Acer G24 review

The G24 is designed to match Acer's outlandish Predator gaming PC, and has the same metallic orange finish. The angular design and two-tone livery are attractive in their own right, though, and would complement many custom-built PCs.

As the name implies, this is a 24in widescreen LCD. The resolution of 1,920x1,200 gives it a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is typical for a PC monitor. It has HDMI, DVI and VGA inputs but no extras such as a USB hub, webcam or memory card reader. The stand is fairly basic, too, allowing only tilt adjustment. The screen sits around 75mm above the desk, or you can use the 100x100mm VESA mount to attach the G24 to a wall.

Besides the colour, the other conspicuous aspect of the G24 is its claimed contrast ratio. Most 24in LCD panels have a ratio of around 1,000:1, but the G24 claims to have a 50,000:1 contrast ratio. This figure is actually a dynamic contrast ratio, which the G24 achieves by varying the brightness of the backlight depending on the scene it's displaying. We think this is a bit of a gimmick, and we'd recommend turning it off when playing games or watching video.

Acer has used a TN+film LCD panel, which is essentially old technology. However, image quality is surprisingly good and we saw no obvious banding in our tests. The backlight is impressively bright and even across the entire screen. Thanks to the glossy coating, colours are vibrant, and the 2ms response time means there's no lag when playing games. Blacks were some of the best we've seen, even with the dynamic contrast turned off. We watched several dark movies and were impressed that the black bars at the top and bottom had no hint of grey or backlight showing through.

The downside to the glossy coating is that reflections can be a problem. They're not too noticeable when using office applications with white backgrounds, but with dark colours you will see a clear reflection of yourself. Facing the monitor away from any windows should minimise the problem, though.

Menu options are relatively limited, but you can control the individual red, green and blue levels. A useful 1:1 mode ensures that any 1080p source you connect is mapped pixel for pixel.

The Acer G24 is undoubtedly expensive compared with other 24in monitors, and you can buy the 27²in HannsG HG281DP for around £65 less. If you can find it on sale for less than £300, it's well worth buying, but at this price it just misses out on an award.