Acer CE320QK X monitor review: An effortlessly chic and pared-back OLED screen for work and play

Acer is hoping to turn heads in the workplace with a stylish 32in OLED monitor that's being pushed at a fairly reasonable price. Aimed at creative professionals in particular, but usable by all, the CE320QK X (the European version of the PE320QK X) is engineered to deliver high levels of color accuracy for anybody regularly working with visual media.

On the surface, it certainly looks visually impressive, serving as a departure from dark and moody monitors with thick bezels. With a 4K resolution, quantum-dot OLED technology, and a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, it also competes with some of the best in the business – but also comes with a high-end £899 price tag. But does that mean it'll make a good addition to your workspace?

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Acer CE320QK X monitor: Design & Features

Acer has adopted a visually striking design scheme for the CE320QK X, opting for a chic white finish for the monitor's rear, base, and buttons. While standout, the design also comes across as reserved, with this minimalist approach meaning it looks like it barely takes up much space on your desk despite being on the upper end of the spectrum for its screen size.

Putting the monitor together and hoisting it in place is as simple as it is to look at – and there are a number of features that make it an impressive device. For example, the base features a square-shaped swivel that's as smooth as butter with rounded corners and a notch so you can tell precisely how to center it. It's also easily adjustable with a maximum height of 150mm, along with as much tilt and swivel as you may need. This encompasses a tilt of -5° to +25° and a swivel of -178° to +178° alongside a pivot of -90° to +90°; in other words, the CE320QK X is highly flexible for its size.

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There is, however, a tiny bit of wobble when you adjust the display, and the plastic finish is perhaps a little too much of a plasticky feel to the otherwise nice-looking white rear. That said, it's almost 2kg lighter than the Dell 32 Plus S3225QS – another 32-inch white monitor – and has far more flex and adjustability. There's also a portrait mode that you can flip the screen into, although there's a degree of stiffness in the rotation along the way.

The display's minimalistic qualities thankfully do not extend to the connectivity options on offer, with a degree of useful ports available. There are two HDMI 2.1 ports and two DisplayPort 1.4 options as well as two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a single USB-B 3.0 port, and a single USB-C port (with DisplayPort 1.4 compatibility and 90W power delivery and KVM support). That comes alongside an Ethernet port. Ideally, we'd have seen a handful more USB-C ports, but we can't complain when the likes of the Dell 32 Plus only have HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4, for instance. All ports are facing outward, rather than down, and are found in a neat row beneath the center of the monitor's rear. There's no cable management system built into the CE320QK X monitor, so you'll have to find custom solutions.

To adjust the display, you'll navigate with a four-way clickable wheel positioned on the bottom-right of the rear just above the power button. The monitor is rather large, so thankfully it's within reach. The menu, which is rather small and localized to the bottom-right of the display, is straightforward enough to follow, and there's no lag while you're using it. You can switch between different display profiles and flick HDR on/off, as well as adjust color spaces and settings like eco mode. As you'd expect with an OLED panel, there's also plenty of care options to reduce the risk of burn-in.

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Display quality

There's ample sharpness in the 31.5-inch panel thanks to a 4K (3,840 x 2,160-pixel) resolution, equating to a very high pixel-per-inch ratio of 140ppi – meaning you can enjoy images and text at utmost crispness. Thanks to a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, scrolling, working, or navigating through menus is utterly delightful and as smooth as silk.

We'd suggest it's difficult to find specifications that beat this Acer monitor for the money you pay – especially considering the (albeit basic) HDR10 support and compatibility with AMD FreeSync Premium (a feature normally used in gaming to reduce input lag). The response time, as a result of the built-in features, is an incredible 0.03ms. As with all OLED displays, you'll benefit from a 0cd/m2 black level as well as an infinity:1 contrast ratio.

The OLED panel offers a little more brightness than the manufacturer suggests, with a peak brightness of 299cd/m2 when HDR is activated (versus a stated 250cd/m2) when running stably and consistently. We say that because brightness is volatile when switching between display modes and inputs, although it settles at this level after a few seconds. Unfortunately, it isn't as bright as we'd have liked to see, with the likes of the BenQ MA320U hitting 527cd/m2 and the Samsung S8 ViewFinity S80D reaching 408cd/m2.

That's the only downside, however, as the color accuracy is excellent. Although the default settings may require some tweaking (with blues and reds slightly oversaturated and greens slightly undersaturated), we recorded a 100% coverage of the sRGB spectrum. This comes alongside an exceptional 93.9% coverage of the Adobe spectrum and 100% coverage of the DCI P3 spectrum – with scores approximately above 80% and 70% making a screen suitable for professional use. As you can see, they surpass that, and some. The average Delta-E color distortion, meanwhile, stands at an outstanding 0.4 with a maximum of 1.37.

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Is it worth it?

This 32in OLED monitor will grant not only creative professionals, but almost all kinds of users, everything they could possibly want from a high-end premium monitor – with a couple of exceptions. Although the color reproduction is brilliant and incredibly accurate, while elements like a really high refresh rate as well as HDR and AMD FreeSync Premium support, make using the monitor incredibly fluid, one more-than-minor grumble is the brightness. With a maximum luminosity of 300cd/m2, the monitor just doesn't reach the same blinding heights as the competition. We can also point out the lack of additional ports that could make life a little easier (say, a couple of USB-C ports), but there's still plenty to work with here. None of these downsides make this device unusable by any means, and at approximately £899, it would still make for a brilliant addition to your workspace, given its elegant frame and large widescreen display that takes up very little space.

Acer CE320QK X monitor: Specifications