Acer recently released a new 31.5-inch 6K display, the ProDesigner PE320QXT. It is a touchscreen capable of working with a Mac using touch drivers, and aimed at professional creators. It’s fun to use, but there are some compromises, and it’s not the screen to get unless you really want touch integration.
This is a large and heavy screen. It’s thicker than my Apple Studio Display, and thicker than any other display I’ve tested, probably because of the touch layer. It has a tapered design, so the sides aren’t as thick as the middle, but it’s not a modern-looking monitor. It doesn’t look like something designed in 2026, especially with the button-based controls and thick bezels. If someone told me this was an exhibition from 2006, I would believe them. With its stand, the ProDesigner weighs about 22 pounds and takes up a lot of space on my desk.
The screen uses an IPS panel and has a resolution of 6016 x 3384, and it can connect to a Mac via HDMI or USB-C. I tested it on a 16-inch MacBook Pro M1 Max running macOS Golden Gate and an M4 MacBook Air. By default, macOS uses a scaled resolution of 3008 x 1692, which is a good compromise between display quality and sizing. It can be set to higher resolutions, including the full 6016 x 3384 resolution, but the window size and text decrease as the resolution increases.
Text is sharp and everything looks sharp at the default resolution, but brightness is limited to 400 nits and contrast is just passable, not exceptional. My desk is bright and during the day 400 nits is a bit too low, especially if I’m simultaneously using the much better mini-LED display of the MacBook Pro or a Studio Display with the Acer ProDesigner. Brightness goes up to 600 nits for HDR content, but I wouldn’t recommend it for HDR movies because it doesn’t have the local dimming you get with mini-LED or OLED.
Although the brightness wasn’t what I wanted, the quality and colors were excellent. With some displays, it’s unpleasant to use with a MacBook Pro due to the pixel density mismatch, but the 6K resolution makes a difference when using the display next to a MacBook Pro. Text and interface elements do not appear soft or low resolution. Acer claims the display is Calman verified for color accuracy and supports 99% of Adobe RGB and P3 color gamuts. I don’t have a colorimeter or reference monitor to test with, but the colors were saturated and appeared similar to my MacBook Pro. I noticed some slight bleeding around the edges of the screen when viewing a dark image in a dark room, but it’s not something I noticed during regular use and the screen otherwise appeared uniform.
One of the main concerns with any type of color work is screen gloss. It’s one of the most reflective displays I’ve used, and it’s problematic when viewing dark content in a room with bright light. If you have lights behind you, they will reflect and it will be harder to see what you are working on. Acer says it’s an anti-glare display, but I disagree.
This is a display with a 60Hz refresh rate, and I notice a lower refresh rate when scrolling web pages because I’m used to my Mac’s 120Hz option. It’s not a screen I would choose for gaming because of this, but games look good thanks to the resolution.
Controls
Acer doesn’t have a native macOS app to control the screen, so there’s no way to control brightness from the Mac unless you download third-party display software. I use BetterDisplay and it works well.
Without third-party display software, you’re limited to brightness controls on the monitor itself. There are five buttons at the bottom right of the screen. The on-device controls aren’t as convenient as software controls, and it requires too many button presses to adjust the brightness. I have to press one button to toggle the brightness setting, then use another button and press several times to increase or decrease the brightness.
The brightness control is right next to the power button, so I accidentally turned off the screen a few times. It is difficult to imagine a control system that would be less ergonomic than the one chosen by Acer. You can tediously control all display settings with the physical buttons or use third-party software to fix the problem.
Stay
The ProDesigner uses a foldable stand designed to switch between a vertical orientation and a low-angle tilted orientation, the latter intended to be used for drawing, sketching, and other tablet-style work. Since the stand is meant to tilt into a tablet position, it doesn’t have much height adjustment, with a reach of about six inches. If you need the screen to be larger, you will need a monitor stand.
It’s easy to switch it to tablet mode, and when oriented like that, it’s like using a giant iPad or graphics tablet. It can be adjusted to several different angles and rotates 360 degrees so you can find the best position for whatever you’re doing. The bracket mechanism seems well designed and there is little friction when making changes.
I didn’t think trying to draw or write on a screen this size would be comfortable, but being able to tilt the screen helped. I haven’t had any issues when using it at my desk, although it does take a while. plot of space. This isn’t a situation where you can grab your drawing surface and head to the couch to draw. You need the right setup for this display and its large stand.
The stand design makes the most sense if you often use the screen in touch mode, and less logical if you just want a screen. It doesn’t have the height adjustment range of a standard desktop monitor due to the mechanism for moving it to a tablet position.
Ports and loading
The display connects to a Mac via USB-C and offers 90W passthrough charging. That’s not enough power to reach the 140W maximum charging speed of a 16-inch MacBook Pro, but it was enough to keep my Mac charged throughout the day, even while gaming.
It has two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 port, a USB-C port with power delivery, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a USB-B upstream port, and a 3.5mm jack. There’s no Thunderbolt support, so you can’t daisy chain the displays.
Touchscreen and software
macOS does not support native touchscreen, so third-party software is required to operate the Acer display’s touchscreen. Acer suggests Touch-Base’s UPDD Touch Software driver, which allows 10-finger touch typing.
You can use all the Mac gestures you know on ProDesigner, but it’s clear that this is a screen that wasn’t designed for the Mac. UPDD software requires customization by applying touch gestures for certain workflows. It’s nice that customization is available, but the software can be confusing. I don’t know who will want to work to make this all happen in a way that doesn’t result in at least some frustration. In an app like Pixelmator Pro, I would have to manually change the gestures to use it effectively, and the same goes for most apps. Apps on the Mac simply weren’t designed for touch typing.
With the UPDD software, touch input works and works well. Finger presses are precise, and Acer has a stylus that accompanies the screen (this is a separate purchase). With the stylus, writing and fine line drawing are supported, and features I would expect with a stylus, like palm rejection and tilt, are available. Using the stylus is similar to using an iPad with an Apple Pencil hovering over it. I can see the mouse cursor when the pen is close to the screen, which lets me know what I’m doing. Using touch or stylus didn’t feel slow, and writing on the screen was responsive.
Touch works on macOS, and I can tap with one finger to launch apps, change settings, adjust windows, and control on-screen elements, but it’s not a feature I need or want. It would take me months, if not years, to be as fast with touch gestures as I was with a trackpad, and I would never be able to replace the keyboard.
The screen’s touch function is useful for drawing and sketching, and probably handy for workflows like video editing, but I’m not sure it has any appeal beyond that. There aren’t many Mac tasks that are easier to do or more accessible with touch controls. Also, such a big and bright screen Really shows fingerprints.
Webcam and speakers
There’s a built-in 8-megapixel webcam, and it’s better quality than the camera on my MacBook Pro (not difficult to achieve). Since I don’t do a lot of video calls, this isn’t a very important feature for me, but someone who participates in video meetings often might appreciate it more.
The camera can tilt to adjust the angle depending on where you’re positioned, but it’s a wider angle than I’m used to with a webcam and the framing is awkward. When the camera is not in use, there is physical protection for privacy reasons.
The speakers are good, but nothing special. I wouldn’t use them on standalone speakers or a Mac’s speakers. Voice calls and short video content sound good, but music seems one-dimensional.
Conclusion
Acer’s ProDesigner PE320QXT wasn’t designed for the Mac, and that’s obvious. It requires a lot of software to run, and it’s software that Acer didn’t even design. You can use it with the Mac, but the Mac was an afterthought.
The touch hardware works well, and if you want a 31.5-inch drawing surface, this screen does it. You can make this work with your favorite creative app, and it’s great fun to have such a large digital canvas. There are rumors that Apple is working on a touchscreen OLED MacBook, so macOS could become more user-friendly in the near future, which could change the usefulness of the screen.
macOS was not designed to be used with a touchscreen, and I would wager that no Mac user will be able to accelerate an established and comfortable Mac workflow with Acer’s display.
The only reason to choose this display over another 6K display is the touch function. If you want a large touch surface, the ProDesigner is a good option and is priced well for what it is. If you need a Mac display for other purposes, you’re probably better off getting something else.
How to buy
The Acer ProDesigner PE320QXT can be purchased from B&H for $1,299.99.
