Viewsonic VX2452mh 24in monitor

The big deal about Viewsonic's new VX2452mh monitor is that it's meant to be flicker-free, regardless of the brightness level that you use. The company touts it as being easy on the eyes for all types of tasks, whether you're using it for gaming, or simply using it for Web browsing and word processing.

Flicker-free operation?

Viewsonic claims that this monitor uses a steady current to keep the LED backlight operating at a consistent level, regardless of the brightness level that's being used. We've noticed flickering at low brightness settings on some laptops in the past, but can't recall the last time flickering was a bothersome problem with a desktop LCD monitor.

Nevertheless, we plugged it in to a laptop with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M graphics adapter using HDMI, and rounded up a few colleagues to view this monitor at high, mid and low brightness levels to see if they could detect any flickering. The general consensus is that there was nothing to see.

We used an online pixel inversion test to look for excessive flickering, and compared the Viewsonic both to our laptop's screen, and to an AOC I2777FQ IPS-based panel, which is also said to be 'flicker free'. The Viewsonic showed less flicker than the laptop screen, but appeared to show a little more compared to the AOC. During static text and image tests, and scrolling tests, the Viewsonic showed no noticeable effects from flickering.

Design and picture quality

The overall picture quality of the VX2452mh is more of a talking point. It has a 24in viewable area with an anti-glare finish, which means that room lights and other light sources won't cause you too much hassle. However, the bezel around the screen is glossy, which can be annoying. This glossiness gives the VX2452mh a somewhat cheap-looking aesthetic (it's meant to be a low-cost monitor after all), and we'd prefer a dull finish rather than gloss for both the bezel and the rounded stand (the panel also has a VESA mounting). We can understand the reason Viewsonic went for the more flashy finish, given that it's aimed at gamers and home entertainment, rather than business users, but reflections can be seen in it, and can be distracting.

We found the picture quality from this monitor to be of a high quality, and it reminded us of the days when the company with the colourful bird logo had some of the best display products on the Aussie market. That said, it's not a high-end monitor, and it doesn't make use of IPS (in-plane switching) technology.

Even so, its viewing angles are quite wide, and its colour reproduction is suitable for viewing and editing photos if you're a casual photographer. The specs state a horizontal viewing angle of 170 degrees, and a vertical angle of 160 degrees, and we only noticed a slight shift in colour when sitting off to the side, rather than directly in front of the monitor. Once we adjusted the tilt of the monitor to suit our seating position, we didn't have any problems with the vertical angle either.

For most tasks, this Viewsonic monitor proved to be enjoyable to look at. Primarily, we used it for word processing, and also for viewing and editing photos, as well as some gaming. Its colour reproduction is of a high class, even when you leave it at its default settings, with excellent levels of detail present in our photos, as well as accurate colour reproduction.

That said, one thing that stood out to us was the bleeding from the backlight around the edges. This was primarily visible on dark backgrounds, at the left and right sides, and at the top and bottom. It's the type of thing that could be annoying during full-screen movie playback and photo displays, and especially when you are in a dark environment, but it's not noticeable when using general office programs or playing games.

You can connect up to three devices to the monitor via its HDMI, DVI and VGA ports, and there are a couple of speakers built in, which are activated when you use HDMI (or you can run an analogue audio cable if you don't use HDMI). Don't rely on these speakers for anything important. Their sound is as weak as it gets. Controls for the on-screen monitor are present under the front-right lip of the screen, with simple select and arrow buttons allowing you to change the luminance and colour temperature.

Power consumption was a shade under 15W when we used 40 per cent brightness (which was the ideal setting for our working environment), and went up to 20W when set to 100 per cent. There is an 'eco' setting in the menu that can be used if you don't want to adjust the luminance manually, and this brought the power consumption down to about 14W.

Final thoughts

The 24in VX2452mh has a recommended retail price of $269, but it can be found for under $200 from many online stores, and that makes a good deal, especially if you're after a screen that can give good overall colour reproduction and fast response for gaming (its response is 2ms from grey-to-grey and there was no blurring noticeable during our Battlefield 3 sessions). If you are susceptible to seeing flicker in LCD screens, then you should try this monitor to see if the new backlight power delivery makes things easier on your eyes.