ViewSonic VA915

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I know Viewsonic are a decent company as I have had some products from them before and haven't had any problems with them. Therefore before I even got my hands on the monitor I had faith that my Viewsonic VA915 monitor would last me a while, as long as it was good overall.

Well when I first got the box with the monitor in I must comment on the fact it was well packaged wrapped up so it looked like it was very durable no ...
...which shows to me that Viewsonic are confident about their product as its going to be used around the world which also tells me that the chances are this product has been tested well to suit everyone's needs. Anyway the English version was what I concentrated on which mentioned a bit about the product and told you the odd bit of information and some features that are used. On the inside cover it shows a few examples of how to set-up you monitor which ... more

Monitors have changed quite a bit since the day I first had my own computer, well meant to be a family PC but I used it the most. I first got introduce to monitors when I had to use a 15 inch monitor who I don't know who made it but basically it was a big cube but at least it was in colour. As with all technology this soon gets old so when I got a new PC in the year 2000 I got a 17 inch monitor which I think was a Sony Multiscan 210ES. Now this was a huge improvement as it was slightly bigger than what I had been used to and I found it much better contrast and had more functions overall to help improve picture like more colours. The menu is also much simpler to use but once again it was a CRT monitor so a big cube which took up a lot of room and was a common problem. Then when I got a new computer about 2 years ago I upgraded my monitor to a 19-inch VA915 LCD display.

I know Viewsonic are a decent company as I have had some products from them before and haven't had any problems with them. Therefore before I even got my hands on the monitor I had faith that my Viewsonic VA915 monitor would last me a while, as long as it was good overall.

Well when I first got the box with the monitor in I must comment on the fact it was well packaged wrapped up so it looked like it was very durable no matter how rough the postal service may be with it. When getting the monitor it came with the monitor itself obviously, it had all the necessary wires that are needed to connect to a CPU, installation CD and instruction booklet.

The instruction booklet came in a lot of languages, even some I didn't have a clue what they were which shows to me that Viewsonic are confident about their product as its going to be used around the world which also tells me that the chances are this product has been tested well to suit everyone's needs. Anyway the English version was what I concentrated on which mentioned a bit about the product and told you the odd bit of information and some features that are used. On the inside cover it shows a few examples of how to set-up you monitor which doesn't look to difficult and then a few pages on it then breaks it down into more details. It gives you a four step guide to the set-up which is connect the video cable, plug in the power cable, turn the power on and insert the CD. It goes into more details under each sub heading if you need any help. It also has customer support information in both website form which is viewsoniceurope.com, phone number which is 0800 833 648 and e-mail so there's plenty of ways to connect them if you have any difficulties. On the last page of the English section it then just mentions a few safety methods to protect you and you computer. The instruction booklet is well set out and only about 3 pages worth of English that you need to read so it won't take long to set things up. If you really want to its not hard to guess where the wires go as the connections are labelled on the back of the monitor anyway.

The looks of the Viewsonic VA915 are quite impressive considering I got it in a silver version. Pretty simple layout with the actual main screen near the top with there is a small inch high speaker along the bottom which I believe delivers 3 watts. Near the bottom in the middle you have Viewsonic sign stuck onto the monitor below the screen with the necessary buttons that you need to control your inbuilt menu system to change contrast, picture size etc. On the back of the monitor you have a small section in the lower centre which you just unclip to get to the connections to get the monitor to work. The connections there consist of Audio in, D-sub, DVI, AC in so seems to cover everything needed. Having both DVI and VGA it also means the monitor will support the use of digital and analogue if your worried about that. When you have your wires connected you just clip the section of the back on and the wires go through a small section that is cut out so it keeps the wires near enough together and looks very neat and tidy. The stand its on is quite safe and doesn't rock and it allows you to adjust the angle of the screen no matter how you sit at your desk/table. From looking at it and knowing that it's a LDC display, it also doesn't take up much room considering its only a few inches thick so much better than the cube sized monitor I was used to.

The display of the monitor may be the most important part of deciding to buy it and this one is actually pretty good. The maximum resolution on this is 1280 x 1024 which I have and I haven't had any problems with it so far and its looks sharp. It supports 24 bit colours and the monitor itself has a 20 ms response time which is quite good, although at hat speed I wouldn't notice much difference. The screen itself also contains an anti-glare coating which I think does help considering it's been in numerous positions in my house and nothing seems to affect it so far.

The image on screen is great as well considering the contrast ratio is 1000:1 which is better than most TV's and monitors itself. It has a viewing angle of 170 both horizontally and vertically although I'm not sure how important that will be too you.

One of the functions of the Viewsonic VA915 monitor is the fact you can put it on stand by mode or energy saving mode. Now this can sound like a good idea but something I find this may be the only downside to the monitor as it sometimes goes into this mode without even telling it too or something like it. This means the monitor is on, the PC is on but I get nothing on screen except a mention that there is no connection. I then check the connections which seem find and nothing I press works so I tend to restart the computer and suddenly everything is working fine as before. This has only happened about once every 3 to 4 months but just thought I should mention it as it could cause loss of work unless you try pressing ctrl + s and hope it saves your work.

Overall I have found this monitor to be really good comparing it to older monitors and even university monitors and it will last for a very long time. It's also sold at a very good price and should be mentioned when looking for a new monitor whether it's for personal use such as gaming or Internet and business use in the office. 

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