ViewSonic VP2780-4K 27-inch Ultra HD Monitor Review

Reviews
By Christian Eberle
last updated

We've got ViewSonic's VP2780-4K in the lab today. Is this 27-inch, Ultra HD, IPS-based monitor worth your hard-earned money? Let's find out!

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Packaging, Physical Layout, And Accessories

The VP2780-4K comes in a substantial carton made from heavy duty double-corrugated cardboard that could possibly withstand a small explosion. Between that and the large foam blocks inside, it’s unlikely any of these monitors will come to their new owners damaged.

The cable bundle includes a standard HDMI cable, plus a second one with a mini-MHL connector for compatible devices like phones and tablets. You also get DisplayPort and USB 3.0 connectors. Power is provided by a small external brick. A quick-start guide and CD with drivers and a full user manual rounds out the accessories.

The only assembly required is to attach the base with a captive bolt (no tools are needed). The entire package is quite solid and almost as tank-like as the NEC PA322UHD we recently reviewed. That monitor weighed in at over 45 pounds, but this ViewSonic is a much more manageable 18.4.

The anti-glare layer is typical of nearly all LCD monitors sold today, being of medium hardness (3H-rated) and good clarity. We didn’t see any grain in the image and even the tiniest details are clearly visible. Thanks to an extremely bright backlight, the image pops nicely and even at saner output levels looks well-saturated, with deep contrast.

Front bezel controls are small touch-sensitive icons that require a bit of precision to activate. Now that we’re spoiled by the controllers and joysticks used by some displays, these keys seem old school. They work reasonably well, although we found them a little finicky.

The base and upright are built very well and offer a full range of adjustments for tilt, swivel, height and portrait mode. The base is nearly 14 inches deep and over 20 inches wide, which means you're unlikely to topple the VP2780-4K over, no matter how hard you may try.

From the side, the panel looks fairly slim, and at just over two inches (including the bulge), it actually is. Some weight and bulk are saved by the external power brick which also removes a lot of heat from the panel. There is ventilation visible around the sides, but the VP2780-4K doesn't run hot. The two USB ports are version 3.0-compatible, and there are two more on the main input panel. On the back of the upright are two small cable management hooks.

The display is almost featureless across the back, with nothing but flat smooth surfaces. Once you remove the four bolts from the upright, a 100mm VESA mount is exposed. The inputs face downwards but are clearly labeled from the rear.

More and more screens are leaving analog VGA inputs behind, and the VP2780-4K is no exception. You get two HDMI 1.4 inputs which support MHL. A third HDMI port is version 2.0 compatible, which means it will support the panel’s native resolution at 60Hz. Or you can use one of the two DisplayPort inputs (one is a mini-connector). The analog audio jack is a headphone output. At the far right is the power supply connector, and the far left has the USB 3.0 upstream and downstream ports.

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

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27 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Daniel Ladishew
    I keep seeing prices quoted in your reviews that are lower than the links provided in the same article. This is very misleading and frankly confusing when trying to align your evaluation with the prospect of a purchase. Maybe it's time to review your system of automatic price linking and/or including how much a product costs in the text of your articles? While I don't expect it to match on the penny every time, several hundred dollar swings makes for a hard sell when you claim "a very reasonable $890 MSRP" for a product showing for over $1000.
    Reply
  • tomc100
    4K displays should start at 40" to really take advantage of the increased resolution. 27" doesn't make any sense.
    Reply
  • Walter Smith
    And yet be sure we will soon be seeing 4k resolution being common in our 5" or 6" screen smartphones. As an all purpose, everyday main monitor, at this price point, this screen bears some serious consideration.
    Reply
  • FritzEiv
    I keep seeing prices quoted in your reviews that are lower than the links provided in the same article. This is very misleading and frankly confusing when trying to align your evaluation with the prospect of a purchase. Maybe it's time to review your system of automatic price linking and/or including how much a product costs in the text of your articles? While I don't expect it to match on the penny every time, several hundred dollar swings makes for a hard sell when you claim "a very reasonable $890 MSRP" for a product showing for over $1000.

    Thanks for the input. In many articles we do call out the fact that the prices in the article are based on the writing time frame. I'll make a note about getting better and more consistent at that. The "buy buttons" we place into the articles, which are linked from e-tailers/merchants are typically dynamically linked using APIs. So the prices in those buttons are supposed to represent real time pricing, which, as you know, fluctuate madly depending on the category. The upside is that we'll always have the latest pricing. The downside is that it's different than what we put into our written text, and sometimes how we determine our "value" analysis, where applicable. Another downside is that sometimes the API implementations are a little wonky, a situation our development and commerce teams are continually trying to address.

    - Fritz Nelson, Editor-in-chief
    Reply
  • Eggz
    Good to see View Sonic based on the map with a quality product like this.
    Reply
  • zcat
    Do all of these 4k monitors do decent 1080p upscaling? That's my only real concern, since nobody's going to be gaming @ 4k native for quite a while, so the upscaling should look good and have negligible impact.
    Reply
  • Brian_R170
    I really like this monitor, but fear Viewsonic's reliability. In 2008-2009, my work group bought a few hundred value-priced 27-inch Viewsonic monitors and 23-inch Viewsonic TVs. The failure rate was unbelievably high, easily surpassing 50% in the first year for the 27-inch model. The 23-inch TVs fared better, but surpassed 50% failure within 3 years. Viewsonic replaced the ones that failed under warranty with refurbs, and they failed, too.

    I personally bought one of the same 27-inch models from Costco for home use after using one at work, it failed in less than 3 months. Thank goodness for Costco's warranty.

    Maybe just really bad quality control on a couple of low-end models, but it scares me when the author writes "The obvious question has to be: what’s missing?", because in my past experience, what was missing was quality control.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    16167997 said:
    4K displays should start at 40" to really take advantage of the increased resolution. 27" doesn't make any sense.
    Tell that to people who choose to do most of their reading on 1200-1600p 7-10" tablets due to the more pleasant, crisper, more paper-like fonts. I wouldn't mind having a 24-27" UHD display for reading. I am still a big fan of dead-tree format for reading because crisper fonts and higher contrast reduce eyestrain.
    Reply
  • tom10167
    except nobody sits 8" away from a 27" monitor.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Looks like a solid option. I miss my low latency Viewsonics from old, but Samsung gave fierce competition. I wonder what Samsung will bring to the table now.

    And please make prices go down already. I want one of these puppies at a reasonable 300-ish price, haha.

    Cheers!
    Reply