Acer T232HL Touchscreen Windows 8 Ready IPS LCD Monitor Unboxing & First Look Linus
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2013-05-07
·
1,634 words · ~8 min read
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Welcome to my unboxing and first look at the I'm sorry I told you guys I'm
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totally going to cheat here because this is a really hard to remember model name
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T23 HL BMIDZ and for whatever reason
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this is in lowercase so apparently that makes some kind of a difference. Don't
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worry about that. worry about the part where this is the first sample of Acer's
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touchscreen 1080p IPS
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Windows 8 ready LCD monitor. This is
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extremely exciting and yes, first sample
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in all of North America. So, I am like just super super
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whoops stoked on uh on getting this thing opened up because this is what
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Windows 8 is all about to me. So, for the gamers and the PC enthusiasts out
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there who are saying Windows 8 isn't for me because
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you know, okay, there we go. I don't like the
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interface that shall not be referred to as Metro and uh you know this and that.
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Um, Windows 8 is about changing the way
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we use our computers. and I haven't had as much experience with it as I'd like
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yet, partly because the devices don't really exist yet that will let you have
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a proper Windows 8 experience. So, this is a huge step in the right direction.
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And now, while everyone else is talking about their tablets or their notebooks
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or their all-in-one PCs, not everyone,
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especially us enthusiast gamers, wants any of those things. We want our gaming
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desktop to be as good an experience as
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possible. So something like this I think can bridge the gap
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because instead of locking you into you know crummy graphics or a small form
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factor or whatever else now we can actually take our proper gaming desktop
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and have that touchscreen keyboard mouse
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hybrid experience wh as long as I can figure out how this
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uh how this stand works. Ah there we go. All right. There we go. So give me a
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second. I'm going to unpack all this stuff and then I'll show you all the accessories.
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So, we start with the CD as well as the
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manual, which you may actually need given this is a touchscreen monitor. So,
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you should probably download the latest from Acer if you can, but it's not the end of the world. Try that out. VGA
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cable, power cable for the power brick, which is also included, HDMI cable, and
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a DVI cable are included. So, you can use either of those out of the box. I'd
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love to see more than just one cable included. Ben Q is like
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they're still including only a VGA cable with even some of their high-end
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monitors, which sort of drives me drives me crazy. Well, not high-end, but like
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you know, VA panels, right? So, Acer includes three different video cables
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for you here. USB A tob cable. This is
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great because the monitor has a built-in three port USB 3 hub and an audio pass
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through cable. So, I don't know if it has actually don't know if it has speakers on board, but let's go through
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the specs really quick as well. So, here you can just come in and look at this
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with me. So, you got 1920 x 1080. Yep. 250 nit brightness, which is actually
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not bad at all. Um, whatever. Like 1
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billion to1 contrast ratio, whatever that works out to. 5 millisecond grade
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response time, which is pretty good for an IPS. Uh, 178 and 178 degree vertical
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and horizontal viewing angle, which is what you'd expect from an IPS. And let's
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see what else Acer has to say for themselves, cuz I really didn't cover this. This is all the same stuff we
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talked about already. Oh, 100 million to one adaptive contrast management. Uh
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power savings 10 points. Uh oh, it's LED back lit. I should have mentioned that
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before. So, full HD LED back lit, 10point multi-touch touchscreen monitor.
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So, let's have a look at the industrial design of it overall. So, you've got a
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single piece of edgetoedge glass that goes all the way down to here, which
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means that if you're doing any kinds of gestures that come in from off of the
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screen, you're not going to have the same problem that we had with these
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these first generation touchscreen monitors as well as all-in- ones. So, uh
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if you guys have seen my Windows 8 consumer preview, uh you'll see that the
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one we're using has this giant plastic bezel that makes it you kind of got to
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like wedge your finger in there to swipe from off screen. it really doesn't work
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very well. This is going to be an outstanding experience. Speaking of the
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experience, overall, the glass feels very nice. So, it is glass. It's not not
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any kind of composite plastic or anything cheesy like that. So, it's a little bit cold to the touch. What you
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might expect, what you guys might know from from your past experience is some
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pieces of glass tend to have a little bit more drag than others. This one
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actually feels very good. It's got a little bit of resistance, but not too
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much. So, let's Oh, this piece looks
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like it's a little bit separated. Uh, but this is just this is more just for
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show. And this piece is plastic and this piece is glass. Up here on the side you
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find the three USB 3.0 ports. One of these looks like it's just a charger and
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the other two look like data, although I'm not 100% sure about that having not
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fired it up yet. And then on the back, you see they've gone with a kind of a
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unique look to this. I I like this stand. Um, it's unfortunately not height
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adjustable, but because of the design, it does have pretty ample Oh, no way.
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Does it lie down? It lies down very flat. Not quite flat, although that
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would have been really cool. You can probably I wonder if you can uh I wonder
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if you can actually remove it. It doesn't look like there's an obvious way
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to remove it. So, it is intended to be used as a desktop monitor. However, if
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you I wonder what you would do with it. It does have a vase mount. Okay. So,
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there's your four vasa mounting holes. So, you could position it wherever you want it ultimately and use it however
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you want in its uh in its touchscreen goodness. So, let's come down here and
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we've got there's the USB in as well as VGA in, DVU in, HDMI in, no DisplayPort
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in, although it's really not the end of the world, guys. I'm not sure yet how
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the data is managed for the touchscreen interface. Sometimes it's passed through
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on the DVI, although I don't know if VGA has that capability, so it's possible
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the data is run through the USB 3. So, that might be a mandatory connector, but
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I'll have to uh we'll still have to try this. We are going to turn this baby on
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in a full NCX tech tips episode featuring Windows 8. So, very very
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excited. Kensington locks over there. Sorry, I missed that before. And then
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you've also got your audio in as well as your DC power in. This piece right here
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has a has a plastic uh slider like not well, it's not a slider, but a plastic
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protector so that you're not going to damage the ARM and you can screw that on
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and off without much difficulty. I would like to play around with this ARM a
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little bit more. No, no, it doesn't. No, no, that's on that's on purpose. Um,
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Diesel is giving me sort of a look as if I'm like breaking it here, but I think
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that's intentional. That'll keep it from accidentally closing completely and then
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falling flat on you. So, it's it's a stopper. Um,
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so I think that pretty much covers it. I actually Oh. Oh, there they are. There
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they are. Sorry. There's your on screen display buttons.
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So, no touchcreen buttons. That sort of surprises me. Although, personally, I'm
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still I'm still a tactile button guy when it comes to managing my monitors.
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with one exception being the uh the proximity sensitive BenQ buttons that
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they have on their 2420TX. So, I think that pretty much wraps it
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up. Thank you for checking out my unboxing and first look at the 10point
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multi-touch IPS Acer T23
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T232 HL LCD monitor. And I hope you guys
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have enjoyed this. Don't forget to subscribe to Linus Tech Tips for unboxings, reviews, and other computer
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videos. I learned something about manuals today.
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You should probably look at them once in a while. Check this out. So, this piece
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does come out. That's what this piece of plastic is for. It's four screws. You
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just remove the plastic cover on the top. Oh, okay. There you go. Just like that. And probably comes off there
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somehow. You remove those four screws and then you can put this uh this cover
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on. So, that's how you can easily mount this to some kind of a mounting ARM or
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whatever else you want to do. Very cool stuff.