ViewSonic VX2475Smhl-4K 24-Inch UHD Monitor Review

ViewSonic's new VX2475Smhl-4K is a 24-inch IPS panel that's currently one of the least expensive Ultra HD monitors available. Today we run it through our lab and hands-on tests.

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Early Verdict

If you want high pixel density in an IPS panel, it's hard to do much better unless you go 5K. The VX2475Smhl-4K has sufficient color accuracy for both business and graphics applications and serves well as a gaming monitor. And at this price point it doesn't have much competition.

Pros

  • +

    Ultra HD

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    PLS panel

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    fast response

  • +

    low input lag

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    accurate color

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    HDMI 2.0

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    low price

Cons

  • -

    Low-budget stand

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Introduction

Over the past couple of years, we've seen several exciting new technologies added to the tried-and-true LCD display. First, we had in-plane switching panels, which took off-axis image quality up a notch, improved color accuracy and lowered energy consumption. Resolution has increased from the 1920x1080 pixels of the average desktop monitor to 2560x1440 (QHD) and 3840x2160 (UHD). And we're starting to see 5K (5120x2880) panels now from Dell and HP. And of course gamers have finally been given some real choices thanks to faster refresh rates and signal-sync technologies like G-Sync and FreeSync.

The one common factor present in all of these innovations has been high cost. Any new technology will cost more at first; that's a universal constant. It just seems that monitors take longer to drop in price than other kinds of hardware.

Ultra HD is a great example of this. The first screens came out at 32 inches and were priced at around $3,000. We got our first significant price break when UHD came to the 28-inch form factor. The drawback is that those screens rely on TN technology. What everyone really wants is IPS and until recently, IPS commanded a premium.

We've reviewed 24-inch UHD monitors before but they were still priced at the high-end. Dell's UP2414Q can be found for around $600 and the NEC EA244UHD is closer to $1,000 at the time of this writing. If you're willing to give up those screens' wide gamut option however, ViewSonic has a brand-new IPS UHD model for only $400 -- the VX2475Smhl-4K that we're reviewing today.

Specifications

At this price point, ViewSonic is bringing Ultra HD to the business class. The monitor is based on a Samsung-manufactured PLS panel with a white LED backlight, 300cd/m2 of peak output and an sRGB color gamut. By the way, that backlight is flicker-free courtesy of its constant-current design. No pulse-width modulation is used here. It's pretty much the same feature set you'd see on most 27-inch QHD displays, which are gradually replacing FHD as the new desktop standard.

One thing you'll need to consider with an Ultra HD screen in this size is pixel density. The new 27-inch 5K screens (5120x2880) are highest at 217ppi. But second place goes to the 24-inch (actually 23.6 inches viewable) UHD monitors, which boast 187ppi.

That density in this screen size means that without dpi scaling in Windows, text is all but unreadable. We had to up the setting to 150 percent, which rendered everything clearly. That value seems to be a sweet spot for this particular monitor size.

Other VX2475Smhl-4K features include a Blue Light Filter that warms up the white point to reduce fatigue, a quick 4ms-rated response time and two HDMI 2.0 inputs that can accept the monitor's native resolution. The spec sheet and price pretty much guarantee the monitor's acceptance in the enterprise, but can it also satisfy gamers? Let's take a look.

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MORE: All Monitor ArticlesMORE: Displays on the Forums

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.

19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • wtfxxxgp
    24" UHD monitor for gaming? Nope. Just nope. It's too small for me, I'm getting old.
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    The pixel density of a 4K screen is about the same as a high end 1080p smart phone, the picture quality of this must be stunning.
    Reply
  • MasterMace
    Waiting on 60hz ips 2160p at $200 and 120hz ups 2160p at $350.
    Reply
  • xenol
    The pixel density of a 4K screen is about the same as a high end 1080p smart phone, the picture quality of this must be stunning.
    The monitor is half that, compared against a 6" phone. But at the viewing distances of a monitor, it may as well be effectively greater.
    Reply
  • Joseph Jasik
    Way too small, sorry.
    Reply
  • DisplayJunkie
    "nicely styled with a gloss-black bezel"

    Are you kidding me? Nicely styled? NO. Glossy black plastics are COMPLETE CRAP. They REFLECT the damn displayed image! This is ESPECIALLY horrible when it's used on bezels, it is EXTREMELY annoying.

    And glossy black plastics look terribly cheap.

    Not to mention black bezels reduces the perceived contrast ratio. Matte grays are the correct choice.

    Why do monitor manufacturers keep doing this?

    "Just" because of that, this monitor is immediately disqualified from my consideration.

    Reply
  • xenol
    24" UHD monitor for gaming? Nope. Just nope. It's too small for me, I'm getting old.
    You can think of it this way: you no longer have to deal with anti-aliasing of any kind!

    But then again 4K with no AA may as well be the same as 1080p with 4xMSAA (only not since MSAA is much cheaper than 4K still)
    Reply
  • nitrium
    I often wonder what the scalers are like in these things, i.e. if you run a resolution lower than native - something you may potentially be forced to do to get a playable framerate in gaming for example. Does it look absolute rubbish? How does 1080p look on these screens compared to 1080p on a screen with that as native resolution? Does it generally look better, worse or roughly the same? Are all scalers created equal? Would be very interested to read about this in future articles.
    Reply
  • chumly
    or you can get a 28" 4k from monoprice for $50 less.
    Reply
  • picture_perfect
    Here we go again.The best graphics card today will average 40 fps at this resolution. Check any current game. That means an awful gaming experience with judder, blur and lag. Scaling resolution down degrades picture / adds lag. So for gaming I will say NO.
    Reply