To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more
- Robust build
- Great image quality
- Auto brightness
- Viewing angles not the best
- Prosaic design
The Acer ET241Y is a bargain-basement monitor that, in many ways, is typical of the genre. It sacrifices luxuries such as height and rotational adjustment to hit a low price point. But that doesnt mean its a low-quality product. Indeed, with solid all-round image quality, its well worth considering at a price that comes in below £100.
READ NEXT: The best monitors to buy today
Key specifications and price:
- 24in, 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display
- 60Hz refresh rate
- HDMI and VGA inputs
- Blue-light reduction mode
- Price when reviewed: £98
What do you get for your money?
Considering that low price, what comes in the box isnt particularly surprising. If anything, its more generous than you might expect. Theres the monitor itself, of course, and a kettle-type power cable the bare minimum but Acer also supplies the monitor with both HDMI and VGA cables so you can get hooked up straight away.
The monitor arrives in two parts, with a simple desk stand that you have to attach to the screen itself when you take it all out of the box. That isnt difficult simply slot it into place and screw together with a simple thumbscrew and the stand itself does the job. Its a touch wobbly and basic: it only allows you to tilt the screen back and forth and theres no height adjustment. However, it provides a stable platform and I like the fact theres a little lip on the front edge of the base so you can store small items on it without them slipping out of sight under your keyboard.
Plus, if you really need more flexibility, theres always the option to attach it to a 100 x 100mm VESA stand via the four mount points at the rear.
What type of connections does it have?
Again, physical connectivity is basic but you have the essentials here with one full-size HDMI input and an old-school, nine-pin VGA input. There are no additional luxuries here, either: no USB hub and not even a headphone jack since the monitor has no built-in speakers.
If your laptop or PC doesnt have an HDMI output, dont worry; HDMI is flexible enough that youre likely to be able to buy a converter cable for your particular need. Converter cables are available for all sorts of outputs to HDMI inputs, including DVI and USB-C connections and for very little outlay.
How good is the image quality?
Image quality isnt pro-level quality but, again, Acer makes cuts in the right places. The display isnt particularly bright it peaks at 263cd/m2 so dont plan on using it in your conservatory on a sunny day. This is absolutely fine in most rooms, however, and a high contrast ratio of 1113:1 means images look bold and vibrant.
This being an IPS monitor, viewing angles are great; youll see no colour shifting as you view from the side or above as you would with a TN monitor. Likewise, colour accuracy and sRGB coverage are perfectly acceptable.
You will need to make sure you use the monitors settings to select the Standard picture preset and then set the colour temperature to User if you want to make the most of it, though. The monitors default settings have a warm colour temperature preset enabled and contrast and colour accuracy both suffer hugely.
With the correct options set, I measured an average colour accuracy Delta E of 3.27 (0 is perfect) and an sRGB coverage figure of 89.2%. Both of these numbers are pretty good considering how cheap the monitor is.
This isnt, however, the best monitor for gamers. With a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz, a relatively slow response time of 4ms and an overdrive mode that, in Extreme mode, generates quite a bit of inverse ghosting, youre better off choosing something like the BenQ GL2780, which comes with a faster TN panel and support for higher refresh rates.
READ NEXT: The best cheap monitors to buy today
Are there any other things I should know about?
The Acer ET241Y isnt quite as bare-bones as you might expect it to be once you start diving into the options, either.
While theres no auto-brightness setting it is possible to tweak the colour settings using six-axis saturation and hue settings and theres also a blue-light reduction mode for those worried about the impact looking at a screen has on their sleep when working late in the evening.
The one irritation I experienced with the Acer ET241Y was with the controls for accessing the on-screen display. They’re placed just behind the right edge of the screen and are fiddly to use. The power button could have done with being placed somewhere else as I frequently pressed it by accident when I was trying to navigate the menus.
Should I buy it?
Despite this, at less than £100, the Acer ET241Y is a very good buy if all you need is a second monitor for your home office or study. It isnt quite as good for gamers, who would be better off with a faster TN panel like that found in the BenQ GL2780 and inputs are severely limited but as a no-frills second screen, theres not much else here to complain about.
