With the ViewSonic VX2703mh-LED ($269.99) you get an energy-efficient 27-inch display for under $270, but you'll have to make some sacrifices. It has trouble displaying light shades of gray and, as is the case with other affordable big-screen monitors, it doesn't offer many features. However, its twisted-nematic (TN) panel has a fast pixel response. While its low price may be attractive, it still has a higher list price than our Editors' Choice for affordable big-screen monitors, the Acer H276HL($354.18 at Amazon), which outperforms the VX2703mh-LED( at Amazon) across the board.

Design and Features
There's nothing fancy about the VX2703mh-LED, but it's not unattractive either. The 1,920-by-1,080 panel is housed in a matte-black cabinet that is 2 inches thick and has 0.75-inch bezels. The cabinet has four VESA mounting holes around back and is supported by a glossy-black base. The stand has a 19-degree tilt range, but it doesn't support height, swivel, or pivot adjustments. There are four clearly marked function buttons and a power switch on lower right side of the cabinet.

At the rear of the cabinet are HDMI, DVI, and VGA video inputs, an audio input, and a headphone jack. As with the Acer H276HL and the AOC e2752Vh($199.00 at Amazon), the VX2703mh-LED doesn't offer USB or DisplayPort connectivity. However, it does have a pair of built-in speakers, though they aren't very strong and sound tinny.

Picture settings are basic; you can adjust Brightness, Contrast, Color Temperature, Dynamic Contrast, and Aspect Ratio, and there are Auto-Adjust, Position, and Horizontal Size settings for use with an analog signal. Power-saving Eco modes include Off, Optimize (which decreases brightness by 25 percent), and Conserve (which decreases brightness by 50 percent).

The display is covered by a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight, and it comes with VGA, DVI, and audio cables. It also comes with a quick-start guide and a resource disc with drivers and a user guide.

Performance
The VX2703mh-LED delivers a bright picture, but it has gray-scale issues. It couldn't correctly display very light shades of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test; instead of gradating from darker to lighter grays, the three lightest shades appeared white-washed. As a result, highlight detail in my test images appeared washed out.

Full-screen color samples appeared uniform, but color accuracy was skewed. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and green (represented by the colored dots) were outside of their ideal CIE coordinate zones (represented by the boxes), while blue was only slightly off. Fortunately, none of the colors were off by such a wide margin as to cause tinting, but you don't get the bold color tone that you get with the Acer H276HL.

Despite its color issues, The Wolverine on Blu-ray looked great on the screen, and video action was smooth, thanks to the panel's 3-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response. Gaming action was also fluid, with no noticeable blur while playing Aliens vs. Predator on a PC and Midnight Club on the PS3.

The VX2703mh-LED's TN panel produced narrow viewing angles. There was color shifting at around 60 degrees from center, and the screen appeared washed out at around 45 degrees from center when viewed from the top and bottom angles.

Power consumption was very good, but not as good as that of the Samsung LS27D590PS( at Amazon). The VX2703mh-LED used 27 watts of power during testing with Eco mode turned off and 22 watts with Eco mode set to Optimize. With Eco mode set to Conserve, it used only 17 watts, and the picture was still reasonably bright. In comparison, the Samsung LS27D590PS used 16 watts of power in Standard mode and just 13 watts in Power-Saving mode, and the Acer H276HL used 24 watts (Standard mode) and 22 watts (Power-Saving mode).

Conclusion
The Viewsonic VX2703mh-LED is a serviceable 27-inch monitor that won't put a big dent in your wallet, but its middling gray-scale performance and viewing angle issues hold it back. On the plus side, it delivers blur-free gaming performance and doesn't require a lot of power, but there are better-performing monitors out there for around the same money. For example, our Editors' Choice for affordable big-screen monitors, the Acer H276HL, offers accurate colors, wide viewing angles, and a slick design, and it has a list price that's $20 less.

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