ViewSonic VX2776-smhd Review

Performance Analysis

It's a shame not to see 100 percent sRGB gamut coverage, although 97 percent certainly isn't a terrible result, and it's only a small area towards the green area of the chart that isn't covered. This isn't a wide gamut display aimed at professionals, so only meeting 75 percent of the AdobeRGB gamut is understandable.

We saw a maximum brightness of just under 225cd/m²; a little under the claimed figure of 250cd/m², but plenty bright enough for regular use in well lit rooms. Contrast ratio hovers at around 500:1 or just over depending on the brightness level, although we did manage to get one reading of almost 600:1 at full brightness; still some way off the claimed 1,000:1. In reality, however, poor contrast wasn't a major issue when viewing pictures or video, with the IPS panel delivering satisfying, although not amazing, blacks, and also doing a decent job of not being too reflective.

The default profile gave a 6,200K reading for the white point, which is only 300K away from the ideal. The image certainly didn't feel too warm or cool to look at, and while there is a specific sRGB profile onboard the only real impact was to brightness. The other built-in presets to make the image warmer or cooler are mostly too extreme, in our opinion, although the 'Cool' setting wasn't overdone.


Colour accuracy is remarkably excellent and a real strong point, with all but one of the 24 measured points attaining delta E values of less than 1 – the overall average of 0.63 is excellent. Similarly, we measured an excellent tone response across the board with a perfect 2.2 gamma value and a curve that is almost indistinguishable from what's considered ideal. The teal measurement with a delta E of 5.71 was the only misstep in these tests, and from a subjective viewpoint the monitor holds up well. It's not the most vivid screen out there, but our test images looked very nice with accurate skin tones and mid-ranges. Calibration didn't really benefit this screen at all, and we weren't able to get much improvement on the original figures.

Sadly, none of the ViewModes were particularly helpful. The Movie one just felt washed out while the Game modes either boosted the contrast far too high or messed too much with the gamma. This latter point is potentially advantageous for revealing shadowy areas of a map, but the sacrifices to image quality overall are too great for our liking.

For colour uniformity, the worst measured section is the top part of the screen, especially in the middle, although we can't say we noticed any glaring errors. The panel offers decent viewing angles, but is of course best viewed head-on, and given its lack of adjustment options this is probably how you'll be looking at it anyway.

Luminance uniformity is mostly up to scratch, with all but one area having a variation of 10 percent or less. A slight dip in brightness in the bottom right corner was measured, but the visible impact was minimal and 13 percent is still an okay result.


While not really designed as a gaming screen, we wanted to see how the VX2776-smhd held up. It's great playing on a 27in screen, even if it's not as sharp as higher resolution monitors. Image quality is good for the most part, although adding a little contrast (easy to do yourself) probably wouldn't go amiss – it's a shame the Game mode takes this too far. Despite the relatively low quoted GtG response time (4ms average), we didn't feel like ghosting was too big a deal. You can set response time to Advanced or Ultra, but they do introduced noticeable colour inaccuracies, especially the latter.

Conclusion

As a consumer-grade product, the VX2776-smhd has an understandable focus on style, and with its minimalist looks, easy setup and navigation and slim profile we'd say it has plenty of style and is one of the better looking monitors out there.

Thankfully, there's also substance as well. The contrast ratio is a little low, but otherwise the screen performance varies from decent to excellent, with particularly strong colour accuracy and gamma meaning that anyone who does a bit of photo editing needn't worry. That said, the relatively low resolution and lack of wide gamut support means it's not a screen for professionals. The absence of a high refresh rate and frame rate synchronisation technologies means that if gaming is going to be your primary use, this probably isn't the screen for you either. Nonetheless, for more casual users who do a bit of everything and won't feel limited by the 1080p resolution or lack of adjustment options, the VX2776-smhd is, to our eyes, a solid choice, and it'll look great on your desk as well.