Acer SB220Q Review

If the time has come to invest in a new monitor, why not buy Acer sb220q. In this review we will be looking at Acer’s flagship monitor.

Today, a good-quality monitor is not hard to find. There are tons of thousands of companies making monitors, but the main question is how to find the monitor which suits your need? With proper guide and reading reviews from sites like ours, you can select the best among the rest.

To buy a best quality monitor you have to spend big, right? Wrong, with price less than $100 and features of a high-end monitor, Acer sb220q tick every box in the list.

With full HD display and 21-inch IPS panel, it is justifying its price. The ultra-thin frame design and smooth edges enhance its display.

Acer sb220q is recommended for gaming. With its 4ms response time and a refresh rate of 70Hz, it provides ultra-gaming experience. The AMD anti-tearing technology doesn’t cause eye fatigue when looking at the monitor. So, if you are a gaming nerd you can buy this monitor.

It is also ideal to use in the office because it can provide all the features of an expensive monitor with inexpensive price.

Before going to our review, here are a few points you should consider before buying a monitor.

1. Display

Display is everything when buying a monitor. Whether you are a gamer or looking to buy for professional use, display plays a key factor in buying a monitor. The monitor should be able to produce images at 1920 x 1080p.

2. Screen Size

The size of the screen does matter in a monitor. In the past, you only have the option of buying 10” to 14” monitors but now you can buy monitors above 20”. It’s up to you to decide which screen size can satisfy your needs.

3. Response Time

Response time of monitor will determine how fast you can open things on a monitor. Monitors having a response time less than 5ms is considered good.

4. Connectivity

Connectivity is a very important factor in buying a monitor. You will be needing multiple connectivity all the time. The maximum number of ports available on the monitor is great for personal and professional use.

5. Technology

Of course monitor’s technology is very important. The built-in technology of monitor should have features like FreeSync technology which stops stuttering and screen tearing and Blue-Light vision technology which keeps your eyes relaxed when using a monitor.

6. Design

The slim design of any monitor beautifies its look. The design factor is essential when you are buying a monitor for gaming purposes. Also, it should look great wherever it is placed.

With that, it is time to move to our Acer sb220q review. So, let’s begin.

Specifications of Acer sb220q

• Screen Size: 21.5-inch
• Resolution: Full HD (1920 x 1080)
• Response Time: 4ms
• Panel: IPS (In-plane switching)
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Connectivity: HDMI 1.4, VGA, and a Headphone Jack
• Refresh Rate: 75Hz
• Colors: 16.7 million
• Viewing Angles: 178-degree vertical, 178-degree horizontal
• Power: 24W
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 19.61 inches x 15.1 inches x 1.42 inches, 19.6 inches x 15.1 inches x 8.3 inches (with stand)

Special Features of Acer sb220q

• Full HD display
• IPS technology
• AMD FreeSync technology for saving eyes
• Wider viewing angles

Let’s talk about Acer sb220q specifications and special features in detail.

1. Design

One of the best trait of Acer sb220q is its ultra-slim design. It uses a frameless-design reducing the size of the bezel. This feature is very important for a small monitor like sb220q. If viewed from a close distance, these bezels are almost invisible especially when something dark appears on the screen.

It measures 21.5 inches in screen size. Although the screen-size is small, it produces full HD display. The actual dimensions of acer sb220q are 19.61 x 15.1 x 1.42 inches. The panel is much thinner than its dimensions. It measures only 0.24-inch.

The screen panel covers 72% of RGB giving 16:9 aspect ratio. Also, the panel has a non-reflective, anti-glare coating.

The screen has a tilt of 20-degree (15 forward and 5 backward). The only problem is it doesn’t have a pivot adjustment. There is also a base for placing the monitor wherever you like.

Weighing only 4.4 lbs. and 5.5 lbs. with stand, it is easy to carry and place sb220q. On the back, there are two ports and one connector and the base is adjustable as well.

The design of the monitor doesn’t have speaker’s input but has a headphone jack. There are two buttons on the monitor; one for switching on/off and other for the monitor settings.

Besides limited connectivity, it has a great design.

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2. Display

Acer sb220q offers resolution of 1920 x 1080p. The panel shows 16.7 million colors that are fine for any person. One major feature is that it shows decent colors than most monitors of the same range.

If you are familiar with the TN (twisted nematic) or VA (vertical alignment) panels, you will notice a major difference with its IPS panel. The IPS panel provides bright and vibrant colors and gives a great viewing experience.

It can give a viewing angle of 178-degree horizontally, and 178-degree vertically. What this means is you don’t have to sit right in front of your monitor, as it will display evenly no matter where you are sitting.

One thing we should mention is it has a slight problem with its IPS panel. There is some backlight bleeding on its IPS panel. Hence, some of the light will bleed around its corners.

But the great thing is that Acer is aware of it and they have good quality control. So, it is possible that you may not even notice the light bleeding.

It uses a 21.5-inch panel that means it has an advantage over big-screen monitors. Its pixels per inch is better than the 24-inch monitor. You can see the difference in pixels per inch between the normal 1080p monitor and sb220q by sitting two feet away.

The brightness of this monitor is 250cd/m2 which is fairly enough considering its price. Surely, you won’t be able to have features like an HDR but its brightness is adjustable.

Sb220q has been built with ACM (adaptive contrast management) giving a contrast ratio of 1000:1. Although this ratio is normal these days in every monitor, the addition of ACM makes the difference. ACM gives whiter whites and darker blacks for managed contrast ratio.

The colors don’t get bleak as often it is with inexpensive monitors. It distributes RGB colors evenly on the screen and colors don’t get fuzzy.

While talking about its display it is important to mention its tearing prevention technology. With FreeSync AMD technology, it protects the screen from causing eye fatigue. Plus, it has an option of a Blue light filter which automatically sets the white light to a minimum level.

We are satisfied with its display and we think you will like it also.

3. Performance

For a monitor below $100, you can expect to get excellent performance from sb220q. This is due to its response time and refresh rate. Its response rate is 4ms. As we mentioned earlier, a good quality monitor has a response time below 5ms. The response rate is responsible for how quickly a pixel can change from black to white or from gray shade to others.

4ms means that it can go from black to white in 1/160^th of a second. Another thing is that due to its IPS panel, this response time is equal to some of the best monitors. So, that’s how Acer monitors have such a good quality shade.

The refresh rate matters also in enhancing its performance. To put it in simple words, a refresh rate is the number of times a monitor updates with new images each second. For example, a monitor having a refresh rate of 60Hz updates images at 60 times per second. A good monitor has a minimum refresh rate of 60Hz. If you are a gamer, the higher the refresh rate the better it will be able to update images.

Sb220q has a refresh rate of 75Hz and display images reasonably well. We played several high-end games on it like the GTA 5 and God of War 2 and it didn’t show us a sign of blurriness. But it is important to mention that our PC is Intel core i7 and maybe that’s Acer sb220q didn’t baffle us.

One thing we find that its color accuracy is decent but not perfect. The screen shows more bluish and reddish colors. Luckily, the colors are not as bad and you can adjust the color settings according to your demands.

Another performance factor which should be mentioned is its input lag. It is a term used specifically for video games. It is defined as a delay between the signal received and displayed on the screen. Most full HD monitors have an input lag between 20 to 30ms. Sb220q has an input lag of 26ms which is a bit low but it is not a gaming monitor. It is just a budget-friendly monitor with all essential features.

Overall, the performance of sb220q is excellent and we were satisfied with its work.

4. Connectivity

For connectivity, it has an HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) port and a VGA (Video graphics array) port. If you have a graphics card that only has a DVI (digital visual interface) support, then you need to buy DVI to VGA adaptor.

On the back (where all connections are located) there is a power cord and a headphone jack. The power cable requires 24W and uses a brick adaptor.

Even though the connectivity options are limited, still sb220q manages to give us a headphone jack. We are not saying this is ideal but it is inexpensive. So, it deserves some credit.

Should you buy Acer Sb220q?

Well, that’s the question you had when you first came here. If you ask us, it is an affordable monitor with some high-end features. It is ideal for a person looking to buy a monitor for normal functionality.

It supports some of the high-end games due to its full HD display. It uses IPS technology which is far better than the TN panels. IPS panels are used by professionals in the graphic designing industry because they display colors and images accurately. Fortunately, Acer sb220q has an IPS panel.

The viewing angles are another one of its best traits. It gives 178-degree vertically and 178-degree horizontally. This viewing geometry comes handy when you are not sitting in front of the monitor. The display won’t fuzz and you will have a better viewing experience.

Its colors are another reason you can consider buying it. The RGB display is better than its counterparts. It produces 16.7 million colors on the screen. But, there are 2 things about its display we didn’t like; one is its IPS panel showing backlight bleeding, and the other is frequency of reddish and bluish colors. These are two demerits in its display but they can be solved. For instance, you won’t notice the light bleeding particularly on the darker screens and reddish and bluish colors can be adjusted from the settings.

The addition of AMD FreeSync can also be the buying reason. It reduces the chances of eye tearing. The blue light filter can also be applied to lower the bright white light which can cause eye fatigues.

With that, our review has come to its Pros and Cons. After a detailed analysis of the sb220q here are the merits and demerits of buying it.

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Conclusion

Concluding our review, we think that Acer sb220q is a fair-priced monitor with some great features. It is best for normal office or home usage. There are some features that need improvement but overall full credit to Acer. We give it a 4.4/5 rating.

Hammad Ali

is a dynamic writer, known for reviewing the products and services throughly and honestly. The writer serves various online communities with his sheer tech knowledge.