Beautiful color

I bought this Viewsonic LCD when my other brand died after 1-1/2 years. I thought LCDs last at least five years. The Viewsonic was the third LDC monitor in about 5-6 years. So my fingers are crossed this will last a long time.

When the other brand monitor stopped working, I marched into Radio Shack down the street and bought the Viewsonic off the shelf. $199 (with a $30 Rebate = $169). Before going to RS, I read the reviews on Cnet and other consumer sites and the Viewsonic ranged between 7 and 9 in quality.

It was assembled in the store so when I got it home I had only to connect the cables and cords. Voila! the color is so brilliant and so clear it's almost blinding. That was the improvement over the last monitor - brilliance. You see it instantly.

Details and Specifications:
17" screen
1280x1024 native resolution
High brightness and contrast
PC and Mac® compatible
Energy Star efficient
Panel surface - anti-glare
8ms response time
600:1 contrast ratio

(Of course, I know nothing about response time and contrast ratio, but I imagine the higher the number the better?)

The Minus:
What it doesn't have is an in-built speaker like my last monitor. You will need a speaker. In my opinion, the screen adjustment buttons in front are too teeny tiny. The manual that came with the monitor did not have a troubleshooting sectin and it was written in 16 languages.

Performance: Since I'm not a gamer, I cannot give an opinion on how the monitor would perform with videogames. I do watch downloaded movies and the color is much better than my old monitor. I also used it for Second Life and can say that it was an improvement over the old LCD monitor.

Since this is fairly new I have not had a chance to interact with customer support. But the viewsonic.com site has all the product details, product manuals, warranty information, and other supporting information. The warranty is 3 years on labor and parts.

Otherwise, I am very pleased with the Viewsonic.