Watch out ASUS, ViewSonic is gunning for you.
Thanks to the aggressive prices of the latest UHD TVs, the value proposition of any given PC monitor is currently pretty parlous. Take the new ViewSonic XG2703-GS. You get a paltry 27-inches of LCD panel and a mere 2,560 by 1,440 pixels.
Over in UHD TV land, the astonishing reality is that will buy you 40-inches and the full 4K complement of 3,840 by 2,160 pixels. So that’s nigh on one third the money for roughly twice the screen by the major metrics.
Of course, UHD TVs are not directly comparable with PC monitors. What’s more, ViewSonic’s latest, looks pretty clever next to what is arguably its nemesis, the ASUS RoG Swift PG279Q. Both monitors tick an awful lot of the same boxes. We’re talking 27-inch, WQHD resolution, IPS panel technology, 165Hz refresh capability and support for Nvidia’s G-Sync adaptive frame syncing tech. And yet the new XG2703-GS comes in at a full cheaper than its ASUS competition.
ViewSonic has done a very nice job with its latest gaming panel. The colors really pop, without being over saturated and both the black and white scales are pretty much pitch perfect.
As you’d expect for an IPS panel, the viewing angles are superb. More of a surprise are the deep and inky black tones. Contrast performance is above the IPS norm. We really like the smooth, clean anti-glare coating, too. There’s hardly a whiff of that nasty grain and sparkle that blighted those IPS monitors of yore.
Support for up to 165Hz refresh just sweetens the deal, as does the lack of perceptible input lag and G-Sync doing its thing in games. Add that to those rockin’ colors, the clean panel coating, the top-notch viewing angles, the super smooth rendering and you have a near faultless package. The chassis is also a nice break from the norm, and comes complete with some slick plastics and green accents that hint at the Nvidia G-Sync tech inside. The stand is fully adjustable, to boot, including rotation into portrait mode.
If you were determined to find fault, a little banding is visible in gradients and the black levels can’t quite compete with the very best VA panels. Likewise, the 165Hz refresh setting is buried under a very silly ‘overclocking’ heading in the on-screen menu. And the ASUS Swift is superficially a bit snazzier as a piece of consumer electronics. That aside, there’s virtually nothing in it.
With all that in mind, we’re certainly struggling to come up with compelling reasons to pay the extra $ for the ASUS option.
But still, that UHD TV comparison is hard to shake.
Indeed, there are some 40-inch 4K PC monitors, albeit somewhat UHD TV derived, that come in well under the price of this panel.
Heck, there are middle budget smartphones that can match its pixel count.
The inclusion of G-Sync, requiring a proprietary module inside the monitor, as do the refresh capability and the quality IPS panel — industry-wide issues, not things specific to this monitor, of course.
But still feels like one hell of a lot for a 27-inch PC monitor with mere WQHD resolution. Hopefully the market as a whole will realize this sooner rather than later and the price of this kind of high performance 27-incher will come off a little. It needs to.
Jeremy Laird
Verdict
Awesome IPS panel; outstanding all-round image quality, with a superb feature set — but you’ll pay for it.