As the era of Mini LED backlighting takes off in earnest, Acer has become another major supplier of displays to announce a monitor incorporating the tech. The ConceptD CM7321K is a high-end PC monitor that will be aimed at graphics and video professionals who need a wide color gamut, a high contrast ratio, a very high luminance, and a Delta E<1 color accuracy.

Acer's ConceptD CM7321K monitor uses a 10-bit 31.5-inch IPS panel featuring a 3840×2160 resolution, 600 - 1000-nits brightness (typical and peak in HDR mode), a 4 ms response time, a 60 Hz refresh rate, and 178°/178° horizontal/vertical viewing angles. The key feature of this display is its backlighting, with 1152 Mini LED zones for dynamic local dimming.

Backlighting based on hundreds (or thousands) of independently-controlled Mini LEDs promises to bring capabilities of LCDs closer to those of OLEDs when it comes to contrast ratio, color gamut, and brightness. Leading panel suppliers demonstrated prototypes of products outfitted with this kind of backlighting last year, with plans on the TV side of matters to start commercial shipments of Mini LED Ultra-HD televisions in 2019. As it appears, Acer and ASUS will be ready with their PC displays featuring this innovative backlighting this year as well.

In case of the ConceptD CM7321K monitor, thanks to its Mini LED-based full area local dimming (FALD) backlighting with 1152 zones, Acer is rating its contrast ratio as 100,000,000:1 when adaptive contrast management (ACM) is in use, Though it goes without saying that like other adaptive contrast setups, Acer's ACM contrast ratio should not be compared head-to-head to 'usual' contrast ratio reported by manufacturers. Meanwhile the wide spectrum of the backlight means that the display can cover 99% of the AdobeRGB and 89.5% of the Rec.2020 color gamuts.

To ensure that professionals get a good experience out of the box, Acer has validated its ConceptD CM7321K with Pantone color institute, and will ship the monitor pre-calibrated to a Delta E<1 color accuracy (presumably for all color gamuts it will support). The display also carries VESA's DisplayHDR 1000 badge, so it meets the VESA's highest standards for a HDR monitor, and this means it will support at least HDR10 (no word on Dolby Vision, though).

As far as connectivity is concerned, the monitor has two Thunderbolt 3 connectors (one input and one output to daisy chain two LCDs), four HDMI 2.0b inputs, as well as one DisplayPort 1.2. In addition, the display has two 3 Watt speakers.

Brief Specifications of the Acer ConceptD CM7321K Panel 31.5" IPS Resolution 3840 × 2160 Refresh Rate 60 Hz Response Time 4 ms gray-to-gray Brightness Normal: 600 cd/m²

HDR mode: 1000 cd/m² Contrast 100,000,000:1

(ACM) Viewing Angles 178°/178° horizontal/vertical Color Saturation 99% Adobe RGB

89.5% Rec. 2020

? DCI-P3 Display Colors 1.07 billion 3D-LUT ? bits Pixel Pitch 0.1816 mm² Pixel Density 140 PPI Anti-Glare Coating ? Inputs 1 × DP 1.2

4 × HDMI 2.0b

1 × Thunderbolt 3 (one output) USB Hub ? Audio 2 × 3 W speakers

3.5-mm mini jack (?) Mechanical Design Chassis Colors: black, metallic. wood

Tilt: yes

Height Adjustment: yes

Swivel: yes Power Consumption Idle ? Active ?

Finally, the high-end display will be hitting the streets in September, and with a price tag to match: Acer will be selling the monitor for $2,999/€3,199 (MSRP). Given the cutting-edge nature of Mini LED backlighting, this is not particularly surprising, as they'll make up a significant portion of the build costs on all of these first-generation Mini LED monitors.

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Source: Acer