Acer SpatialLabs View 15.6-inch Glasses-Free 3D Portable Monitor

3D video is like a roller coaster ride for fans of the format. Remember those red and blue glasses? They represent his 3D cinematic origins in cinema and television. Next, we created a stereoscopic image by linking the active shutter glasses with the display. The common thread is that glasses and his 3D format usually make a difference between life and death in quality. Ultimately, users don’t want to wear them.
3D without glasses has almost achieved unicorn status, but it does exist. Using very clever technology, including head tracking and eye tracking, it will be possible to see a 3D image of him on the display without glasses. Acer has partnered with SpatialLabs to bring you the View 15.6 inch portable glasses-free 3D monitor.
View Acer SpatialLabs specs
Panel type/backlight | IPS/W-LED, edge array |
Screen size/aspect ratio | 15.6 inches / 16:9 |
Maximum resolution and refresh rate | 3840×2160 @ 60Hz |
3D: 1920×1080 per eye | |
Native color depth and color gamut | 10-bit / Adobe RGB |
Response time (GTG) | 30ms |
Brightness (mfr) | 323 knit |
Contrast (mfr) | 1,200:1 |
speaker | none |
video input | 1x HDMI 2.0 |
audio | none |
USB | 1x USB-A, 1x USB-C |
power consumption | 12.5w, brightness @ 200 nits |
Panel dimension WxH | 14.2 x 9.6 inches |
(361×244mm) | |
panel thickness | 0.9 inch (23mm) |
weight | 1.5 pounds (0.7kg) |
guarantee | 3 years |
The recipe starts with a 15.6 inch IPS panel with a resolution of 3840×2160. This is important because View, like all 3D formats, needs to create two images per frame to achieve a stereoscopic effect. This means that the two images are slightly offset from each other. Flashing them quickly tricks the eye into seeing a stereoscopic image. This also means that in 3D mode the View is displaying 1920×1080 pixels.
There are two sensors on the top bezel of the panel that identify and track head movements and synchronize the phase between images. The view is strictly her solitary experience. People looking over your shoulder will not see the 3D image. But sit in the center and you’ll see a profound and compelling effect. In front of the screen is an optical layer that divides the image, a bit like the frame packing used in 3D TVs and projectors.The image is then digitally refracted using sensor data and directed to the user’s eye
Of course, you need the right software and 3D-capable content to make it happen. But there are games and apps such as modeling software designed to use this technology. Acer kindly sent me a Predator laptop loaded with God of War and other titles played in 3D. You can also convert full-screen videos to 3D using the SpatialLabs Experience app.
Much like your computer monitor, View has some pretty cool features. The color gamut is Adobe RGB, which isn’t quite the same as DCI-P3 in that it emphasizes greens instead of reds, but the two gamuts have roughly the same amount of color. The views are also very accurate and require no calibration. And during testing I found the contrast (for IPS) to be very high. Therefore, it provides a solid image even for non-3D content.
Apart from software support, View must be connected via HDMI and USB to display 3D images. Monitors aren’t cheap either. The current price is $1,099. And let me upfront that the View is not a gaming monitor. It has a refresh rate of up to 60Hz and no Adaptive-Sync or HDR. But if you like exploring game environments and viewing rendered objects in a virtual 3D space, Views are an attractive choice. Let’s see.
assembly and accessories
The View ships in a sleek box with premium packaging and all necessary cables. A small external power supply plugs into the port on the side, and you get an HDMI and USB-A/C cable. The stand folds from the back for support at various angles.
Products 360
View is a simple, elegant design with no extra trim or features beyond what is required for function. The front bezel is narrow on the sides and wide on the top and bottom. The top contains two of his sensors that track the user’s head movements, while the bottom is silkscreened with the Acer and SpatialLabs logos.
The rear component bulge has an input on the left. There is one each of HDMI 2.0, USB-C and USB-A. The circle is the power plug, with a small blue LED indicating power status. SD card slot and two control keys on the right side. One of them is also a rocker switch used to navigate the OSD.
The stand spans the full width of the view and has well damped hinges to keep it in the desired position. You can adjust the screen angle in a wide range or fold the monitor flat on your lap. The View cannot be used as a tablet as there is no touch screen functionality here.
OSD function
View’s OSD looks the same as found on any Acer monitor. Appears when you press the control button. You can then use the rocker switches to navigate and select.
Basic image controls include brightness and contrast, blue light mode, black boost to enhance shadow details, ACM (dynamic contrast), and super sharpness edge enhancement. Maximum brightness is recommended when viewing 3D images. This is good advice. If the image is too dark, the 3D effect may be lost.
The Color menu has a grayscale mode (black and white images) and five color temperature options. User mode has two gain/bias adjustments. The second page has five image modes and color space controls. The two choices Standard and Adobe RGB both render the same Adobe RGB color gamut, but the latter has a more accurate gamma. Standard mode allows you to adjust the color temperature and the 6-axis hue/saturation color system. In 3D mode this menu is grayed out but you can adjust the brightness.
You’ve already noticed the simplicity of the OSD. Gaming options like Overdrive and Adaptive-Sync are absent, and the maximum refresh rate is 60Hz. 3D settings are controlled by software, so there’s no need to dig into the OSD to make these adjustments. How to access 3D games and other features are explained in the hands-on section below.
Acer SpatialLabs view calibration settings
Out-of-the-box views are so accurate that no calibration is required. But the gamma is too dark to adjust. Luckily, selecting the Adobe RGB option in the color space improved dramatically without affecting other image parameters. I’ll show you the results of that test later. When calibrating, leave the color space as standard and adjust the RGB sliders. My instrumented config is below. Note that Standard retains the full Adobe RGB gamut. No sRGB mode.
picture mode | user |
---|---|
Brightness 200 nits | 73 |
Brightness 120 nits | 36 |
Brightness 100 nits | 27 |
Brightness 80 nits | 19 |
Brightness 50 nits | 6 (minimum 37) |
contrast | 49 |
color temperature user | Gain – Red 52, Green 48, Blue 50 |
Bias – Red 50, Green 50, Blue 50 |
Games and hands-on
To experience the full SpatialLabs View, you will need to connect to your PC or laptop using both the included HDMI and USB cables. The monitor has an internal battery that lasts approximately 5 hours. Alternatively, you can connect a small power brick.
With the appropriate software installed, you can easily display 3D images in your view. Requires the SpatialLabs Experience app and TrueGame, the starting point for 3D-enabled titles. Acer recommends the 8th Gen Intel Core i7 and GeForce RTX 3060 for desktop PCs and his RTX 3070 for notebooks.received Predator Triton 500 SE Laptop with my View sample. Intel Core i9 and GeForce RTX 3080 Ti.
View supports two types of 3D games: 3D+ and 3D Ultra. 3D+ looks like an effect seen from a 3D Blu-ray, but 3D Ultra takes it to another level. Simulate two cameras to create a geometric 3D object that appears to occupy the space in front of the viewer, regardless of monitor boundaries. As of this writing, there are 9 games that support 3D Ultra. War God Kena: Spirit Bridge and Psychonauts 2. 3D+ currently supports 65 games.
It’s the moment when the effect is really ‘wow’, and the resolution is cut in half, so you know 3D activates. At first I was put off by the visibility of the pixel structure, but after a few minutes that distraction faded into the background and I was exploring the blacksmith. God of War. A small menu in the top left of the screen made it easy to adjust the depth of the 3D effect. I was able to move my head slightly without affecting the 3D image, but rotating it more than 15 degrees introduced crosstalk artifacts. However, on such a small screen this is not a problem.
Explore dark caves Kena: Spirit Bridge was a satisfying experience. The details in the shadows are a bit blurry and I was unable to change the color mode to Adobe RGB to improve the gamma. I followed Acer’s recommendation and turned the brightness all the way up, which helped a bit. But this is a minor point. The images are great. And I noticed the FHD resolution only when I saw a small text message. The graphics are gorgeous, with solid detail and saturated colors.
The View is not a gaming monitor like competitive or fast-paced shooters. Doom Eternal. Images are good with deep contrast and vivid colors, but motion blur is a factor. Movement beyond walking pace significantly reduces resolution and detail. Input lag is something I can perceive, but that may be because I’m used to playing on super-fast monitors.
The SpatialLabs Experience app has an emulation feature that converts 2D video to 3D using on-screen buttons. I’ve tried this with a few YouTube selections and got mixed results. Thanks to compression, YouTube quality spans the entire map, even if the resolutions match. The quality of the 3D effect depends on the quality of the original video. High resolution examples with low compression and no fast motion are effectively converted to 3D. It doesn’t have as much depth as the 3D Ultra, but it’s as good as anything you’ve seen on a 3D TV or projector. Equipped with a Model Viewer function that can read CAD and DCC files and convert them into 3D. This is a great way to visually represent the design of your object.
The View is a very nice 4K monitor with great contrast and color for everyday use. Images are very sharp thanks to the 282ppi pixel density. In standard color space mode some black details are hard to see thanks to the dark gamma. But the remedy is as simple as switching to Adobe RGB: the colors stay the same, but the gamma is significantly brighter and all parts of the image are rendered properly.
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