Acer Predator X32 FP Review
An extremely versatile, if imperfect, monitor
Verdict
For sheer versatility, very few monitors can hold a candle to the 32in 4K Predator X32 FP and the Mini-LED backlight gives good HDR performance but it could use a few small upgrades to fully justify the cost.
Pros
- Very colourful and very bright
- Four HDMI 2.1 inputs with VRR support
- Four USB ports, 90W PD charging and full KVM support
- Great HDR performance with VESA DisplayHDR 1000 Certificate
Cons
- 576 local dimming zones can’t wholly eradicate blooming
- A little on the expensive side
- Big, chunky and a bit cheap-feeling
- Speakers need more volume and bass
Availability
- UKRRP: £1399
Key Features
- Mini LED backlightOnly have 576 local dimming zones but that’s enough for better HDR performance than any standard IPS or VA display
- A 4K UHD panel with a 160Hz refresh rateThe 3840 x 2160 resolution and 160Hz refresh rate make for a fast and fluid gaming experience
- I/O Ports galoreFour HDMI 2.1 feeds, four USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports and 90W Type-C charging
Introduction
On paper, the advantages are obvious in that you get an IPS display that can almost match the motion fidelity and HDR performance of an OLED panel but has better full-screen brightness levels and less susceptibility to burn-in. That’s the theory anyway. Acer’s new high-end X32 FP is where the theory meets practice.
For the not-insubstantial asking price of £1,399, you are getting a monitor that aspires to be all things to all users: a perfect display for HDR content, gaming, colour-critical work and general home/office use. One monitor to rule them all, with due apologies to JRRT.
The X32 FP certainly has some very solid deadline specifications with a 32in 3,840 x 2,160 panel refreshing at 160Hz (via DP, over HDMI you are limited to 144Hz at 4K) and with 576 individual LED lighting zones. The display carries VESA HDR1000 and FreeSync Premium Pro certificates and Acer quotes a GtG response time of between 1ms and 0.7ms which if not 0.1ms OLED-fast is still pretty good.
Design and Features
- The chunky design is a little old-fashioned
- Masses of I/O ports with two USBs on the side
- Speakers should be better for the price
The X32 FP is a big and bulky old bruiser that looks old-fashioned in this era of ever more sleek and slender gaming monitors. The monitor housing itself is a thick 93mm and made from quite creaky plastic while the substantial stand also takes up a fair amount of space.
The stand is attached to the monitor in the box, making setup that much easier. If you remove the plastic cover, you can unscrew the stand from the 100 X 100mm VESA mount and attach it to a third-party mount. Once you’ve got it in position – not too hard as the weight at 11.5Kg is par for the course and there’s a handle on the top of the stand – you have 130mm in height adjustment and 65mm left and right swivel to play with along with -5 to +20 of tilt. There’s no rotational or pivot adjustment of any sort which is not wholly surprising in a monitor of this side.
When it comes to I/O ports the X32 FP really delivers with no less than four HDMI 2.1 ports and four USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports. Add to that a DisplayPort 1.4 feed, a Type-C connector that supports data, video and 90W DP charging plus a 3.5mm audio jack and shouldn’t be left wanting for more. Most of the ports are on the back facing downwards but two of the Type-A USB ports are sensibly located on the lower left side where they are very easy to access.
The two 7W speakers buried inside the X32 FP are rather disappointing. To start with they are not particularly loud, only producing 74.2dB(A) from a constant source and the sound they make is rather tinny with a marked lack of bass. On a £500 monitor, I’d let this pass, on costing more than twice as much that’s a hard thing to do.
You can access the X32 FP’s menu system with a combination of a joystick and three buttons on the back of the monitor on the right. They’re not easy to reach and the action of the buttons feels rather cheap and nasty. Nevertheless, they do the job well enough and using the menus is never the frustrating hit-and-miss chore it can be on some monitors I could name.
Image Quality
- Very good colour gamut coverage
- Not much motion blur
- Strong HDR performance
I’m impressed by the amount of colour the X32 FP’s screen presents. With 99.8% of both the sRGB and AdobeRGB gamuts available, along with 94.7% of the DCI-P3 colour space – you really can’t ask for much more. For reference, the gamut volume percentages came in at 177.5%, 122.3% and 125.7% respectively. It’s bright too: in SDR peak brightness hit 455cd/m2 while, in HDR mode, it reached 1043cd/m2 which is comfortably north of the 1,000cd/m2 level predicated by the VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification.
Acer boasts of a Delta E colour accuracy of less than 1 but I couldn’t quite match that. In my testing, I recorded a figure of 1.37 against the sRGB profile and 1.6 against DCI-P3. Both impressive numbers and good enough allow for pretty colour-critical work out of the box but not quite as good as the manufacturer’s claims. I’ve noticed that IPS panels with mini LED backlights are not as colour-accurate as their conventional brethren.
Testing for uniformity revealed a slight dip in maximum brightness and ISO 14681 accuracy in the top fifth of the display with all measurements falling outside the nominal tolerance. At no point was anything more than 9% out of whack, meaning you will need a colourimeter to notice the deviation but considering the cost of the X32 FP I did expect slightly better.
The display demonstrated a decent contrast ratio of 1150:1 in SDR mode and 3342:1 in HDR mode. That second number is proof that 576 local dimming zones just aren’t enough to fully emulate the absolute black of an OLED panel.
More importantly, you can see some blooming around light objects as they move around. Moving the mouse pointer around against a dark background is the easiest way to see this, with the light zone behind the cursor being plainly visible.
There are IPS monitors on the market now that have 2,304 dimming zones, which put the X32 FP’s 576 into context. That said, the end result is still considerably better than anything you’ll see from a conventional IPS display with no local dimming capability. Out of the box, the display gamma of 2.25 was more than acceptable.
If none of the presets meet with your approval, the menu is host to a comprehensive range of calibration settings that can be adjusted and then saved into one of two user profiles.
The X32 FP looks absolutely spectacular to the eye. All that colour really makes things pop and the HDR presentation is good enough that you can leave Windows in HDR mode permanently without the desktop looking like an overly bright colour. HDR content – video or game – looks superb on the X32 FP.
For gaming, there’s an impressive lack of motion blur or ghosting, even with the overdrive turned off. Move overdrive to Extreme and you will see quite a bit of inverse ghosting, which makes the Normal setting the preferred option. That’s just as well as Normal is the locked level of overdrive when adaptive sync is turned on.
The X32 FP only officially supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro but the Nvidia RTX 3060 I hooked up let me engage G-Sync, even though the monitor wasn’t recognised as G-Sync compatible. The X32 FP also supports VRR which, along with its quad HDMI 2.1 ports, makes it a great choice for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X owners.
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Should you buy it?
The X32 FP does really have something for everyone
There is a huge slab of accurate colour for creatives, good HDR performance for gamers and movie buffs and a very comprehensive USB hub for anyone who wants the X32 FP to also act as the centre of their home office experience. It is a very, very versatile bit of kit.
For the asking price, you can have your pick of other OLED gaming monitors
There are some really nice examples out there from Philips and Alienware to name but two suppliers of quality gaming equipment. They will offer an ever better HDR experience and faster gaming reactions though burn-in is still an issue if you plan on using one for work as well as gaming.
Final Thoughts
Two things stop the X32 FP from achieving greatness. Firstly for the money, I think it really should have an 1152 zone Mini-LED array which would make the HDR performance even better and go a long way towards eradicating blooming.
Also for the money, I’d like something a little more stylish and solid. The X32 FP may perform like a £1,400 monitor but it looks more like a £600 one. If you want a high-end monitor that looks the part too, consider the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 (2022) or, for a value 4K pick, there’s the Acer Predator XB323QK.
That said, the X32 FP is still a supremely versatile display which not only does everything but does it to an impressively high standard.
How we test
We use every monitor we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by using it for both everyday tasks and more specialist, colour-sensitive work.
We also check its colours and image quality with a colorimeter to test its coverage and the display’s quality.
We used it as our main monitor for at least a week.
We used a colorimeter to get benchmark results.
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FAQs
This model can absolutely run 4K. The display specs come in at native 4K at 160Hz, going up to 165Hz in Overdrive mode.
The X32 FP is slightly cheaper than the X32. In terms of specs, the X32 FP is capable of native 4K at 160Hz (up to 165 Hz in Overdrive mode) and supports AMD FreeSync Premium. The X32 offers 4K at 120Hz over HDMI 2.0 and 4K at 160 Hz through DisplayPort 1.4. Also, the X32 supports Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate.
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
