Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware!
Review: Having sold countless Viewsonic monitors in years past, when it came time to replace my own 19" CRT, I did some research and chose the P90F from their professional line of monitors. Bad choice. The monitor had numerous serious problems. Text (at 1024x768) was unacceptably fuzzy (far worse than the other two midline monitors in my office). It had a 4mm drop in the upper-right corner. The vertical linearity was decidedly sub par. It would not correctly retain the horizontal sizing. And most disturbingly, it would take over 20 minutes to slooowwwly restore the saved settings coming out of sleep mode! The documentation leads one to believe that the maximum vertical refresh rate is only 85Hz, which is exactly what both the PNP and supplied driver also show as a maximum. One has to trust the web site's figures if you are going to drive it any higher (my card supports 160Hz at this resolution). All in all, a disaster, and so it went back. I won't be buying from Viewsonic again.Not wanting to risk another disaster, I went premium all the way and bought an Eizo Flexscan T766, which is the finest monitor I've ever owned or worked with.
Rating:
Summary: DEFECTIVE Monitor ...
Review: I have gone through two of these monitors in less than 9 months. The first one had a manufacturing defect. The second one actually burned up last night. While both of these monitors were within ViewSonic's warranty period, you wouldn't know it from talking to their tech support and customer service people. This company does not stand behind their products: to get the first monitor repaired (which was less than 30-days old at the time), I had to spend an extra $$$ to ship the monitor back to the company. The second monitor has not been repaired yet because ViewSonic doesn't "have stock" and can't ship me a replacement and don't know when they will have a replacement available. Hmmm... for ... a supposed "top of the line" monitor, you would think ViewSonic would care about their customers. ...
Rating: 
Summary: An additional comment to my earlier review
Review: I thought I would update my earlier review. As written there, there were horizontal geometry problems with the first few monitors. I have now gotten a new monitor. The horizontal geometry problem is with this monitor reduced to a difference of 1 mm between the right and left side of the monitor, and that is much more acceptable than the 3 mm difference on the two earlier monitors I tried. Else the same positive qualities holds true: a very bright monitor, with crisp colors, and very good sharpness; it is a great joy to work with this monitor! I would give it 5 stars if it wasn't for the geometry problems. I have been in contact with both ViewSonic Europe, and the local importer, and apparently ViewSonic's specifications allow for a difference of up to 3 mm's horisontically. I personally find that that is 2 mm's too much. Fortunately, at least in Scandinavia, the importer (www.infocare.dk) will send you a new monitor within 48 hours, providing you with a postage-paid form to mail the defect monitor back to them). At least the service is good! A word of advice, which I think has been stated earlier, but nevertheless it doesn't hurt to repeat it: wait about 45 minutes after you have turned it on before you tweak the picture with the controls (which by the way I still find the easiest to use monitor controls I have so far encountered!) for the best possible picture. Lastly, I would like to mention that I looked into a lot of other totally flat CRT monitors on the market, but they were either considerably more expensive and/or had two vertical damper wires across the screen, and certainly none of them has the elegant design of the ViewSonic P90f that makes it possible for you to even have it in your living room; it actually enhances it!:-)
Rating:
Summary: Quality problem
Review: I went through two monitors before Amazon stopped sending them due to widespread quality problems. The first was a complete blur. The second was bright and clear on the right side with a greenish tint on the left. The middle of the bottom bent upward and the upper left was a blur. I tried using the Viewsonic web site to resolve the issues. There is very little technical information on their site. I got an email after two days from Viewsonic tech support stating that the monitor was broken. I originally selected the monitor based on the technical specs which showed it to be one of the sharpest 19" monitors on the market. The monitor looks great when it is turned off. Fortunately, the free shipping and return policy kept me from losing money on the deal. So, 5 stars to Amazon, 1 star to Viewsonic.
Rating:
Summary: Quality problem
Review: I went through two monitors before Amazon stopped sending them due to widespread quality problems. The first was a complete blur. The second was bright and clear on the right side with a greenish tint on the left. The middle of the bottom bent upward and the upper left was a blur. I tried using the Viewsonic web site to resolve the issues. There is very little technical information on their site. I got an email after two days from Viewsonic tech support stating that the monitor was broken. I originally selected the monitor based on the technical specs which showed it to be one of the sharpest 19" monitors on the market. The monitor looks great when it is turned off. Fortunately, the free shipping and return policy kept me from losing money on the deal. So, 5 stars to Amazon, 1 star to Viewsonic.
Rating:
Summary: DEFECTIVE Monitor ...
Review: I'm a software architect and I purchased this monitor for one thing, higher resolution, so that I could see more code on the screen at the same time. I have the resolution set to 1600x1200 and the clarity is outstanding--better than my Sony Multiscan Trinitron. Overall, this is simply the best CRT I've ever had. Only one caveat. It takes some time to set up this monitor. You will have to work through h and v size/position, pincushion, purity, contrast/brightness, convergence, rotation, etc. Be patient, it's worth the effort. Also, if you're cranking up the resolution, use at least a decent video card. I'm using a Radeon 7200 64MB DDR card and it works just fine.
Rating: 
Summary: Resolution and Clarity
Review: I'm a software architect and I purchased this monitor for one thing, higher resolution, so that I could see more code on the screen at the same time. I have the resolution set to 1600x1200 and the clarity is outstanding--better than my Sony Multiscan Trinitron. Overall, this is simply the best CRT I've ever had. Only one caveat. It takes some time to set up this monitor. You will have to work through h and v size/position, pincushion, purity, contrast/brightness, convergence, rotation, etc. Be patient, it's worth the effort. Also, if you're cranking up the resolution, use at least a decent video card. I'm using a Radeon 7200 64MB DDR card and it works just fine.
Rating:
Summary: A good mid-range monitor
Review: Ordering a monitor over the internet is a mixed bag: You can't see it for yourself before you buy it. You can't stop the shipping company from banging around the box. And you certainly must realize that a significant portion of these mass produced monitors come off the line as lemons. I was a little worried when I put in my Internet order for this monitor: In addition to the factors above, there are some very negative one star reviews of the P90F. When I first got the monitor hooked up, my first impression was good: Bright picture, no obvious blotches of discoloration, steady image. Closer inspection of the image at my preferred resolution (1600x1200 @ 85 Hz) revealed some worrisome flaws: * There were a couple vertical half-inch-wide bars of dimming along running the length of the left hand side of the screen. * Text was blurring in the corners due to misconvergence, and the purity of the right top and right bottom corner was off. * There were also noticeable screen geometry problems around the edges of the screen: It is not uncommon for P90F to have a 1mm to 3mm vertical "slant" along one of the horizontal edges of the screen. This I found to be annoying, but did not affect the image quality (I looked at several full screen geometric pictures to see if I could notice distortion, and my eye could not find any). * The vertical edges of the screen are not perfectly straight. They are very close to straight though, and their straightness seems quite acceptable to me, especially for a monitor in this price class. * I noticed the frequently mentioned problem with this monitor taking 15 minutes to "remember" its vertical / horizontal screen sizing after it has been in sleep mode or turned off for a while. All these problems! But, I decided to stick with it for a couple days, and see what I could get fixed on my own. After three days I've decided to keep it. Read on for why. The vertical bars of dimming slowly seemed to "get better" after using the monitor for a couple days. Also, I changed the video timing mode on my nVidia video card to "Fixed Ratio" mode, which seemed to help alleviate the problem immediately. They are still *BARELY* visible on a purely white background and this is acceptable to me. I adjusted out the the text blurring (which was due to misconvergence) with the on-screen controls. This convergence adjusting took me about an hour of careful inspection of text and graphics in different applications and resolutions. The monitor still has a little misconvergance, but I have found a happy middle ground where everything in the corners is acceptable, and the convergence in the middle of the screen is quite crisp. All CRT monitors will be blurrier in the corner than they are in the centre. I am not entirely satisfied with the P90F's convergence however, and feel it is an area that ViewSonic could improve upon. The purity was again adjustible with the onscreen controls, and I was able to fix the dimness on the right top and bottom corners. The right-hand side of the screen is almost imperceptibly darker than the left, but this is only noticeable on a purely white screen, and even then is barely so. I was happy with this adjustment. The slanting along horizontal edge appears to be a common problem with this monitor. It can not be adjusted out -- I wish it wasn't there, but honestly I don't notice it at all when I'm using the monitor. However, serious graphics professionals who want uncompromizing geometry might do well to look to a higher quality CRT, or pay the premium on an LCD. The problem with this monitor "remembering" its vertical sizing very slowly when first starting it after it has been powered down for a while is a bit frustrating. I believe it has to do with the type of Tension Mask used in this particular CRT. Let's say you have had the monitor powered on for a while (i.e., displaying images so that the Mask is warmed up), and you adjust the horizontal edges of the image to the VERY edges of the displayable regions. You then power down the monitor for the night. In the morning, when you turn on the screen, you will notice that the horizontal edges of the image are now "out of bounds" of the displayable region. If you leave the image be, you will notice that the horizontal edges slowly come drift back into the original settings (and into view) over the next 15 minutes. I believe this is the Tension Mask warming up and slightly changing shape. Normally a problem like this would have me sending the monitor back right away. But -- I stopped to think for a bit: This particular CRT offers near Trinitron (read: great) brightness and color, but without aperture grille tension wire lines. However, it offers it at the cost of this slow "image size restoration" while warming up. Ask yourself: would you rather deal with a few millimeters of image shift when first powering on the monitor for the day, or would you rather have two distinctly visible horizontal black lines crossing your screen all day. I'll choose the former, and I have. Now, with all my adjustments set I have what I feel is a fantastic mid-range 19" monitor. The case is stylish and looks good with my black hardware. The image is crisp and and the colors are true and bright. I can even run at reasonably flicker free at 1920 x 1440 @ 70Hz, and text is still readable! This I feel is due to the excellent .24 dot pitch. It switches resolutions fairly quickly and without much noise. The only thing I wish ViewSonic had included was saveable monitor profiles for restoring certain settings for certain applications. However this is a "nice to have" and not a "must have." Overall I feel that this is probably the best monitor in its class. It requires a lot of tweaking, but the end result is very satisfying. One of its best features is that it has no aperture grille lines due to its Tension Mask CRT design. The only other monitor in this class that could compete would probably be the NEC/Mitsubishi.
Rating:
Summary: A good mid-range monitor
Review: Ordering a monitor over the internet is a mixed bag: You can't see it for yourself before you buy it. You can't stop the shipping company from banging around the box. And you certainly must realize that a significant portion of these mass produced monitors come off the line as lemons. I was a little worried when I put in my Internet order for this monitor: In addition to the factors above, there are some very negative one star reviews of the P90F. When I first got the monitor hooked up, my first impression was good: Bright picture, no obvious blotches of discoloration, steady image. Closer inspection of the image at my preferred resolution (1600x1200 @ 85 Hz) revealed some worrisome flaws: • There were a couple vertical half-inch-wide bars of dimming along running the length of the left hand side of the screen. • Text was blurring in the corners due to misconvergence, and the purity of the right top and right bottom corner was off. • There were also noticeable screen geometry problems around the edges of the screen: It is not uncommon for P90F to have a 1mm to 3mm vertical "slant" along one of the horizontal edges of the screen. This I found to be annoying, but did not affect the image quality (I looked at several full screen geometric pictures to see if I could notice distortion, and my eye could not find any). • The vertical edges of the screen are not perfectly straight. They are very close to straight though, and their straightness seems quite acceptable to me, especially for a monitor in this price class. • I noticed the frequently mentioned problem with this monitor taking 15 minutes to "remember" its vertical / horizontal screen sizing after it has been in sleep mode or turned off for a while. All these problems! But, I decided to stick with it for a couple days, and see what I could get fixed on my own. After three days I've decided to keep it. Read on for why. The vertical bars of dimming slowly seemed to "get better" after using the monitor for a couple days. Also, I changed the video timing mode on my nVidia video card to "Fixed Ratio" mode, which seemed to help alleviate the problem immediately. They are still *BARELY* visible on a purely white background and this is acceptable to me. I adjusted out the the text blurring (which was due to misconvergence) with the on-screen controls. This convergence adjusting took me about an hour of careful inspection of text and graphics in different applications and resolutions. The monitor still has a little misconvergance, but I have found a happy middle ground where everything in the corners is acceptable, and the convergence in the middle of the screen is quite crisp. All CRT monitors will be blurrier in the corner than they are in the centre. I am not entirely satisfied with the P90F's convergence however, and feel it is an area that ViewSonic could improve upon. The purity was again adjustible with the onscreen controls, and I was able to fix the dimness on the right top and bottom corners. The right-hand side of the screen is almost imperceptibly darker than the left, but this is only noticeable on a purely white screen, and even then is barely so. I was happy with this adjustment. The slanting along horizontal edge appears to be a common problem with this monitor. It can not be adjusted out -- I wish it wasn't there, but honestly I don't notice it at all when I'm using the monitor. However, serious graphics professionals who want uncompromizing geometry might do well to look to a higher quality CRT, or pay the premium on an LCD. The problem with this monitor "remembering" its vertical sizing very slowly when first starting it after it has been powered down for a while is a bit frustrating. I believe it has to do with the type of Tension Mask used in this particular CRT. Let's say you have had the monitor powered on for a while (i.e., displaying images so that the Mask is warmed up), and you adjust the horizontal edges of the image to the VERY edges of the displayable regions. You then power down the monitor for the night. In the morning, when you turn on the screen, you will notice that the horizontal edges of the image are now "out of bounds" of the displayable region. If you leave the image be, you will notice that the horizontal edges slowly come drift back into the original settings (and into view) over the next 15 minutes. I believe this is the Tension Mask warming up and slightly changing shape. Normally a problem like this would have me sending the monitor back right away. But -- I stopped to think for a bit: This particular CRT offers near Trinitron (read: great) brightness and color, but without aperture grille tension wire lines. However, it offers it at the cost of this slow "image size restoration" while warming up. Ask yourself: would you rather deal with a few millimeters of image shift when first powering on the monitor for the day, or would you rather have two distinctly visible horizontal black lines crossing your screen all day. I'll choose the former, and I have. Now, with all my adjustments set I have what I feel is a fantastic mid-range 19" monitor. The case is stylish and looks good with my black hardware. The image is crisp and and the colors are true and bright. I can even run at reasonably flicker free at 1920 x 1440 @ 70Hz, and text is still readable! This I feel is due to the excellent .24 dot pitch. It switches resolutions fairly quickly and without much noise. The only thing I wish ViewSonic had included was saveable monitor profiles for restoring certain settings for certain applications. However this is a "nice to have" and not a "must have." Overall I feel that this is probably the best monitor in its class. It requires a lot of tweaking, but the end result is very satisfying. One of its best features is that it has no aperture grille lines due to its Tension Mask CRT design. The only other monitor in this class that could compete would probably be the NEC/Mitsubishi.
Rating:
Summary: Good monitor but not quite up to "professional" class label
Review: Overall not as high quality as I would expect from a high-end monitor targeted at graphics professionals, but if you want a Trinitron-quality picture without the damper wires and the geometry doesn't have to be "professional" quality, look no further. Pros:
-Good refresh rates in higher resolutions- rock-solid 85hz all the way up to 1600x1200.
-Slot-mask technology gives a brighter picture without the visible horizontal damper wires that all aperture grill (Trinitron/Diamondtron) monitors have.
-Jaw-droppingly good picture - sharp, bright, vibrant, accurate colors. Games look fantastic.
-Text in 1280x960 and 1600x1200 very sharp and black (10 point Arial and Windows 2000 default fonts) Cons:
-Concave image takes some getting used to. Horizontal lines are bowed about 1/16" (it appears much worse than it measures) and there is no way to adjust it.
-The first unit I bought made me wonder if Viewsonic ever heard of QA- the non-glare coating stopped ½" from the corner of the screen. Fortunately I could return it for a replacement at no charge.
-The replacement unit displays a considerable convergence issue in the tests that will not adjust out, but I don't do any precise graphic work so I don't notice it. (first unit did not have this issue)
-Coming out of sleep mode, the picture takes about 10 minutes to come back to proper size.
-100hz refresh rate setting in 1280x mode is fuzzy and shimmers, use 85hz instead.
-Noticeable (but not severe) clicking when changing resolutions P.S. If you find this review helpful please post one of your own on whatever HW you buy to keep the "system" working- thanks.
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