MONITORS
66 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE392
THECONCEPTDRANGEisAcer’sattemptto
combineprofessional-qualitycontentcreation
hardwarewiththoroughlymodern,slightly
quirkyaesthetics:henceproductssuchasthe
ConceptD 500 (Shopper385), aworkstation
PC topped with faux-wooden panelling.
Then there’s the ConceptD CP3271KP,one
of the company’s most highly specced
desktop screens outside of the gaming-
focused Predator series.
It’s a27in, 4K (3,840x2,160) IPS panel, and
while it’s extremely expensive forits size,
Acer is at least promising DisplayHDR 400
compatibility and professional colour
accuracy.Likethe ConceptD 500, it also
appears to have been designed forthose
who want to bring atouch of classtotheir
workspaces: there’s asimilar wood effect
finish on the circular base,and the thin metal
stalk of astand is certainly nicer to look at
than any fatpillar of black plastic.
HOLD SWAY
More importantly,it’s highly adjustable.
There’s -5° to 35° of tilt adjustment and up
to 180mm of height adjustment, and it
rotates as well –though peculiarly,the
entire base moves on aspinning platter,
rather than just having the screen spin on
an axle.It’s perfectly functional, however,
and the only missing thing is the ability to
flip the whole screen 90° to use it in portrait
mode.Itcan also be VESA-mounted, using
the supplied plateand screws.
We’d recommend that if it’s aviable
option, as there is one design flaw with the
stand: it wobbles. Not to the point where you
can shake the screen just by,say,typing on a
keyboard or tapping on the desk, but
whenever we wanted to rotatethe screen
or adjust the tilt, it definitely felt abit
looser than we’d expect for£1,000.
Build quality is fine elsewhere,however.
The anti-glare hood panels attach securely,
and although the wood isn’t really wood, it
at least looks and feels more like aquality
material than acheap veneer.There’s also
avery good mix of connections, namely
two HDMI inputs, two DisplayPorts, two
USB3 ports and two USB3.1ports. Most of
these are kept hidden on the rear,although
the USB3.1ports are on the leftedge for
easier access.
Some 4W speakers are included, too,
and they’re capable enough forWindows
sounds and voice calls. Youshould invest in
ACER ConceptD
CP3271KP
★★★★★
£1,000•From uk-store.acer.com
VERDICT
ThestylishConceptDCP3271KPisa
goodprofessionalmonitorthatcomes
frustratingly close to being agreat one
some desktop
speakers for
working with musicc
andvideo,howeverr.
Alsoonthebackkare the power
button, three shortccutbuttonsanda
joystick,thelatterttwoofwhichcanbe
usedtonavigatetheCP3271KP’s
pleasantlystraightfforwardOSD.
Wefounditannnoyingly easy to hit
the power button whhenaiimiingffortthhe
topshortcutbutton–they’rethesamesize
and shape –but that’s about it forfaults, as
the joystick works well and the OSD itself
strikes agreat balance between user-
friendliness and depth of features. This
includes multiple image profiles,and the
ability to createacustom profile yourself.
We began our colourimeter tests with
everything on standard default settings, with
the exception of brightness being set to
maximum. The CP3271KP very quickly
impressed, managing 99.6% sRGB colour
gamut coverage,a1,068:1 contrast ratio and a
peak brightness of 470cd/m^2 –enough both
to seeoffany glare that the hood and matt
panel finish might have let through, and to
fulfil the promise of HDR 400.
The luminance is also yet another defence
against glare,alongside the hood panels and
matt finish on the screen. Unless you’re right
next to awindowordirectlyunder abright
indoor light, you maynot even need to use
the panels.
ONE ORTHE OTHER
The only potential issue was the average
delta-E of 2.78, which isn’t bad in general
terms but isn’t quitelow enough to achieve
photo-editing-quality colour accuracy.This
lowered slightly to 2.72 once we enabled the
HDR 400 mode,while brightness, gamut
coverage and contrast all rose slightly,to
476cd/m^2 ,99.8% and 1,073:1 respectively.
This mode also adds averysubtlesharpening
filter,which can be toggled manually.
Finally,wetried the sRGB profile,which
got average delta-E down to aprofessional-
grade 1.33. However,itbizarrely lowered
sRGB gamut coverage to 91.5%, while also
dropping contrast slightly to 1,050:1. Peak
brightness was also lower,at465cd/m^2 ,
though that’s still agood result.
It’s unfortunatethat you essentially have
to choose between wider gamut coverage or
higher accuracy; these should, rightfully,be
two sides of the same coin, especially when
the ConceptD CP3271KP explicitly targets the
content-creation crowd. The Iiyama ProLite
XUB2792QSU-W1 might not be 4K, but it
does abetter job of balancing vividness and
accuracy,and forafraction of the price.
BRINGINGTHE HERTZ
What makes this especially unfortunateis
that Acer’s monitor performs so well outside
of this one contradiction. It even has a
smooth 120Hz refresh rateand Nvidia
G-Sync support, though the latter won’t be
as commonly useful here as on agaming
monitor.Itcan also overclock to 144Hz, but
this requires jumping through afew too
many hoops: it only works with AMD
graphics cards, so G-Sync must be turned
off in the process, and you need to connect
with two DisplayPort cables at atime.
Such weirdness can be considered
balanced out when performance,
adjustability and connectivity all meet
high standards, and the ConceptD
CP3271KP is generally astrong showing
from amanufacturer with relatively little
experience making top-end pro monitors.
For£1,000, however,it’s harder to justify.
