Are 17" LCDs Dead?

Spatial Uniformity

Uniformity quality is very accurate and similar in fact to that of the Fujitsu-Siemens T17-02. Nevertheless, the top of the panel is brighter than the bottom.

Static performance of the VP171s is mixed; we're miles away from that of the VP191b. What's the story on latency?

ViewSonic VP171s: We're Still Talking TN

The VP171s comprises an 8ms TN panel from AU-Optronics. As a result, we're well behind overdrive performance. The claimed 8 ms latency reached 25 ms in the worst cases.

In Practice

For a professional product, the VP171s proved disappointing for office applications. Character sharpness is nothing extraordinary in VGA mode. Use of the DVI interface is recommended. Furthermore, the vertical viewing angles are a bit narrow. Consequently, you have to spend a bit of time adjusting the height and inclination of the monitor to be best aligned with the panel.

In video games the VP171s comes into its own. Reactivity is good enough for fast-action games. What's more, a black level setting allows games to be played with darker backgrounds. Without overstating the case, dark black backgrounds have a lot to do with some games being spookier, especially since the interpolation is good, after all is said and done. So, you can play in 1024x768 resolution with reasonable results. On the other hand, an 800x600 resolution offers an image quality that is sufficiently graded.

Forget video: too much noise. Moreover, the top of the panel is a bit less bright then the bottom.