[ad_1]
If you’re looking for a no-frills, all-fun 1080p gaming monitor at a low price, the $209.99 ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd fulfills just about every requirement you can expect. Stellar picture quality for gaming and streaming content, especially at this price, is hard to come by, but the VX2418 clears that bar, albeit sacrificing the kind of responsiveness we want from a gaming display. The 23.8-inch panel exhibited considerable screen tearing in fast-paced titles like Overwatch, due to the lack of support for AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync. However, if you just need a moderate-size panel on which to watch movies or enjoy slower-paced games at high quality settings, this ViewSonic stays in play. For those focused instead on multiplayer gaming supremacy in this size tier, options like the Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN swap out affordability for online dominance.
Keeping It Simple
The ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd is a 24-inch-class monitor with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, built around a VA panel.
The monitor is mounted on a small V-shaped metal stand with just one option for adjustability—tilting between -5 and 20 degrees, with no height adjustment or pivot action. However, the display is compatible with VESA mounts and quite light at just 8.4 pounds.
(Photo: Chris Stobing)
It would likely make a better companion for a wall mount or more flexible desk mount than the bare-bones supplied stand, but the latter does its job sturdily enough if you don’t care about maximum flexibility.
Similar Products
MSI Oculux NXG253R
Check Stock
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our MSI Oculux NXG253R Review
ViewSonic Elite XG270QG
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our ViewSonic Elite XG270QG Review
Sony Inzone M9
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Sony Inzone M9 Review
Dell 27 Curved Gaming Monitor (S2721HGF)
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Dell 27 Curved Gaming Monitor (S2721HGF) Review
LG C2 48-Inch Evo OLED TV (OLED48C2PUA)
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our LG C2 48-Inch Evo OLED TV (OLED48C2PUA) Review
ViewSonic Gaming Elite XG321UG
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our ViewSonic Gaming Elite XG321UG Review
Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Asus ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN Review
Gigabyte M27Q X
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Gigabyte M27Q X Review
Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor Review
Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor (AW3423DWF)
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Alienware 34 Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor (AW3423DWF) Review
ViewSonic Gaming Elite XG321UG
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our ViewSonic Gaming Elite XG321UG Review
Asus ROG Strix XG16AHPE
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Asus ROG Strix XG16AHPE Review
Samsung Odyssey Ark
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Samsung Odyssey Ark Review
Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB
See It
(Opens in a new window)
Read Our Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB Review
The back of the monitor is all business, with a matte-black finish and no accents save the VESA-mounting hardware. (RGB-backlighting lovers should look elsewhere.) The two 2.5-watt speakers beneath the display will serve in a pinch, but they don’t sound punchy enough to serve as your main audio source over the long term.
(Photo: Chris Stobing)
ViewSonic’s minimal onscreen display (OSD) menu is controlled by four buttons at bottom right. We found some basic built-in color profiles and the option to change brightness and contrast, but no color calibration is possible apart from using the built-in Cinema and Photo modes.
(Photo: Chris Stobing)
As for ports, there are few to be seen—just two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4b input, and a 3.5mm headphone jack for use with the HDMI audio pass-through.
Testing the ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd: Colossal Contrast
As mentioned, this 1080p display features a VA panel with a native refresh rate of 165Hz (with no refresh-rate overclocking supported). We put the VX2418-p-mhd through our standard gaming-monitor test regimen using a Datacolor SpyderX Elit(Opens in a new window)e(Opens in a new window). Here’s what we saw:
Testing the display in the default picture mode with an SDR signal, the ViewSonic managed a peak brightness of 212.6 nits (it’s rated for 250 nits, a near-miss) and a black level of just 0.08 nit, which works out to a contrast ratio of 2,590:1. That’s superb for a monitor in this price class, though the win is tempered by its being well under ViewSonic’s rated contrast ratio of 4,000:1. (See more about how we test monitors.)
Since it’s a budget display, we weren’t expecting much from the ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd in terms of color fidelity, and we got what we expected. Its 97% coverage of the sRGB gamut is shy of its 103% rating, while its Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 scores were just within spec at 76% and 80% respectively.
Coming off those so-so gamut results, the ViewSonic’s sky-high Delta E average of 5.1 in color-accuracy testing wasn’t surprising, either.
Without a variety of color configuration settings available in ViewSonic’s OSD, we don’t see how one could improve these figures without a lot of effort. Content creators, consider an upgrade.
Media and Gaming Performance
With quantitative testing out of the way, we moved onto our content and gaming evaluation.
In SDR, our 4K Costa Rica test footage(Opens in a new window) (output at 1080p to match the monitor’s native resolution) looked shockingly good considering the VX2418’s bargain price. Colors were rich and contrast was stellar, all on a monitor that costs little more than some of the fancier mechanical keyboards on the market. Next, I booted up Red Dead Redemption 2 in SDR to check out the monitor’s gaming credentials. Just as with our content testing, I was amazed to see such vibrant, strong color from such an unprepossessing monitor.
(Photo: Chris Stobing)
For testing traditional input lag (the amount of time between when a monitor receives a signal and the screen updates), we use an HDFury 4K Diva(Opens in a new window) HDMI matrix. Given a 60Hz test signal, the VX2418 just barely cleared our meter’s limit with a reading of 1.12 milliseconds, a strong result that puts the ViewSonic up with some of the best.
To see how that low input lag felt in action, I tried a few rounds of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valorant, and Overwatch. Here’s the bad news: All three games showed fairly severe ghosting in all our tests, reminiscent of what we saw from the MSI Optix MAG274R2 a few months ago. If you play AAA games that move at a slower pace, the effect is less noticeable, but anyone concerned about their multiplayer rankings should consider a more responsive 1080p panel such as the MSI Oculux NXG253R instead.
Premium Picture Quality on a Budget
The ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd sheds almost every extra in the book in favor of hitting a strong cost-to-picture-quality ratio, and in that effort we’d say it gets 90% of the way there. While movies, shows, and AAA single-player games look great on the panel, its performance in fast-paced multiplayer games—due to the lack of any Nvidia or AMD sync technology—left us wanting.
At this price point, the VX2418-p-mhd fills a pretty specific role, but one we’re happy to see covered: for players of AAA games at 1080p on a tight budget. With so many displays skewed straight at the competitive esports set, compromising on responsiveness and adjustability in favor of a top-quality image isn’t the worst tradeoff for those who might have had to spend most of their spare cash on a price-bloated graphics card in the past year. (If you want to see a list of the multiplayer-focused displays available, though, head on over to our complete monitor coverage to find one that meets your needs best.)
4.0
(Opens in a new window)
(Opens in a new window)
View More
View More
If you know exactly what you want from a modest-size gaming monitor—and those things are affordability and picture quality—the ViewSonic VX2418-p-mhd should fit the bill nicely.
[ad_2]
Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/viewsonic-vx2418-p-mhd
