Having reviewed a couple of monitors before (for other companies) and spent a great amount of my adult life staring at them, I’ve learned that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, or in this case a monitor by its presets or flaps. Some of the best monitors are unassuming, almost shy. With ViewSonic giving you what you need to tailor the look and aesthetic to your liking, Elite XG270QG 27-inch 1440 is a masterclass in simple and smart design – both aesthetically and functionally.
That Simple, Smart Design
ViewSonic Elite XG270QG doesn’t overload visually. The LED hexagon at the back, two strips on the bottom bezel, the simple 3 button OSD controls, all wrapped in three bezel-less sides – it’s elegant for a gaming monitor.
The stand, also acting as a cable management solution, adds more macro-detail to the look. Minimalist with a rounded handle on top to accommodate comfortable repositioning, counterpointed with clean-cut angled feet at the base studded with rubber for grip.
Setup is mostly toolless with only the privacy flaps requiring a screwdriver or knife. And despite the lack of screws, it’s all very sturdy and rigid; ViewSonic Elite XG270QG feels as good as it looks.
Adjusting the monitor is effortless with the spring loaded mount. At full height (~120mm) you can swivel between portrait and landscape. ViewSonic XG270QG features horizontal and vertical viewing angle adjustments too. For full details check the specs below.
Bungie Hook Flaps
The added features are more of a mixed bag. The cable bungie was something I thought I didn’t need, even with a low eDPI. But once I hooked in, it effectively lightened my mouse and managed the cable all without getting in the way. Which is more than I can say about the next two features.
I’m not a fan of the headphone hook, on any monitor. Who actually uses them? I’ll just use the monitor as a headphone hook thank you very much!
I can’t help but think of Homer developing the car of the future when I see “gamer flaps” or “privacy flaps” or maybe you prefer “light flaps” either way. The flaps in question, do little to obscure the harsh, penetrative sunlight of Ireland, let alone any nosey folk who might want to peek past them. That said, I love how they scream ‘GAMER’.
Presets
The presets seemed like a sampling of features rather than well tested configurations. But once you get into the OSD, there’s enough settings to customise for most occasions. It must be mentioned Viewsonic aren’t alone in this category though, so I’ll take this opportunity to offer some constructive R&D advice.
It is practically impossible to make a preset that works for all games and lighting environments, so instead of compromising on presets, ViewSonic should test the presets through a variety of popular games and add presets specifically for those. Adding the runner up games preset to a webpage for customers to copy. As an after sales service this would be top-tier and have the potential to create a genuine community of enthusiasts.
A Quality Display
Coming from a BenQ 24” 1080p TN panel to ViewSonic’s IPS display it’s easy to appreciate the clarity and smoothness. The IPS Nano panel is surprisingly bright considering it doesn’t support HDR and LG’s Nano technology genuinely does give a near OLED-quality image when it comes to colour.
Conversely, at 1000:1 the contrast ratio does not compare to OLED. Turning up the brightness or gamma for a competitive advantage will result in blacks appearing grey and a haze in medium lit environments, but this is part of the trade-off for 1ms response time.
To give the panel a fair shot, I spent a significant amount of time calibrating for films and web. Turning down the brightness considerably improved darker scenes. And I found the wide colour gamut helps offset the low contrast, especially when you bump up the colour intensity of the panel.
Easy Setup for Some Games…
I play a lot of games. Mostly shooters, survival & indie with my passion lying in FPS. To test the panel I played some of my current favourite titles: CSGO, R6S, Apex, Overwatch, Escape from Tarkov, Ori and the Will of the wisps.
Counter Strike and Rainbow Six Siege are still two of the most popular games on Steam. Inspecting both games average pro settings, we see a pattern of 1080p 24-inch 144Hz plus monitors. 24” monitors are the perfect size for competitive play, giving you a large enough picture without having to strain to see your peripheries. But if you want to ignore the pros, I found that adjusting brightness, black EQ, gamma and colour intensity I could get a satisfactory competitive image. And my targets were bigger, a bonus!
As for Apex, Overwatch and Ori, their lighting out of the box is perfect and needs little to no adjustment. This is where ViewSonic XG270QG shines with the right hardware, with no problems maintaining around 120fps. The G-Sync module did its job and the IPS Nano colour helps make enemies and objects pop.
…But a Nightmare for Others
Configuring for Escape From Tarkov was a nightmare, similar to how Rainbow Six Siege was before they updated the lighting. The grainy characteristics of the black EQ makes sighting enemies in dark conditions awkward and washes out bright scenes, with the overall effect being a shorter view distance in most scenarios. I ended up going for less aggressive settings which gave a much more immersive experience.
Through the weeks I had with ViewSonic Elite XG270QG, I ended up reverting a lot of my presets to much less competitively aggressive configurations. I lowered the BlackEQ, OverDrive and decreased the Colour Intensity: all of which gave a clearer, higher-contrast image. It’s worth noting that this monitor lends itself to an immersive experience rather than a competitive one, given it’s 1440p and G-Sync nature. If you are interested in a competitive panel there are other monitors like ViewSonic’s own 1080p 240hz line-up .
A Competitive Monitor in its Own Right
ViewSonic worked hard to present the Elite XG270QG as a premium monitor for competitive gamers. And in the premium aspect it succeeds phenomenally, but as a first choice for competitive gaming it might be a little over-qualified for the current competitive scene and hardware. Given a few more years, 1440p panels will dominate.
They provide a huge increase in fidelity, decrease the need for performance hungry post-processes and still allow gamers to get decent frame rates compared to 4K.
This is a great monitor for those who value immersion, buttery smooth gameplay and colour quality but also want a panel that can handle some casual late-night competitive sessions.
Specifications
- Panel: IPS, 2560 x 1440, Refresh Rate Max. (Hz): 165
- Contrast Ratio: Dynamic – 120M:1, Static – 1,000:1 (typ)
- Light Source: LED
- Brightness: 350 cd/m2 (typ)
- Response Time (Typical GTG): 1ms
- Viewing Angles: 178º horizontal, 178º vertical
- Backlight Life (Hours): 30000 Hrs (Min)
- Adaptive Sync: NVIDIA G-Sync
- 3.5mm Audio Out: 1
- Display Port: 1
- Mount: VESA Compatible- 100 x 100 mm
- Frequency – Horizontal: 30 ~ 222KHz
- Frequency – Vertical: 24 ~ 165Hz
- Height Adjust (mm): 120
- Swivel: 90º
- Pivot (Right/Left): 90º / 90º
- Tilt (Forward/Back): -5º / 20º
The display quality, user experience and easy setup are what you would expect from a higher-price monitor. Coming in at around €750, at time of writing. And while there are some niggles in execution, the feature-set offered by ViewSonic XG270QG is excellent and only adds to the overall value.
