Why You Can Trust CNET ViewSonic VX1962wm review: ViewSonic VX1962wm
ViewSonic's latest is a great idea, hampered by not so great execution.
Design
ViewSonic's latest 19-inch monitor stands out in a few ways. The thin neck being the most obvious, which is then enhanced by the curved lower bezel area, with its symmetrical eye-shaped base completing this piece of unique industrial design.
ViewSonic VX1962wm
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
It's mostly piano-black plastic and, although it's not the sturdiest design we've used, it's certainly adequate for the size. There's a pair of downwards firing speakers which, in spite of this fact, manage to produce better quality sound than a lot of monitors we've seen. While it's not high grade, and gamers and movie watchers will still want a dedicated set, it's certainly passable for day-to-day tasks.
Apart from the power button, featured in the bottom middle of the bezel, the four other control buttons are featured under the screen — with the labels in an intensely difficult to read black-on-black. The "1" and "2" buttons on ViewSonic monitors have always been a little unintuitive to use, but when the buttons are hidden away from sight with hard to see labels, the complexity increases an order of magnitude.
A simple cable management retention clip is included on the back, with a 3.5mm audio jack, DVI and VGA port are featured above this.
Features
Without doubt the standout feature of the VX1962wm is its higher than normal resolution — most 19-inch monitors are usually relegated to 1,440x900, but ViewSonic's latest weighs in at 1,680x1,050, a resolution usually reserved for 22-inch monitors. The result is greater screen real estate for your dollar, although the execution isn't the best, with images seeming a little soft and blurred compared to what they should be, particularly text. At first we thought it may have been a problem with our review unit, however a second unit confirmed that it is a model specific quirk.
The issue is hard to describe, with it being part blur, part softening, part shimmering, part ghosting, but the end result is that you end up squinting a lot more, something we've never experienced on, say, a 17-inch, 1,920x1,200 laptop screen, which would arguably have a tighter dot pitch. We suspect the culprit may be the coating used on the screen itself, but sitting it next to various screens it was apparent the VX1962wm took much more effort to look at.
As far as other features are concerned, the pure marketing vehicle that is Dynamic Contrast Ratio can thankfully be turned off through the menu. Apart from brightness and contrast settings, through DVI it supports 4:3, fill and full screen aspect ratios, and the Response Time Accelerator (RTA) can be switched between "Standard", "Advanced" and "Ultra Fast". Trying "Ultra Fast" in Half-Life 2 Episode 2, we noticed no problems but, if you find issues, it's nice to know that the RTA can be turned down.
Performance
Gaming performance was certainly acceptable, with movie watching equally good. Through DisplayMate we could see that gradients were generally good (with the exception of green which was clearly more stepped than red, blue and grey), and the monitor was capable of displaying all 255 greyscale shades.
There was obvious light bleed from the top of the monitor, a hard thing to escape on the cheaper end monitors, let alone the higher end.
Ultimately though, it's hard to escape the fact that this screen isn't as sharp and crisp as it needs to be — while we appreciate the higher resolution made available in a smaller screen, you're better off opting for a 22-inch screen to give your eyes a break.