A leading brand in PC monitors, Viewsonic’s products are a common sight in corporate offices in India due to various factors such as affordability, reliability and a well established sales and service network. The company’s offerings include basic home and office monitors, gaming monitors, touchscreen monitors, and entertainment-friendly, high-resolution monitors. The ViewSonic product I’m reviewing here is an entertainment-focused option that claims to be suitable for both productivity and leisure use.
28,990 in India, the ViewSonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor (VX3211-4K-mhd) is a simple yet capable option for anyone looking to invest in a large, high-resolution monitor. As the name suggests, the monitor features a 32-inch Ultra-HD (3840×2160-pixel) TFT-LCD screen, and you also get built-in speakers and decent connectivity options. Is this the most versatile monitor you can buy for less than Rs. 30,000? Find out in this review.
The 32-inch Viewsonic 4K Entertainment Monitor has a one-piece stand that comes pre-attached
Viewsonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor (VX3211-4K-mhd) Design
Practically every mainstream television today has a 16:9 aspect ratio, as it is the most commonly used format for content. This ensures that one screen can fit a wide variety of content without too much blank area or distorting the image. Therefore it is no surprise that ViewSonic Would choose this aspect ratio for entertainment-focused monitors. At this size, it also allows for a reasonable Ultra-HD (3840×2160-pixel) resolution.
The Viewsonic 32-inch monitor looks largely like a similarly sized television, and works exactly like one, without the smarts you might expect. There are thin borders around the screen, and the monitor sits on a one-piece, center-mounted table stand that comes interestingly pre-attached to the sales package. You can also VESA-mount the monitor if you prefer, but the wall-mount kit is not included.
My review unit came with two 1.5m power cables with different style plugs and a 1.5m HDMI cable in the box. Oddly, one of the power cables had a larger 16A plug instead of the commonly used 6A plug that fits most Indian sockets. The second power cable in the box had a US-style three-pin plug, and I was fortunately able to use it with the adapter.
The pre-fixed stand is wide enough—almost the entire width of the monitor—and therefore requires a table wide enough to hold it. However, it’s a solid and well-built metal stand, and it makes the whole setup feel very stable. There is a possibility to tilt the screen 13 degrees backward and 5 degrees forward. Of course, if you want to wall-mount the monitor or use a VESA-compatible arm, you can easily remove the stand.
The video inputs are on the back, with the ports facing down.
On the back of the Viewsonic monitor are two 2.5W speakers for stereo sound, as well as six buttons for controlling the device’s menus. Icons for the buttons are on the front, and apart from the power button at the bottom, the rest are dynamic and change their functions according to your on-screen selections. That said, I found it quite difficult to navigate or control anything on the monitor using these buttons because I couldn’t see what I was pressing, and often pressed the wrong ones.
The ports and sockets on the ViewSonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor are all on the back and on the bottom, which I found a little inconvenient. Options include two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.4 input, and a 3.5mm socket for re-routing audio. You can of course use the headphones directly from any source device you’ve connected, including Bluetooth. USB Type-C with Power Delivery would have been nice, but I wouldn’t call its absence a drawback at this price.
ViewSonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor (VX3211-4K-mhd) Specs & Features
The ViewSonic 4K Entertainment Monitor features a 32-inch vertical alignment (VA) TFT-LCD screen with support for high dynamic range content in up to HDR10 format. The monitor’s maximum brightness is 300nits, and the standard refresh rate is 60Hz. Viewsonic claims that the color reproduction capability of this monitor covers 95 percent of the NTSC color gamut. All these specifications make for a good productivity performance for your computer or laptop as well as a ‘television’, provided you have the appropriate source device to connect to it.
Disappointingly, the Viewsonic 32-inch monitor doesn’t come with a remote, and all interaction with menus has to be done via fiddly and tricky buttons on the back.
Other key features include amd freesync compatibility, a blue light filter for eye care, an energy-saving ‘Eco’ mode for low power consumption, and various picture presets including game, web, movie, text, monochrome and macOS. HDR can be set to Auto mode and turned on when HDR content is detected by the monitor.
Viewsonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor (VX3211-4K-mhd) Performance
The ViewSonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor (VX3211-4K-mhd) is perfect for entertainment with a 16:9 aspect ratio, Ultra-HD resolution, HDR10 support, and built-in speakers. Samsung M7 Monitor Which I recently reviewed. Nevertheless, screen and picture quality are set primarily for use as a monitor.
There’s no remote for the Viewsonic 4K Entertainment Monitor, and control is via an awkward and uncomfortable set of buttons on the back.
The big difference between the two, however, is the Smart’s lacking in the ViewSonic, which explains the significant price difference between them. ViewSonic offers a basic screen without a native UI, apps, or connectivity, and relies on your source devices for all content. This can be easily overcome by adding a decent streaming device View video on the ViewSonic monitor, or even through your connected computer.
I had the ViewSonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor set up with realme book slim For most of this review, using a DisplayPort-to-USB Type-C cable. This allowed Windows to scale the monitor’s Ultra-HD resolution to 60 Hz. I also had a MacBook Air connected using the monitor’s HDMI port to test picture-in-picture mode, and a Xiaomi Mi Box 4K Ultra-HD to stream HDR content directly.
Although it may seem that the lack of smarts is a drawback, in reality it is not. As long as you have the right equipment to handle connectivity and treat the monitor as a typical non-smart TV, it’s a practical and convenient solution, especially given the lack of a remote. That said, making any adjustments to picture quality or monitor settings, including adjusting volume, activating picture-in-picture mode, and changing picture mode, was quite a hassle.
Picture-in-picture mode is useful if you have two source devices connected together. It works well for watching video in a secondary (and very small) window, while using the rest of the screen as my primary computer. The PiP display was too small for reading text or actively working on a secondary computer because it is not resizable. I preferred to switch my MacBook Air as the primary source and use it full-screen when needed.
16:9 aspect ratio and Ultra-HD resolution make the ViewSonic 4K Entertainment Monitor perfect for post-work entertainment
The monitor’s size and resolution make it great for reading, editing pictures, and sometimes for collaboration and group tasks such as drafting letters, making notes, and video calls. I felt that the Viewsonic 4K monitor’s colors were a bit warm, but the screen was sharp and held its own at angles and in daylight.
The monitor worked well for me during productive hours, and sometimes as a reference screen for writing and editing text. The high resolution made for very smooth access to text material, and the experience was as good as expected when watching videos and viewing pictures. I installed the monitor about three feet from where I was sitting, and I found that to be the ideal distance for one of this size.
With the Mi Box 4K connected, I was able to stream movies and TV shows. Picture quality was good when viewed from a short distance, and HDR mode activated automatically when the monitor detected such content. HDR videos appeared slightly brighter and Netflix shows like Somebody Feed fill had more impressive colors, but the differences weren’t significant.
The Viewsonic monitor came in handy as a standby television in my home, but many people may also find it usable as a primary TV for after-work entertainment. I had a little trouble controlling the volume on the monitor due to the lack of a remote, and found its 5W speaker system too low. These speakers are good enough for the occasional casual video on YouTube, but I preferred to use headphones or a separate speaker for a better entertainment experience.
Decision
There’s nothing extraordinary about the ViewSonic 32-inch 4K Entertainment Monitor (VX3211-4K-mhd), which I think is fine for one that’s expected to be an everyday performer. It has specifications that matter like a good size, high screen resolution and good connectivity options. Considering its price, it performs well as a monitor. Features like HDR support and picture-in-picture mode justify its entertainment-friendly credentials.
That said, there are some drawbacks, including the lack of a remote control, reduced sound quality from the built-in speakers, and potential compatibility issues with the bundled power cord. If you can find a workaround for these, or work around them, the Viewsonic 4K Entertainment Monitor is a good option to consider, especially for working professionals with limited space at home who want a monitor Which can double as a TV.
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