Design and features
The 23.6-inch ViewSonic VX2433wm has a glossy, black bezel that slopes inward toward the screen on all sides. The bottom middle of the bezel has a raised ViewSonic logo above a blue LED and grey power button. The screen has a slightly frosty matte finish with an anti-glare coating. The back of the monitor's chassis is a smooth black matte plastic with a ViewSonic logo etched into the top. Also on the back at the top of the monitor are the built-in speakers.
Unfortunately, the screen's height is neither adjustable nor are there screen rotation or pivot options for portrait mode. The capability to tilt the screen back 20° is the monitor's only ergonomic feature.
The monitor's connection options include HDMI, VGA and DVI. Also, included are audio in and audio out ports. All connections are on the back on the lower right-hand side of the panel and face downward. While most of the connections are easy to access, the monitor's HDMI port sits right over the display's neck and is slightly more difficult to access.
The on-screen display button array is located on the lower right-hand edge of the panel and consists of four buttons aligned vertically with enough space between each to keep your fingers comfortable while navigating it. Unfortunately, the labels on the front of the bezel that correspond to each OSD button are difficult to see, even in normal room lighting. Pressing the 1 button brings up the OSD and the up and down arrow buttons let you navigate the menu. The 2 button doubles as the enter button and source select.
The OSD options include the standard brightness, contrast and various colour options. In lieu of preset options, the ViewSonic provides four colour temperature selections: 5000K; 6500K; 7500K; and 9300K; as well as an sRGB option and a user colour option where you can change its red, green and blue values individually. Other OSD options include memory recall, which resets the monitor to its factory settings, a Dynamic Contrast option, and a Display mode where you can select from RGB or YUV modes. There's also an option to adjust the response time from Standard to Advanced or Ultra Fast. We didn't notice any difference in performance when switching between these options. ViewSonic also includes eco-mode on the monitor with three options: Standard, Optimize and Conserve. Selecting each mode adjusts the brightness level, which in turn lowers the monitor's energy consumption.
Finally, there's an OSD specific option for setting the OSD to stay on-screen up to a minute (useful for anyone who will spend a good amount of time calibrating the display).
The ViewSonic VX2433wm 16:9 aspect ratio supports a "Full HD" native resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. This continues the trend of monitor vendors moving toward 16:9 from 16:10 because high-definition content — in particular 1080p movies — can fit onto a 1920x1080-pixel screen in full-screen mode without stretching the image.
Performance
We tested the ViewSonic VX2433wm with its DVI connection. The display posted a composite score of 90 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests, coming in at just less than the 23-inch Asus VH236H's score of 93 and matching the Dell ST2310's 90 score. The VX2433wm performed decently with colour accuracy, showing no signs of compression at the dark and light ends of the colour scales. However, it did show some off tints in our colour-tracking tests, where some of the mid-level greys had a noticeable green hue to them.
The VX2433wm achieved a brightness score of 269 candelas per square metre (cd/m²) — lower than ViewSonic's claimed 300cd/m² rating for the monitor. Its brightness score is also lower than the Asus VH236H's 283cd/m², but higher than the Dell ST2310's 203cd/m².
We used the VX2433wm's SRGB and user colour presets to watch Kill Bill Vol. 1 on DVD and several 1080p movie files from Microsoft's WMV HD Showcase. In both Kill Bill and the 1080p movies, we found that while the overall colour of flesh tones was slightly yellowish in comparison with the ST2310, its representation of white was brighter than the ST2310. As such, things like snow and clouds didn't look quite as dark as they did on the ST2310. Also, the VX2433wm had trouble distinguishing very dark grey from black.
We looked at World of Warcraft and Unreal Tournament 3 and noticed no signs of input lag, any streaking or ghosting during fast movement; however, with the monitor's brightness level being so low, its colours don't "pop" as they should and the games looked dull.
The built-in speakers reached a decent volume and showed no signs of distortion, but don't go throwing out your stand-alone speakers just yet. Dedicated speakers are still preferred over the VX2433mw's built-in pair.
The optimal viewing angle for a monitor is usually directly in front, about a quarter of the screen's distance down from the top. At this angle, you're viewing the colours and gamma correction as they were intended. Most monitors are not made to be viewed at any other angle. Depending on its panel type, monitor picture quality at non-optimal angles varies. Most monitors use TN panels that get overly bright or overly dark in parts of the screen when viewed from non-optimal angles. The ViewSonic VX2433wm uses a TN panel, and when it's viewed from the sides or bottom, we perceived the screens to darken about 152mm off of the centre of the screen. Of course, when viewed from the optimal angle, we had no glaring problems.
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