I was using the Acer's Predator CG7 premium 43-inch gaming monitor and today we are going to have a detailed review of the Acer Predator CG7 gaming monitor covering its design, features, performance, and all of its pros and cons.
This review is divided into different sections, covering the pros and cons of each of them separately.
Acer Predator CG437K 43” 4K Gaming Monitor Review
Unboxing
Predator CG7 is a huge 43-inch monitor. So it comes in a very large retail box, inside which you will find the monitor along with the power cable, some other cables for the connectivity purpose and some LED light strips along with connectors. It comes pre-installed, so you do not need to do any installation and you can start using your Predator CG7 right after taking it outside the box.Design and Build Quality
Now talking about the design and the build quality, the Acer Predator CG437K's panel and base both are fixed. So you can't make any adjustments and the screen stays always perpendicular to the surface. Below the screen, you will find the Predator logo with some lighting. On the backside, you will find plenty of ventilation and a VESA mount. So you can use the Acer Predator CG7 as a TV if you do not want to use it as your desktop monitor.
You've got plenty of slots and ports on the backside. We got two Display Port 1.4, a single HDMI 2.0, multiple USB ports, and a 3.5 mm audio jack. We also got four ports for the LED light strips and on the right side, we got two more HDMI 2.0 along with two more USB ports. The base is very solid, strong, and durable. Just below the screen, you will find buttons for OSD control. So you got four different buttons and a joystick to navigate between the options and menus. Predator CG7 also comes with two 10 watt speakers.
One drawback here is that the monitor itself does not come with the integrated RGB LED light. So you will have to use the provided LED strips on the back of the monitor manually and it will increase the amount of cable hanging from the body of the monitor.
At the base, Acer has specially marked the gaming controller logos to let you know where exactly you need to put your gaming controller. So considering the fact that this is a huge monitor and if you're going to play games using the keyboard and mouse, you will be very close to the display. So it will be better if you use the gaming controllers and sit a bit away from the monitor. And maybe this is why Acer is also giving the indication that it is better to use gaming controllers with Acer Predator CG437K instead of the keyboard and mouse.
Display Quality and Performance
Now talking about the display and the features, we got a 4K display that comes with 144Hz overclockable refresh rate. It is G-Sync compatible between 48Hz to 120Hz. It means that once you overclock the monitor and use the 144Hz the G-Sync will not work. Another drawback here is that to overclock the monitor to 144Hz you will have to use two Display Ports. So personally instead of using the 144Hz, I will prefer to go with 120Hz and the G-Sync.
The display is HDR 10 certified with 1000 nits brightness. The display quality is pretty solid and the screen is very bright. So the viewing experience on the Acer Predator CG437K is going to be a great one whether you are playing games or just watching movies etc. With 4K resolution on a 43-inch display, the PPI you will get is 103. So you won't see any individual pixels.
Acer Predator CG437K comes pre-calibrated. So the best image comes from the default settings but still, Acer provides lots of options that you can use to customize the viewing experience based on your preference. So we got multiple manual modes and some presets that you can use to quickly switch between the viewing mode based on the content you are watching. When it comes to gaming, the performance of Acer Predator CG437K was quite impressive and with the help of G-Sync it provided a smooth gaming experience. The HDR was set to automatic, so whenever there was compatible content on the screen, the Acer Predator CG437K provided the HDR content. The same goes with watching movies especially if you got the 4K HDR content.
CG7 comes with 178-degree viewing angles. So it does not matter from which angle you are looking at the display, you will be able to see it clearly and that also improves the overall viewing experience for sure. Talking about daily usage, having a huge screen is always very productive because you can open multiple windows at the very same time and do multitasking very effectively. I also performed lots of benchmarking tests and in all of them, the performance of the CG7 monitor was very impressive and pretty accurate. It fulfilled all of the claims of Acer regarding the Predator CG7 monitor.
If you are interested in doing video editing, image editing etc. and the color accuracy is important for you then the Predator CG7 is a nice option for you because it comes with 90 percent of DCI-P3 color gamut and the Delta E value is less than two. So the color accuracy on the Predator CG7 is quite nice and you can use it for any kind of multimedia editing.
Additional Features
Predator CG7 also comes with some sensor-based features. So what we got here is a proximity sensor and a light sensor. The proximity sensor detects whether you are sitting in front of the display or not and if you move from the front of the monitor then, the screen will go in the power-saving mode. And once you come back in front of the screen, it will turn on by itself. The ambient light sensor provided on the Predator CG7 detects the ambient light and based on that it automatically adjusts the settings to provide the most comfortable viewing experience. You can even use the provided USB Type-C port and cable to charge your devices up to 30 Watt.
Even though the arrangement of the LED light strips on the Predator CG7 is a bit messy, it comes with lots of features. The RGB lighting on the CG7 supports the Acer RGB Light Sense that let you customize the lighting experience on the Predator CG7. So you can select multiple patterns and the lighting sequence based on your preference. If you select the Music Sync mode then, the lighting will change according to the rhythm and the beat of the music, the louder the music the more bright will be the lighting. And it also comes with the Game Sync feature especially for the League of Legends game, so you can assign the RGB lighting on the Predator CG7 to a specific in-game action. If you select the Screen Mode then the RGB lighting will change itself based on the color of the content appearing on the screen. So this is a very cool feature and it enhances the movie-watching experience a lot.
Conclusion
Overall Acer Predator CG7 is a very nice gaming monitor in nearly every aspect. The design and build quality is quite nice. The overclockable 144Hz LCD display is super bright. It is compatible with HDR10 and the Nvidia G-Sync that provides a very nice viewing experience for gaming, watching movies, and also office works. So if you are planning to buy a large 4K gaming monitor then, the Acer Predator CG7 is one of the best options for you considering its performance, features, and pricing.