Big is in! This seems to be the mantra, which monitor manufacturers have adopted. 24-inch monitors, which we had thought would hold the tag of “King of LCD Monitors for End-Users” for at least sometime have now been overhauled. Viewsonic recently launched a new 28” LCD panel with a 3ms response time, a host of connectivity options and a true HD resolution of 1920x1200. How does this monitor fare? Let’s find out.
One big grouse we have against Viewsonic is their singular lack of imagination, when it comes to product design. The VX2835WM maybe big but in its looks it’s no different than any of its predecessors i.e. the VX2235WM. The body still sports the piano black finish on its bezel and is lined with a muted silver edge that gives it a decent appearance. While the overall appearance of the monitor is sleek, the piano black finish is a fingerprint magnet and can get smudged very easily. We would have preferred a more laidback or traditional matte finish on the bezel, as this would have prevented smudging and would have weathered better.
In a good move forward, Viewsonic has reverted to having standard recessed plastic buttons on the front of the monitor for controlling the OSD. These are nice and chunky and make accessing or scrolling through the OSD an easy job. This is a good departure from the VG2230WM model, which had silver buttons on the side of the monitor that were guaranteed to give RSI to anyone attempting to use them. The bottom of the monitor sports a very large and extensive multimedia speaker grill, which is again a design carry over from previous models.
The back of the monitor is where things really begin to heat up. Keeping in mind the size of the screen, Viewsonic has equipped the VX2835WM with every possible video input method. The monitor supports D-Sub, HDMI, Composite, Component and S-Video. In case you are wondering why there is no DVI present, it’s because Viewsonic in a curious but excellent move, has provided a DVI to HDMI cable. This way they have eliminated the need, for a DVI-D slot on the monitor and one extra cable. It also solves an HDCP related problem. HDCP only allows you to have one digitally trusted source for next generation content such as Blu-Ray. If DVI-D had been present natively and connected, HDCP would have kicked in and bumped the video down back to the horrible 480p format. By utilizing HDMI for both PC display and video playback, the HDCP related problem has been eliminated.
@ Robert:
