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Brightness & Contrast
To read about our monitor tests in depth, please check out Display Testing Explained: How We Test Monitors and TVs.Brightness and Contrast testing is covered on page two.
Uncalibrated – Maximum Backlight Level
We have a goodly number of curved ultra-wides in our database to stack up against the Acer XR382CQK. Sharing the same panel part is the LG 38UC99. We have high-end 34” screens from Acer (Predator X34) and Asus ROG (PG348Q). From LG we also have the 34UC79G, and AOC represents the VA camp with its C3583FQ, which has lower resolution but tremendous contrast.
Most 16:9 flat panels can top 350cd/m2 peak, but curved ultra-wides are doing well to exceed 300. The XR382CQK turns in a respectable 321.8172cd/m2 white level, which is plenty for its intended purpose. It doesn’t have a backlight strobe, so extra headroom isn’t necessary. And the sheer size of the screen may have you lowering the brightness from your usual setting. We found 200cd/m2 a little too intense for our tastes.
Black levels are towards the back of the group, but Acer still manages to squeak over the 1000:1 threshold in the sequential contrast calculation. This is about as good as it gets for IPS. Only VA offers significantly more depth, but it hasn’t quite reached the pixel density of other technologies.
Uncalibrated – Minimum Backlight Level
The backlight’s minimum setting is a bit below the useful level but not too much. Brightness can still be set with decent precision over a wide range of values. Contrast remains reasonably consistent at 988.2:1. If you want to see 50cd/m2, set the slider to 5.
After Calibration to 200cd/m2
We had to lower the contrast slider to solve a clipping issue; hence the drop in ratio. You can maintain around 1000:1 if you leave it set to 50, but some highlight detail will wash out and the brightest whites will look a little blue. It’s a minor issue, but we opted for maximum detail at all brightness levels. 918.3 is still perfectly respectable. The main factor here is a black level that’s a tad higher than the other monitors.
ANSI Contrast Ratio
Happily, the ANSI test reveals a slightly higher 945.1:1 ratio. We have yet to see anything but quality panels in all the curved monitors we’ve reviewed and the XR382CQK is no exception. Later, you’ll see that our uniformity tests support that statement. Quality control is not an issue here.
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