Customer Reviews

ViewSonic VG2230WM 22-inch Black Widescreen LCD Monitor

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I recently got this monitor to replace my bedroom pc's 3 year old 17" samsung lcd. When i got it, i first thought, "oh dear lord this thing is huge!" which it is, but its very lite, and solid construction.

Pros:
1) BRIGHT! and i mean eye burning bright, i had to tone it down just to save my eyes
2) outstanding color. the color depth, and the overall image quality is incredible
3) no "bleed". i ran several image tests, and i found virtually no bleeding. something of a rarity in screens of this size.
4) the swivel is pinky pushing ease. also the height adjustment is versatile.

cons:
1) speakers are weak. but which onboard monitor speakers arent?
2) no headphone jack. who makes a screen with speakers and no headphone jack? i mean seriously, lets think about that. i dont need an ipod docking station on my monitor, but no in/out jack? or usb? killin me.
3) one stuck pixel. i had discovered one stuck green pixel right out of the box. i was very upset, but ran jscreenfix for about 40 minutes and it went away! beats a dead pixel or insane bleeding.

i would give it a full 5 stars if it werent for the missing jacks. i forgive the stuck pixel, cause that kind of thing just happens. i dont care who makes ur monitor, it just happens to them all (yes even sony). overall a great bargain, i would give it 4.8 stars if that were an option :)

I bought this monitor to serve as a screen for a MythTV home theater PC. 22" is a decent size to replace a bedroom TV.
This model is fairly susceptible to light leaks, which are apparent with an all black screen, but not noticeable otherwise.
Color is good, and pictures are sharp, especially with the DVI input.
I watched some HD clips on my MacBook Pro with this monitor and the quality is good. If you have a computer with DVI output, you probably won't notice any jagged pixel edges at desktop distance. When using VGA on the MythTV which is running Fedora Core 5 some small text can be a bit fuzzy.
SD video over the VGA input with the MythTV PC appears to be a little washed, but that could be the way the video is being recorded. DVD video appears to be richer. I haven't tried HD video with the VGA input yet.
This monitor has built in speakers. I don't use them. I tried them the other day just to see how they do and they are pretty bad. Just about any set of decent desktop speakers will out-perform them. Also, volume controls are only available when entering the on-screen menu.

I haven't used the monitor for gaming, but video playback is very smooth. There has been no LCD lag in the weeks to month that I have been using the monitor.

Overall, the monitor does what I bought it to do and so I am happy with it. The unit was priced well compared to other monitors of this size. Anyone just looking for some more desktop space, or a widescreen display that isn't a TV should be happy with it.

Recently, my wife wanted to replace her old 17" monitor with a larger widescreen monitor, so I bought this monitor for her as a birthday present. We both were immediately impressed with the size and shape (16:10 aspect ratio) of this monitor`s display which provides plenty of desktop space and obviates the need for scrolling when working with wide applications -- which are becoming fairly common these days. Within a few days I decided that I wanted to replace my 19" 4:3 aspect ratio CRT monitor with this widescreen Viewsonic and did so. Both my wife's old 17" monitor and my 19" model were very good Sony Trinitrons in excellent condition, but they could not compete in performance and convenience with this widescreen ViewSonic. The fact that we bought two of them within a few days shows how much we like this monitor.

I've been using this monitor for about a month now. So far, I'm pretty impress by it. I did not look at other 22" lcds personally but I do have a 17" Viewsonic, a 19" Samsung and a 20" Dell in my apartment to compare (the latter two are my roommate's). Comparing with the old 17" Viewsonic and 19" Samsung, this monitor's image qualities (brightness, sharpness, contrast) are just as great; though it's not as good compared to the dell 20" in terms of colors and features. There's no dead/stuck pixels. Although I do see a very "tiny" amount of color variations at the edges of the screen when turns all black, it's not a big bother. Trust me, it's not as bad as others make it out to be. If you're a graphics designer and uses the whole screen where every color details count, then you may need to look at other brands/models sine this monitor is only 6-bit. For example, when I do photoshop, the gradient had some bands and not a very smooth gradation.

As for the viewing angle, the color change is more drastic than my old 17" and my roommate's 19" Samsung. If you just sit in your desk and don't view your monitor at a very wide angle, then it really won't be a problem. Unless you have some weird preferences (or have dual monitors setups), who really stare at their monitors at like 160 degrees for normal use. -_-

As for the stand, it's heavy and sturdy. The monitor will not wiggle around cause there's grips on the bottom. Also, there's this rotational feature built in the stand so turning the monitor around will be a breeze. However, the power plug will get loose very easily and it's kinda annoying to readjust it every time..

Aesthetically, this monitor looks beautiful. The online pictures of this monitor look pretty awful. However, in my opinion, the design of this monitor (you have to see this in person than online pictures), is better than the newer Viewsonic's model.

The only BIG PROBLEM I have with this monitor is the inability to change from 16:10 aspect ratio to 4:3 in full screen. So, if you have old 640x480, 800x600, or 1024x768 resolution games, you won't be able to play it in it's natural form. The monitor will stretch the image, making everything look fat and weird. I have a Geforce 6800GT video card with the newest drivers (91.47) and even with that I can't even force the driver to display 4:3 aspect. It will just show a garbled screen. Don't let this turn you off though. I have read (complaints on forums) and heard (from my other friend's 20" Samsung) that Benq, Viewsonic, Samsung, Acer and other 20" or 22" LCDs exhibit the same problem; I believe (reading somewhere on the dell reviews site) that their 22" low end model (and the only model out right now for 22") has this same problem. The only monitors that I know that wont do this are the dell's ultrasharp monitors. My roommate has one and he can force 4:3 aspect ratio like nothing.

Overall, without that 4:3 aspect ratio problem, this monitor is GREAT and I LOVE IT. It's large screen is perfect for movies, but not for graphics workspace though.

Overall, after using the monitor for about 2 months, I am very pleased with it. So don't take the Con's too seriously. Its just that as I age, I am getting very fussy!

Pro's:
- Very nice image WHEN resolution is set to the native 1680x1050. My original (dual monitor) card supported this mode only when using the VGA cable. But I wanted to use the DVI cable, to get the best quality. A new $50 card did the trick.

- The built in speakers are nice in a pinch, if all you care about is saving desk space.

- The FLAT BLACK finish is much less distracting than the high gloss "black mirror" finish on the other (more expensive) model.

- Great swivel base. Your cable layout is the only limiting factor - offers full 180 left and 180 right rotation.


Cons:
- You MUST turn down the brightness to reduce the light bleed around the edges, and to get better blacks.

- Very poor documentation. e.g. I had to call support to find out how to switch between the VGA and DVI inputs. (yes, you can connect 2 computers, at the same time, to this monitor, as long as one uses a VGA cable, and the other DVI)
It turns out, the bottom-most side button will toggle between them. (when you are NOT in a menu!)

- Very poor labeling (and location) of the 5 control buttons. The ergonomics are very poor. Unless you are good at braille, manipulating the side mounted buttons, without a clear view of where you are vertically, is a chore. At least the top (mute) button is a different shape. If buttons 3 and 4 where shaped as up/down arrows, then you might have a chance. I had the monitor several weeks before I even noticed the tiny impressions (black on black) that are supposed to give you an idea what the buttons are for.

Which was my biggest concern with an LCD purchase. Most of the cheaper brands - well they are cheaper because people are content living with dots on their screen. This monitor received positive reviews elsewhere, and this site had the best price. It is BIG, and looks great.

Currently, most/all monitors of this size use the TN panels, and I'm guessing this one does as well based on the viewing angle and slight bleed through at the top and bottom of the screen when booting up. If you are a graphics designer, you want a smaller one (19 inch) with a higher quality panel. But then you already knew that.

We just use ours for standard home / work / game use and love the extra space it provides. If you use an IDE, there is plenty of room for all of the little windows, or side by side code windows. I especially like that it adjusts not just in height but in basically any direction. Also it has nice options on setting various resolutions in case you don't want to run at the max setting.

Make sure whether you want a widescreen or a standard. One isn't better than the other, just a matter of personal preference. We have ours now with the Windows XP taskbar on the right, without auto hide, which makes use of some of the extra width while also giving us more height since it isn't at the bottom.

Overall I have bought Viewsonics in the past and been very pleased and this is no exception.

I was initially concerned the 16:10 image ratio would cause game screens to scale or crop but Age of Empires displays full-screen perfectly with its own in-game setting for the monitor's native resolution of 1680x1050. If you are accustomed to a screen resolution of 1600x1200, which is 100 pixels per inch on a 4:3 ratio screen, you may notice slightly larger pixels on this monitor which has 89 pixels per inch. Adaptation to this change is easy. The extra width of this screen is a pleasure for spreadsheet work or side by side applications. The screen is bright, sharp and consistent. Colors are true and text is clear and sharp. This is an excellent monitor at a very reasonable price.

This ViewSonic flat screen replaces a regular large screen ViewSonic that I used without any problems for about 5 years. The flat screen offers the same vivid colors and large image that I had enjoyed with my first ViewSonic. The screen arrived well packaged, easy to set up and has functioned for several weeks now with zero problems. I am a huge fan of ViewSonic and recommend it without reservation.

I am really pleased with this purchase. The display is crystal clear and it is great to have the extra viewing size. You can view 2 pages side-by-side (web pages or document pages). The setup was very simple and the monitor is easy to move if needed.

Amazon delivered this in only two days, even though they told me it would take a week to ship. Used XP drivers only. When I first hooked it up, it had an extreme "washed-out" look. No amount of tweaking the brightness/contrast controls could fix it. Then I looked at my graphics card control panel. Somehow the card color corrections had gotten turned off. A quick click, and it was fixed. Now it looks FABULOUS, and no dead pixels! The stand is well-designed and not tippy. Supplied cables are very short. Buttons on the side are a pain but how often do you mess with those? Note: This replaced my 3-year old Viewsonic. The speakers on the old Viewsonic were good enough for occasional music listening. I read the other reviews and I was prepared for bad speakers, but they are REALLY, REALLY BAD. Other than that, I think this monitor is quite lovely, and a good bargain. Amazon service is hard to beat, keep it up!