Acer AC 713b

Acer AC 713b

A few weeks ago my laptop got taken away by my technical adviser (my daddy) because it needed various parts replacing. As a temporary replacement, he bought my desktop computer down to my university house so I wouldn't be left computer-less - I do use it for 'study' after all!

I bought it around 2 years ago, from Staples, as part of an Acer package that included monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers as ...
...just like all the other Acer parts of my computer. The top left corner bears the Acer logo, and the top right corner has the model number AC713 (thankfully, or I wouldn't have known precisely which product I was reviewing!)

There is a line of four small buttons in the center bottom of the casing, and a larger power button and light to the far right. From left to right the buttons are 'Exit'; move left and 'brightness' move right and ... more

Acer AC 713b

A few weeks ago my laptop got taken away by my technical adviser (my daddy) because it needed various parts replacing. As a temporary replacement, he bought my desktop computer down to my university house so I wouldn't be left computer-less - I do use it for 'study' after all!

I bought it around 2 years ago, from Staples, as part of an Acer package that included monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers as well as the main computer box part. This review is about the monitor - an AC713b (from what I can see the 'b' is only different because its black and the AC713 is silver!) . The combined price of the whole package was around £400 I think. After a few Google searches I found this product available to buy online for prices between £70 and £90, but none of them had any in stock at the time.

Physical Size
My first reaction when I opened up the big box was that the monitor was very deep. In my old room this was an issue as my desk was only 45cm deep, and the monitor itself is 43cm deep. On most, standard sized desk, this shouldn't be too much of a problem, but you can always use it turned at an angle to get more desk space - this is what I ended up doing at home.

The outer casing is 41cm wide by 41cm tall, with the actual viewable size is just over 40cm (16 inches) diagonally.

At 16kg, this is quite a beast to get onto your desk (and up the stairs if your room is upstairs like mine!) But once it's there, it isn't going anywhere.

It sits on a round base that you can tilt at various angles, and also rotate around to any degree. There is a little arrow maker on the base but this doesn't really seem to be signifying anything - can a circle have a front?

In practical sense, the size is plenty big enough for day-to-day use. You don't have to be forever scrolling down a page as an ample amount of text fits on one window. You can also have two active windows open at once, while maintaining the detail in both. I find this useful when studying as I can have the reference material on one side of the screen, and my Word document on the other.

It's proved itself to be a very well built monitor, getting knocked around quite a bit and traveling between different locations without a mark to show for it.

The plastic casing around the monitor is quite thick and chunky in comparison to newer looking monitors. At times this does make the viewing area seem a lot smaller than it actually is, and also doesn't look especially nice.

Looks
Mine is black, just like all the other Acer parts of my computer. The top left corner bears the Acer logo, and the top right corner has the model number AC713 (thankfully, or I wouldn't have known precisely which product I was reviewing!)

There is a line of four small buttons in the center bottom of the casing, and a larger power button and light to the far right. From left to right the buttons are 'Exit'; move left and 'brightness' move right and 'contrast'; and 'Menu' (I admit I don't actually know what the majority of these words mean, but this is the menu that comes up: Contrast, brightness, Horizontal-Center, Horizontal-size, Vertical-center, Vertical-size, zoom, pincushion, trapezoid, pin balance, parallelogram, rotation, recall, color, degauss, Horizontal-Moire, recall, Exit, Language of the menu.)

Clarity
In my old room, I used to sit very close up to the screen (because the desk was narrow) and now I sit about 3 feet back from it. In both of these cases, the image on screen is always clear. (At times my eyesight fails, but the screen is still clear!)

I usually have it on 1024x768 resolution, as this is what I prefer, but it can work up to 1280x1024 resolution. There are some computer games that alter the resolution to 800x600 and the monitor handles this quickly and efficiently, and the same again when it changes back after.

The specs say that the pixel pitch is 0.27 mm. I don't really know how this compares to other monitors, but I've never had a problem. I do quite a bit of photo editing, and this pixel pitch is plenty sufficient for even the most detailed editing.

After two years I have also experienced no dead pixels.

Contrast
I feel this monitor falls down here, as white never shows up as white, however much you fiddle with the settings. I've found that to get the clearest picture you have to have the contrast set as high as it will go. In result, this means that black isn't true black either. My dad always used to tell me that you should set it so that the black at the top and bottom of the screen is the same color as the black within the window you are viewing, ie in a movie. With this monitor, that is near impossible without losing a lot of detail and making the entire thing far too dark to be viewable.

Brightness
The monitor display is very well lit. Bright enough that you can easily use the computer with the monitor as the only light source in the room, and yet not so bright that doing this hurts your eyes. I usually use the brightness set too 100%, but even at 0% it is more than enough to work by.

Refresh rate
The monitor has a 160 Hz x 72 kHz Max Sync Rate. For day-to-day use I have never had a problem with the image not refreshing fast enough. I haven't really had a chance to test it properly as the accompanying computer itself is too slow to play most CD-rom games :( Likewise, with movie watching, it is my computer that ruins the experience, rather than the monitor.

Occasionally the screen makes a strange sound if you go from a very white page to a very black page, but the image itself is not affected.

I often don't power down my computer at night, I just switch the monitor off. It can take up to about 10seconds before the screen is actually 'off', up until then it is still emitting some, gradually decreasing, light.

Connection and Power
The monitor connects to the computer by a 'VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)'. The only other cable this monitor has is its power source, just a standard three-pin plug. The specs claim that this is a 75watt monitor, but again, I don't really know how that compares to others.

There are no spaces for video input or camera input on this monitor, which is a possible limitation for some people.

Interference
I have found that it is quite susceptible to interference. I have a radio on the same desk and find that if they are within a few inches of each other, the screen suffers slightly and ripples seem to move across the screen, starting from the point where the radio is closest. The same if a mobile phone is within about three feet of the monitor.

Warranty
The monitor comes covered under a two year limited parts and service warranty from Acer. I haven't had any need to use this and have been overall very pleased with the performance the monitor has given.

Overall
This monitor has given a great performance in the past two years, and I expect it to keep doing so for several to come. The only aspects I would fault would be the basic size of the thing, and its coloring - white is never true white, although you do get used to this. For around £60 to £80 this is probably on the 'cheap' end of the monitor scale, but for all intents and purposes, it stands up for itself well against more expensive monitors I have seen. Except for size. In a world where things keep getting thinner, this monitor is far behind on that scale.

4 out of 5

 

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