Attractively priced, the VX900-2 from ViewSonic is a high-quality 19-inch monitor with both high quality and useful features. The high 600:1 contrast ratio and 250 cd/m2 of brightness combine with a 1,280 x 1,024 resolution and an advance TFT active matrix to give you bright, crisp, detailed images. Built-in speakers connect easily to your computer for an enhanced audio environment, while the screen treatment helps to reduce annoying glare and the accompanying eye-strain.
With a slim footprint of just 7.1 by 17.4 inches, the VX900-2 also has horizontal and vertical viewing angles of up to 170 degrees and is wall-mountable, helping to free your valuable desktop space and make placement easy. The onscreen controls let you easily adjust a variety of image settings, including brightness, contrast, H/V position, color temperature, and more.
PC and Mac compatible, the VX900-2 also comes backed with a generous three-year parts and labor warranty.
What's in the Box
Monitor, base, 15-pin mini D-sub cable, DVI-D cable, power cable, manual, warranty information
Don't let the sleek metallic-on-black design fool you - this 19" multimedia LCD melds form with function. Featuring SuperClearMVA technology, the ViewSonic VX900 has superior video response, super-wide 170-degree viewing angles, 250 nits of brightness and a remarkable 600:1 contrast ratio - for blacker blacks and vivid, lifelike colors. OptiSync technology provides advanced digital and analog input options. AutoTune, OSD and power-lock functions assure an outstanding front-of-screen experience. And at 19 inches, you'll have plenty of room to view everything from large spreadsheets to complex games.
1 This is a great all purpose LCD monitor
THis is a great and very sharp monitor. For my first 19" LCD i found it to be quite good. Text is sharp and pictures/images are vivid. I have not found any dead or bright pixels on this monitor even after looking for them. I have tried using this monitor for photoshop and I have found that the color definition is not quite good enough but this does not take away from the 5-star rating because i do not think that LCD are designed for image editing yet.
2 Green and Red Pixels invade
I have returned the 19" monitor twice. The first time there were green pixels invading the dark areas and the second time there were red pixels invading the dark areas. The green and red pixels made it hard to read some text and view video or photos. I have just received the monitor back from repair and there is still a red pixel problem. Beware of the LCD pixel problems. I don't know if it is just ViewSonic or if other LCD models have the same problem.
3 Extremely high quality screen
I didn't realize how blurry my CRT monitor was until I got this monitor. The picture quality is outstanding. You do have to get used to some "ghosting" when scrolling high contrast visuals (ie. black font on white background). You can eliminate a pretty good portion of the ghosting for text by using clear text under display properties->appearance->effects in Windows XP. I would not recommend this lcd panel for anyone who is into gaming with high FPS requirements. The 25ms response time is faster than most models out there, however, it's still not fast enough for gaming. I currently use this monitor as a second monitor to extend my desktop. If you don't play games on your PC, then this flat panel is for you. It saves a lot of desk space. The native resolution for this monitor is 1280x1024. Any other resolutions will use interpolation and will appear blurry (this is common to all LCD monitors).
Some of the bad things about this monitor :
1) inability to tilt the monitor in any direction
2) Speakers that are very weak they should have just been left out of the monitor.
The outstanding display definitely outshines both negatives about this monitor. I highly recommend it for any serious application-oriented PC user. It will save you money in eye glass prescriptions in the future. ;)
4 Programmer/Gamer's perspective
I would give it 6 stars if I could...I mainly use my computer for gaming (warcraft) and for programming. Warcraft is a graphically intense game and the monitor blew away what I had before. The game rendered beautifully. As for reading and looking at documents, the text comes through very crisp. I would have gotten the vx2000. But for that one extra inch, it would have been an additional $300.00. Ouch...if you got money to burn go with the 20 but you will be happy with the 19 as well. I am.
5 Great monitor
I bought this monitor to replace my 17" Philips monitor. This 19" monitor is very bright and clear and works great. I highly recommend it and any viewsonic product.
6 Viewsonic VX900-2: A Gamers Perspective
I'd like to start off by saying how vivid and crisp this monitor is for low motion uses like desktops, web pages, spreadsheets, word processing, etc. Good whites, good blacks, bright and clean, with a nice appearance. No dead pixels, good backlighting.
Unfortunately-
It would appear I have very sensitive eyes, and in high motion situations this monitor shows ghosts. Most people I've asked say its not noticeable, but it bothers me when I play FPS's and watch movies. If you're in the same boat, maybe a CRT (I'm switching back) or a different LCD would be better for you.
7 Impressive.
I just purchased this monitor and it is AWESOME. My CRT (21") just went bad so I decided to go w/ this. The picture is beautiful, no glare - and when I play "Halo", you can see the blades of grass! ...with the combination of my ATI Radeon 9800 video card and this monitor, the result is a lot better than I expected. This is definately worth the price.
8 One of the Best on the Market for the Price
I purchased the ViewSonic VX900 for use with my Dell XPS desktop system. I previously had the NEC 1700M+, a flat panel with poor quality and aesthetics. Where the NEC was lacking, this flat panel excels; blacks are deep, colors are vivid, and the picture is extremely sharp. Although I have heard that others have bought VX900s with dead pixels, my monitor has no defects whatsoever. Prior to my purchase of this model, I was also considering the Apple 17" Studio Display because my friend had recently purchased one and recommended it. I have no regrets-- the ViewSonic tacks on an extra 2" of screen area for the same price and the exact same (if not better) image quality. I recommend it!
9 Great monitor, but with "hissing" noise
This is a great monitor. I have nothing to complain about its imaging quality, and the speed is fast. Contrast is excellent, color is brilliant. Also, it has integrated speakers. However, it is also its drawback - the speakers make a very tiny "hissing" noise, which sometime bothers me.
10 Would be 5 Stars, if....
This LCD is got to be the best in its class. I use the LCD mostly for game. I use to have a 15" Cornea System LCD but it is nothing compare to thisone. its response time and refresh rate was too low to refresh fast enough for fast moving game, thus lag the game even if you have a good video card. I can said from my experience that this is the best LCD monitor in the market right now that would be fast enough for games. The picture and refresh rate is excellent. I always set the refresh rate at 100 hertz on my CRT monitor. And when found out that all LCD on the market have the maximum refresh rate of only 75 hertz, i thought that the low refresh rate will definitely can't handle intense game graphic, but boy was i wrong. This monitor is faster than some popular brand name CRT monitor. It actually a little faster than my CRT monitor (not to mention my 19" CRT monitor is consider top 3 in its class), the contrast and clarity also is sharper.
But one thing seem to be wrong with this computer that hold me back from giving it 5 stars. As the ealier reviewer mention that he see a bright white dots everywhere on the screen, I too have the same problem.
As I set the monitor to go idle after 5 minutes or so. After the conputer goes into idle for about a minute. I touch the mouse so it wake the monitor up, the monitor blink several times and boom all these bright, twinkling white dots glow here and there on the screen. It looks like gliter. But if you let it go into idle again and quickly wakes the monitor up the problem should be solve. Although this problem does not always occur everytime the computer went into idle.
So my final thought is go buy it. worth every penny. ...
11 Stars in the Sky and One Black Hole!
I received my VX900-2 this week and at first it seems great until I paid attention to details. I can only review on my limitted experience from this week. The VX900-2 renders sharp text. I've also been working with some scanned images on a graphics editor and can't complain about the colors. The LCD is bright and I tend to like it more than those I've seen in store display (such as Sony's); perhaps I'm getting used to it and being a bit biased. The viewing angle for the most part is good; of course, it's brightest looking perpendicular to the screen and gets worse as you go away from that view, which is bad for doing images. This LCD is my first so I don't have much experience to make a good comparison.
I used the LCD to watch the movie "The Matrix". I do noticed some bluriness on the fast scenes but it's really no big deal to me. If you seen this movie, you know that a lot of the scenes have dark backgrounds, which gave a very good opportunity to test for "bright" pixels (always on) because the movie more than two hours long. I was amazed that I found bright pixels like stars in the sky. A few of them are very bright and are annoying viewing them against a dark background. On detail observation with a total black screen and about 1.5 ft away, I noticed so many very small bright pixels. Because these pixels are bright, I did not notice them using Win apps such as IE since the background is white; it would be difficult to notice the bright pixels with a background other than black or dark color. With a bright background such as when using IE, I have observed one "dark" pixel (always off).
Unfortunately it's my first experience with a LCD and I wonder if my situation about SMALL bright pixels is unique or it's typical. It would be interesting to know if those with LCDs observe (or not) the same bright pixels on other monitors (and brands) as I did on this one. I've read all good reviews about the VX900 so is what I've observed typical of LCDs?
Viewsonic's policy for 19" LCD is 7 bad pixels and I think I have a very good case for an exchange, either with Amazon or Viewsonic. If it's not for the space saving, I would have stuck with a CRT. Still debating on whether to return it for a CRT or exchange it for another one. Viewsonic's warranty is three years so I may wait another week or two to decide.
Shop with care!
PS:
Updates: I returned this sucker within a month. The industry's argument that it would be too costly to manufacture FPDs that are free of defects or perhaps much lower bad pixels is unacceptable. Are dead pixel defects occur much less than on pixel defects? My thinking is that the industry puts some effort into dead pixels and don't care too much about on pixels. Dead pixels are much more obvious because one, for the most part, looks at a screen with white background. On pixels simply blend in with the background. Fact is, regardless of manufacturer, your chance of buying a FPD with pixel defects is pretty high. If you don't care about pixel defects, then by all means, get a FPD; they look great and are coming down in price. I went back to the tube by NEC; bulky but much cheaper and pixel defect free!
