Acer B287K Monitor Review

Whilst Acer is better known for its impressive lineup of gaming monitors – mainly the Predator and Nitro lineups – the global brand is far from a one-trick pony. They have an entire catalog of monitors geared around media creation, including the monitor we’ll be reviewing in today’s article.

The B287K is part of Acer’s new B7 range, offering up a sleek design that is characterized by a 4K screen resolution and pre-calibrated colors right out of the box.

In the following guide, we’ll be putting the B287K through its paces to see how it stacks up in picture quality, color accuracy, general viewing, and overall immersion. We’ll be comparing it to similarly priced alternatives when we can, concluding with our final thoughts of this creator-tailored monitor.

So, with plenty to get through, let’s waste no further time and dive straight into the B287K monitor review.

Specifications

What's In The Box

The Acer B287K comes in an incredibly basic box that offers only limited marketing material and some top-line specs on the exterior.

Inside, the monitor comes unassembled from the stand, with all parts offering a tool-less design. The base of the stand screws into the neck via two thumbscrews found under the base whilst the neck clips into the rear of the monitor.

Alongside the panel and the stand, users will find the following items:

• 1 x B287K Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 1 x Displayport Cable
• 2 x Power Cord (EURO/UK)
• 1 x USB 3.0 Cable
• Color Pre-calibration report
• Warranty card

Design And Features

With specifications out the way, let’s take a more comprehensive look at the build quality, design, and mechanical features the Acer B287K comes equipped with.

Design

The Acer B287K certainly looks the polar opposite of the Predator monitors we’ve seen in the past. The main body of the display is extremely reminiscent of older Nitro panels the brand has released, sporting the same branding and brushed aluminum finish on the rear. The base of the stand is completely silver and sports the Acer logo in the bottom right-hand corner. It contrasts nicely with the neck of the stand and the panel itself, both of which are finished in a near-black color. The panel offers thin bezels with the Acer logo branded in the center of the bottom bezel.

Two USB inputs can be seen on the left-hand side of the panel for easy peripheral and device charging. The rear doesn’t offer too much in terms of design functionality, apart from a small cable management cutout in the stand neck and more Acer branding on the rear.

Build Quality

The build quality of this monitor is a little on the hit-n-miss side – especially when you consider the price tag this monitor comes equipped with. That said, the panel itself feels of decent construction, offering up no creaking or bending during our robustness testing. The coating, which we’ll touch upon in more detail shortly, is anti-glare in 3H hardness – giving the panel an additional layer of protection.

The B287K utilizes a lot of plastic throughout its construction, meaning it doesn’t feel as premium as other options out there. Furthermore, the stand doesn’t provide the levels of stability that you might want from a monitor of this price point, falling victim to some fairly obvious wobble. Luckily, that can be fixed by simply attaching this monitor to a VESA mount – however, for those that don’t utilize such accessories, you might feel a little disappointed.

Panel Coating

Like most modern displays, the Acer B287K comes equipped with an anti-glare coating in a matte finish. This particular coating does an excellent job of mitigating most natural and manmade light sources – however, it does suffer from fingerprint marks. The 3H hardness of this coating also does a great job of adding an additional layer of protection to the monitor’s internal parts.

Bezels

The bezels of this monitor measure in at 9mm (top and sides) by 30mm at the bottom. Whilst this isn’t the thinnest we’ve ever seen, it certainly puts the B287K into the “thin bezel” category.

Stand

The stand comes equipped with fantastic functionality, providing every possible adjustment you could require. Whilst this is a definite plus, the stand doesn’t feel overly robust – falling victim to fairly obvious wobble when used alongside a desk that isn’t absolutely rock solid.

Below are the full adjustments available with this particular panel:

• Forward Tilt – 5 degrees
• Backward Tilt – 25 degrees
• Left Swivel – 45 degrees
• Right Swivel – 45 degrees
• Left Pivot – 90 degrees
• Right Pivot – 90 degrees
• Height – 120mm

Inputs

Inputs can be found in two locations, with most found at the rear of the monitor. The cables are inserted in a vertical fashion and users have 2 x HDMI and 1 x DisplayPort display inputs for up to three devices.

Two USB ports can be found on the left-hand side of the monitor that is ideal for charging devices or plugging peripherals into.

OSD

The OSD on this monitor is very self-intuitive and easy to use. It provides good customization of general picture quality, colors, and overall monitors performance. Whilst this panel is very much a designer-tailored monitor, it still has some options that could be beneficial to gamers – such as OverDrive and adaptive sync settings.

The B287K has a number of different color modes to choose from, including a pre-calibrated sRGB mode that can be used for general editing purposes. There is also a ‘User’ preset that you can alter and save to the monitor – creating the perfect visual balance for your requirements.

Color Accuracy & Picture Quality

In the following section, we’ll be taking a closer look at the overall color accuracy of this panel. As this is a creator-tailored monitor, this section will be particularly important leading up to our final verdict of this product. Acer states that the B287K has been pre-calibrated to an average deltaE of <2 for the sRGB preset.

Preset	White Point	Black Depth	Contrast Ratio	Average ΔE*00	Gamma
IDEAL	6500K	0.00cd/m²	Infinite	0.00	2.2
Out The Box (Standard Mode)	6141K	0.3006 cd/m²	924.2:1	4.09	2.42
sRGB	6242K	0.1921 cd/m²	880.9:1	1.12	2.24
Graphics	6824K	0.3743 cd/m²	1028:1	4	2.31

In default mode, the B287K utilizes the ‘Standard’ color preset – utilizing a 200 nit brightness which is more than the recommended for daily usage.

Like always, we tested the B287K out of the box to see how it stacked up in color accuracy. As you can see from the chart above, the out the box settings weren’t the best.  White point sat below ideal at 6141K whilst black depth was 0.3 cd/m2. Contrast ratio was pretty standard for an IPS panel (924:1) with average deltaE disappointing at 4.09. Whilst this isn’t the worst we’ve ever seen, it’s not considered great if you want to do color accurate work.

I loaded up the sRGB preset next and, as expected, the color accuracy was far greater. White point and black depth were both increased, with contrast ratio taking a slight dip to 880:1. The most impressive figure we recorded was the average deltaE, seeing it drop to 1.12 within the sRGB spectrum. Again, whilst this isn’t the best, it’s definitely acceptable for light video and photo editing.

We ran the Graphics preset after this but, when comparing it to the sRGB preset, you could tell it wasn’t going to showcase good accuracy. It fell short of the sRGB preset in almost every area – apart from the contrast ratio (1028:1). Average deltaE was recorded at 4.0 making this preset unacceptable for any kind of editing.

Preset	White Point	Black Depth	Contrast Ratio	Average ΔE*00	Maximum ΔE*00	Gamma
IDEAL	6500K	0.00cd/m²	Infinite	0.00	0.00	2.2
Calibrated Profile	6779K	0.232 cd/m²	947.5:1	0.19	1.29	2.24

We wasted no time and calibrated the monitor in ‘User’ mode to see how accurate we could get the monitor to be. We altered the RGB settings to 51/44/51 and reduced the brightness to 20 for best results.

Taking a look at the calibrated results, it’s clear to see what a difference the colorimeter made to the overall color accuracy of this panel. White point sat at 6779K whereas black depth took a dip to 0.232 cd/m2. The contrast ratio stayed strong at 972:1 whilst the average deltaE dropped to an impressive 0.19. The maximum deltaE was 1.29 which is still decent considering the amount of colors tested in a wider range. Gamma read 2.24.

Panel Uniformity

Panel uniformity is a test we run to check how uniform the luminance and colors are across the entirety of the screen. During this test, the center square is used as the reference space. Every other square is then tested to see how far it differentiates from the reference.

In an ideal world, we want every square to be green, meaning it hasn’t broken the differential threshold – something we can set at the start of the test.

Note: results will differ from panel to panel.

Panel uniformity for this monitor scored extremely well, with most of the monitor resulting in an optimal score. Taking a closer look at the chart, you can see that the bottom left-hand corner was the worst area for both luminance and grey uniformity. The rest of the panel scored a green (recommended tolerance passed) result.

Overall, the panel uniformity of this panel was extremely good.

Viewing Angles

Like all IPS panels, the viewing angles on the B287K were extremely good, offering 178/178 degrees on either side. Having said that, the color did start to shift closing in on the above figure, with luminance also affected.

Color Gamut

As part of the calibration process, the DisplayCal will give an accurate measurement of the color gamut the monitor can provide. Below are the results of the color gamut test:

As per the monitor specifications, the B287K did fall a little short when it came to sRGB gamut coverage. It only produced 97.1% coverage – with an overall volume of 121.7%.

 

Look at the graph, you can clearly see where the B287K’s gamut doesn’t cover the sRGB spectrum – displayed by the dotted line. The b287K offers good coverage that surpasses the red and green sectors. However, it falls short in the blue and yellow regions.

Maximum And Minimum Brightness

We ended the color accuracy and picture quality testing by checking the maximum brightness, minimum brightness, and 120 candela level on this panel. The results are below:

Brightness	Candelas
100% Brightness	367.24 cd/m²
0% Brightness	92.93 cd/m²
9 Brightness	120 cd/m²

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it, our comprehensive review of the Acer B287K – one of the latest 4K creator-tailored monitors from the other side of Acer’s arsenal.

Overall, the B287K performed to a decent standard. Granted, this is by no means the best 4K monitor on the market. However, for around $400, it does seem to tick a lot of the right boxes. Firstly, it offers a decent coverage of the sRGB spectrum – along with a pre-calibrated sRGB profile that is accurate to around 1 average deltaE. Secondly, the 4K screen resolution is great for a monitor of this size, offering up good levels of immersion and excellent screen real estate. Working with multiple tabs on this bad boy is a dream, allowing for good productivity and efficiency.

Features are a little lacking on this monitor, but that’s to be expected from a monitor that is more geared towards general use and light creator-type tasks. Overall, for a 4K monitor that offers good colors and decent stand versatility, you can’t really go wrong with the Acer B287K.