The Acer Nitro XZ2 Gaming Monitor, more specifically the XZ342CU P version, is one of Acer’s newer entries to the Nitro XZ2 series as it offers users an ultrawide immersive experience and here’s our review on it.

Product Specs

Design

Going right off the bat, the Acer Nitro XZ2 is a big monitor for your gaming sessions with a 1500R curved screen as well as a cinematic 16:9 aspect ratio. A neat feature that the Acer Nitro XZ2 has is its ZeroFrame and narrow-bezel design which really helps with being able to see everything on the screen since I normally play games at a closer distance.

Going more in depth with the design, my first impressions with it was that it looked pretty much the same as any other curved monitor. But when I took a 360° look at the entire monitor, I was taken aback as the back of the monitor had a completely different design from other monitors out there. More specifically with its abstract look with red linings being present on both sides going to the middle of the monitor, which I personally fancy the sleek design of.

The monitor also comes with some ventilation holes, an OSD button, a HDMI 2.0 port, a Display Port (1.4) as well as a headphone jack. Other than those, there’s also some ports on both sides of the monitor where you would normally plug in your speakers.

The Acer Nitro XZ2 features a 34″, 3440 x 1440 resolution which makes this Nitro XZ2 screen an Ultra Wide-QHD monitor. But despite it’s larger scale in terms of size, the weight of the monitor isn’t as heavy as you would think, being only at 5.4 kg.

Coming straight out from the box, the monitor doesn’t come with the stand installed, so you need to take some time to install it yourself, although it’s very easily put together and requires no tools so you don’t have to worry on that front. The stand is bright red in colour and really fits in with the overall aesthetic of the Acer XZ2 and the build quality of it is very sturdy.

One of the neat features of the monitor is its ergonomic stand which offers a 360° swivel angle as well as an adjusting height of 130mm. Not only that, but it can also be tilted from -5° up to 25°, so you’re able to adjust the monitor to your liking as it provides you the ergonomic flexibility which is very helpful for your posture especially with those long gaming sessions.

Display Performance

With the 3440 x 1440 (UW-QHD) resolution, 144 Hz refresh rates and 1ms response time, I had the smoothest experience during my time trying out the Acer Nitro XZ2 monitor with games like Valorant and Apex Legends. Also, one thing to keep in note is that if you’re using a HDMI cable, you’ll get the 3440 x 1440 resolution and 100 Hz refresh rates while with the DisplayPort, it can support up to 3440 x 1440 and 144 Hz refresh rates.

The Nitro XZ2 offers a HDR 400 support and you’re able to see the peak luminance of 400 nits in the HDR mode which I personally think gives off the perfect balance to my eyes. For the contrasts of the monitor, it has a 4000:1 contrast ration which means that a white image is 4000 times brighter than a black image.

With the aid of the Radeon FreeSync, I was able to enjoy the smooth and responsive visuals since the monitor’s refresh rate was synced with my computer’s frame rate. Which is also one the merits of the Nitro XZ2 since it has refresh rates and response times that are suitable for gaming, all while still being accurate enough to do colour-sensitive work.

Gaming Performance

The games that I tried out using the Acer Nitro XZ2 monitor are The Way of the Hunter, Cult of Lambs, Valorant and Apex Legends. All of which were played on the highest setting that was available for the game.

The Way of the Hunter i notably known for its beautiful scenery and landscapes depicting the great outdoors and honestly when playing through the game, everything felt really smooth and the ultrawide monitor manages to capture the stunning visuals and given me an even more immersive gameplay session compared to when I initially tired out the game.

Cult of the Lambs is a 2D game with such a unique and expressive artstyle, I couldn’t resist playing the game while using this monitor. Playing the game at Ultra settings and I feel like the vibrant colours from the game pop out more with this monitor.

With Acer Nitro XZ2 being a gaming monitor, I tried out both Apex Legends and Valorant because I wanted to see how well the monitor fares with some more competitive shooter games and both games played very smoothly and responsively.

OSD

Inside the OSD, you can access a sorts of modes like Action, Racing, Sports, User, Standard, ECO, Graphics and HDR, you can also to tweak the brightness of the screen from 0 and all the way until 100. Additionally, the Nitro XZ2 also comes with a pretty comprehensive game menu, which allows you to tweak the response of the panel to their exact needs.

Another neat thing is that you can also use the OSD to turn on the refresh rate number as well as the Ultra-low Latency from the Gaming menu since with the setting, it lets you have a smooth experience while playing through the game. There’s also some other settings that I personally recommend checking out which are:

• HDR
• SuperSharpness
• Black Boost
• Gamma/Colour Temperature
• Colour Space/Grayscale Mode

Verdict

The Acer Nitro XZ2 Gaming Monitor is a really good choice if you’re planning on getting yourself an ultrawide gaming monitor. Even though it comes with a VA panel, it still has a good colour accuracy which is suitable for editing, playing games, and also work related projects.

For a budget curved monitor like this, it already offers the unique bonus of a 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time and also supports HDR until 400 nits and to me, those are some pretty good specifications. But keep in mind that as long as your GPU has enough power to support the monitor, this remarkable display will improve practically in any arrangement.

Overall, the Acer Nitro XZ2 Gaming monitor is a good choice to use not just for gaming but also for your daily applications. If you’re looking for a medium curved monitor that let’s you see everything there is on the screen, I would highly recommend this monitor.

For those who are interested in purchasing this monitor, you can do so by checking out the official Acer Shopee Malaysian page here. Alternatively, you can also check out the official product page here.