Viewsonic VX2235wm Review
Mikey 25 comments
Far be it for me to whip out my e-penis, but I've got a big one. Twenty two inches big in fact. The first thing you notice about the Viewsonic VX2235wm is it's sheer size. The more surprising revelation is its relatively light weight considering said size.
If you had not already noticed, 4 x 3 is dead and widescreen is the new aspect ratio of choice. I have always been a reluctant widescreen desktop user simply because of how much smaller they look when compared to their 4 x 3 counterparts. It is an illusion I know, but an illusion no amount of therapy can change.
So when 22" LCD's started to fall into the price range that normal Joe Blo's like me could realistically justify to the CFO (Wife!), the Viewsonic VX2235wm held my attention the longest.
Viewsonic have clearly aimed this panel at the budget conscious cheap skate that must have everything big. But that doesn't mean to say they have skimped on features. Although a higher resolution would have been nicer (if only for design and development work), 22" panels at higher resolutions jack up the price by hundreds of dollars and often past the 1k mark.
What's in the box?
- Viewsonic VX2235wm 22 inch plat panel LCD monitor
- DVI cable
- D-Sub cable
- Australian standard mains cord
- American standard mains cord
- Monitor base stand
- Stereo Audio cable
- Quickstart guide
- Viewsonic Wizard CD
At its native resolution of 1680x1050 and dot pitch of 0.282 mm the picture is clear and crisp. Text is sharp even with Clear Type enabled. Image quality bears no problems when viewing digital photos or even when Photoshopping.
Optional DVI and D-Sub inputs are a pleasant bonus, allowing it to work on older video cards albeit without the goodness that a DVI signal provides.
The 5ms response time is noticeable over my other LCD panels, which are all 8ms. This makes gaming look great and although I never noticed ghosting on the 8ms panels, the -3ms difference does seem to improve the gaming experience.
The speakers although nice to have, are as tinny as you might expect and surprisingly lacking in volume during quiet scenes when watching movies. They might replace your old $10 cheapies but are hardly competition for any x.1 surround configuration.
It's surprising to see some monitor manufacturers still taking on the responsibility of providing sound output by building speakers into the bezel. For one thing, people who need sound on their PC typically have speakers already. And people who don't need sound (in a business environment for example) won't have a need for built-in speakers.
Speaking of movies, image quality is as good as expected without ghosting on fast action scenes, and High Definition content looks superb (but doesn't it always?).
The controls are a little difficult to activate, almost as if they were designed for infants. I have to use my fingernails to press the buttons, and I have average sized hands. It is perplexing to understand how this interface managed to get passed quality control, unless that was done by the same people who pass microscopic mobile phone interfaces.
Viewsonic's 30 day no dead pixel warranty also makes the purchase more reassuring and less of a gamble. With even just one dead or stuck pixel, I can swap the unit immediately for another within 30 days. I am happy to report I have no pixel issues, which makes a pleasant change from one of my previous monitors.
Issues.
My testing was done on a Windows XP machine at my office, but when I took the monitor home and hooked it up to my Vista box it was a different story. The native resolution of 1680x0150 is not supported on the latest nvidia drivers, (which are still beta). So after a lot of searching I stumbled on an obscure post claiming unofficial forceware drivers have been released for Vista which support the native resolution. I can confirm they do. Go to guru3d.com and download the latest Foreware Drivers for Vista if you are looking for them as well.
Summary.
When I made the decision to buy this monitor last week, the best price I could find was $528inc. When I finally got around to making the purchase, I was pleasantly surprised to see it had dropped to a measly $498inc. By the time you read this it may have fallen even further.
For the price, the Viewsonic VX2235wm is a winner on all counts. Multiple inputs, speakers, 5ms response time, 1680x1050 widescreen and 22 inches of digital pleasure makes it hard to look past. If you are in the market for a larger screen you could do a lot worse (and pay more) elsewhere.
Hi Lilly. Yeah it's mine. Seriously considering getting another (for the office) seeing as they are so cheap. But I will have to sell 2 of my older ones to pay for it!
Jon
Sunday 7th January 2007 | 04:15 PMdude where can I get that wallpaper?
All Star Dave
Sunday 14th January 2007 | 04:20 PMYou have sold me. I see them for around 470 now making it completely irresistible. And yeah where can i get that wallpaper?
Paul
Tuesday 13th February 2007 | 03:50 AMOverall - Not a bad monitor at all - especially considering the price. Picture is nice & crisp. The only negative is the small buttons on the front to adjust the screen prefernces to your liking (they should have been made bigger) and the horrible integrated speakers- they are such poor quality that they remind me of the tiny, poor quality, squeaky type sound you use to get from the handheld AM transistor radios in the early 1960's.
i just picked up one of these for $440, very nice screen indeed
Johnny P
Friday 16th March 2007 | 03:31 PMYou mentioned Photoshopping... how's the colour calibration out of the box? Do you do any digital photography / RAW processing? Would love to hear about that....
Hi Jonny. I Photoshop for a living, but primarily web work where bleeding edge colour replication is not that important. I also do digital photography manipulation using RAW (as an amateur photographer) but again nothing that requires perfect on-screen to print colour reproduction.
I used the Adobe calibration tool though and everything looks fine. I hope this info is of some use to you.
Nice writeup, good to find out what was in the box as some monitors don't give you the DVI cable. I just bought this monitor from Officeworks in Melbourne, $388, will have it delivered in a few days and I can't wait! I'll have to hunt down suitable drivers too for the native resolution.
Mobius
Thursday 26th April 2007 | 01:56 PM"Text is sharp even with Clear Type enabled."
Hey numbnuts - ClearType is SPECIFICALLY designed to improve text legibility on LCD screens. The sub-pixel rendering words well on RGB CRT monitors too (And even RBG monitors if you tune it at MS web site) as a matter of fact.
ClearType was the ONE really compelling reason to buy Windows XP. For you to say such a thing shows you have not a single clue about ANYTHING to do with monitors or PC visuals.
Stay away from the keyboard man!
Hi Mobius. Thanks for the insightful comment. It's people like you who make the internet such a wonderful place!
The thing about ClearType is that everyone interprets it differently. For me, ClearType on my old CRT was a joke. It looked like a blurry mess. And on some LCD's it was not much better, but on others it's really good.
The truth is you can't say ClearType will look good on all monitors. Some people consider normal text (no ClearType) as being 'sharper' because there is no smoothing around the edges. By definition that makes it sharper - which I totally understand.
At the office on my older Samsung LCD ClearType looks awful, so I turned it off. But at home on my newer Viewsonic LCD it looks amazing, so I keep it on.
So, just because something is specifically designed for a purpose, don't ever assume it is fulfilling that purpose effectively across all hardware, if at all. For you to imply such a thing means you have not a single clue about anything.
Yari
Friday 11th May 2007 | 11:12 AMHEllo there. Your write up was quite informative. Two quick questions. (I'm presently on my second Viewsonic CRT and love the quality. The first lasted ten years and then litteraly burned out. I am on my second and running perfect from the day I got it 4 years ago. Even to watch DVD, leading to my question). I read reviews for a couple of Viewsonic 22 inchers. Because of price, would you know how different the VG2230wm quality is? The only bad reviews of the hundreds given mention the poor backlight problem in watching dvd movies as well as the 6 bit thing about not having 16 million colours. Any help would be good. Thanks.
Hi Yari. I am not familiar with the VG2230 and have not heard anything about it. I can only offer what I might find after a Google search, which you have probably already done anyway.
As for backlighting, the truth of it is, you only ever notice uneven-ness (if there is any) when the screen is black, and even then you might not notice it at all during the day in light conditions.
So during dark movie scenes you might notice uneven backlighting. That said, the VX2235wm has been reported to have some backlighting issues, and I am yet to notice it myself. But I havn't sat in the dark and watched http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Highway">Lost Highway yet.
mangoeatingpsychonerd
Wednesday 23rd May 2007 | 08:20 PMthese screens are down to 399 in melb! very very tempted.
do most modern whitebox pc's support a useful rez on these out of the box or is a gforce et al the only real option ? might think about that question a bit more before i post ... oops ...
Grant Watt
Saturday 28th July 2007 | 12:04 AMGood informative review.
I got my monitor from officeworks in Perth, ex-display for $365.
I have to say I am very impressed with it. I can't really find any faults with it. Even the speakers are quite adequate for most things.
I have two monitors keeping my old 17 inch TFT.
Having two monitors is highly recommended.
John
Tuesday 28th August 2007 | 06:12 PMGood review...
The monitor seems good but I would not buy it because it does not support HDCP. But then again the price is very good for such a monitor.
Check out this site that compares various 22" monitors and find out which is the best right now.
http://www.behardware.com/art/imprimer/662/
Nice review. :)
The speakers are actually a selling point for me; I currently have a pair of "$10 cheapies" sitting next to my 19" CRT, which leaves bugger all space for anything else on the desk. I'm about to head down to Umart at Underwood (Qld) where they have the VX2235WM for $355 - hopefully they have a demo up and running so I can test out the speakers before I buy. I don't need awesome *.1 surround sound, my daughter just needs to listen to the sounds on the occasional Flash-based game or DVD.
P.. I've used and loved ClearType on pretty much all monitors, CRT and LCD alike, since ClearType's inception. :)
Umart:
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&id2=143&&bid=2&sid=20412
Mark
Tuesday 6th November 2007 | 02:13 AMthat link to the updated Vista driver (http://www.guru3d.com/) does not seem to work anymore, however Viewsonic's web site now has Vista compatable drivers.
nVidia have compatible drivers now as well, as that is what will ultimately allow you to meet the monitors native resolution anyway, even without the viewsonic drivers.
Anthony Parker
Friday 30th November 2007 | 08:24 AMHi all,
Nice review, thanks for the information!
I'm looking at purchasing 2x 22"units next week and running them dual display. I currently run dual display 17" CRT and that's very useful, in fact I wouldn't want to go back!
I'm a uni student, studying 3d animation and web design, flash, video editing, etc..
Basically though, I can't decide if this is going to be excessive? Does anyone have any useful input to wether 1x 22" is more than adequate screen area wise?
The money isn't as big of a concern, just having 2 of these units, well, it's a monster of a screen area! It'll look HUGE with two of them side by side, enough screen area to park my car in.
Anyone here done it?
Thanks,
Anthony
Ps. I'm going to get an Asus 8800GTS 640m PCI express to drive the setup (and play games with ;-) haha)
Hi Anthony. 2 x 22" isn't excessive. I used 2 x 19" for a couple of years before going to a single 22". Now I want my dual screens back so I am considering another 22". I use 3D Studio Max as well and the more screen real estate you can have the better.
Rodney
Friday 30th November 2007 | 11:27 AMAnthony,
My friend runs one of the most successful, if not the most successful 3D animations companies in Australia (http://www.lastpixel.com.au) and every single animator in their offices has 2*22" LCDs on their desk.
He often laments the lack of screen real estate, even still.
Just remember you need a graphics card which can through out better than 1280*1024 and the monitors should handle it too - there's no point having heaps of screen space but just bigger writing - you want to get maximum use out of that space, as well.
Mike
Thursday 29th May 2008 | 03:57 PMNot bad! Only comment is that you could have bought a 22" from costco.com when it was on for $199.99. That was a steal for me. But I have a V7 monitor and it has all the same specs as your viewsonic except for the fact there was no cables with the box. The built in LCD speakers are fine for general use, but should have more richer sound and some good bass, at least like the sound you hear out of a pair of sonyearbuds.
A 8500GT Nvidia graphics card served me well so that's the card I'm still using.
ZIP
Saturday 27th September 2008 | 08:51 AMNeed help I have a Radeon 1650 AGP Pro 512 mg video card and the NX 2232 monitor. I can only run with a VGA cable. I have a DVI-D dual channel to HDMI cable but the picture is totaly bogus when running digital. Any suggestions? I have all the latest drivers etc.
Thanks,
Zip
Lilly
Sunday 7th January 2007 | 02:28 AMIt must be nice to have one that big ;-) I got a 20" for Christmas - read that how you will. We paid not much less than you did for your view sonic and now I wish we had shopped around a little bit more before we got it. Is the viewsonic yours or did you receive it for review purposes?