ViewSonic Elite XG270QG G-SYNC Review

Conclusion

It’s always fun for us to see a familiar name take all their experience and knowledge and bring it together to step back into the fold with a product which knocks it out of the park. It isn’t that ViewSonic have been left behind or haven’t been producing quality products, merely that everyone else has been decking their displays out with a host of QoL features that tempt the average person to part with their money.

With the Elite XG270QG ViewSonic have wrapped up everything they know about great panels, the meat of the recipe, and included a whole swathe of extra elements guaranteed to find an audience.

Let’s start with the panel itself. As regular readers will know we eschew the “here are a dozen graphs about gamuts” approach when reviewing monitors, and instead just go with our years of experience and the clear visual impact. After all, if you get down to the nitty gritty and take things frame by frame you a) can find fault with anything b) have more time on your hands than we do. What we care about is how it looks out of the box, as that indicates how much understanding and care the manufacturer has made to the default settings. We all know that TVs are setup to look good in brightly lit showrooms, but monitors have a difference audience and the ViewSonic Elite absolutely looks great in straight out and plug in mode. Of course you’re better off tuning it for your environment and the Elite XG270QG has an easy to use OSD that lets you fine tune it to your exact requirements. Colours are rich, the 165Hz panel is as responsive as you would expect and makes a real difference in those competitive multiplayer games, but it also brings moothness benefits in regular games too, assuming you’ve got the hardware necessary to make full use of it. Finally the inclusion of G-SYNC ensures that you get a smooth, tear free image no matter your frame rate, if you happen to be running an Nvidia GPU. Anyone who finds themselves loving the stable image you get from VSYNC but hating the stepped nature of its design – 59FPS actually drops down to 30FPS – will love the G-SYNC freedom as you get a rock solid image at exactly the frame rate you’re currently attaining.

The design is excellent too with a very thin bezel giving you an excellent vision-filling image and makes the ViewSonic Elite XG270QG the perfect candidate for a multi-monitor setup. Anyone who has run a couple of monitors, even taking advantage of their upgraded one as their main display and the one it replaced as a side monitor, knows that acreage of black plastic doesn’t lead to the smoothest visual effect. With the Elite you have almost no bezel butting together and thus get maximum image for your investment. Additionally the headset hanger and mouse bungee are the type of things that make a real difference to your quality of life, even if they aren’t things you can imagine you need. Not having your headset cluttering up the desk, or being able to utilise a wired mouse with the freedom of a wireless one only enhances your gaming fun.

Lastly the stand on the ViewSonic Elite deserves special praise. By making it out of metal they have managed to keep the size down to a level that frees up a lot of real estate on your desk, but doesn’t compromise the stability of the monitor. It doesn’t just look the part either, as with plenty of height adjustment, tilt and rotation alongside a smooth portrait mode let you place the XG270QG exactly where you want it.

It looks gorgeous when it’s off, and just as lovely when it’s on. Only the premium price-tag – £669 – is a negative, even if G-SYNC equipped displays are always at the pricier end of the spectrum, and the ViewSonic Elite XG270QG wins our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.

  

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