Acer S243HL: Review

Acer S243HL

Slimline and environmentally friendly, this Acer model is a great budget buy

Acer is a less well-known name in the monitor arena, but it has been consistently pushing out high-quality displays for all price ranges. It also makes an effort to keep its technology environmentally sound, which is why its latest LCD screens are more energy efficient, which as well as reducing CO2 output, also saves on running costs. The monitor that we’re looking at here helps to reduce CO2 output by 16.04kg, partially helped by the product’s overall thinness, which at less than 15mm makes this the slimmest 24-inch display on the market at the time of release. The monitor also uses White LED technology, which doesn’t contain hazardous substances and can reduce power consumption by up to 68 per cent.

Of course, we’re all for saving the planet with savvy product choices, but a monitor needs to deliver in other ways too. Luckily, Acer hasn’t sacrificed technological advances in favour of ecological ones. This is a widescreen LED display with full HD resolution, high contrast, two HDMI interfaces and a fast response time. And for less than £300 to boot, aiming this monitor firmly at the home user who needs to upgrade from their system’s standard screen to something a little more attuned to image-editing work.

Setting the screen up is easy – just connect it up via the standard ports that your current monitor uses. Saying this, it’s worth bearing in mind that there is no DVI port (there is a VGA port), so you may need an HDMI-to-DVI cable to connect to your computer. We were up and running in moments, after making a few adjustments to the screen’s rotation to suit (it can tilt by -5/15 degrees), but we were disappointed that there was no rotation options, as we like to work in portrait mode on occasion.

It’s a big screen, but because of its thin profile, it actually doesn’t have much of a desk footprint. The sleek brushed-silver stand has an array of buttons, highlighted by a soft blue glow (orange in standby), which control the screen’s setup for brightness, contrast, etc. The stand is L-shaped, which means that you can slot your keyboard right underneath when not in use for space saving on smaller desks.

In use this is a good monitor, especially for the price. It offers an 8,000,000:1 contrast ratio (the first display to do so), which boosts clarity and detail. This is used in conjunction with Acer’s Adaptive Contrast Management, which analyses and adjusts images frame by frame to optimise contrast. When working in Photoshop, it’s nice to have the extra space if you don’t already have a widescreen monitor, pushing the palettes to one side while you work. Detail is enhanced, making edits simpler, and the built-in colour management helps with calibration. However, colour accuracy could be improved on the screen, as some brighter colours appeared dull and blacks are soft. We tried the monitor out for day-to-day use and for entertainment purposes as well as image creation, finding it good for both, though graphics were a little softer in a high-performance online game and it can appear dim at times, but there is no lag or ghosting. The viewing angle suffices horizontally, but does suffer a bit vertically in comparison to other models. Similarly, edge-to-edge sharpness isn’t quite as crisp as in some similar spec models.

This monitor offers full HD resolution, making it feasible for watching films on or playing the latest games. However, it doesn’t come with a HDMI cable as standard, so it’s an extra investment if you wanted to use this functionality.

Overall, this is a monitor that delivers in size, reduced power consumption, aesthetics and functionality, but it is let down by some faults in colour accuracy and vibrancy on screen. With other manufacturers starting to release models at the same price band, we think that Acer needs to push its technology further forward in its next incarnation or it may get left behind. For now, though, it’s a good buy.