connectors are built into the base of the stand for easy access too.
The decision to include two HDMI interfaces makes it a great fit with Mac models such as the new HDMI-equipped Mac mini. It also allows you to connect an AppleTV, iPad or DVD player at the same time too. There’s no DVI interface, though, so owners of older Mac models with DVI video interfaces will need to spend a bit extra on a DVI-to-HDMI adaptor.
Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels makes the S273HL ideal for watching high-definition video, and its LED backlighting produces a bright and vivid image. Acer’s claim that the monitor provides 12,000,000: 1 contrast ratio seems a bit exaggerated, but we had no complaints when watching HD programmes from the BBC iPlayer using our laptop.
Acer’s S273HL has an eye-catching metallic stand that will look good in any room; it even has a built-in backlight
The 27in widescreen display also provides plenty of room for running conventional applications, easily fitting a web browser alongside Microsoft Word as we typed up some notes.
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