ViewSonic 27" 2560x1440 165hz IPS

To what are you referring? Removed from where?

Edit: Oh, I see, ViewSonic removed references to the free-sync version from their site.

Daniel_Chang said:

Apparently Eizo has. By being uber selective about which panel to use, they're charging $1,300 for a monitor that everyone else is charging $500-$600 for.

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I know NEC Display and Eizo usually deliver the goods but I can't make myself do it.

I hope Viewsonic did well on this. They usually put out good monitors.

So I got my XG2703-GS last night and I'm afraid I'm not too terribly happy with it. At first I thought I got lucky and there was no BLB at all but then I decided that maybe I had really bad BLB. The whole bottom right corner of my screen is significantly brighter than the rest of the screen but because the area is large enough and the extra brightness doesn't have a sharp edge to it, it wasn't entirely noticeable at first. In fact, I'm not sure it's BLB or if it's just a uniformity issue in the panel.

I was actually prepared to decide it was acceptable as I don't think I was going to notice while using the monitor normally. But a few other things aren't so good either. First, the whole right edge of the screen is darker than the rest of the screen or it's got a slight blue tint to it. That I notice while I'm working.

Also the monitor is mounted to the base but is slightly crooked and the monitor doesn't rotate in the "yaw" direction. It's pretty slight but it is noticeable to me.

And the last thing was that everything on the screen seems a tad washed out compared to my previous monitor. I spent some time messing with the settings and it still feels a little that way. I have the brightness turned all the way down to 10 now. That may be something some proper calibration can fix or perhaps my previous monitor was just set badly, maybe over saturated.

So I'm definitely going to return this monitor. I'm not sure if I want to just return it or try for another one. I have a Fry's in town so I think I'm going to go over and pick up either the Acer or Asus monitor and see how those turn out (is there any consensus about which of those two is generally better?).

Any photos of it in action? Or maybe of the issues?

TazmanianD said:

... pick up either the Acer or Asus monitor and see how those turn out (is there any consensus about which of those two is generally better?).

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All three are the same panel, with the same luck of the draw/lottery going on. The only difference is the menu and which of the god awful plastic bezels and stands is least egregious to you.

TazmanianD - thanks for the write-up.
I think with many of the large panels (27"+), it doesn't surprise me to see uniformity issues or BLB honestly.
But overall, like with the Acer, I feel like I'd rather be patient and pickup a refurb/recert vs paying full price.

I took a bunch of pictures with a real camera with a bunch of different settings until I got something that I feel somewhat accurately portrays my perception and this was the best. I took some pictures of the White screen but the darkness on the edge really doesn't show up there. As you can see the lower right corner definitely has a large bloom of brightness.

TazmanianD said:

I took a bunch of pictures with a real camera with a bunch of different settings until I got something that I feel somewhat accurately portrays my perception and this was the best. I took some pictures of the White screen but the darkness on the edge really doesn't show up there. As you can see the lower right corner definitely has a large bloom of brightness.

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This looks more like IPS glow than bleed.

Try taking a picture from at least 10-12 feet away (and make sure you are looking at monitor exactly straight). If its IPS glow, it should disappear. If its bleed, it won't.

RidingTheFlow said:

This looks more like IPS glow than bleed.

Try taking a picture from at least 10-12 feet away (and make sure you are looking at monitor exactly straight). If its IPS glow, it should disappear. If its bleed, it won't.

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I didn't take a picture, but it does change based on the viewing angle or if I move further away so I guess it's not BLB. I went ahead and ordered the Asus from Amazon. The IPS glow was considerably less on that one and no real BLB. It did also have a slight washed-out feeling to it but tweaking the saturation a bit made it better. Overall, the two monitors feel pretty similar but I have to give the edge to the Asus. I feel more comfortable with it and it seemed like I got it into a decent state without having to mess with it for as long as I did with the Viewsonic. So I'm going to keep the Asus and send back the Viewsonic.

One other thing I noticed in the Asus' favor is the stand is a little more solid. The Viewsonic tended to shake a tad as I was typing and the Asus doesn't.

i'm not familiar with ips monitors, but aren't ips glow and blb two sides of the same coin?

from my understanding
every pixel has a "normal axis" along which the most light is blocked. if you view the monitor form off this axis (esp. in the diagonal directions), less light is blocked and you see "ips glow"
blb occurs when the normal axis isn't perfectly perpendicular to the screen (due to qc, tension in the panel from the frame/bezel, etc...), and as a result, even from far, the ips glow is visible.

flod said:

i'm not familiar with ips monitors, but aren't ips glow and blb two sides of the same coin?

from my understanding
every pixel has a "normal axis" along which the most light is blocked. if you view the monitor form off this axis (esp. in the diagonal directions), less light is blocked and you see "ips glow"
blb occurs when the normal axis isn't perfectly perpendicular to the screen (due to qc, tension in the panel from the frame/bezel, etc...), and as a result, even from far, the ips glow is visible.

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No. You're correct in your assessment of panel glow (affects all panels, significantly worse in IPS and IPS-like panels). Backlight bleed is literally a defect in the monitor where the backlight can shine through a pinch, tear, or other defect.

Panel glow will move as you move because it is angle dependent. BLB will remain stationary as it's a physical defect.

i see, thanks.

by that definition, my first xg2703 (which is getting replaced for another reason) had no backlight bleed, but the panel glow axes for the lower right pixels were slightly angled outwards, such that the glow there is somewhat noticeable at normal viewing distances.

The corners of the display always have you looking at angle. You only looking straight at center of the screen. Larger the screen and closer you sit, more extreme angle at corner becomes and more visible the glow.
Some screens are better because glow is not as bright and/or does not appear at very small angle deviations as others.

TazmanianD said:

I took a bunch of pictures with a real camera with a bunch of different settings until I got something that I feel somewhat accurately portrays my perception and this was the best. I took some pictures of the White screen but the darkness on the edge really doesn't show up there. As you can see the lower right corner definitely has a large bloom of brightness.

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Not that bad to be honest, I saw worse on more expensive displays.