VIEWSONIC XG2401 GAMING MONITOR REVIEW

The Viewsonic XG2401 (See it on Amazon) is the company’s mid-range 24″ gaming monitor and it costs a bit more than the base models due to the fact that it has FreeSync adaptive refresh rate technology, which is all the rage these days. It has HDMI and DisplayPort video inputs for fast-paced gaming, three USB ports for peripherals, and a 144Hz refresh rate too (DisplayPort-only) making it a well-equipped piece of gaming hardware. Before we jump in, let’s take a look at the manufacturer-supplied specs:

This 24-inch widescreen LED gaming monitor has an attractive black chassis and red-rimmed rectangular stand. It comes with a DisplayPort cable (a rarity), USB 3.0 cable, Quick Start Guide, ViewSonic Wizard CD and a three-year warranty. The XG2401 has one USB 2.0 port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a 3.5mm audio out for external speakers or headphones; it also has built-in speakers. While the monitor has two HDMI ports, you’ll have to supply your own cable if you choose that input, but you’ll only get the 144Hz refresh rate using DisplayPort so there’s no reason to opt for HDMI if you’re on a PC. In addition to the righteous port selection, the monitor can be easily adjusted including by height up to 4.7 inches, and it can also swivel 175 degrees in either direction, pivot a full 90 degrees for use in portrait mode, and tilt forward by 22 degrees and backward by 5 degrees, providing maximum comfort for binge gaming.

Easily the most unique gaming-specific feature of the the ViewSonic XG2401 is that it has seven built-in gaming profiles that you can adjust to your liking, including two First-Person Shooter (FPS) presets, a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) preset, a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) preset, as well as three custom Gamer presets. The latter three can be tweaked for response time, input lag, black stabilization, and Dynamic Contrast Ratio (DCR). Presets for FPS, RTS, and MOBA are meant to optimize gaming performance by adjusting brightness, response time, and input lag, however, none of these presets made any difference in my tests compared to the standard mode. The OSD settings include brightness, contrast, color temperature, sharpness, eco mode, and aspect ratio; there are also six picture presets (including game and movie), in addition to the aforementioned gaming profiles. You can also use the OSD to enable and disable Freesync, which uses a dynamic refresh rate to give you smooth, nearly stutter-free gameplay if you have a compatible AMD GPU. Freesync is not supported by nVidia graphics cards, but you can still enjoy this monitor’s 144Hz refresh rate even if you you’re on the green team.

We used Lagom LCD monitor test pages to measure performance including black and white levels, color gradient, and response time. The ViewSonic struggled with black levels, with test patterns barely visible in the top row (darkest). The XG2401 did better with white levels though, with patterns clearly visible until the brightest square in the pattern. It also displayed no banding in the color gradient test. Poor quality monitors tend to show lines or bands when brightness levels change, or even render grayscale gradients as color, as you can see in the example on Lagom’s website. To test response time, which measures how well a monitor reacts to changes in gray levels, the Lagom test uses eight test patterns with pixels that are switched on and off. On the best gaming monitors, these flashing patterns are undetectable; in fast-paced gameplay, this translates to minimal or no motion blur. The ViewSonic fared decently on four of the test patterns but scored a -120 on the other half, which is the worst possible outcome. This will affect games with darker colors or a lot of shadows. Adjusting black stabilization via the OSD menu may alleviate this problem, but it will vary from game to game.

The final test was the Blur Busters ghosting test, which uses colorful UFOs traveling across the screen to detect motion blur and related artifacts. Unfortunately, there was noticeable ghosting on the second row of UFOs traveling across a gray background. After running those benchmarks, we played Marvel Heroes 2016 to get some real-world data. Graphics looked sharp and there wasn’t any noticeable lag. However, there was some occasional motion blur around heroes and villains alike, but nothing too distracting. High definition video looked great, with vibrant colors and no artifacts. The speakers sound good enough for casual use, but if you want immersive sound, it’s worth investing in an external set.

Purchasing Guide The ViewSonic XG2401 has an MSRP of $279.99, but like a lot of PC hardware it can generally be nabbed at a discount. Best Buy and a few other retailers are currently offering it for $259 though, which is the same price currently listed on Amazon:

• See the ViewSonic XG2401 144Hz FreeSync Monitor on Amazon

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