Viewsonic VP171s

[Homer]

Hello there fellow Neowinians.

After being in the market for a nice new TFT screen for a few months now, after lots of searching I set eyes upon the ViewSonic VP171s. A fellow Neowinian (DJ Prem) owns the black version of this, and upon seeing his review of it also here at Neowin it was all that was needed to sway myself into getting it. Now enough of the blabbering on, let's get the the bit you all want, THE REVIEW! :D

(I will use a couple of things from DJ Prem's review, I will give credit where credit is due)

1. THE TECHNICAL SPECS

As you can see, the monitor comes equipped well, with a low response time and a good contrast ratio & brightness to boot. This is perfect for gamers, graphic designers and office users alike.

Pic Courtesy of DJ Prems Review

2. THE MONITOR ITSELF

After a delivery mess up, it came one day late, but my luck for changed for once and it came un damaged and in perfect working order. When it was delivered it came in a sleek little box, within which was a well packed monitor as you will see.

Pic 1: The box

Pic 2: Packaging

Pic 3: Packing exposed

Pic 4: All of the kit

Now as you can see the monitor came pretty well packed and protected. With it comes:

1 x ViewSonic VP171s Monitor (Well Aren't we Captain Obvious :p )

1 x Analogue Video Cable

1 x DVI Video Cable

1 x UK Plug

1 x US Plug

1 x Europe Plug

And then the Instructions and pivot software CD.

Pic 5: Around the back

As you can see there are two, yes two Analogue inputs and one DVI input. This enables you to plug two machines into this monitor at once, presumably both via Analogue but I don't know as none of my comps have DVI. You will also see some cable holders which are useful to hide the jumble of wires that can and will occur pretty fast. The base is weighted quite nicely, to stop it from toppling over and also so it can't be knocked around easily.

3. POWERED UP

As you will see in the following line up of pictures, the image quality is very good, although my camera cannot do it justice, take my word for it that you will see a very large improvement from CRT the second you turn it on.

Pic 6: Clouds

Pic 7: Closeup Clouds

(please note the screen does not bend like that, my camera just tends to make it out like that)

Pic 8: In game

Pic 9: Neowin!

Pic 10: Buttons

Pic 11: Portrait - Courtesy of DJ Prem

4. WINDOWS, SOFTWARE AND THINGIES

As you will also see in the following pictures the monitor is designed to run at a 1280*1024 resolution at a 60Hz refresh rate (even though mine is at 75Hz :p ). The monitor includes some pivot software to change the angle of your monitor when you put it into portrait mode. (pic above, courtesy of DJ Prems review)

Resolution and Colour

Refresh rate

Pivot Pro

The pivot software seems to mess around with me and my comp, thus I had to show you the pic of DJ Prems in portrait mode.

5. CONCLUSION, PRICING, CONS AND PROS

Conclusion

My conclusion and views on this monitor are good ones. The image quality is fantastic, the colours are sharp and there is no glare. It was fast and easy to set up, consumes little electricity and puts out a lot less heat than my old CRT.

A little expensive it was, but it was worth it as this screen is one of the best ever imo and it will also last me for awhile yet.

Cons and Pros

Pros:

• Very good image quality
  
• Low power usage
  
• Low heat output
  
• Space saving
  
• Low response time
  
• No dead, stuck or faulty pixels
  
• You get the little birdies :p
  

Cons:

• A little expensive
  

As you can see the Pros outweigh the cons, and I love this monitor to bits.

Pricing and Where to buy

Well I bought mine from Overclockers UK, they dispatched the order nice and fast, but then it went half way across the country because some fool at Amtrak sent it out to the wrong depot. Oh well. Below is a list of places to buy (courtesy once again of DJ Prems review)

Dabs UK - ?393.62

OC UK - ?388.22

Savastore - ?381.88

All in all, a very good monitor. In this case you get what you pay for, quality.

If anybody has any questions about the screen please pm and I'll try to help you.

-Homer

[kennyout]

Fantastic homer....

its sexy....does it have a date? :p

[Homer]

Used the NVRotate thing in the end (in the nVidia drivers) to get it to go portrait:

[Monkey Man]

lol very nice homer

[spIdeZ]

Holy crap $700 USD :wacko: Here you can buy a 20" LCD from Dell at that price when it is on sell :woot:

And the viewsonic only costs $525 at newegg!

[kombolcha]

dude you rock, didn't know you used Avant

[cpugeniusmv]

Holy crap $700 USD :wacko: Here you can buy a 20" LCD from Dell at that price when it is on sell :woot:

And the viewsonic only costs $525 at newegg!

i got it for $545 (the black one) :huh:

i love this monitor too!

[Premgenius]

Nice.