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Viewsonic Gs790 19" Short Neck Monitor (Pc/Mac)

Viewsonic Gs790 19" Short Neck Monitor (Pc/Mac)

List Price: $335.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hmmmmm.....
Review: (...) I have worked professionally in graphics, web development, and software engineering for many years. I have worked on Sony Trinitrons, Viewsonics, Dells, and many more. The Viewsonics are by far my favorite for various reasons:
1) Small footprint is just awesome.
2) Colors are beautiful but not overly bright like Trinitrons ( after working on Trinitrons for long periods of time I would feel eye strain.)
3) Performance/Refresh/Pixel Size.
4) No aperture grille [junk] (lines and the vertical spacing of the pixels [stinks].)
5) PRICE !

I use the Pro series at work (P815) but at home I use this GS790 and I have had absolutely NO problems... I love it, plus I paid $(...) for it brand new over a year ago.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This Model is a Lemon!
Review: After reading others reviews, I am somewhat comforted to know I am not the only one disappointed with this monitor. The screen cannot be adjusted to correct "bowing" and other distortions. Customer service was no help whatsoever, and based on others experiences, I am glad I decided to just hang on to it despite its annoying defects. On the plus side, the colors and picture are okay. But this particular model is inherently dysfunctional based on all these similar complaints. A true lemon to avoid.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This Model is a Lemon!
Review: After reading others reviews, I am somewhat comforted to know I am not the only one disappointed with this monitor. The screen cannot be adjusted to correct "bowing" and other distortions. Customer service was no help whatsoever, and based on others experiences, I am glad I decided to just hang on to it despite its annoying defects. On the plus side, the colors and picture are okay. But this particular model is inherently dysfunctional based on all these similar complaints. A true lemon to avoid.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad choice
Review: After two months, I had problems with the monitor popping and turning itself off. Dealing with Customer Service was a nightmare. I paid shipping and insurance and was given a "refurbished" unit in exchange. Customer service agents were rude and disinterested, or seemed so after waiting on hold for 45 minutes. The replacement they sent has started to have problems waking up from sleep mode, but I have no faith in this brand. I truly regret not spending a few dollars more for a sony or mitsubishi.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Watch out for Bowing
Review: Although this monitor does have a very crisp picture, and great size -- there is a noticable "bowing" effect towards the top of the screen, right out of the box after I hooked it up properly and installed the drivers. Although the horizontal curvature is slight, and only appears to be on the upper 1/3 of the screen, it *is* noticeable, and can get annoying after a while when you discover that it cannot be fixed with the controls. (No amount of tweaking could fix it, so I had to return it.)

If you like STRAIGHT horizontal lines on your webpages, word docs, etc/, trust me -- don't get this monitor. It's easy to tweak the vertical lines, but the horizontals cannot be altered. No monitor has a "perfect" display, but with this one I'd say there's a pretty good chance you'll get some horizontal "bowing" that you can't correct with the adjustments. If not, consider yourself lucky -- or maybe not -- because it'll probably crap out in 6 months regardless.

That being said, I used to have a Viewsonic A70 and never had one problem with it. However, if you're looking for a reliable 19" monitor with nice, correctly drawn graphics and text, I'd look elsewhere than this one. This is definitely not a "flat screen" monitor (literally and figuratively) -- something Viewsonic convieniently fails to mention.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Got a defective one
Review: I bought the GS-790 because I have had very good luck with previous GS models from Viewsonic. Unfortunately, this one had some very strange problems with the tube. The only way I can describe it is that there appeared to be a thick ring of alternating purple and white superimposed on the lower left quadrant of the screen. I did try another computer and it did the same thing with it. Very stange, never seen that before. I will try another one, probably, but very disappointed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: I have both the G790 and GS790 and am extremely happy with both. The G790 was a great buy a few years ago. Now the GS790 has a smaller footprint, and looks even clearer.
Update: They are both still working great as of March 2004.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Buy This Monitor
Review: I purchased two GS-790 monitors within a few months of each other last year. Approximately 6 months after the purchase of the first one, I began experiencing problems with the monitor. The picture would 'pop' and the monitor would randomly go blurry or shut off. This continued to the point where it became unusable.

I contacted Viewsonic about the problem. They gave me an RMA number, but refused to pay for shipping to their facility. I shipped it back myself (for ~$75), but did not hear from them for several weeks. After calling them, they finally agreed to ship out a new monitor which arrived a week or so later. Overall the replacement process took over a month.

Recently the SECOND GS-790 has started having the same exact problem. Once again I've contacted them and will pay the ~$75 to ship the dying monitor back to them.

From my experience, it seems clear that you can expect any GS-790 monitor to fail within 6-9 months after purchase. I would NOT recommend this monitor to anyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Small footprint, big performance
Review: I recently purched our second GS790. I bought the first because of cramped space on that particular desk; I purchased the second because of the great performance and low price of the first. I have a 20" Trinitron that is hard pressed to do any better -- even with Photoshop.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Working fine in its third year
Review: I work with one and have another at home. Works fine in both locations. None of the problems others have reported. For what it was at the time of its introduction, I have gotten very good value.


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