HARDWARE REVIEW

Viewsonic XG2401 Gaming Monitor Review

by Luke Walsh, February 16th, 2017

In a world where gaming monitors are getting more common and 4K gaming becoming a thing but still unattainable to the majority, ViewSonic’s mid-range XG2401 144Hz monitor is a nice way to delve into the realms of adaptive-refresh without forking out loads of money.

The XG2401 combined with FreeSync through a Displayport 1.2 allows adaptive refresh to be a reality when you are using a AMD based system. You won’t get all the bells a whistles of a £500+ gaming monitor but you will get performance and if you are an eSports gamer, we all know that’s where it counts.

Usually expensive panels are IPS which have improved colour accuracy and for better refresh rates with bigger resolutions that is really where it hurts the wallet. The XG 2401 is a FHD TN panel in a 24inch frame.

A lot of Viewsonic’s gaming range looks almost identical, they all come in a fully black frame with hints of red on the monitor bracket and the base…this monitor is no different. On the back it comes with a DisplayPort, 2 HDMI ports, a USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 with a 3.5 mm jack for audio out. Really to get the full benefit of this monitor you’ll only want to opt for the DisplayPort, that is the only way to get the 144Hz advertised refresh rate. The HDMI ports are a nice extra if you have consoles that you’d like to plug into the screen as well to create a more all in one set up.

Like others in the range, the monitor can be adjusted by a height of 4.7 inches, with a 175 degree swivel in both directions and a 90 degree pivot allowing you to use it in portrait mode which is great for those who use design tools such as PhotoShop.

Under the hood, there are 7 preset profiles you can use for different games. You get two FPS presets, one RTS, one MOBA and three customs ones, allowing you to store your own configurations for games. The custom profiles allow you to tweak settings such as Dynamic Contrast Ratio, response times, black stabilisation and input lag. The other predefined profiles adjust brightness, input lag, response times etc to improve games for that genre but in our tests there was no improvement compared to any other.

FreeSync is Viewsonic’s partnership with AMD to make their monitors completely compatible, if you want to disable it you can in the OSD but having a AMD card means you get a dynamic refresh rate that allows for smooth stutter-free gameplay. Nvidia card users such as myself, do not get those benefits, but you can still get the full 144Hz if you use the DisplayPort, so the monitor is still a practical option.

The XG2401 in terms of colour performance did pretty well, white levels were crisp and different gradients down to blacks made noticeable differences but it did struggle overall with black levels with them being a little washed out not being able to distinguish greatly between different shades. With other colours those it did exceptionally well and compared to cheaper monitored there were no tearing or major inaccuracies. Response times for the monitor is pretty good, the lighter colour response times are much better than the darker pixel refresh rate, so if you play a lot of darker games, you may notice flickering or motion blur. Tweaking the settings in the menu with black stabilisation can help but it will require you tweaking this really dependant on the game and scene.

Testing the monitor in Battlefield 1 the quality of the picture was great, with vivid colours but there was motion blur when playing. It is nothing majorly noticeable only happens more in the neutral scenes where ghosting can pick up just a little to create artifacts after moving. There was no lag that I could see from the monitor which is what you’d expect from 144Hz and if you do upgrade and then try and use a 60Hz, they say you can notice the difference and you will.

Overall, the XG2401 is a pretty decent gaming monitor for £200+ price tag. It may have difficulties with the blacks, a touch of motion blurring in some scenes and combined with some presets which don’t make any major difference to performance. But, what it does well is wicked refresh rates and combined with an AMD GPU it is a good option for gamers looking to getting a step up from their more traditional “non-gaming monitor” without destroying their wallet.