Acer P193W review

In a bland grey fog of screens, this Acer stands out a mile with its sleek white frame and silver arrow stand. It’s by far the best-looking product in the group, and at first glance we were amazed such a slick-looking panel could sneak in at less than our target price of £100. Then we checked the price again and reality settled in.

The nearest Acer could get us for this test actually comes in at £119 (exc VAT), but that doesn’t mean it’s superior to all of its cheaper rivals. Far from it, in fact. Attractive design aside, you get no speakers or DVI port for your money, so it’s left entirely to its 19in panel to justify the price tag.

It’s the only glossy-coated screen this month, making it best suited to entertainment use. And in movies and games it did pretty well. Video looked great, with sharp edges and plenty of detail, and although the colours weren’t the most accurate in our tests, the tone was perfectly acceptable. The desktop was also bright and crisp, so all seemed well.

But opening up a few test photos showed that colour accuracy to be a bit further off than we’d first thought. A cold tone made whites seem off, and small halo effects were visible around some edges. Our technical tests backed this up, with a bluish tinge to our white tests and some pixel tracking issues over the VGA connection.

Add in slight banding in our gradient ramps and a blue tinge in our greyscale colour tinting screen, plus a colour ramp that barely had any black in it at all – dark, atmospheric films are not the Acer’s strength – and you have a distinctly average screen. The P193W will certainly look great on your desk, but at £119 we expect better quality than this.