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

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!

Early Verdict

27 inches is on the small side for Ultra HD but the VP2780-4K has enough positive qualities to merit serious consideration. No calibration is required thanks to a factory adjustment that is backed up by a data sheet individual to each monitor. With a street price just over $800 it represents a new value point for IPS screens. Highly recommended

Pros

  • +

    Build quality

  • +

    Contrast

  • +

    Gamma

  • +

    Grayscale

  • +

    High output

  • +

    Input lag

  • +

    Out-of-box color accuracy

Cons

  • -

    Gamma and color in user mode

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Introduction

When it comes to new technology, if you want the bleeding edge you have to buy in at the premium level. This is definitely true with Ultra HD. The first screens were all 32 inches (based on IGZO parts from Sharp), and cost around $3000.

Last year we had a major price breakthrough thanks to 28-inch TN displays based on parts from Innolux. Those monitors are selling for $400-600 as of this writing. At the same time, various companies introduced 24-inch Ultra HD monitors using IPS panels from Innolux and LG. We’ve reviewed examples from Dell and NEC and found them to be extremely accurate with their factory calibrations and wide-gamut options.

Today we’re reviewing our first example of the fourth Ultra HD option: 27-inch IPS. Parts are available from AU Optronics, LG and Samsung, but the sample we’re looking at today is ViewSonic’s VP2780-4K.

Specifications


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We haven’t had a ViewSonic display in the labs for quite a while but its reputation for a solid build and good quality control is still intact. The VP2780-4K impresses right off the bat with a factory data sheet that covers all major calibration parameters: grayscale tracking, gamma and color gamut over multiple saturations. All the errors are reported to be under two Delta E and our tests confirmed every number.

There is no doubt this monitor is designed for professional use, yet its price tag is a little lower than expected. With NEC’s superb EA244UHD still selling for around $1000, we expected a 27-inch IPS screen to exceed that. Luckily, we were wrong. This new ViewSonic comes in at a very reasonable $890 MSRP, with street prices a bit lower still.

The obvious question has to be: what’s missing? Well, first there is no wide-gamut option. Many pros work in the sRGB color space, especially in the film and broadcast industry, so that isn’t a huge deal. You do, however, get an EBU option — something we don’t see very often. EBU is the high-definition color space used in European broadcasts. Basically there is slightly greater saturation in green, slightly less in red and blue remaining nearly the same. In our opinion, this solidifies the VP2780-4K’s design goal as a studio monitor.

Other features include 10-bit color courtesy of an 8-bit native panel with frame-rate conversion. The backlight is a white LED, which keeps costs down yet excludes an Adobe RGB gamut. There is also a built-in input matrix that allows simultaneous viewing of up to four sources — just the thing for multi-camera monitoring.

At a price of less than $900, the VP2780-4K bears serious consideration. Can it live up to its factory calibration and professional aspirations? Let’s take a look.

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.

  • 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