Viewsonic VP2650wb

Sitting at a price point that is quite low considering its size, Viewsonic's VP2650 is a monitor that is fairly good value for money. It provides impressive image quality, particularly with regards to colour reproduction, and offers a high resolution (1920x1080). It also gives you 26in of screen real estate and a few extras such as USB ports, making it an attractive package.

One of the most impressive features of this display is its 3ms response time. The larger a monitor gets, the slower the panel tends to be; you'll find many 27in units have response times of 6ms or 8ms. However, the VP2650wb sports a very quick 3ms response time, which definitely made a difference in our tests. There was only very slight ghosting evident in our standardised tests; real world footage was basically free of trailing all together.

Colour balance was also excellent. This display has a brightness rating of 400cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 1000:1, both of which are fairly standard. The colour reproduction is a little on the pale side at times, particularly yellows and greens. However, reds and blues are rich and vivid without being over saturated. We found the picture at times was a little too bright. Even playing with the calibration options didn't fix this completely, but it wasn't a big problem.

Contrast performance was also impressive. There was a great amount of separation between blocks in the black-to-white charts and the colour intensity ramps also had great levels of definition. Some minor detail was lost at the bright end of the scale but it was only in the final two chunks. Blacks looked fairly good, although they weren't as rich as we've seen on some other units.

The image was crisp and sharp, with no aberrations and cleanly rendered text. There was no noise evident on any of the moire patterns and screen uniformity was perfect, with no bleeding or darkening towards the corners. The viewing angles are reasonable; no detail is lost but there is some yellowish colour shift when moving off-centre.

One feature of the VP2650wb that will be appreciated by designers is the ability to flip the screen vertically, for a longer, thinner page view. The stand's height can also be adjusted up and down, allowing users to tailor everything to their needs. This is a fairly standard array of colour options, allowing you to adjust contrast, brightness and colour temperature.

There is the usual duo of DVI and D-Sub for connectivity, and several USB ports are present as well, although their position on the back is hardly convenient. Aesthetically this unit is fairly unremarkable, with a plain black bezel and no highlights to speak of. It is, however, quite a bit larger and heavier than some competing models, which may be problematic if you have limited space.