Viewsonic's glossy, piano-black VX2255wmb looks great, and it also comes in an iPod-like white. A 1.3-megapixel webcam is built into the middle of the surround at the top of the display, and there's a microphone to one side of the large power button at the bottom of the panel. A splitter cable with microphone and speaker connections on one end is also provided, which you can use with the confusingly named line-in port on the back of the monitor to channel audio from your sound card to the monitor's speakers, and from the microphone to the PC. There's also a headphone jack, a D-sub port and a DVI input that supports HDCP.
The webcam can take still images as well as recording video. Picture quality is reasonable, although it overcompensates a little for overhead office lighting, making lighter areas look washed out. The 2W speakers are positioned under the monitor rather than on the front. Although built-in speakers never sound particularly good, these are some of the worst we've heard. Even with the volume on both the PC and the monitor turned up full, they were barely audible. The narration on a video clip was hard to hear, and music sounded tinny and distorted at high volumes. We wouldn't use them for video conferencing.
The 22in display doesn't pivot, but you can adjust the screen elevation between 130mm and 250mm. A nifty plate on the bottom of the stand means the monitor can rotate 360. Like all the monitors we've seen of this size, this display has a native resolution of 1,680x1,050. The contrast ratio of 700:1 is slightly lower than that of HannsG's HW223DP (see 'Also consider...', below).
Images were crisp and sharp, but colours looked a little washed out, and blacks weren't as pure as we'd have liked. Movies and games didn't have the same impact as they do on other displays, such as the HW223DP. Although the VX2255wmb has a horizontal viewing angle of 170, the picture quality deteriorated noticeably when we stepped to either side of the screen. This display is not suitable for a viewing audience of more than one.
The VX2255wmb is a stylish monitor with good features for a reasonable price, but its image quality just isn't good enough. Buying HannsG's HW223DP and a webcam from this month's Labs would be a better idea.
System Specifications
1,680x1,050 native resolution, 700:1 contrast ratio, 5ms response time, DVI, D-sub, line-in, headphone connectors
Author: Lynley Oram
Computer Shopper Online