What happened to Viewsonic?

[Lateralus]

I remember Viewsonic being extremely popular back in the CRT days. When I bought my Sony Trinitron monitor, Viewsonic was known for producing reliable shadow mask CRTs with good image quality at a reasonable price and Viewsonic monitors were widely recommended. They were less expensive than the fantastic NEC and Iiyama monitors, and a lot of people used them in both home and corporate settings.

Based on the positive reputation of the brand, I chose a Viewsonic 18.1" panel as my first LCD and was very pleased with it. Unfortunately it was broken during a fit of rage by an ex-girlfriend and I stepped up to the venerable Dell 2001FP. That monitor served me extremely well for a few years and is undoubtedly one of the best 4:3 LCDs ever made.

I know that Viewsonic still produces displays, but it recently occurred to me that few people seem to own them and I rarely (if ever) see them recommended or talked about here in the Displays forum. The last time I really remember them being discussed is when 22" LCD panels were the new rage. I was just wondering if their quality has gone downhill and why their LCD displays don't tend to impress or stand out. They just don't seem to get any favorable mentions anymore. Did the cute little logo just drive everyone away, or was it something else?

 

[Mr_Coffee]

I got the vp201 five years ago and I'm still loving it. Cost a good deal but it has a nice minimal black bezel, all matte, nice stand with rotation, one-button source switching, cable hooks, nice OSD, 1:1 mapping, IPS, subtle power led, internal power supply with a switch, just perfect. I had some trouble with the contrast bugging out for a while but it corrected itself; all-in-all a good experience.

On the other hand half of their professional (VP) series are TNs now so I have no idea. Maybe their quality is down or maybe they just aren't producing any notable monitors right now. The only one I can think of is their 120Hz display which I know has better default colors than the samsung panel. Most come here with problems so maybe no news here is good news.

 

[eddieck]

I'm using a ViewSonic VA703b right now. It's a TN in ViewSonic's value line, and viewing angles suck, but overall colors seem to be half decent (although I'll take the H-IPS panel on an iMac any day). It passes the Lagom test.

They've got a new 23" e-IPS screen at 1920x1080 out for around $300, but so does NEC. NEC has the better reputation around here - I don't think anyone on this forum has even reviewed ViewSonic's version.

 

[Flea77]

+1 on the VP201b monitors, got two here and they have been and still are awesome. They calibrate very well too. Have been tossing around the idea of getting a few more used and sticking them in the closet in case either of these two fail. God I love these things!

Allan