Friday, September 24th 2021
ViewSonic Launches 28-inch 150 Hz 4K Monitor with PS5 Support
ViewSonic's new VX2882-4KP seems to be the 4K gaming monitor for those looking for a no-nonsense design, as it could be mistaken for a Dell office monitor. That said, not everyone is keen on the over the top designs some gaming monitors of late have featured, so it's nice to see something a bit more normal here, especially for those that use their PC for more than just gaming.
Unfortunately the only stand-out spec is the 150 Hz refresh rate, which lands somewhere between most 144 Hz 4K monitors and the two or three that can do 160 Hz. It's not an overclock setting in this case, as it's the official refresh rate of the VX2882-4KP. ViewSonic went for an IPS panel here, although it only has a brightness of 300 nits, which is not as impressive as much of its competition, neither is the HDR10 rating.
It also looks like ViewSonic has sourced what can only be considered as a "cheap" panel these days, as it's not even a true 8-bit panel, as it uses 6-bit + FRC, which you don't see on many 4K IPS monitors today. ViewSonic claims to use flicker free backlight with low blue light. On the other hand, the VX2882-4KP is said to be PS5 Ready, which suggests that ViewSonic has had it approved by Sony and it's also said to work with the Xbox Series X/S.
The good news is that it comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports, two DP 1.4 ports and a USB-C port with DP Alt mode, all of which support refresh rates of up to 150 Hz. The monitor is AMD FreeSync Premium certified and the FreeSync range starts at 30 Hz for the HDMI ports and 48 Hz for the DP and USB-C ports. Further connectivity includes two USB-A 3.2 ports and one USB-B 3.2 port, although we presume these are of the 5 Gbps variety. There's also a 3.5 mm audio jack and a barrel jack for the external power adapter. Finally there are a pair of built-in 2 W speakers.
So far the VX2882-4KP only seems to be on sale in Japan and there it retails for a fairly steep US$830. We're expecting that price to be more competitive in other markets.
Source:
ViewSonic
Unfortunately the only stand-out spec is the 150 Hz refresh rate, which lands somewhere between most 144 Hz 4K monitors and the two or three that can do 160 Hz. It's not an overclock setting in this case, as it's the official refresh rate of the VX2882-4KP. ViewSonic went for an IPS panel here, although it only has a brightness of 300 nits, which is not as impressive as much of its competition, neither is the HDR10 rating.
The good news is that it comes with two HDMI 2.1 ports, two DP 1.4 ports and a USB-C port with DP Alt mode, all of which support refresh rates of up to 150 Hz. The monitor is AMD FreeSync Premium certified and the FreeSync range starts at 30 Hz for the HDMI ports and 48 Hz for the DP and USB-C ports. Further connectivity includes two USB-A 3.2 ports and one USB-B 3.2 port, although we presume these are of the 5 Gbps variety. There's also a 3.5 mm audio jack and a barrel jack for the external power adapter. Finally there are a pair of built-in 2 W speakers.
So far the VX2882-4KP only seems to be on sale in Japan and there it retails for a fairly steep US$830. We're expecting that price to be more competitive in other markets.
31 Comments on ViewSonic Launches 28-inch 150 Hz 4K Monitor with PS5 Support
nah... as someone who games a 6 bit panel laptop... I can 100% say nah... I mean its not horrible, but I can def tell a difference between a nice 10 bi/8 bit with dithering panel and this 6 bit one.
Uh, anything with an HDMI input has PS5 support.
Meanwhile the PS5 cannot output at 4K 150Hz.
I think their marketing department needs to start again.
Look around, the vast majority of people dont know what a screen today is just a screen, they dont think about buying a monitor to hook up a playstation, they would be looking at a television.
That message of being "PS5 optimised/compatible/ready/etc" is just for those who didnt know something like that was even possible, so they hope to be drilling a market that otherwise would not exist.
Im suprised not a lot more monitor manufactuers advertise this fact
We have all these VESA standards, precisely so we we know we can plug a monitor into anything and it will work. If there's a problem running PS5 (or anything else) with a run-of-the-mill monitor, return the PS5, not the monitor.
Plus like in the EU prices tend to include tax, unlike the fake prices in the US where no tax is included.
Monitor market really is broken.
Feel free to compare prices on Amazon Japan to other countries and you'll see that it's not a cheap place to get a lot of things.
But yeah, Viewsonic went from coveted high-end monitors to just another player clumsily trying to make a dent into the cheaper monitor market.
Than 300nits, 6bit and 800$!? Are they insane? Hard pass
Displayninja.com shows a (not exhaustive) list of about 30 4K monitors that are approx 30", 8-bit, 144Hz or higher from Acer, AOC (and AGON), Asus, Gigabyte, LG, Nixeus, Philips, Viewsonic, Viotek, and most of them have sub-$1000 MSRPs. It's not a crowded market, but there's a ton of choice. $900 might well be the median MSRP for a 4K144 monitor but in reality the market is heavily discounted with many models available at reductions of 30% or more. That's usually a sign that the MSRP is too high, buyers don't see the value, and they sit on shelves and in warehouses depreciating.
When there's a good range of faster, better, 1440p ultrawides for less and regular 16:9 1440p monitors for a fraction of the cost, it's not hard to see why high-refresh 4K isn't selling. It needs to be half the price they're asking for wider adoption and it's why plenty of stores have healthy stocks of unsold 4K120+ monitors despite the deep discounts.
When something's bad value even after a discount, it's just priced wrong for the market, period.
Next question - are there any instances where a PS5 can deliver more than 60fps at 4K? :D
1080p120 over HDMI is well within the realms of $300 monitors (8-bit panels, I'd like to add!)
Compared to the US/France (by extention some other EU markets) the prices are similar, but maybe compared to Taiwan it could make sense.