Geared toward users who rely on color and grayscale accuracy, the Viewsonic VP2765-LED is a 27-inch AMVA (Advanced Multi-domain Vertical Alignment) monitor that delivers solid grayscale performance and is equipped with a sturdy, fully adjustable stand and a four-port USB hub. Its color accuracy is good but not great, and its AMVA panel, while significantly better than a TN (Twisted Nematic) panel, can't match the viewing angle performance of most IPS panels.

Design and Features
The VP2765-LED is solidly built. The full HD (1,920-by-1,080), 27-inch screen is housed in a 2.6-inch thick cabinet that weighs 11.8 pounds and sits atop a wide y-shaped base that provides plenty of wobble-free support. The telescoping mounting arm gives you 5.3 inches of height adjustment and 360 degrees of swivel movement, and the mounting hinge provides 25-degrees of tilt. It also lets you pivot the screen 90-degrees for portrait mode viewing. VESA mounting holes at the rear of the cabinet can be used to hang the VP2765-LED on a wall or in a kiosk.

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The bezels are matte black and measure 0.8 inch thick. There's a Viewsonic logo on the bottom bezel, and the Gouldian Finches are perched on the upper left corner. Just below the Viewsonic logo are five buttons, including the power switch. The button labels are etched into the black bezel and are almost impossible to identify without shining a light on them.

On the left side of the chassis are two easily accessible USB ports and the rear of the cabinet holds three more (one upstream, two downstream). All of them are USB 2.0 that offer transfer rates of up to 480Mbps rather than the much faster USB 3.0, which is around 10 times faster (5 Gbps). Also around back are DisplayPort, DVI, and VGA video inputs but there are no HDMI inputs on this model nor are there speakers.

Settings are scarce. You can adjust brightness and contrast and select one of five preset color temperatures. You can also create your own color temperature setting with custom RGB levels, but you can't go in and tweak things like gamma, saturation, and hue. Power-saving options include two Eco modes and an auto power off setting. The usual analog settings (sharpness, horizontal position/size, fine tune) are also available for use with a VGA signal.

The VP2765-LED comes with a three year warranty covering parts, labor, and backlight. It also comes with VGA and DVI cables and a Viewsonic Wizard CD.

Performance
The VP2765-LED uses Advanced Multi-domain Vertical Alignment panel technology, which is known for high contrast ratios (3000:1 in this case) and rich color quality. Indeed, the panel delivered vibrant colors but they weren't dead-on accurate. As shown in the color chart below, red (represented by the red dot) was perfectly aligned with its ideal coordinates (represented by the box), but blue was slightly out of alignment and green even more so. The colors aren't skewed to the point of oversaturation and don't have an effect on overall picture quality, but graphics professionals typically require a higher degree of accuracy.

Grayscale performance was solid; the VP2765-LED was able to display all shades of gray from the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test and delivered sharp highlight and shadow detail from my test images. The panel's high contrast ratio produced inky blacks without sacrificing brightness. Viewing angles were good but not as good as what we saw from the Dell UltraSharp U2713HM and the NEC MultiSync PA271W, both of which use IPS panel technology. Horizontal angles were good with very little loss of luminance when viewed from an extreme side angle but there was some color shifting when viewed from the top and bottom.

With a 12-millisecond (black-to-white) pixel response the VP2765-LED isn't your best choice for gaming but it handles video with aplomb. There was some blurring while playing Far Cry 2 on the PC but scenes from the Blu-ray movie 2012 appeared smooth and highly detailed.

The VP2765-LED used 39 watts of power during testing with Eco mode disabled. Switching to the Optimize Eco mode reduced power consumption to 33 watts while the Conserve mode dropped usage to 26 watts without becoming too dim. In comparison the Dell U2713HM used 32 watts and the Samsung Series 9 S27B971D, a 27-inch PLS (Plane-Line Switching) monitor, used 43 watts.

The Viewsonic VP2765-LED offers solid grayscale performance and a high contrast ratio and is outfitted with some nice features, including a USB hub and a flexible stand. However, its color accuracy isn't as precise as it should be considering its target audience, and its viewing angle performance, while much better than a TN panel, can't hold a candle to the performance that you get from a high-end IPS panel. Granted, the VP2765-LED isn't nearly as expensive as our Editors' Choice for big-screen professional grade monitors, the NEC PA271W, but it's not in the same league in terms of performance and features, either. The fact is if you want color and grayscale accuracy in a well equipped 27-inch professional grade monitor, you'll have to shell out a lot more than $475.