ViewSonic VX2739WM Monitor Review

Item: ViewSonic VX2739WM Monitor Review
Author: Antony Leather

Written by Antony Leather

May 13, 2010 | 10:21

Tags: #1080p #27in #27-inch #monitor #tft #tn

Companies: #dell #nec #viewsonic

Performance

Following on from the no-frills exterior, the OSD is much the same story. It's easy to navigate thanks to a simple set of buttons, but what was a little worrying was that all the colour bars in the colour controls were set to maximum already. If the display dims a little over time, you won't be able to spruce it up. This point is more than a little concerning, as when we first fired up the VX2739WM and looked at some games we would definitely have liked to be able to boost the colours as they looked washed out and very bland. Brightness too was already set to maximum, although the VX2739WM did prove bright enough in all of our tests.

With adjustments limited to colour, brightness and contrast and most of these already set to maximum, we were left with little option but to continue testing. We've already mentioned that games looked washed out, specifically there was an apparently lack of contrast and vibrancy with Crysis looking particularly life-less compared to even basic IPS monitors such as the NEC MultiSync EA231WMi. Video playback was much the same, although we were impressed by the level of detail in dark areas considering this is a TN panel - it was lacking in the Lagom image test suite but movies did look great on the large screen.

Something else we were anticipating, but didn't really experience, was loss of sharpness given the resolution on such a large panel. The Dell U2711 is undoubtedly sharper and the extra space on the desktop was the most noticeable advantage here thanks to its higher resolution, but the VX2739WM didn't fare to badly, even when looking at photos full-size.

It's a shame then that the colours are slightly lacking as this could be a much cheaper option than the Dell for large screen photo editing. For web browsing it's ideal though. Text is smooth and clear and the colour issues are less noticeable and of course there's plenty of room. However, we did notice a fair amount of backlight bleeding, particularly in the corners and at the top.

Getting back to games, the low 1ms response time is undoubtedly a boon with no hint of ghosting in the Lagom image tests. This is clearly one area TN technology still has an advantage over even the latest IPS panels which can exhibit small amounts of ghosting. Input lag is also non existent standing side by side with our control monitor - another plus for gamers in spite of the lacklustre colours.

Final thoughts

The VX2739WM is large, good looking and shrugs of accusations of ghosting and input lag much easier than current IPS panels can. If you came to this review and just read the last sentence then it might sound like great value too at a smidge over £286.

However, we have our concerns, as there are some pretty huge flys in the ointment that you should be aware of. The first issue is the lack of height adjustment. With such a large panel, it might not be such a huge issue as say a 20in monitor, as most of your vision will be taken up wherever you place it. However, if like us you like to have the centre of the screen level with your eyes, then this can pose a problem as the stand is relatively short. The stand itself is pretty flimsy too, which is disappointing but probably not a deal-breaking issue on it's own.

The real issue is poor colour reproduction. £286 is a lot to spend on a monitor which doesn't generate particularly impressive visuals. The IPS-based NEC MultiSync EA231WMi is in a different league, and while you loose a few inches of screen space, still sports the same resolution and costs a bit less than the VX2739WM.

The question here is what screen you have at the moment and what your budget is. If you're upgrading from a 20in monitor then a 23 or 24in IPS montor would not only be noticeably bigger but would offer far superior colour reproduction than a TN panel too. On the other hand if you're used to the quirks of TN technology, don't mind lacklustre colour reproduction and some backlight bleed and can live without height adjustment, despite that being a rather long list, the VX2739WM is worth considering if your after something larger than 24in. Bigger is better after all.