Everybody needs a good monitor these days, and it’s not that hard to find one. Whether it’s for work or play, getting a monitor that suits your needs is a godsend. Plus, you want it to fit your entire setup nicely, instead of taking too much space just for additional things to look at on your screen.

ViewSonic has always given people the kind of monitors they need for any use case. The company doesn’t shy away from delivering high-grade monitors for productivity or for gaming. Now, they have another offering that supposedly hits the mark on both the productivity and gaming aspect with the ViewSonic VX2418.

Is this an all-around display that you should go for?

What’s in the box?

Before we go any further, I think you should know what you’re getting with this monitor. For starters, the ViewSonic VX2418 comes with a 23.8-inch LCD, anti-glare display and up to a 165Hz refresh rate. At the back of the monitor, you will see two HDMI ports, one DisplayPort, and a headphone jack for audio output.

Also, the ViewSonic VX2418 also comes with dual integrated speakers found on each end of the monitor. If you’re lacking any good speakers for your setup, this monitor will provide those for you instead. In terms of any extra freebies, ViewSonic included a DisplayPort cable with the whole package, which saved me the hassle of buying one.

A display for practically anything

Once you set the monitor up, you will realize that you could use this monitor for any device you own. To be fair, those two HDMI ports open the monitor to a multitude of devices as long as you have an HDMI cable nearby. Whether it’s a gaming PC, a spare laptop, or even your consoles, this monitor accommodates them all.

Here’s the thing: this monitor is quite bright and delivers colors fairly accurately. Across all my devices and consoles, the VX2418 produced great quality suited for watching movies, playing a few games, and even getting some work done. Plus, even under great lighting conditions, it’s still pretty bright provided that you turn it up to around 70 to 80 percent.

Remember those speakers I brought up earlier? Well, I’m happy to report that they sound pretty good for dedicated monitor speakers. I felt that having two of them amplifies the sound a little bit more, which is great for PC users and gamers. If you’re more of a console player, don’t play too far from the monitor if you want to hear your game sounds.

Good for competitive, great for casual

For all the PC gamers out there, the ViewSonic VX2418 poses as a prime candidate for your future monitor upgrade. See, with the 165Hz refresh rate, you can crank up the frame rates on your games and experience less lag while playing. If you’re more of a casual player, you wouldn’t really notice this as much, but if you’re trying to get good at a game, it helps.

For competitive players, it’s just a good thing to have in any monitor you pick up. Another thing that this monitor comes with is support for Adaptive Sync, which promises a smoother gaming experience. Whether you’re team AMD or NVIDIA, this monitor will allow you to experience less screen tearing and low input lag, especially since it also comes with a 1ms response rate.

If you plan to hook up your consoles to this monitor, it will still display everything properly and in great detail, too. Although, I don’t recommend using this monitor for your next-gen console if you’re looking to maximize it. 

Some missed marks

Alas, this monitor isn’t perfect and some of these will sound a little nitpicky. For starters, the whole refresh rate stipulation, I felt was a bit of a misstep. The only way you get access to the 165Hz refresh rate is through the DisplayPort; if your GPU doesn’t have a DisplayPort, tough luck. If you opt to use HDMI, which most available GPUs come with, it is capped at 144Hz, which isn’t necessarily bad.

Another thing is, well the anti-glare display itself — particularly against direct sunlight. When using the monitor against direct sunlight, there is a glare on the screen with respect to where the sunlight is coming from. I had to crank up the brightness to 100 percent to subdue the glare a little bit. Honestly, it wasn’t that much of a bother for me but for others, it might be.

Finally, the monitor doesn’t come with any form of cable management feature at the back. If you’re somebody who loves to manage their cables for their setup, this is a bit of a downer. There are other monitors out there within the same price range that offer a cable management hook, at least.

Is this your GadgetMatch?

At PhP 10,999, the ViewSonic VX2418 delivers great visual quality and color accuracy for any use case. Whether you’re typing up documents, editing photos, playing games, or watching streams, this monitor suits all of those well. Plus, the speakers sound good and loud enough, but don’t be too far from the monitor.

Sure, there were some hiccups along the way, depending on whether they bother you or not. Again, some of the missed opportunities seem nitpicky, but they affect the overall experience with the monitor. Even with these hiccups, it still brings a lot to the table that you will appreciate about it.

If you’re looking to upgrade your old monitor at home, this is a great pickup. It serves as a more well-rounded option that fits any device you hook up to it.