ViewSonic ThinEdge VP930B 19

ViewSonic VP930b

ThinEdge VP930B 19 Review, by Laura Blackwell January 11, 2006

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• Reviewed by: cleverrox

  Strengths: Brightness, crisp readable text, easy to adjust and swivel. Vertical and horizontal viewing angles rock!

  Weaknesses: None. A flawless 19" LCD for office work. The refresh rate might not be suitable for hard core gamers - but I wanted a monitor for work.

  Overall: I did six hours research on LCD monitors after getting some Dell 1905's and Dell 1907's that I absolutely hated and swearing I would find a monitor I could read effortlessly. To be fair - the 1907's are decent gaming monitors - but they suck for everything else. The text on the Dell's was hard to read and the viewing angles on the 1907 is horrible. The Dell 1901 I still have is a good monitor, but looks shabby compared to the VP930b next to it.After tweaking the VP930b with the PerfectSuite it looks absolutely fabulous. I haven't one complaint.

• Reviewed by: dewpoint

  Strengths: Great ergonomic features, DVI/CRT ready, light weight for its size, fast response rate.

  Weaknesses: Bightness and contrast are a bit too much, Customer/tech support almost non-existant, Small blue pop-up on boot up and settings change.

  Overall: This is a great monitor that is feature rich. Its ergonomic features (tilt, swivel, vertical height adjust) and its fast response rate were the selling points for me.The monitor also can be physically switched back and forth from portrait to landscape along with perfect suite software that automatically adjusts the monitor image accordingly. The monitor itself occupies very very little desk space. The default brightness and contrast need to be toned down manually as they are both way too much for my eyes. The image is generally very sharp and there is not noticeable ghosting due to fast response rate.There is a small blue pop-up that appears upon boot-up and changing the monitor settings letting me know that my connection to my video card is DVI. It disappears after 20 seconds or so but is a general nuisance that I haven't yet figured out how to disarm. Viewsonic's customer/tech support is basically non-existent. There are people there (at Viewsonic) who answer the phone when you call but their training consists of how to read the on-line instruction manual and that's about it. They basically know less about their product and PCs in general than my goldfish. My feeling is that if one has a problem with a veiwsonic monitor, they are on his or her ownDespite these few problems, I'm glad to have switched from a Viewsonic CRT to this LCD and am satisfied with this monitor and am happy for buying it.

• Reviewed by: goosebumpFLCL

  Strengths: Color, Responce (g to g AND b to w), Contrast, Price

  Weaknesses: Disporpotional brightness causes bleeds on black.

  Overall: Simply put this is the best multi-purpose 19" you can purchase to date. The responsiveness of this monitor is nearly flawless... no matter what anybody says there is ALWAYS ghosting on LCDs. The difference is whether it's noticeable. On the VP930 I was very hard pressed to find it and in the end unable to do so.The Color is very sharp but more importantly it's highly accurate. Several LCDs that boast high response times fail in color accuracy, not the vp930. I use a Samsung 910T at work which boasts very high color accuracy at the expense of responsiveness. I found the VP930 to be very close to the accuracy I'd come to expect of the Samsung. However the Samsung couldn't touch the VP930's responsiveness. So if you do a lot of motion graphics or play games As-Well-As sit long hours in front of your screen looking at static images or text the VP930 is the best you can buy.Lastly, ALL LCDs have dead pixels... this is a weakness of the technology not necessarily the brand. Samsung, VS, NEC all have very competitive replacement rates for dead pixels. With MILLIONS of pixels per panel a few are going to fail in the manufacturing process, it's simple odds. On the 3 LCD montiors I own I've found 12 total dead pixels, 7 on a 21" Samsung, 3 on the 19" Samsung and 2 on this monitor. The best method I found to locate them is combing over the screen with gray/blue/green/yellow backgrounds to see which pixels go light and which go dark. A new note here: Samsung has introduced a ZERO dead pixel policy, but only in South Korea... if it's successful over there we may be seeing a refinement in the production of the Technology of LCDs; thus leading to fewer dead pixels and more zero dead pixel policies throughout the industry.

• Reviewed by: FourScience

  Strengths: Great response times for games, color fidelity for photos/graphics, and video playback performance.

  Weaknesses: Too good? No!

  Overall: The other reviews say it all. Let me add my own experience:Gaming: I tested CS and DoD Source, BF2, and Doom 3 on this panel, and they all looked beautiful. The response times are better then a lot of those supposed 4ms monitors and there are only a couple monitors that are really any faster.Movies: I watch a lot of anime on this panel and it looks fantastic. I also tested Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children on it, which has a lot of blacks and greys with very fast action, and it looked awesome.Ergonomics: I didn't think I would need all the tilting and pivoting, but it has really come in handy for adjusting the screen for watching movies.What an amazing value these days, mine had no dead pixels. This monitor makes the best compromise of response times and color fidelity.

• Reviewed by: traumeri

  Strengths: Vibrant colors, good contrast, good ergonomics, DVI cable included, Good response time (No ghosting from my use).

  Weaknesses: Theft-deterrent system; Input pop-up indicator; ?potentially poor service from Viewsonic; bleed-through lighting for black.

  Overall: Did lots of research before buying this monitor once its price became competitive with Samsung/Dell's. I use a Dell FP1907 at work and I feel the viewsonic is sharper and more vibrant. Its ergonomics is also a bit more stable than Dell but lacks USB hub for those that care. My panel has no dead pixels so far, but does have the X-shaped light leak on black screens. Compared to Dell, the black is not as black on the Viewsonic (but I can't dim the lights at work to really test it). However, the black level is still better than my old Dell trinitron 17" CRT when I run them side-by-side. I don't stare at black backgrounds all day, and in contrast to colors the black seems black enough to me. Yes, it is visible during 16:9 move playback even if you lower the brightness...but not that bothersome. Besides, I'm watching the movie not the edges of the monitor...think of it as accidental "ambilight" ala Phillips TV's. Most annoying, is the Theft-Deterrent system. WARNING: This will be triggered if you "update" the PerfectSuite management program, which is only useful for the auto-rotating function. I didn't find the color calibration better than what's embedded in the Nvidia program. My blood pressure was elevated for an hour until I found away to "reset" it. Officially, you can do this if you submit your purchase invoice. This is a silly feature as it is not a "deterrent" at all (unless they plan on stealing future VP930b's). Lastly, the input indicator pop-up is a bit excessive, but goes away if you press button #1.