The Acer G550 Nitro was designed for velocity and clean frames, and whereas it does handle to hit that individual mark with flying colors—1.07 billion of them to be precise—there’s extra to gaming on a projector than velocity. Think about going right into a projector buy anticipating all the fashionable options they arrive with these days, solely to finish up with an abundance of primarily out of date ports, a definite lack of good options, sub-par sound, and a frankly worrying lamp life score.
Sadly, that is the story with the Acer G550 Nitro, which solely manages to hit just a few bars for gaming, and low ones at that. The principle takeaway is to not be blinkered by the speedy specs, as there are many non speed-related options customers ought to demand from a gaming projector, these days.
Talking of being blinkered, earlier than we go any additional I will make one factor clear: whereas you could have noticed 4K within the G550 Nitro’s description, this isn’t a 4K projector. It does assist 4K enter, however since you may have the power to modify down the output on most enter gadgets to the projector’s native 1080p, there’s hardly going to be a scenario the place that is helpful. There is not any upscaling to an approximation of 4K just like the BenQ TK700STi does both, simply downscaling. Primarily, when you’re doing this you are simply drawing extra processing energy than mandatory, for what you are getting out of it.
Acer G550 Nitro spec
Show Expertise: DLP
Decision: 1080p HDR
Distinction ratio: 1,000:1 (dynamic)
Enter Lag: 8.3ms
Throw ratio: 1.21 – 1.59:1
Brightness: 2,200 ANSI lumens
Lamp Life: 3,500 hours
Ports: 2 x VGA in │ 1 x VGA out │ 1 x composite video enter – RCA │ 1 x HDMI │ 1 x Cell Excessive-Definition Hyperlink (MHL) / HDMI │ 3.5 mm audio 2 x in 1 x out │ 1 x DB-9 │ 1 x USB Kind-A │ 1 x 3D sync
Measurement: 313 x 240 x 111mm
Value: £421 (opens in new tab)
The G550 Nitro runs fairly heat. Fortunately it would not blast out sizzling air from the again finish proper into your eyes, and there is truly a warning mild to let if the lamp temperature is getting an excessive amount of—all by means of my hours of testing the sunshine did not blink as soon as. Sadly, although, the lamp life nonetheless would not minimize it.
Whenever you do the calculations, its 3,500 hours is simply shy of two years, offered you utilize it round 5 hours each evening. That is nowhere close to the 20,000-30,000 hours you possibly can anticipate from among the greatest gaming projectors (opens in new tab) we have examined. Acer claims ‘excessive financial mode’ can push the lamp life as much as 12,000 hours, however you continue to solely get a 1 12 months guarantee on the lamp. I additionally have not been capable of finding any substitute lamps in on-line shops.
Pitting the Acer G550 Nitro towards the equally specced £1,200 BenQ X1300I (opens in new tab), certain, you will get it a heck of loads cheaper these days (£420 at time of writing). And whereas the 2 are primarily a match with 120Hz refresh price and 8ms response occasions, and each come touting HDMI 2.0, the Nitro fails to succeed in for different essential quality-of-life options that the BenQ does.
As for software program choices, there’s not a lot on the factor itself. To entry gaming modes and the like, you might want to obtain the Acer Show Widget (opens in new tab) to no matter machine you are utilizing it with, which isn’t nice when you’re on console. There’s at the least some rudimentary type of keystone correction, however it’s so fundamental in comparison with many projectors at present. Loads of the competitors will even work mechanically.
Intelligent keystone correction and good options are type of important at present, and the dearth of Android TV is ok when you’ve bought your gaming PC hooked as much as it on a regular basis, however when you simply wish to watch the odd film on Netflix with out switching in your PC, this is not the projector for you.
That is not least as a result of the built-in audio system are weak sufficient which you could’t hear a factor beneath 100Hz, or above 15kHz. The brightness and distinction are slightly missing, too. Pictures can look slightly washed out in a room with a good quantity of ambient mild; at nighttime although, the Nitro does its job nicely. The colors are vibrant; taking part in Divinity: Unique Sin 2 on it made that abundantly clear, and I used to be in a position to see for myself how spectacular the low enter lag was. Ghosting was fairly minimal, too.
Nonetheless, regardless of the Acer G550 Nitro touting just a few spectacular qualities that make it nice for aggressive gaming, there are such a lot of issues holding it again in at present’s market. Merely put, the G550 Nitro is sort of previous its prime. It is coated in VGA ports, and even has an outdated DB-9 port on the again, too. Since these sorts of connections at the moment are phasing into legend, there’s a variety of principally ineffective gumpf on the again the place a preferable DisplayPort or USB Kind-C could be sitting in a extra trendy piece of package.
Positive, you possibly can choose it up these days for a a lot cheaper price than its newer counterparts, however it’s not going to final for much longer as an choice on this period. Should you’ve a one monitor thoughts for retro and aggressive gaming, it is a good price range choice, however if you wish to profit from your cash, spend slightly extra on one thing just like the Xgimi Halo (opens in new tab). The enter lag is slightly greater, and the refresh price is capped at 60Hz, however for a few hundred quid extra, you get one thing moveable, good and trendy, with a for much longer lamp life.
Actually, if Acer thought it might distract me from the Nitro’s downfalls by providing slightly carry bag and a plastic defend for the lamp, it had one other assume coming.
