By Unknown 0 comments

This IPS screen from ViewSonic shows what's possible when a technology is pushed hard enough. With a 24-inch screen diagonal and 1,920 x 1,080p box as cheap TN panels, but look closer and you'll spot the differences.

The viewing angles are quoted at 178 degrees for both horizontal and vertical. That may not sound like a dramatic increase over the 170 and 160 degrees typically claimed for TN screens, but it makes a huge difference. The 1,000:1 static contrast ratio also hints at a quality panel.

Slightly less impressive is the 6ms claimed for grey-to-grey pixel response. It's the one metric by which IPS panels can't compete with TN technology. The VP2365-LED's 250c/m2 brightness isn't exactly stellar either, especially considering that it packs an LED backlight rather than old school CCFL tech.

The screen's stand and chassis are bland to the point of anonymity, but it's sturdy and stable. They also offer full adjustability, including rotate, swivel, tilt and VESA wall-mount compatibility.

No frills

What you don't get is much peripheral technology. Unlike many cheaper screens, teh ViewSonic VP2365-LED's on-screen menu isn't stuffed with fancy image-processing options, but offers full color, gamma and temperature configurability. There's a dynamic contrast function too, but switchable pixel response modes and fancy adaptive color processing are absent.

Frankly, that's no great loss. Nor is the superficially limited connectivity (DVI and VGA is your lot) much of a downside. Instead, ViewSonic has cooked up a no-nonsense package that majors on the things that matter - panel, backlight and chassis quality. If ViewSonic can excel there, it will have a winner on its hands.

The VP2365-LED puts in a strong showing in the lagom suite of test images. Both black and white scales offer oodles of detail. The color scales aren't shabby either, and the viewing angles do the usual IPS thing, which means the're wide enough to be a non-issue. That often annoying effect of IPS screens, IPS glow, isn't evident either.

It's not entirely flawless though - the 250cd/m2 backlight rating translates into less than retica searing brightness. This isn't an issue for a slightly less flexible monitor.

The only other hitches involve the pixel response and refresh rate. Both, frankly, are relative. In absolute terms, the VP2365-LED is more than quick enough for games, movies, you name it. But it's not as lightning quick as an overdriven TN panel.

Overall, this is an incredibly impressive panel. It's not quite the holy grail of PC paneldom - a screen that marries the best attributes off all available monitors, ditches the bad bits and does it all at price you can afford. That the ViewSonic VP2365-LED doesn't quite pull that off is no surprise. But it comes awfully, awfully close - much closer than any other screen that's in the same price bracket.

If you enjoyed this post and wish to be informed whenever a new post is published, then make sure you Subscribe to our regular Email Updates!

Related posts