A Pro Monitor That Delivers The Last One-Percent
After testing and using the VP2772, we came away fairly impressed. On the surface, that's a lot of money to shell out for a 27-inch QHD screen. But upon closer examination, ViewSonic does offer a very good product.
Selectable color gamuts are a fairly new feature that we’ve only seen on a few displays like this one. It doesn’t seem like a big deal to most, but if you need both Adobe RGB and sRGB, your choices are otherwise fairly limited. Out of all of the monitors I've reviewed, only the Dell 24- and 32-inch UHD models, along with Asus' PA279Q, have this option.
The VP2772's other selling point is its native 10-bit color with 14-bit LUT. To fully take advantage of this, you need a 10-bit signal, which, even on high-end graphics workstations is a rarity. But with a more-common 8-bit source, the built-in processing power does make a visible difference in image quality.
Measured performance is fairly impressive. ViewSonic claims errors of less than three Delta E (the generally accepted threshold of visibility), and it meets that goal. Without calibration, our press sample hit all of the marks (1.31 for Adobe RGB, 1.37 for sRGB, 1.43 for grayscale, and 2.14 for gamma). Those are all fantastic numbers.
My only nitpick is that you can’t calibrate this display to an even higher standard. I feel strongly that a professional monitor should include high and low grayscale controls; a CMS with hue, saturation, and luminance controls for all colors; and a multi-point gamma adjustment. Furthermore, there should be multiple user memories where different configurations can be saved in addition to the preset picture modes.
A large part of the VP2772’s appeal is its beautiful smooth-toned picture. I can’t measure or even show you that quality, but it can be seen with the naked eye. In my review of the Planar PXL2790MX, clarity played a major role in the evaluation. At Tom’s Hardware, we try to avoid reporting opinion in product reviews. But in a few cases, we have to. In this review, smoothness is the adjective I used most often, and it’s something that separates this display from others.
There is a reason some people prefer the look of film, just like some prefer analog audio over digital. It’s the smoothness that comes from an infinite number of color gradations possible in a chemical medium. When you digitize those colors, you’re limited by the bit depth of your signal chain. While it may seem incredible to say that 16.7 million colors aren’t enough to accurately render an image, the human eye can see billions of colors.
In discussions about monitors like this, price is inevitably the hottest topic. To that I can only say this: many value-oriented products offer excellent performance up to the ninety-ninth percentile. And the vast majority of users will be more than satisfied with that 99 percent. But if you want that last one percent, and some invariably do, it will cost you. It’s not worth the premium to everyone. However, to those who want that one percent, the VP2772 can deliver it.
