Old thread, but thought it worth adding feedback as I just picked up a B grade (panel replaced by ViewSonic after original buyer RMAed it). One tiny panel imperfection in the bottom-left corner, a rear element or reflector imperfection and not a pixel fault, the rest of the panel is fine.
Calibrated using an i1 DisplayPro with DisplayCAL - took a couple of passes to get an optimum tune but it's a fabulous screen. Super low latency. Native 144 Hz with overdrive to 165 Hz. G-SYNC is just wonderful, my 1070 can drive at 2560x1440 with reasonable FPS but to be rid of screen tearing or VSYNC lag is a
beautiful thing.
Main praises:
- Great viewing angles and consistent colour with decent blacks for an IPS
- Pretty linear, accurate colour reproduction at various brightness once RGB values are tweaked and calibration applied (the display also offer RGBCMY adjustments if desired)
- Ideal WQHD resolution for panel size
- Very little backlight bleed and pretty uniform around the edges, at least on this panel
- Not too heavy considering its size
- Two pairs of 2xUSB 3.0 ports, two on the right side and two at the rear, fed by one USB 3.0 Type B.
- 100 x 100 mm VESA mount option
Main frustrations:
- The PSU is a brick but has a stupid C5 connector. You'll need to buy/make a C5/C13 cable if you'd normally run it off a UPS without BS1363.
- Inputs are just 1x DP 1.2a (2560x1440p165) and 1x HDMI 1.4 (2560x1440p60). Would have been nice to have multiple HDMI at least.
- The integrated USB3 hub depowers when the monitor is turned off.
- The accent LED in the base - which does a cheap ambilight effect based on majority on-screen RGB value - is crude and the LED shines right at you if the monitor is raised. Bit of gaffer sorted that! (You can turn it off if you want, I'd prefer an intensity adjust tbh)
- The display can rotate to portrait, but only clockwise
- The rear-positioned control buttons have no key dimple, and the menus have navigation buttons inconsistently laid out, so you can end up accidentally activating one of the 'Game' profiles which sets max brightness and too-high contrast, which is annoying.
- The sRGB profile is accurate-ish -- I needed to correct a slight blue-green cast by manually adjusting prior to ICM calibration. The resultant calibration was subtle once the RGB balance was fixed.
- The tiny speakers are abysmal.
I lucked out with this B grade at an almost 50% discount - for £345 it's a
superb panel. Its retail is STILL about £700 which is too rich for me!
I use a range of pro panels at work (factory calibrated units, prosumer displays and broadcast panels) across a range of prices.
I was fairly impressed recently with a 34" LG ultrawide (
34UM88C) which has a high quality IPS 8bit+FRC panel, can store a user calibration in its memory for device-independent recall and ships with individual factory calibration and coverage certificates. They cost a grand when we bought them
but they're currently on Amazon for 2p shy of £600. Two big caveats with the 34UM88C - only Freesync support and only a 60 Hz panel.
I don't expect G-SYNC adds as much to the RRP as ViewSonic are charging as a premium, so I'd probably wait for a £500-600 sale for this display - but I suspect it'll hold its value. Happily ViewSonic has a 3 year Pickup, Repair and Return warranty - reassuring as I've noted
some discussions of faults creeping in on some of these panels.
tldr: the XG2703-GS is excellent if you want a very high quality, decent-warranty G-SYNC panel which looks good out of the box and looks
great after a quick calibration. Gaming, photo editing and DTP all look fabulous. But $$$...
