ViewSonic VP2365wb review

Viewsonic advertises its VP2365wb as a professional display, so were absolutely gobsmacked when we saw the price. At only £164, it’s the cheapest 1,920 x 1,080 23in IPS-based monitor we’ve seen.

Next to some of its pricier competitors, though, the VP2365wb looks entirely utilitarian. The all-black, matte plastic finish is hardly luxurious and the buttons below the screen look distinctly old hat.

However, Viewsonic has crammed in a respectable array of features for the money. The stand swivels and rotates into portrait mode, rises up and down by 150mm and, although a little wobbly at full extension, it works well enough. In fact, the only thing missing from the features list is a DisplayPort input. Instead, there’s D-SUB, DVI and a four-port USB hub.

Once the VP2365wb fires into life, you’re unlikely to be worrying about the build quality. Images burst forth with natural colours and lots of detail, while the E-IPS panel delivers wide viewing angles, deep blacks and impressive contrast. The backlight is even, too, and there’s precious little backlight bleed.

When we tested it with our X-Rite colorimeter, the VP2365wb put in an equally impressive display. At its default settings, an average Delta E (colour accuracy – the lower the better) of 2.6 and a maximum of 6.3 is a great result. Only the gamma, at 2.0, and the colour temperature of 6,998k are a little outside the ideal.

Switching to the User Color mode and leaving the Red, Green and Blue controls set to 100 made a measurable difference. The slight blue tinge all but disappeared, and further measurements proved as much, with the gamma rising to 2.1, colour temperature dropping to 6,900k and the average Delta E improving to an excellent 1.9.

This is a stunning performance, with only one notable issue: a tendency for the Viewsonic’s greyscale tracking to almost crush the darkest greys into black. In the darkest scenes of The Thing on Blu-ray, the VP2365wb seemed to lose a little detail compared to its pricier competitors.

Otherwise, the Viewsonic VP2365wb is a great choice. Not only does it partner a fully adjustable stand with superb image quality, it’s also one of the vanishingly few monitors on the market which ships with a zero pixel-defect warranty. At this price, that makes it a stunning deal.