Acer CB2 (CB382CUR) review: An excellent and expansive monitor for work and play

The humble monitor has come a very long way since its early personal computing days. We’ve gone from CRT tubes to flat panels to now curved panels. Monitor sizes have steadily increased as people look to get more done on one screen. This is where a monitor like the Acer CB2 (CB382CUR) comes in handy. This 37.5″ curved monitor is sleek and simple despite the clunky word salad of a name.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Moving forward throughout this review, I’ll refer to this 37.5″ monitor as the Acer CB2 for simplicity’s sake. The Acer CB2 has many models within its family so remember that this review is going over model number CB382CUR. If there’s one piece of advice I can give Acer, it’s to simplify their monitor naming practices. To be fair, Acer isn’t the only brand to get mouthy with monitor model numbers. Read on for the full review of the Acer CB2!

Specifications

The Acer CB2 (CB382CUR) has the following features and specifications:

• Display Size: 37.5″ (IPS panel)
• Max Resolution: 3840 x 1600
• Refresh Rate: 60Hz (Overclock to 75Hz)
• Aspect Ratio: 21:9
• Response Time: 1ms (VRB)
• Brightness: 300 cd/m²
• Viewing Angle: 178°(H), 178°(V)
• Speakers: 7W Stereo
• Other Features: AMD Radeon™ FreeSync™; Acer VisionCare Technologies; 21:9 Curved Screen; DCI-P3 95%; Delta E<1
• I/O:
  • HDMI 2.0
  • DisplayPort 1.2
  • Audio Out
  • 4 USB-A Ports
• Wall Mount: VESA 100 x100 mm

What’s In The Box

• Acer CB2 (CB382CUR)
• Stand
• HDMI cable
• Display Port cable
• Thunderbolt 4 cable
• Power Cable
• Power Supply
• Wall Mount
• Screws
• Manuals and Documentation

Design

Most monitors aren’t aesthetically exciting, except maybe a few gaming monitors here and there. The Acer CB2 isn’t ugly, but it isn’t pushing the boundaries of unique design. It looks like most of Acer’s other monitors that are in this price range.

It’s all black on the front with a sizeable bottom bezel and slim left, right, and top bezels. Those bezels aren’t ultra-slim like some other high-end monitors, but they’re also not an eyesore. The Acer logo is centered at the bottom of the display, and there is an LED light on the bottom right.

The speakers are under the bottom bezel and point downward. The stand has a rounded base and arm. The stand articulates up and down and tilts, but it does not rotate to portrait. This isn’t a big deal for my use case, but those who need their monitor in portrait mode may not like this. I like that the base has a rotating foot that lets you move the screen without moving the whole stand.

The back of the Acer CB2 is a typical Acer with some angular lines to give it a little splash of style. The arm of the stand secures on the back with four screws and is easy to assemble. The power and basic controls are on the back righthand side. You can reach them from the front, but I’d prefer manufacturers to put the controls on the front or the bottom lip of the front bezel.

There are four USB-A ports located on the back which face outward. The other I/O is tucked under the back and behind the stand; this is typical, and I’d rather have the I/O more easily accessible.

Overall, the design is relatively basic and follows other monitor designs. There’s nothing that makes this monitor stand out aesthetically, and it’s sort of just plain Jane but not in a bad way.

Speakers

Like many other monitors, the Acer CB2 includes speakers. This is great for those who do not have another sound setup. On the other hand, the speakers are what you would expect from monitor speakers. They are pretty small, and the sound they produce is thin and tinny.

These aren’t built to enjoy music and movies thoroughly, but they work in a pinch. They work fine for video conferencing and other voice-only media like podcasts. They primarily work perfectly for video conference calls, and if that’s all you ever use your PC for, then you should be fine.

Overall, the speakers are nice for those who don’t have any other sound solutions. But if you have better speakers available to you, I’d use those instead.

Display

The screen size of the Acr CB2 is 47.5″ measured diagonally with a resolution of 3840 x 1600. The refresh rate is 60Hz and can be overclocked to 75Hz. The overclocking and the addition of AMD FreeSync are likely great features for gamers looking to use this monitor. I do not game on PC; I’m an Xbox guy, but I did play a few Xbox Cloud games for a few minutes on this display, and I enjoyed the size, and it didn’t seem to drop any frames with everything looking and feeling smooth.

I use my displays for content creation, photo editing, and video editing, and for my use case, the Acer CB2 has been fantastic. I have plenty of articulation with its up and down and tilt adjustments, but if you’re looking for portrait adjustment, you won’t get that here. Not a big deal to me, but that may be a feature they need for some.

The 21:9 widescreen LCD (LED backlighting) IPS display is fantastic for video and photo editing and affords me a lot of space to see my work. Using DaVinci Resolve, I can see more of my timeline and assets and add some menus for a better workflow.

Using Affinity Photo to edit multiple images is a snap as many tabs can be seen with all the extra space. The widescreen aspect ratio of the Acer CB2 will also be beneficial to those who work with spreadsheets or anything that requires a large window.

I also found it very comfortable to open two windows side by side with plenty of space for both. You can get three windows in this space, but they were too narrow for me, and I had to do a lot of side-scrolling to work within some of those windows. I felt two windows was plenty.

Colors are relatively neutral and natural; there is no oversaturation of the colors, which is a real help when editing photos. This might be an issue for some if you’re using this monitor for gaming or movie watching, as some may want more saturation. But it’s not a massive deal as you could calibrate the colors to your liking with software. It’s just that the colors are accurate to life and not pushed hard out of the box.

Blacks are dark and are acceptable; they are not as inky as other monitors, but this is an IPS display, and that is to be expected. Whites are clean, though; there is no yellowing or offwhite issues that I could see. I also didn’t experience any light bleed or blooming.

The brightness is 300 nits; this is lower than I like for a desktop monitor but not far off. I’d prefer to see 350 nits or better. I prefer bright monitors. Laptops, for me, should be 400 nits at a minimum. But 300 nits works fine, these monitors are used indoors, and I don’t use mine in bright sunlight.

Overall, I loved this monitor for multitasking and apps that need a good amount of space to be productive, such as video and photo editing apps. The colors are natural and not oversaturated, the blacks are acceptable, the whites are clean, and the brightness is okay.

Price/Value

The Acer CB2 is considered a Prosumer monitor, which gives Pros more than a consumer monitor and slightly less than a gaming monitor. I think Acer could have pulled the price down to US$999, which would probably get more people to consider it. But, the US$1,099.99 price is still worth it. There is plenty of value here for those who do video and photo editing, and they will appreciate the size and display.

Wrap Up

I’d recommend this monitor for those needing a widescreen for video and photo editing. There are better monitors out there that cost significantly more, but the Acer CB2 is an excellent middle ground. It gives you most of the features content creators need, but it also doesn’t cost as much as some of the competition.

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Last Updated on April 20, 2022.