Acer R240HY bidx 23.8-Inch IPS HDMI DVI VGA (1920 x 1080) Widescreen Monitor review

Acer R240HY bidx 23.8-Inch IPS HDMI DVI VGA (1920 x 1080) Widescreen Monitor review

Acer R240HY bidx 23.8-Inch IPS HDMI DVI VGA (1920 x 1080) Widescreen Monitor review

Pros
Awesome 4ms pixel response time, 9.6ms input lag, and 75hz refresh rate (when overclocked)
Extremely stylish monitor thanks to the razor thin bezel and well-designed stand
Acer really overdelivered on the features given the low price point
Thin bezels
Inexpensive
Vibrant and crisp colors

Cons
Not VESA mount compatible out of the box – requires an adapter you must purchase separately
No VESA mount
No AMD FreeSync
Tilt-only design
There are better alternatives for gaming
More light bleed than most other IPS monitors have


The Acer R240HY is a high-quality low-budget monitor that delivers flawless image quality with rich and vivid colors. It is also known by its longer product name, the Acer R240HY bidx.

The monitor’s frame is very thin and barely noticeable making it an ideal option for a multi-display setup for gaming or office work.

Acer R240HY Quick Specs
Screen Size	24 inches
Resolution	1920×1080 Full HD
Panel Type	IPS
Refresh Rate	OC to 75Hz
Response Time	4ms
Input Types	VGA, HDMI, DVI

Acer R240HY Design & Specifications

The R240HY's good looks come by way of a bezel-free, glossy-black cabinet that is only a half-inch thick at its thinnest point. It is supported by a matching ring-shaped base that provides 20 degrees of tilt adjustability, but has no height, pivot, or swivel adjustment. It also lacks VESA-mounting capabilities. The 1,920-by-1,080-resolution IPS panel has a non-reflective coating and a peak brightness of 250 nits.

Along the bottom edge of the panel is a strip of glossy-black trim that holds five function buttons and a Power switch, and around back are an HDMI port, a DVI port, and a VGA port, as well as a headphone jack. As with many midrange monitors, the R240HY lacks USB ports and speakers. It's also missing a DisplayPort input. Picture settings are basic and include Brightness, Contrast, and Blue Light adjustments, along with the usual analog (Position, Focus, and Clock) settings. You won't find any advanced settings, such as the 6-Axis-Color and Gamma settings that you get with the Acer H257HU. Picture presets include User, ECO, Standard, Graphics, and Movie modes.

The R240HY comes with a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Inside the box are DVI, VGA, and HDMI cables.

Like most Acer monitors, the R240HY looks extremely stylish. The panel is housed in a bezel-free (read: very thin, right around .25 inches), glossy-block plastic casing, and elevated by a ring-shaped stand that lets you tilt the panel up to 20 degrees. Unfortunately, the ring stand does not allow for height manipulation, easy pivoting, nor swivel movement. It does afford you a tilt angle range of -5 degrees up to 15 degreesThe Acer R240HY screen is covered with a non-reflective matte coating which eliminates light reflections. Connectivity is diverse and includes a VGA, a DVI, a headphones jack, and an HDMI port.

Unfortunately, the monitor doesn’t support VESA mount, so if you wish to mount the screen on a separate stand, you will need to buy an adapter which you can find on Amazon as well.

The bezels are strikingly thin which is without a doubt one of the monitor’s main selling points. You can also tilt the screen by 20 degrees.

Along with the thin bezels, the monitor has a magnetic stand to which you can attach paperclips and similar handy metallic items.

The panel itself is a fairly standard 24-inch IPS panel with a full HD display resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. Acer opted to compliment this particular monitor with an anti-glare screen coating, and the unit operates at a maximum measured brightness of 250 nits.

As for the physicality of the monitor, Acer included a function strip along the bottom of the unit that provides users with 5 standard “settings” (brightness, contrast, etc.) buttons, along with a power switch. The R240HY measures 21.3 x 7.3 x 16 inches, and weighs roughly 6.5 pounds.

Last but not least, this Acer monitor features HDMI, DVI, and VGA input ports, along with a headphone jack. It does not have any USB ports, audio peripherals, or a DisplayPort input option.
Acer R240HY Features

You can look at the R240HY as Acer’s entry into the budget gaming monitor arena. More and more manufacturers advertise IPS panels around this price point, but it’s always good to see Acer’s name in the mix.

As I mentioned, this Acer monitor does make use of an IPS panel, operating with a 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio. It’s difficult to compare contrast rations between manufacturers, but if you forget about the number for a second this monitor has a gorgeous display.

The monitor features a default refresh rate of 60hz, which is fairly standard. I was very pleased to see that you can actually overclock this model to a max refresh rate of 75hz, which is a big deal to you hardcore gamers and movie-watchers. You can expect a 4ms gray-to-gray pixel response time, which is actually quite good for an IPS panel at this price point. You’ll find the tested input lag measurement slightly higher – 9.6ms – which, again, is better than you can hope for at this price point.

Here at Armchair Empire we do make a point to highlight the differences in panel technology to our users – it’s one of the most important distinctions to make when buying a new gaming monitor. The Acer R240HY is an IPS panel, which is one of three major panel types: IPS, VA, and TN. IPS panels are typically known for their excellent color reproduction and superb viewing angles, while their response times and refresh rates may not be quite as snappy as those of a TN panel.
Image Quality

The Acer R240HY offers a stunning picture quality considering its price thanks to its rich colors and Full HD resolution.

The IPS panel will leave a powerful impression on you, especially if you’re coming from a TN monitor. The accuracy and consistency of colors will significantly enhance your viewing experience; even the common everyday computer use will become more pleasant.

Furthermore, if you are an entry-level aspiring photographer or designer, the Acer R240HY IPS monitor is an excellent choice for you at this price range.

IPS panels also guarantee wide 178-degree viewing angles which allow you to watch the screen from any distance or angle without the image shifting in color and contrast.
Acer R240HY Performance

I sincerely enjoyed testing this beautiful gaming monitor out. It gives you an awesomely vivid picture – it’s what you would expect from an IPS panel, but really overdelivers when you consider how affordable the unit is. The blacks are deep and true, and the whites are bright. You get none of that gray or yellow tint you sometimes see with other budget gaming monitorsThe rapid response time speed of 4ms will make sure there’s no prominent motion blur or ghosting of fast-moving objects in games or movies.

The TN panels, however, still have a faster response time of 1ms which entirely eliminates ghosting in fast-paced games, but at the cost of color accuracy and viewing angles.

So, unless you’re a competitive gamer, we recommend the Acer R240HY 23.8-inch IPS monitor.

You can also overclock the monitor to 71Hz-75Hz for extra fluidity in games. In addition, the Acer R240HY input lag amounts to only 9.5 milliseconds which is rather impressive.

IPS glow is an expected downside of IPS panels causing excessive light to pass through the panel and glow, usually near the edges and corners of the screen.

We’ve only detected a minor amount of IPS glow, though it’s only visible in especially dark scenes and when there’s no light in the room.

The R240HY's out-of-the-box color accuracy is good, but not ideal. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and green colors (represented by the dots) are just a tad misaligned with their ideal CIE coordinates (represented by the boxes), but blue is spot-on. Nevertheless, the panel produced rich, well-saturated colors in testing and while displaying scenes from Marvel's Iron Man 3 on Blu-ray.

Gray-scale performance was also good; although the R240HY managed to display every shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test, you don't get the same level of highlight and shadow detail that you'll get from a high-end IPS panel, such as the one used on the NEC MultiSync P212. Viewing-angle performance, on the other hand, was excellent in testing, with no color shifting or loss of luminance from any angleThe panel's 4-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response did a good job of displaying fast-moving images. There was no evidence of ghosting or blurring on my Crysis 3 (PC) and Grand Theft Auto V (Sony Playstation 4 ) gaming tests. Input lag (the amount of time it takes for the monitor to react to a controller command) came in at an impressive 9.6 milliseconds, as measured using the Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester

All of the most important specs for a proper gaming monitor – response time, input lag, refresh rate – are legitimately impressive. IPS technology has been getting better and better as of late, and that’s reflected in the R240HY with its low 4ms response time and 9.6ms input lag time. Combine those numbers with a 75hz overclocked refresh rate, and you have a display that’s buttery smooth.

I won’t lie and say this Acer is quite on par with those 144hz monitors that boast 2ms response times, but it also costs a fraction of the price. The 75hz refresh rate definitely helps out with potential screen-tear situations, and it’s a noticeable step up from the default 60hz refresh rate that you’ll see on most monitors in this price range.

Both Overwatch and Battlefield looked crisp and clear on this monitor, and I honestly didn’t notice any motion blurring at all. I’m sure a more discerning gamer will pick out a few instances here and there, but you’ll only notice it if you look for it instead of focusing on the game.

The main negative performance issue I’ve seen with this Acer is light bleed. Light bleed is a well-known and extremely common issue for IPS panels, where you’ll notice a “glow” around the edges (primarily in the corners) of the screen. That’s essentially how IPS panels work – you get better viewing angles and bolder colors because the panel lets more light pass through the panel, but light bleed does come as a side effect of that technology.

You’ll notice it when viewing something with a lot of black or other dark colors up on the screen, and it might be bothersome to some viewers out there. I personally don’t mind it much, but I will say that this particular model does seem to have slightly more light bleed than is typical.
Features

There are a few presets available which are well-optimized for certain activities on the screen. These presets include User, ECO, Standard, Graphics and a Movie mode.

Remember to select these presets accordingly as they can improve the quality of what you’re watching.

Acer R240HY bidx 23.8-Inch IPS HDMI DVI VGA (1920 x 1080) Widescreen Monitor review

The Acer R240HY is very power efficient and consumes only 19W of power, in the ECO preset the power consumption is reduced to 12W.

Moreover, the monitor has a flicker-free screen and a low blue light filter so you can work, play, or watch movies for hours without straining your eyes.

The OSD menu of the Acer R240HY monitor is not quite user-friendly as it is troublesome to navigate with and lacks the ability to adjust certain settings.

Besides the brightness, contrast, and the level of blue light protection, there are no other options to tweak such as gamma and colors.
Acer R240HY Extras

The R240HY comes loaded up with Acer’s innovative “Flicker-less Technology,” which works to reduce standard screen flickering. This is great for your eyes, as screen flickering is one of the main causes of eye strain and eye pain during extended computer use.

The monitor does come with an included VGA cable as well, although you’ll have to spring for an HDMI or DVI cable if you want to take advantage of either hookup instead of the standard VGA.
Recommend The Acer R240HY For…

We recommend this Acer for most any gamer out there. Serious gamers may be hesitant to commit to an IPS panel at times due to IPS technology historically coming with slightly worse response times and refresh rates than TN panels, but the R240HY takes care of those issues with it’s 4ms response time, 9.6ms input time, and 75hz refresh rate.

Whether you are looking for the best bang for the buck 1080p monitor for a multi-display setup or just an ordinary screen for the everyday activities, there is no doubt that the Acer R240HY will satisfy your needs for the price you pay.

However, if you are after a monitor mainly for gaming, there are some better alternatives available at this price range, such as the LG 24MP59G.

This monitor is also extremely suitable for graphic designers, editors, and anyone else out there who wants a gorgeous picture at a low price point.
Acer R240HY Conclusion

I might sound like a broken record at this point but I truly cannot stress how much you get for your money with the Acer R240HY monitor. It’s not the cheapest budget gaming monitor out there, but the slight price increase results in exponentially better specs and performance from a gaming standpoint.

If you’re looking for an affordable, high-performance gaming monitor that comes with the backing of Acer’s well-reputed brand, you can’t do much better than the R240HY. Just make sure you’re well-acquainted with light bleed before you pull the trigger, as it’s a deal-breaker for certain users out there.
Bottom Line

The Acer R240HY is a gorgeous thin-bezel monitor with 1080p resolution, great image quality, and outstanding performance – all that at a reasonable price makes it one of the best selling monitors on Amazon.

Acer R240HY bidx 23.8-Inch IPS HDMI DVI VGA (1920 x 1080) Widescreen Monitor review

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