Viewsonic vp2780-4k Review
- MonitorNerds
- PCmag
- Techradar
It seems like yesterday we were treating $500+ TN panel displays as if they were a golden gift from the PC gods, just because they were 4K. I mean, they had solid response times, with single tiled displays, with some even delivering 8-bit panels, decent viewing angles and acceptable color reproduction considering they were TN panels. And, you know what, I guess they were a gift because at that time, 4K monitors with sharp exo-panels were going for multiple thousands of dollars. But the story is different today, and the VP2780 4K is a perfect showcase piece for everything that is great about the onward march of modern technology. You can also take a look at Viewsonic xg2401 freesync 144hz gaming monitor.
The VP2780 4K is built better, and it performs better than what you could buy a short year ago without costing about what you are getting for your money that much more. And along with not costing that much more, this is a display that is efficient enough to fulfill all of your needs.
Viewsonic vp2780 4k review
The “betterness” of this monitor as compared to many others in the same price range, begins with the panel specs. It is 27 inches, which is pretty much the perfect size for a 16:9 monitor. It has about the same vertical height as a 34-inch Ultrawide. The VP2780 features a W-LED backlit, 8-bit AH-IPS panel with advanced frame rate control to achieve virtual 10-bit performance. Something that you are almost guaranteed not to be utilizing, thanks to poor hardware and application support. But it might make you feel good about your desk mounted extension.
The backlight uses DC brightness control and is, therefore, flicker-free. Something which manufacturers is keen on pointing out as less fatiguing on the eyes. Viewing angles are outstanding, with just a little bit of contrast shift vertically (but nothing noticeable from reasonable viewing angles). The backlight didn’t exhibit excessive bleed and the anti-glare coating on the screen is pleasingly light. And it doesn’t make everything behind it hazy but does significantly reduce reflections.
The VP2780 can be defined as a monitor that is ‘built better.’ Now, what did I mean by that? Great question. The industrial design is nothing special and screams, “I belong in an office!” But that is not necessarily a bad thing here. The Logitech G303 features a lightweight design and an advanced optical sensor with ‘Delta Zero technology’ for precise tracking and RGB lighting to match your setup.
There is something to be said for practical design when it comes to this monitor. The viewing comfort and adjustability of the monitor is top of the class. The VP2780 4K features a standard VESA monitor mount, thumbs up there if you want to put it on a third-party mount. But this might not be a big deal because it also features a wide, solidly-built base with most of the ergonomic adjustments that anyone would want, including height, adjust, tilt, swivel, and even pivot for the portrait mode fans out there.
Now, let us have a look at the I/O. There is a two-port USB 3.0, 5 Gb/s hub and, a lot of HDMI ports on the unit. What’s better is that there is more to them than meets the eye. One of them is HDMI 2.0, and we verified that there was no problem to run Ultra HD resolution at 60 Hertz over HDMI. It is nice, very nice. And two of the other ones are MHL 2.0 which means that you could hook up your MHL compatible phone to them if you wanted to do that for some reason. DisplayPort 1.2 and Mini DisplayPort 1.2 are also included here, which means that pretty much any modern desktop or laptop can be plugged in, and easily switch between or set up in picture-in-picture or picture-by -picture viewing mode, with up to 4 simultaneous inputs possible in the four corners of the monitor. But that is a pretty French use case scenario. And unfortunately, you will have to contend with the on-screen menu to set it up.
If everything about this monitor was amazing, and it is like pretty darn good I liked it; I still wouldn’t be able to say the on-screen menu was anything but wretched. They are poorly labeled, two is confirmed, and one is back for some inexplicable reason, 10 points from Gryffindor. It uses touch sensitive buttons with no tactile feel whatsoever. And the tactile buttons only register about 65% of the time. However, everything else about it is pretty darn good. Out of the box, I mean.
Now maybe it is just my luck, but even factory calibrated displays have always been a little off for me. The VP 2780 on the factory calibrated settings, was a little bit off. White point was about 7% off, she achieved about 96% of the claimed 100% sRGB color space, and brightness was cranked up pretty high. But to be clear, what you are looking at is not bad performance and brightness can easily be adjusted without really affecting anything else. And after I ran it with the i1 Pro, I would consider this puppy a very capable and affordable monitor for a pro-consumer and even professional photo and video work
4k Monitor Viewsonic vp2780-4k
Now, let us change gears a little bit. It always amuses me when companies seem just to plain not be able to decide what segment of the market their product is for. And they will have like this presentation deck that looks like this, and it is like, “Oh, well, this monitor is great for, well I guess, um, everything”, and there is usually like gaming randomly tacked on to the end of the list. “Like, yeah, well gamers have money, right? It’s good for them.” But in this case, I kind of buy it. With an impressive total input lag of about ten milliseconds, this 4K display will not be holding you back as long as you are not competing on the professional level. In which case, you probably are not using a 4K display anyway. And as much as I can rag on ViewSonic for advertising and out of the box Delta E of less than two which is, I mean, obviously didn’t quite achieve. What I will say about the native default setup is that it ships with is that it has a very pleasing look to the eye. And that for gaming use, I would have no desire to change it to a more accurate color profile.
The VP2780 pops just right without having that way over-the-top saturation and contrast thing that you would find on any monitor on a shelf at Best Buy, which leaves me with these final words: To attract the gamer crowd, I need to see support for an adaptive refresh rate technology of some sort, FreeSync or G-Sync for example. But the VP2780 4K sells itself admirably to the ‘semi-pro content creator’ who games on the side with its great panel performance and solid built quality.