This is a review of my Acer x213h high definition, 1080p monitor. I would link to where i bought mine from, but newegg.com, where i bought mine, stopped selling them, and i’d feel bad linking to a different retailer’s site when i bought mine from Newegg. Here’s a picture of it, in all it’s glory:

Acer x213h 1080p monitor
It’s huuuge

Ok, it’s really not that big, but it’s a decent sized monitor. Oddly enough, my friend has one that’s a little bit bigger than this, but it only displays in 1680×1050, whereas this one displays in 1920×1080, otherwise known as true HD.

Now, lets start off with what i don’t like about this monitor, just cause i started with what i liked in my last review:

  • The stand is a little wobbly, so if your desk is bumped a lot, your monitor will move along with it.
  • The plastic enclosing the monitor, somehow, just doesn’t feel that great, it just feels a little cheap.
  • The buttons are a little annoying to push when you want to change any of the display settings or anything.
  • The back-light bleeds a little if you’re displaying a mostly dark screen, but it’s not even noticeable unless you’re looking for it (at least, not to me)
  • The HDMI port is a little hard to find when you’re just feeling around for it.
  • If you want to put this on a wall mount, i think you have to deal with part of the stand sticking out from the bottom, because only part of the stand comes off, pictured here:

Yes i know it’s a little dusty, my bad…

And here’s the good things about this monitor:

  • It’s small enough to carry places, like to a friend’s house or whatever, but the display is beautiful, True HD
  • The monitor is small compared to a lot of 1080p monitors, which generally run between 23 and 27 inches measured diagonally. This one is only about 21, so it has more pixels per inch, meaning it has a sharper picture.
  • Standard 5ms response time is good for pretty much everything. I use it for gaming, movies, etc, works perfectly for everything.
  • Has HDMI, which is a huge plus.
  • It’s a good looking monitor, acer has a great design for their monitors without integrated speakers (i don’t much like the ones with speakers because the plastic used is shiny, kinda like a Samsung, but not as good)
  • No dead pixels, and none have shown up in the months that i’ve been using it.
  • Comes with monitor presets for gaming, text viewing, movies, and one called standard, which works well for just about everything.

Now, this is a great monitor, i love it and am glad i bought it. I bought it at a very good price, i think i paid 170 for it, which is phenomenal for a 1080p monitor. However, given the chance, i would not buy it again, because for the same price you can buy one of these:

which can be found at: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236051.  This monitor is now sold for the same price as the Acer (at the time i purchased the Acer, the Asus was more expensive, so i didn’t buy it…that was a mistake), but unlike the Acer, it has an audio out port, so you can use the HDMI cable for your Xbox 360 or PS3, and still be able to use your computer speakers. It also has an audio in so you can run your computer sound to it, and get both the sound from the HDMI, and the sound from your computer. Small sidenote: the monitor control buttons on the 21.5″ Asus are regular buttons, which is great because the monitors bigger counterpart, the 23″er has touch sensitive buttons, which never work right in my experience. You even get a mail in rebate on the Asus, dropping down to 150 for a 1080p monitor, which is a great price given that it’s an Asus. And yes, i know what i’m talking about with the audio features on the Asus, my friend has two of this monitor and i’ve used them many times.

The only bad things about the Asus are:

  • The contrast ratio is a little bit lower. But, it makes up for that by having a 2ms response time, which is ridiculously fast and great for gaming.
  • The stand, like the Acer’s, juts out if you want to use it on a wall mount.
  • The power button is always orange, which is weird. On the Acer, when it’s in standby, the light turns orange, and when it’s on it turns blue. On the Asus, the button itself is orange and there’s a light next to it that is blue when it’s on. Small thing, but it’s always annoyed me.

So, overall, the Acer is a great monitor, but if you’re looking for a good, affordable, 1080p monitor, you should go with the Asus. Even the stand is better, you don’t get the wobblyness of the Acer…although the plastic is a little shinier, so, if you hate shiny plastic, and don’t mind not having an audio-out port, then you can still get the Acer, but you’d have to look around on the internet because Newegg stopped selling them.