We've seen ridiculously expensive attempts at large format gaming displays before, televisions disguised as if they were Decepticons trying to take over the home. Hybrid displays like this one attempt to offer the best of both worlds. They offer the performance and functionality of a gaming monitor in the size of a living room TV. To say these monitors are expensive would be an understatement. Last year we saw HP's massive Omen X living room TV (retail price $5,000) and foresaw the future of PC gaming in the living room. Now a similar display is on the market at a fraction of the price and size, and the Predator CG7 is Acer's shot at dominating the living room. since Acer makes some of the best gaming monitors, we are curious what they will bring to hybrid displays I'm curious to see what they bring to hybrid displays.

The CG7 has a 43" 4K VA panel with G-Sync support, a refresh rate of 120Hz (144Hz with two DisplayPort connections), and a 1ms response time. It also supports VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certified high dynamic range. This may seem like overkill for a gaming monitor, but the CG7 is designed to comfortably enjoy games and 4K HDR content anywhere. The result is a monitor/TV with excellent contrast and vivid colors.

Speaking of overkill, if you want to take full advantage of this monitor, you will need a powerful PC capable of running games at high frame rates in 4K. My rig has an Intel Core i7-9700K, 16GB of RAM, and an RTX 2070 Super. But mostly, 1440p is where I live, although 4K capable consoles like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and 4K streaming devices like Roku benefit most from everything CG7 has to offer, even at 1440p and 120-144Hz panels, hits my sweet spot when it comes to performance.

At 43 inches, the CG7 is too large to sit on my desk as an everyday gaming monitor. I strongly discourage sitting near a monitor this large, but for the sake of this review, I decided to replace my 27" 4K monitor with this super-sized monitor for a few weeks and see how it fares.

Mounting it on the wall using a VESA mount seems like a practical (and cool looking) route if you need to find a place to put this. At work, I love huge displays (the huge 49" curved monitor on my office desk speaks for itself).

For games, especially shooters, it was overwhelming. Trying to play "Apex Legends" with a keyboard and mouse was stressful, and I had to keep moving my head to scan every inch of the screen for potential threats. For the sake of my sanity (and my eyes), I plugged in the controller and sat back a few feet. And despite a few technical glitches, I was thankful that this monitor was compatible with both PC and console gaming. While it certainly needed some adjustment, sitting back and playing "Gears Tactics" was one of the highlights of my time with the CG7.

It's overkill.

One of the technical hiccups mentioned above stems from the use of HDR for the PC. We found that some games and apps had no problem displaying HDR content; HDR can be set to automatic, so the Acer Predator does its magic when compatible content is displayed on the screen. Resident Evil 3 Remake and Gears of War Tactics are good examples of HDR in action.

We managed to get them to work, but had to fiddle with the settings for the games and the monitor itself. Also, leaving HDR on by default will disable features like proximity, light sensor, blue light filter, etc. The console is much easier since the CG7 could display 4K games and content with no problem. if you want to watch something HDR on Netflix, you can do so on the Xbox If you want to watch something in HDR on Netflix, you can watch it on the Xbox, not on your PC.

The reality is that if you want a great HDR experience on a PC, you have to keep looking, although this is more likely to be an issue due to HDR confusion on the PC than an issue with the monitor itself.

The two 10W speakers are nice and loud, if a bit muddy sounding. Sound options are limited, as there are no optical ports and no audio settings other than mute and volume control; the CG7 has everything you need for a killer gaming monitor, but lacks what you need for a killer TV.

Another puzzling quirk of the CG7 is the way it handles RGB lighting. Out of the box, the monitor is not equipped with RGB lighting and requires you to install it yourself. The box contains a pair of RGB light strips with the appropriate connectors attached, but there is no glue of any kind included for the lights.

So instead of leaving the house in the middle of a pandemic and risking my life for double-sided tape, I let the lights dangle to give me a nice red underglow under my desk. I'm not a big fan of RGB, but if it costs $1,500, either build the light in or forget about it altogether. And if you're going to let the end user install it themselves, at least provide everything they need to install it properly.

The CG7 falls into the odd category of being too big for a gaming monitor and too small for a living room TV. It is certainly a bedroom set. But if you're going to throw $1,500 at this bad boy, I'll leave it to you to decide how to fit a monitor of this size comfortably into your life. I spent a few weeks having fun with an obscenely large gaming monitor on my desk, but the novelty wore off.

If you have a powerful enough PC and are looking for a large-screen gaming monitor, the CG7 may be worth your time and money. However, if you are looking to replace your living room TV, the CG7 lacks the features and scale to truly dominate your living room. You'll find affordable 4K HDR TVs with gaming features that are much less expensive and have just as great an image. No weird homemade RGB lighting either.