
Text readability was good as well, and we found text crisp down to 6.8 font size. It wasn't all bad news, however, as the system excelled at our tests that expose color banding, with transitions from dark to light intensity looking seamless and smooth. In DVD playback, we also noticed significant visible flicker noise, as well as ghosting that was more than we are used to seeing in some scenes-although we saw no ghosting in games. The VX2235wm's colors looked washed out compared to the Asus PW201's this was evident in movies and games, as well as our DisplayMate tests.
The VX2235wm got a score of 69 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based tests, which is low compared to other similarly sized LCD displays we've tested. With the low list price, you might expect that the Viewsonic VX2235wm skips on performance, and you'd be right.
Viewing angle: 170 degrees horizontal, 160 degrees vertical. We liked the addition of the speakers for occasional audio needs, but would have also liked to have seen a headphone jack. As you might expect, music sounded tinny and lacked bass. Don't expect any miracles from them-they'll suffice for an occasional Web clip or game, but we found dialogue from movies difficult to hear, especially during quiet scenes. Mounted on the bottom of the display are two 2.5-watt speakers. Otherwise, the large screen size and relatively low price make the VX2235wm worth a look in the budget LCD category. If you're looking to buy an inexpensive LCD and good image quality is a must, we recommend getting a smaller screen that offers better performance, like the Viewsonic VX2025wm or Gateway FPD2185W. While we weren't blown away by the performance, it should be fine for situations where image quality isn't a top priority. Picking up on this is the Viewsonic VX2235wm, which offers only VGA and DVI connectivity, but delivers a very reasonable $400 list price for a 22-inch wide-screen LCD monitor. While the dual-use possibilities are definitely a plus, it does add significant cost to a display that might never see anything more than a spreadsheet and a browser. Viewsonic drivers vx2235wm full#
As the screen sizes of LCD monitors continue to increase, more consumers are expecting their monitors to be usable as HDTVs, complete with a full connectivity suite.