ViewSonic VP2770-LED review

Top-end monitors routinely cost well over £1,000, but the constant trickle-down of LCD technology has allowed manufacturers such as ViewSonic to push good-quality monitors into far more affordable territory. The most recent addition to its range, the VP2770-LED, aims to provide professional image quality across a massive 27in display for a very reasonable £586.

For that price, you’re getting a 10-bit IPS panel with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution that, due to the presence of white LED rather than RGB LED or CCFL backlighting, covers the sRGB colour gamut. Every model is colour calibrated at the factory, too, and ViewSonic claims every model will have a Delta E of below three. That’s an impressive claim for a 27in model at this price.

In keeping with its professional aspirations, the ViewSonic VP2770-LED is finished all in matte-black plastic and is poised atop a fully adjustable stand. The LED backlight allows for a relatively slim profile, but the huge claw-like stand takes up a large chunk of desk space. The benefit of this is stability, and the ViewSonic also provides 150mm of height adjustment plus the ability to swivel 90 degrees into portrait mode.

Connectivity is spot-on. There are D-SUB, DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, and a four-port USB hub, which offers two USB 2 ports at the rear and two USB 3 ports on the right-hand edge. The onscreen display is rather basic, though. We’d rather ViewSonic had opted for normal clicky buttons rather than the occasionally unresponsive touch-sensitive buttons positioned on the display’s lower-right bezel.

Thankfully, there’s little need to fiddle. Indeed, turning the VP2770-LED on rewards with glorious image quality. The 2,560 x 1,440 IPS panel makes for a pin-sharp Windows desktop, and our X-Rite colorimeter delivered a clean bill of health, with a maximum brightness of 298cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 784:1, a colour temperature of 6,420K and a Gamma of 2.26. Colour accuracy is impressive, with an average Delta E of only 1.5 and a maximum peak of 2.5 – the VP2770-LED really does live up to ViewSonic’s claims.

If there’s an obvious weakness compared to pricier 27in monitors, it comes down to backlight uniformity. We measured the brightness across 16 points on the VP2770-LED’s panel, and saw brightness peaking at 298cd/m2 along the upper edge and dipping as low as 252cd/m2 in the bottom-right corner. That adds up to an 18% variance, where most of the more expensive models we’ve looked at keep variance well within single figures.

At this price, though, it’s churlish to expect perfect backlighting or high-end features such as hardware calibration support to make the grade. ViewSonic has delivered on its promises: the VP2770-LED is a good-quality 27in monitor with fine colour accuracy, plenty of connectivity and a proper, adjustable stand. For only £586, that’s enough to earn it a well-deserved Recommended award.

Author: Sasha Muller