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I’ve been a fan of the ViewSonic VP series for some time now. In fact since I reviewed the excellent VP211b back in September 2003. However, things have moved on a lot since then, but despite this fact, the overall look and design of the VP range has remained the same. Now, in some ways that’s a good thing, since I graduated from the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought, and I still believe that the VP range looks good and functions well today. However, some potential customers may be looking for a bit of a refresh by now.

But since I’m the one writing this review I’ll maintain that the VP design looks as good today as it did almost two years ago. The reason that I like the VP design is that it’s clean and simple. I’m a minimalist type of person, as my wife would tell you, and I like clean lines and an uncluttered appearance – don’t expect to find loads of ornaments or brick-a-brac in my house if you ever come to visit.

The slim silver bezel surrounding the 19in screen measures less than 2cm, making it quite unobtrusive – although I find black bezels even less intrusive, and if you agree with me, look for the VP191b, it’s the same monitor but with a black bezel. Branding is kept to a minimum, with a ViewSonic logo at the bottom left, the model name at the top right and the trademark Gouldian finches in the top left. Come to think of it, that sounds like a lot of branding, but you really don’t notice it while you’re looking at this screen.

Sitting dead centre, below the screen is ViewSonic’s usual array of buttons. Rather than labelling its buttons Menu and Exit like most manufacturers, ViewSonic insists on labelling its controls 1 and 2. Although this might seem confusing at first, it really isn’t, and once you’ve used the monitor for a while you won’t even look at which button you’re pressing when making adjustments. Pressing the 1 button will bring up the comprehensive OSD, while the up and down arrows are used to navigate through the menu; button 2 is then used to make selections. There are also shortcuts, so tapping the up and down buttons while not in the OSD will bring up brightness and contrast controls, and hitting button 2 while not in the OSD will switch between inputs.

Talking of inputs, at the rear you’ll find a DVI-D port and two D-SUB ports, so you could have three different machines hooked up to this monitor if you had the need. Here you’ll also find the standard kettle lead power socket, although there’s no sign of a USB hub, which is a shame considering the larger monitors in the VP range sport USB 2.0 hubs as standard.

One thing I’ve always liked about the ViewSonic VP monitors is the easy cable routing. What you get is three cable tidy loops running down the back of the central stand column – you can then just slip the cables into the loops and keep them out of the way. The central stand column is also telescopic and has a dampened movement – this makes it easy to raise and lower the screen vertically to achieve that perfect viewing angle. The screen will also pan left and right on the stand, although this was a little stiff at first and the whole unit twisted instead of just the screen. However, after a few minutes of twisting the screen left and right while holding the base of the stand, things loosened up.

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