Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsWelcome to the panel lottery
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2013
Edit: Read update at the bottom.
So first off let me begin with the actual monitor quality:
Pros:
- Excellent stand (nice and durable though some may find it a tad unwieldy)
- Turns left and right, you can also tilt and rotate the panel.
- Simple, but effective bezel design
- Produces very little heat
- Plenty of inputs
- Comes with all of the cables you will ever need (including DisplayPort, which is great)
- Excellent factory calibration. This has been much talked about in all review sites and forums, but this monitor has excellent calibration. Probably don't even need to mess with it.
- Semi-glossy finish which does not degrade image quality while still not being very reflective.
- Some of the best response times possible for an IPS/PLS panel of this resolution and size. Excellent for gaming, as far as these larger, high resolution, high quality panels go... in fact one of the best. Set it Advanced, though, not the highest setting.
- Does not use PWM dimming.
- The PS3 looks great on it, and the the DAC sound appears to be pretty decent.
Cons:
- The touch-sensitive buttons are a miss. Fancy, but it's very difficult to tell what you're hitting without any feedback. I think the Dell U2711 had the best out of any of these that I have tried in terms of menus.
- Stand is a bit high by default. Most monitors are lower. It's not a big deal but this one will be higher than your other monitors at rest. It can be tilted down, though.
- No built in speakers... but this isn't a big deal honestly; most built in speakers on monitors tend to be crap. Being able to simply plug in some cheap speakers is far better.
- There is a red tint to the screen. This generally isn't noticeable unless you have another monitor beside it which does not have a red tint, but if you do, you'll notice it.
How does it compare to competitors?
- The Dell U2713HM is the most common competitor. Do not get one. It will have some kind of panel defect, and it has worse specs than this for gaming (not a huge difference). The U2713HM has crosshatching (which is an issue unique to it, and was actually not entirely solved in the newest panel revisions), burn in (lower revisions), backlight bleed (possibly in all revisions, more common in older ones), and, in the newest revisions, terrible motion performance. All of these are well documented on forums; if you don't notice them... well then I guess it's not a big deal.
- The Dell U2711 is not a competitor; worse for gaming, saturated colors due to 10 bit, and a ridiculous anti-glare coating that will leave your eyes hurting.
- For everything else (minus Korean)... most other monitors (ie ASUS PB278Q, etc) will have a few trade-offs but nothing spectacular. Mostly though the Viewsonic has noticeably great factory calibration and less delay for gaming. The others are mostly not going to be terrible; I just wanted to single out the U2713HM, as it is a horrible choice (cheaper though it may be).
- Korean monitors are a bit of a lottery, but not a bad alternative to this monitor all things considered. They will likely have much more backlight bleed, but a pixel perfect one might be almost comparable... though the bezel will usually suck, and you'll have less display inputs and everything else. They're half the price though.
So why am I docking two stars?
HORRIBLE QUALITY CONTROL! This is not a new story amongst 27 inch, 1440p monitors at all. The Viewsonic is simply no different. It might in fact be slightly worse.
I am currently on my third panel (though if you include all of the other 27 inch monitors I have gone through, which include the likes of the Samsung 970D (stuck Pixel center), ASUS PB278Q (dead pixel), Dell U2713HM (crosshatching), and Dell U2711 (terrible anti-glare), this is about my 8th or so monitor total):
- The first one had slight backlight bleed (usually in the top and then this annoying grey smudge in the middle that was likely between the cover and the panel. Oh, and a stuck pixel right beside that. It could only be seen on a completely black background, but I noticed it.
- The second had terrible backlight bleed in the lower left corner and a stuck pixel in the lower left region.
- The final one that I am on, and likely keeping, has a bit of backlight bleed in 2-3 regions, and a... something that's similar to a stuck grey pixel that I finally found after searching for the past 2-3 days for defects (only visible on certain colors and very hard to find even then). Nothing major at all, and the backlight bleed does not extend far in...
- But still... you're paying $700+ for monitors that are like this. The compromises you will make with these Viewsonics will likely not be as large as the ones you have to make with cheap Korean monitors on average, but let me just say that going through 3 of them before getting an "acceptable" (note not perfect, just acceptable) one is really ridiculous, considering the costs
- I will also give you a word of caution when dealing with Amazon. Your replacements will come quick, and your returns will be returned painlessly (if you use pickup, which I highly suggest doing so)... but they can become more difficult. For instance, I had to fight to get my second replacement accepted, with the individual on the other side pushing me towards a Return because (what I finally found out the reason was) their system does not allow you to replace something again "for the same reason". When I finally explained to them that it was not for the same reason, they were willing to. Like me, you will likely get a total of 3 "tries" to get an acceptable monitor.
Notes:
- I think at this point almost all of the ones I have read about have at least a small amount of backlight bleed, commonly along the top. That should be considered "acceptable." Maybe a small bit more in x or y corner is also alright.
- However, if it's easily visible in well-lit scenarios, and it intrudes more than an inch inwards, at your common brightness level (this comes at 100% so turn it down to where you'll be using it before testing in a dark room), I would recommend returning it... unless again you just don't care; make sure it's backlight bleed and not IPS/PLS glow, though; read more about that elsewhere.
- I would not recommend tolerating any easily visible defects. Not at this price point.
Final thoughts: an excellent monitor. A better choice than all of its competitors, for all around use which includes gaming. However, be wary that you're entering a lottery drawing with these panels. If you're a perfectionist (I'm just picky, I'm not at that level), you will likely not be satisfied with your first monitor... or perhaps any of them.
Edit: Actually after testing this third one out for a week, I consistently have a problem where when I first start up the monitor each day the backlight flickers and then slowly seems to stabilize. However, I notice that I get more eyestrain viewing this than any of the other 1440p monitors I've had in the past. I think it may still be flickering, just not in an obvious way. I'm noticing afterimages when I look around on the screen. It appears I have another defective one. I'm deciding whether to dock another star or not but either way this time I'm just outright returning the monitor. 3 defective ones in a row, too much hassle. I'll probably just get a cheap Korean or something.
