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12/05/2003: "ViewSonic UltraBrite A90f+"

I bought a ViewSonic A90f+ 19 inch CRT monitor in late July. I wrote a blog entry at that time entitled "Stolen Monitor." The entry was not really a review, since I spent most of the time talking about my amazement at having purchased a high-quality 19 inch monitor for $200 and my adventures with the Best Buy sales staff. Do a search on "Stolen Monitor" if you're interested, however; here, I'm going to write a review of the A90f+ monitor itself since I'm getting a lot of search engine traffic looking for exactly that. Click more.. below.

ViewSonic, as you probably know, is a high-end monitor, and I think the question foremost in the mind of someone looking for a review before purchasing an A90f+ is, "am I getting a real ViewSonic monitor for $200 and some change?" The answer to that question is yes. In the A90f+, you are getting what you hope to be getting, and you're getting it for $200 and some change. How does ViewSonic describe the features?

PerfectFlat® screen
Absolutely flat screen provides realistically proportioned, precise images with reduced reflection, image distortion and eye fatigue.

0.21mm horizontal dot pitch
0.25mm diagonal dot pitch
This ultra-fine dot pitch produces clear, crisp images with precise picture definition, even at the highest resolutions.

1792x1344 maximum resolution
Displays a maximum resolution of 1792x1344; 1280x1024 optimal resolution at 80Hz flicker-free refresh rate for easy-on-the-eyes viewing.
1792x1344 @ 61Hz
1600x1200 @ 68Hz
1280x1024 @ 80Hz
1152x870 @ 94Hz

Now back to me. I have had my A90f+ for several months now, running 1024 x 768 resolution with an 85 Hz refresh rate on a PC, and I am very happy with it. The ultraBright mode? That is kind of a disconcerting trick. When you press the ultrabrite button, you are probably looking at what people see on a Mac. Everything is bright with brilliant color. When you return to normal mode, everything looks like mud for the first few seconds, but then your eyes adjust and relax. It's like putting sunglasses on when you're out in a boat. Returning to UltraBrite mode, especially in a darkened room, can force a spontaneous ouch.

The disconcerting part for me, as a builder of very cool Web pages, is the realization that it's an exercise in futility to carefully "calibrate" your monitor in a vain effort to see "what other people see" when working on an image or a graphic design. Of course, I've had that experience before with Macs and with looking at my stuff through some of the wretched displays I find on clients' sites, but now, through the magic of ViewSonic technology, I'm able to torture myself at will with the simple press of a button. I don't even have to leave my chair. I just love it all.

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Replies: 4 Comments

I bought my Viewsonic A90F+ about 4-5 months ago. I was extremley happy with it since I was upgrading from a 15" LCD (nothing bad about LCD's but unless you want low resolutions playing games your stuck with them) Everything was pretty much picture perfect until the last few days. Now it squeezes the horizontal 1/2" on each side and Briteness/contrast is REALLY dark. I have to crank them almoost to max just to see what I have at a almost normal view. If anybody has a solution to this Please email me. Viewsonic hasnt replied to me in a week about the problem so apperently I am on my own despite my request.

Good 4 how long ? said @ 10/22/2004 02:19 AM CST

I have used an UltraBRite A90F+ for business software under Windows98, controlled by NVIDIA GeForce4 440 MX, for about three months. I couldn't load the driver that came in the box, and the driver on the support page was difficult to install, requiring a .exe program to load. (See handwriting on the wall.)

LapLink was causing me to re-boot frequently with a generic monitor, but with the A90f+ it is much worse. Even with the remote machine sending 16-color graphics, it appears that there is a buffer overflow due to synching the clipboards, causing LapLink to shutdown altogether.

I am wondering if an upgrade to WindowsXP Pro would solve this, but I'm still looking for an answer. I could go on a safari into darkest NVIDIAdriverland, again, I guess. Can you help?

Leon Tate said @ 06/09/2004 06:54 PM CST

Sure, 640x480 - 1600x1200 with color through "True Color".

Cliff said @ 01/01/2004 07:52 PM CST

I am considering purchasing a Viewsonic A90f+ monitor. I need it to operate with screen areas of 1600x1200 and ALSO 640x480.

Will it operate if the computer is set for a screen area of 640x480? I can go down to 16 colors if necessary.

Thank you.

Question said @ 01/01/2004 06:13 PM CST