After using a dual 27″ Asus 1080p monitor for 4 years it felt like I needed to upgrade to something bigger and better. So why not an Acer B286HK? It’s 28″ with a 4k resolution, and the price is a bargain for what it offers.
My dual setup.
This monitor did have some nice aspects to it but not everything did please me. I’ll list the pros and cons.
Pros:
- 4k resolution on a 28″ monitor! Really crisp text and images. It’s really fascinating. I remember when I would zoom in by putting my face close to the monitor and expect a blurry text but surprisingly it was really clear!
- Price was decent. I bought the monitor for around $280.00 each.
- VESA mounting. 100mm x 100 mm to be exact. I know some 28″ 4k monitors of this variation does not come with VESA mounts. For example: Samsung U28E590D.
- Solid stand with a magnetic paper clip feature but I ended up using a dual mount for my dual setup.
- Plenty of connection cables. (Power chord, sound, DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI..etc)
Cons:
- TN type panel. The viewing angle was actually pretty decent for a TN panel but if you do a lot of editing where color reproduction is important then I suggest sticking with an IPS panel.
- 60hz is what this monitor max refresh rate is and in order to achieve this refresh rate you need a DisplayPort cable and make sure your video card has a DisplayPort.
- If you want a dual setup make sure your video card has two DisplayPort to achieve 60hz on each monitor. If not then one monitor will be at 60hz and the other monitor will be at 30hz if you’re using any other connectors beside the DisplayPort. I used a HDMI cable and only achieved 30hz on my second monitor. It’s noticeable when you move your mouse from one monitor to the next. It seems like the mouse slows down when moving to the 30hz monitor.
- Majority of the 28″ 4k panels comes from one manufacturer called InnoLux. This I found surprising so essentially all the 28″ 4k monitors are the same panel just in different casings.
- I ordered this from acerrecertified.com so there was some quality issues from them since it was recertified and not new.
- Ordered 2 monitors. They only shipped one but eventually shipped the second one when I called back about the mistake. Customer service was really responsive so kudos to them.
- One of the monitors had a scratched bezel and horrible back bleeding. The second monitor had 2 dead pixels on the middle right and would randomly shut down but back bleeding was not as bad. So just be wary when buying as recertified since you are practically playing the monitor lottery game.
Overall, the monitors will be suitable for you if all you do is browse websites and a casual gamer. If you’re a hardcore gamer or a professional graphic artist I suggest looking into other monitors. Eventually I returned the monitors and opted for a BenQ XL2730Z 27″ 144hz 2k monitor.