KDS Radius Rad-5 and ViewSonic VE150m Reviews

ViewSonic VE150m

ViewSonic rates its 9.9-pound ViewPanel VE150m as drawing even less power than the Radius -- only 30 watts, even including its two miniature speakers. But the stylish white display (also available in black, model VE150mb) puts three times as many cables on your desk: A skimpy setup pamphlet, consisting mostly of three diagrams plus safety precautions in 14 languages, instructs you to unsnap two plastic panels from the rear to plug AC adapter and audio cords alongside the permanently affixed VGA cable.

The real manual is stored as an Adobe Acrobat file on the supplied CD-ROM, along with Colorific and True Internet Color software that lets graphics professionals and finicky users fine-tune the VE150m's color settings and even its physical tilt angle for the clearest possible display. Only a dozen or so e-commerce sites currently support the True Internet Color scheme (nor does the latter's online tune-up feature support LCDs yet), but those that do promise no unpleasant surprises when you open that chartreuse wallpaper or aqua blouse you ordered.

The front bezel's dinky 1.5-watt speakers, as you'd expect, are intended more for office startup or new-mail alert sounds rather than orchestral CD listening or adventure gaming, but they're adequate, with convenient mute and up/down volume buttons below the display. Four more buttons summon and navigate through the on-screen control menus, which offer brightness, contrast, image size and position, color temperature, and sharpness (a very noticeable on/off switch, plus fine adjustments) settings.

The menus are straightforward enough, though we were mildly irked by a couple of seconds' delay in moving from one menu to the next or previous, and by the lack of a top-level status indicator or one-button check of resolution and frequency info. On the positive side, you'll likely never need the menus -- the ViewSonic's one-touch "adjust everything" function worked even better than the KDS'.

Indeed, the VE150m looked simply great: The display had no bad pixels, its rated 300:1 contrast ratio boasted whites that were truly white without washing out other colors, and we didn't need to crane up or lean to one side to observe the full range of hues on our DisplayMate test patterns. ViewSonic says the panel's viewing angle is 60 degrees to either side plus 45 degrees above and 55 degrees below head-on, but we enjoyed the view most within 30 or 40 degrees in any direction (though its antiglare coating, like the KDS', worked from even extreme angles).

The VE150m's frequency range is 50Hz to 75Hz (vertical) and 30kHz to 60kHz (horizontal); the display stayed stable even under our fluorescent lights at its default 1,024 by 768 and 60Hz -- once after a reset we forgot to change it to our usual 75Hz refresh. Text was razor-sharp, monochrome moire patterns or pixel jitters were nonexistent, and motion tracked smoothly, with no ghosting -- we still prefer CRTs to LCDs for swift-moving games, but would be hard-pressed to fault the VE150m for all but the fastest action.

The ViewSonic also edged the KDS in smoothness when downshifted to full-screen SVGA or VGA resolution, though it couldn't escape a few jaggies around text characters -- indeed, an optional setting pops up a message urging, "For best picture quality, change the resolution to 1,024 by 768" if a user accidentally selects a lower resolution.

As you can guess, our dream 15-inch LCD monitor would combine the ViewSonic's better image quality with the KDS' one-cable design and $100 lower price. But forced to pick between these two four-star ratings, we'd choose the ViewSonic for its gorgeous display and the extra desk-space-saving factor of built-in speakers. The high-tech market may be flat, but there's never been a better time to buy a display that is.

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