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From the moment you press the power button, it takes about seven seconds for the display to begin showing content from your PC or laptop. After the display is powered on, content appears beautifully on the UHD panel, which Acer is calling a 4K X 2K resolution. The display pumps out 3840 X 2160 pixels.
Because Acer uses an IPS screen on the display, viewing angles are superb. Connecting multiple S277HKs together would create an immersive and seamless viewing experience thanks to the wide viewing angles of the IPS screen and the bezel-less design.
Contrast and color reproduction are great on the S277HK, leading to dark blacks and bright and accurate colors. The S277HK has a 100,000,000:1 contrast and supports 1.07 billion colors.
Output from both a Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3 yielded accurate colors on the S277HK. Microsoft's older tablet was able to push out a maximum resolution of 3200 x 2000 pixels to the Acer monitor while the newer Surface Pro 3 can drive 4096 x 2304 pixels to an external 4K monitor.
With an older MacBook Pro, I was only able to get 1080p output. Pictures and video are gorgeously rendered coming from the MacBook Pro, though whites appear warmer with a tinge of yellowing.
Acer gives users a lot of connectivity options for the display. You can connect to the display using HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, mini DisplayPort, and DVI. With options to run two screens side-by-side or a picture-in-picture mode, you have plenty of options for entertainment, productivity, and multitasking.
In my testing, I had a Dell tablet connected using DisplayPort, a MacBook Pro connected over DVI, and I a Galaxy Note 4 connected over HDMI through Samsung's multimedia docking cradle.
Though connectivity options are plentiful, the downside is that if you unplug and switch between your input sources, the display doesn't intelligently detect what's plugged in at the moment. You'll have to toggle between your various input options using the menu key on the display to get the proper source to show.
Additionally, the display sometimes failed to recognize what's connected to it and would display a black screen. In this case, quickly unplugging and reconnecting the display cable remedied the situation.
While many early 4K displays were limited by a 30 Hz refresh rate unless you switched to 1080p mode to bring the refresh rate up 60 Hz, the S277HK comes with a 60 Hz refresh rate in 4K mode. This makes the panel versatile for productivity tasks, general video consumption, and even casual gaming.
Acer says that the panel has a 4ms refresh rate, making it good for casual games, though hardcore gamers likely would want to choose a faster refresh rate at the cost of resolution. The $450 (£291 or AU$474) BenQ XL2720Z is an excellent 1080p panel with a fast 1ms refresh rate that is suitable for fast action games and video.
Full HD video playback is extremely smooth on the S277HK. Using the Surface Pro 2, streaming an ABC network television show in 1080p resolution at full screen showed smooth video playbook and image quality was excellent. Similar results were obtained using an Apple MacBook Pro.
Interestingly, though video played on the Venue 11 Pro tablet was fine, playback on the S277HK was problematic with out of sync audio when streaming the same TV show. The glitch is likely attributed to the Intel Core M processor and HD 5300 graphics on that tablet.
The Acer S277HK has a brightness rating of 300 nit, which is on par with most high-end laptops and Ultrabooks. Even at 30% brightness, the S277HK was plenty bright in an office, and I rarely found the need to exceed 50% brightness with the panel.
Ergonomics
The S277HK comes with Acer's ComfyView technology to minimize eye fatigue when using the display for prolonged periods. Acer claims ComfyView reduces eye-strain by dimming the display to 15% brightness in dark environments, and the flicker-less technology with blue light filter make it comfortable to use for long periods of time.
I cannot attest to the flicker-less claims by just looking at the screen, but the display is comfortable to look at in an eight-hour work day. Not only does the flush screen make cleaning easy with a simple wipe-down, but glare is virtually non-existent despite harsh lighting in the TechRadar office.
Users needing to adjust the S277HK can tilt the display for comfort. The stand allows the screen to tilt between -5 to 15 degrees.
The downside to the S277HK is that the stand doesn't offer vertical adjustments, so you can't raise the display higher or lower to fit your needs. Additionally, the display cannot be swiveled or rotated.
Those wishing to mount the S277HK to a wall cannot do so as the display lacks VESA support.
