Acer X45 Curved Ultrawide OLED Gaming Monitor Review

This bad boy is Acer’s X45, their 800R curved 3440×1440 240Hz OLED gaming monitor. This mammoth thing is suspiciously similar to the AOC AG456UCZD I reviewed recently, because that too is an 800R 3440×1440 24Hz OLED gaming monitor, so realistically anything I have to say about this, I can say about that – although there are a couple of key differences that do make them stand apart. Let me show you around and I can explain. 

Physically this thing is huge. It’s 45 inches diagonally, which coupled with the frankly insane curve means it fills your vision completely. Immersive doesn’t really do it justice just how sucked-in you are to whatever you’re doing on this thing, whether that be gaming, watching something, or even just working, it truly wraps around your head. From the back you’ll find the IO, two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, one USB C port for both DisplayPort ALT mode and as a USB data port for the USB 3 hub – plus 90 watt charging out – and a USB B port for that hub too. That is all housed in the plastic body that attaches to the stand, whereas the panel itself is in a relatively thin metal case – which attracts fingerprints like mad. The stand itself has plenty of adjustability in height, tilt and swivel, plus should you be able to find a VESA arm that’ll support the hefty 10KG or so of the monitor itself, you can VESA mount it. 

The panel itself is a W-OLED panel I believe from LG. That comes with some… challenges. Being W-OLED that means the sub-pixel layout is something like red, white, blue, green, so text looks a little off thanks to Windows being blind to the sub-pixel layout. There’s also a pretty naff adaptive brightness limiter here – this one, much like the X27U I reviewed recently takes a distractingly long amount of time to start cutting back the brightness. This is one of the biggest differences between the AG456UCZD and this X45 – here’s some data from my open source response time tool (available at OSRTT.com by the way) from the X45, where you can see it takes in the order of 100 plus milliseconds to go from the peak to the steady-state level. Now here’s the AOC monitor. See how much faster it cuts back? That makes it way less intrusive, compared to the X45 which is frankly an annoyance to use, unless you set the brightness to a low enough level that it doesn’t do the ABL. For context here, with only one ninth of the screen lit, the SpyderX2 reckons you’re getting between 350 and 400 nits at full white. With 50 percent of the screen lit, it’s 185 nits, and with 100 percent you’re likely closer to 100 nits total. White is visibly grey on this. What’s more interesting still is that AG456UCZD actually hits more like 250 nits at 50% lit, versus 185 nits on this X45. That’s pretty significant.

Since we are talking about the SpyderX2 results, I should add that this is incredibly good in the colours department. It’s true 10 bit, and covers 97% of the DCI P3 spectrum. To the eye this pops. It’s vivid and vibrant – although the brightness does definitely let it down. While I would tell you about the colour accuracy, the SpyderX2 really doesn’t get along with OLED panels, especially W-OLEDs, although I’d expect it to be pretty good. Unlike AOC though, this doesn’t come with a calibration certificate in the box – although you do get a myriad of colour space profiles from the on screen menu. Everything from sRGB and ‘General’ to DCI P3 and SMPTE is here. It’s really pretty impressive – as is the rest of the customisation. 6 axis hue and saturation, gamma, the works. You’ve of course got things like brightness and contrast, and a few gaming features, including Freesync Premium, and OLED care features like auto-dimming and pixel orbiting permanently on, plus display refresh reminders regularly. Being a W-OLED, at least in my experience, I find these more susceptible to burn-in, although with regular refreshes you should be fine. Interestingly, you get a three year warranty on the AOC, but only two years on the X45. 

For me though, much like the AG456UCZD, the pixel density is just a little on the low side for me. At 3440 by 1440 at 45 inches, you’re looking at worse pixel density than a 24 inch 1080p panel, or about the same as a 27 inch 1080p panel – something I’ve been fairly clear isn’t for me in the past. This just doesn’t look as sharp as it should, especially for such a high end – and frankly expensive – display like this. I felt the same about the AOC panel too, it’s just not crisp enough for my liking, and does detract from the otherwise unparalleled immersion that this form factor offers. 

Of course for gaming this is still just beautiful. Being an OLED means it has instant response times – and the latency is spot on too – which coupled with the stunning colours makes for one hell of a gaming experience. Even if it isn’t as sharp as it should be, the fact that this thing wraps around your head, filling your peripheral vision – not just side to side but top to bottom too – makes for an incredible experience. The 240 hertz refresh rate and both Freesync and G-Sync support makes it smooth too, and is just a fantastic time. Really, for any genre – FPS, racing, fighting, hell farming sims – you are going to have anywhere from a good, to amazing time with this thing. 

There is just one itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny little catch, that being the price tag. Even at the current discounted price of £1,100 – down from £1,400 at MSRP – that’s still £300 more than the AOC version of the same panel – the one that comes with an extra year’s warranty, a better adaptive brightness limiter, and a calibration certificate in the box. While I still can’t really recommend this panel – regardless of who is selling it – due to the lacking pixel density, if you are dead set on buying this panel from someone, it seems like a bit of a no-brainer to buy it from AOC instead of Acer here. The X45 is fine – the ABL needs work for sure, and with that year less of warranty this should be cheaper than the AOC model, but for the right price it’s fine enough, I just wouldn’t buy either. I’d buy a QD-OLED instead – probably the EVNIA 8600 I have on my desk.