When putting together your new PC, a monitor is the foundation for your interface. A bad monitor can ruin a nice build and it’s an important part not to skimp on.
Thankfully decent monitors are getting cheaper and cheaper, and the specs that were normally surrounded by really high pricetag’s is no longer the case.
Today we’re taking a look at the VX27776 Monitor from ViewSonic. It’s price tag comes in at £199, which is not the cheapest 27-inch 1080p monitor avaialble, but the specs make it a fairly solid offer. Let’s take a closer look at the specs and the monitor itself.
- 27” Superclear IPS screen
- Low-input Lag Technology
- HDMI and DisplayPort
- Built-in Flicker Free and Blue Light Technology
- ECO Mode for lower power consumption and improved lamp life
The ViewSonic VX27776
The Bezel of the monitor is just 2mm thick, which makes it a very thin monitor, and offers a very elegant and premium looking design.
On the left we have spec sticker which details some of the important features of the monitor, and to the right we have the power LED and control buttons.
The back stand connects up pretty easily and gives a small amount of vertical adjustment, but if you wish to turn the monitor left or right, you will be turning the stand as well.
As mentioned, the monitor has a small amount of tilt, but enough to make it comfortable for most scenarios. The back has all of the connections, which include Display Port, HDMI, VGA, Audio in/out, and power adaptor (external power brick)
Sadly the only downside with the design is the lack of VESA mounts, which means there is no mounting this monitor on a wall or different stand. Your stuck with the included stand, unless you want to get creative.
Menu
The menu system is fairly straight forward and easy enough to navigate. Button are located under the monitor, but thankfully easy to reach and the on-display controls make it easy make your way through the menu system.
The monior gives a decent level of control and fine tuning. It also has a lot of presets should you wish to take make it easier to set things up for your specific use.
Testing
Now it’s time to check out the quality of the monitor and find out how it looks out of the box. Below is a breakdown of what we will be using to test the monitor.
Hardware
Software
Results
Like with every monitor, there are many different settings you can choose from, and even change yourself. This means that the quality of your monitor is dependant on how configure the monitor.
The default color settings should at least give you a decent quality to work with, but that isn’t always the case.
We took a look at both the sRGB and default user settings and ran our tests on both to see how well the monitor performed.
sRGB
The gamut coverage comes in at 93.3-percent. We would have liked to have seen a higher figuire here, but we’re not dealing with a top level display and we knew that already.
An average delta of 5.2 is pretty high, with a max delta of 10.1. Obviously we wouldn’t expect top performance for a monitor like this, but the sRGB setting does show some pretty low numbers.
User Color (default) settings
The VX27776 shows a slight increase in colour gamut to 94-percent. Probably not high enough to be good enough for professionals, but 94-percent is not bad at all.
The grayscale now has an average delta of 3 instead of 6.1 compared to the sRGB settings. Again, this is default user color settings with nothing changed or calibrated.
Lastly the ColorChecker test shows an average delta of 3 with a max delta of 6 when using the default user settings. This is a pretty significant increase in performance compared to the average delta of 6 and max delta of 10 on the sRGB setting.
Conclusion
Like we mentioned in the intro, a good monitor is one of the most important aspects of your entire build. While we wouldn’t suggest buying the latest 4K display for your €300 build, we do always recommend getting a decent monitor for any build within reason.
The VX27776 offers a decent set of specs for a 1080p monitor with a rather high-ish price point. We have seen similar specs from other monitors at similar price points. The ViewSonic does offer an elegant design with very slim build, but the lack of VESA mounts does limit your options to using the included stand.
Pricing isn’t the cheapest you can get a decent 1080p monitor for, and even then we have even seen some decent 1440p monitors for not to much more, but most come with very dull looking frames and not much in terms of overall quality.
While the VX27776 does have some colour issues when using the sRGB preset. We’re glad to see colour performance increase on the monitor when switching to the User settings with a decent enough Delta point across the board. Some adjustment and calibrating can see the monitor improve even more, but needing to calibrate the monitor to get better performance negates the benefit of a cheaper display, but may benefit those that already have one.
Overall the VX27776 offers a decent list of specs with a fairly solid performance. Pricing is the only issue with the monitor costing £199. There is definitely a lot of competition at that price point and the ViewSonic may not be to everyone’s liking, but the design and slim build are easily points to favour the VX27776 over some of the competition.
It’s not exactly clear who the VX27776 is aimed at, because the price point doesn’t scream budget monitor, and the quality just isn’t high enough to beat the competition, as we get more and more higher resolution displays for cheaper and cheaper.
The display does offer decent enough quality and does have a fairly premium design that would easily look good on any desk. Perhaps the focus is more on aesthetics than features and specs.
We award the VX27776 a solid Silver and would recommend anyone looking for a decent 1080p monitor with a great design too check it out.
