One of the nicer low priced LCDs on the market
Written: Jul 07 '04
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Bright, vibrant picture, simple controls, easy setup.
Cons: No DVI input, perhaps a little too bright.
The Bottom Line: Strongly recommend this model if you are in the $400 price range and need the 1280 x 1024 resolution.
|
|
|
| ianc4262's Full Review: ViewSonic VA720 17 inch LCD Monitor |
I've been using 17 inch LCDs at work for several years. The first ones we got were Samsungs that cost ~$1700 a piece and are still very nice units.
At home however I still clung to my Micron 17 inch CRT until lately I noted a persisent flicker on the right bottom corner. Tried everything I could but it won't go away. Still it gave me 10 years good service.
I've been watching the ad's for LCDs and noting the rapid price decline. Viewsonic has always been a brand I've favored as I've never gotten a bad CRT from them (had many on systems at work over the years).
When I saw the A720 on sale for $329 (after rebates) I jumped at the chance.
The unit only has analog in so no DVI. The stand can fold flat so it can be wall mounted if desired. No built in speakers.
What really appealed to me is that the resolution is 1280 x 1024. Most of the other 17 inch LCD I see are 1024 x 768. The higher resolution really gives you a lot of screen real estate. The contrast ratio is 400:1 but I largely don't know what that means. In my subjective approach though standing across the room at Fry's the Viewsonic appeared to have the brightest sharpest picture of the LCDs on its row.
When I got it home it took me about 10 minutes fiddling with the brightness and contrast to get it looking the way I wanted. Out of the box the picture was just too bright for me.
Color is very vibrant and well balanced. The lighting of the panel seems somewhat stronger along the bottom and less even than some more costly LCDs but still very good.
Running under windows XP you'll probably find you have to set the display font size to "Larger" as the standard font is hard on the eyes at 1280 x 1024. I also recommend activating the ClearType option. Under control panel, Display, Appearance, Effects, select "use the following method to smooth font edges" and from the drop down list select ClearType. I found this greatly improved the font display.
The refresh ratet on the monitor is quite good and I haven't noted any problems in the few flight sim games I play. Some LCDs can have issues with a fast changing image but this one seems fine for what I want to do.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 399
Operating System: Windows
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
ianc4262
|
|
Member: Ian Clements
Location: Eugene, Oregon
Reviews written: 46
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.