Viewsonic VP201 (S= silver, B=Black)
20.1 Inch.
1600 x 1200 resolution, 16ms response time, 400:1 contrast ratio, 250cd/m2
brightness, 176 / 176 viewing angles, DVI and VGA connections
Special features: Height, rotate and pivot adjustments, USB 2.0 hub
The Viewsonic 201 has the same 16ms LG.Philips S-IPS panel as the Dell 2001P (the LM201U04). It is a quoted response time of 16ms but still doesn’t compare in performance from a gaming point of view to the TN film panels available in the smaller screens. However, the panel offers a high resolution, good colour reproduction and great viewing angles.
Official Viewsonic Spec for B version and S version.
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Reviews:
GamePC
Review
(April 2004)
VNU.co.uk
Review
(July 2004)
Neowin forum
Review
(July 2004)
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Advanced Tests:
Taken from Tom's Hardware Guide
Colour
reproduction
Latency
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User Comments:
GAMEPC:
“The screen looks absolutely fantastic at its native 1600 x 1200 resolution,
although if you prefer to keep on-screen text at its default size, font
anti-aliasing techniques like Windows XP's "ClearType" help visibility
dramatically. The screen was able to downsize to smaller resolutions like 1024 x
768 and 1280 x 1024 at full-screen aspect ratios, and amazingly, there was very
little image degradation from using these downscaled resolutions.
Colors showed
themselves to be rich and vibrant - no problems here. Viewsonic states that the
screen has a 178 degree viewing angle, also which we would state to be accurate
in real-life testing. The VP201B is the first large-screen LCD which looks as
good, if not better, than 15" and 17" LCD screens in terms of gaming
performance. The screen has no blurriness, no visual slowdowns, no ghosting, it
just looks pristine. Considering all the crummy LCD's I've come across at
my time here at GamePC, the VP201B floored me with its flawless pixel refresh
rate. This is finally an LCD monitor which we can whole-heartedly recommend to
gamers who want a large-screen LCD, but don't want to give up image quality in
order to do so.
Well, I won't
dodge the obvious. The Viewsonic VP201B is the best LCD monitor we've ever
looked at here at the GamePC Labs. Honestly and truthfully, it brings together
all of the advances which we've seen over the past years in LCD technology and
combines them into a simply brilliant platform. It's slim, attractive, flexible,
functional, and best of all, the screen is flat out perfect. The screen
instantly leapfrogs all of the other large-screen LCD monitors we've seen in the
past.”
(EDITOR:
Be a little wary of this review, don’t always trust one review, look for other
opinions too).
ABXZONE
FORUMS:
“I’ve got the VP201S and am extremely happy. i play UT2k4, NFSU, CS, and watch
DVD's, DIVX, etc. with no ghosting issues whatsoever. i also use it for my
digital darkroom and have no complaints about it from that aspect (brightness,
contrast, color balance, 2D performance)…..the stand is great (fully adjustable
in just about every direction). the USB hub, triple input capability (VGA,
DVI-A, DVI-D) are both very handy.
VNU.CO.UK: “The stand on this particular monitor has also had a lot of work put into it. As well as swivel, it has tilt, height adjustments and a pivot. The latter feature is perfect for anyone who spends a lot of time working with office documents.”
SANDMAN 78 (Neowin Web forums): “….it handles
lower resolutions amazingly well….The desktop is so clear and the colors are
very “rich.” The colors on the screen almost look wet…..I never saw any ghosting
or any “shadowing.” I installed Call of Duty and Far Cry next, and was anxious
to have control of the movement, so I could TRY to make the thing ghost. No
luck. I couldn’t get it to ghost at all. I also ran Far Cry, Call of Duty, &
Battle Field Vietnam at 1024 X 768 so I could see how "non-native" resolutions
looked. The VP201B did an excellent job scaling to these resolutions. The
quality, while not as good as 1600x1200, was excellent for “non-native”
resolutions.”
DESIGNTECHNICA USER COMMENTS:
“It’s
pretty darn good for games too - UT2004 plays just as well on the VP201 as it
did on my Iiyama 22" Diamondtron CRT. Sure, there is a *MINISCULE* bit of
ghosting when moving at high velocities, but it is not annoying, and actually
adds to the illusion of speed in the game. There is little to fault with this
monitor really, except the price. Oh, and the colour reproduction is just
slightly off the mark too (but this shouldn't be a problem to 99.5% of people,
and I still find it excellent for photoshop). It could be that the calibration I
can do is not as great as with a professional CRT, but it's good enough! I love
it. It is easily rotated and adjusted and very stable. It is not as bright as
some TFT's I've looked at, but it's enough, and it is very evenly lit.”
SMUDGE:
"Colours and image quality are amazing at 1600x1200, going to take some getting
used too. So far no dead pixels, although The top right and bottom left corners
are noticeably brighter at the moment when setting my desktop to black. Might
RMA it if I cant sort that out, as I don’t expect to pay 640+ for a monitor and
have minor defects......Response times seem excellent in FPS games, so far I
have tested Doom3, Farcry, CS:S. Zero Ghosting. Will try out some DVD's
later.....It’s a monster display, oozes quality and feels like its been
engineered well. Its MASSIVE...."
CHICO: "It looks fantastic, the screen is sharp and vibrant. Running @ 1600 x 1200 opens up a whole new world of windows. Films look great and in my opinion the small amount of ghosting in HL2, CSS and HL2DM hasn't made me a worse player or spoilt any of my enjoyment. I can sit further than six inches away from the screen. Running games at 1280 x 960 looks great!"
WSH: "Not that great IMO. I notice the screen door effect which is a black line around each pixel. It makes the picture quite grainy.....Little ghosting and good colours but the screen door compromises the quality. Viewing angles are very good.....Not great for internet since I think the size is too big"