I was perusing Facebook Marketplace the other day looking at old monitors. It’s amazing how far we have come in such a seemingly short time. Some people and workplaces are only now upgrading from the 4:3 LCD monitors of old. I know this doesn’t apply to any of us, because let’s face it; if you are reading up on this type of gear, you are capable of keeping your gear up to date.
Let’s leave nostalgia behind and skip ahead to the present day, where ViewSonic, who have been consistently making high quality monitors for your viewing and gaming pleasure, released the ViewSonic Elite XG271QG Monitor, a 27” QHD monitor that, like a sports car, is designed for style and performance.
The monitor sports a 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, perfect for the gamer out there. To sweeten the pot, the ViewSonic Elite XG271QG supports Nvidia G-Sync to deliver a smooth gaming experience, removing input lag, artifacting and screen tearing from the equation. It also offers a 2560×1440 resolution.
The ViewSonic Elite XG271QG monitor has an IPS non-glare display that offers a viewing angle of up to 178 degrees. It also has 99% adobe colour coverage, giving it incredibly accurate colours no matter what you are doing. It has been given a VESA Display HDR 400 certification.
Built into the monitor are a bunch of great features, starting with the bottom of the monitor, where a small joystick serves as your menu navigation tool, a vast improvement from blindly feeling around the monitor to figure out which button performs which function.
“The ViewSonic Elite XG271QG supports Nvidia G-Sync to deliver a smooth gaming experience…”
The monitor has a lot of style with its sleek metal stand with a built-in hole for your cables to pass through to help keep your setup clean. Also, on the monitor there is a lot of RGB, both on the rear of the monitor and along the base, shining against your wall and desk respectively. Additionally, you can find a headset hanger and mouse cable anchor to keep your equipment tidy and keep your mouse cable (if you have a wired mouse) from getting caught on something when you game.
The ViewSonic Elite XG271QG has two HDMI inputs as well as one for display port, three USB-A 3.1 and a USB-B 3.1 input/outputs. There is also a 3.5 mm output for speakers or wired headphones.
There are a number of settings to add to your overall experience with the ViewSonic Elite XG271QG, including gaming presets such as Battle Royale, MOBA and G-Sync Esport. G-Sync processor settings give you a lot of options, including monitoring your frames per second on screen if you are so inclined. You can even add a crosshair on your display for gaming and place it in the ideal location for your game of choice, giving you a much clearer target to take down your enemies.
Video quality for this monitor is fantastic. As someone who spends a great deal of his day in front of monitors for my day job, content creation and everyday gaming, it’s important to have something that is adaptable to all three purposes and looks great no matter what I am doing, despite it being marketed as a gaming monitor.
It definitely performs as advertised. I’ve experienced no quality issues while gaming. For those with no experience with it, G-Sync is the real deal. There is a noticeably large difference in the gaming experience on a monitor with G-Sync and one without when you are working and gaming on a computer with an Nvidia GPU.
Sound Quality, while good, is limited because of a design flaw that doesn’t exist in just this monitor, but in so many monitors and TVs on the market; The speakers are on the back. While this is generally done to decrease the non-display landscape on a monitor/TV, a forward facing speaker is obviously a clearer option. As many people tend to use their headphones or speakers plugged directly into their PC, I understand the hesitation to make such a change, but if I am going to nitpick, consider the nit picked.
The price tag of $899.99 USD for the ViewSonic Elite XG271QG is, for some, not worth it on paper. The features that add to the price are geared towards gamers, so if that is not a part of your plan, finding another monitor without the proprietary G-Sync will save you some dollars. It will appear on the high end of the price point in most searches for similar monitors, but the competition all seems to fail to check all the boxes that this monitor checks. Some max out at 1080p, some are missing G-Sync or any other specs that make this monitor truly elite.
