Design
The XG270 comes with a sturdy brushed metal stand that we quite liked the look of. The screen is covered in a low-haze anti-glare coating which is excellent as it helps in eliminating reflections without making the image appear grainy like some aggressive coatings usually do. The monitor comes with detachable sight shields that be attached to the sides to avoid distractions during tournaments and gaming events. ViewSonic’s XG270 also has customizable RGB lighting at the back of the monitor that we found quite appealing.
The monitor comes with a mouse bungee and a headphone hook as well, so usage remains uninterrupted whatever the angles. The screen of the monitor can be elevated up to 120mm, swivelled by +/- 90°, pivoted by 90°, and tilted by -5°/20°. Alternatively, we were also able to VESA mount it via the 100x100mm pattern.
Features
The ViewSonic XG270 is equipped with plenty of additional useful features, and it offers an OSD (On-Screen Display) menu that is well-organized and easy to work around. The 5-way joystick placed beneath the bottom bezel adds considerably to the ease of use. We used ViewSonic’s Display Controller software that allowed us to make monitor adjustments and intimated us regarding firmware updates via a desktop application.
The ‘Blur Busters Approved’ gaming monitor supports AMD FreeSync with a 48-240Hz VRR (variable refresh rate) range. NVIDIA also certifies XG270 as G-SYNC Compatible so users can rest assured and expect tear-free gaming performances up to 240Hz, provided they have a compatible GPU. Additionally, we found that there is a ‘Hertz Limiter’ (60Hz, 100Hz, 144Hz, 180Hz, 240Hz) and an ‘OverClocking’ feature for overclocking the refresh rate beyond 240Hz.
XG270 is powered by a bunch of useful gaming features like Black Stabilization which dramatically improves the visibility of objects in shadows; Colour Saturation to ensure bright and distinct imagery in scenarios; and customizable crosshair overlays. It offers numerous pre-calibrated picture pre-sets such as FPS, MOBA, Battle Royale, and Console, along with two custom modes, and a calibrated sRGB colour temperature profile for accurate colour output. The ViewSonic Elite XG270 also sports some advanced picture adjustment tools that we really appreciated – like including 6 gamma pre-sets (from 1.8 to 2.8), sharpness, saturation, contrast, brightness, and more to allow complete customization during all kinds of gameplay.
The monitor offers a flicker-free backlight (when PureXP is disabled) and an integrated low-blue light filter to give gamers a comfortable viewing experience during and after long gaming sessions.
Performance
The ViewSonic Elite XG270 gaming monitor is based on an IPS panel designed by AU Optronics and has a Full HD screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, which isn’t the best for its 27″ sized screen if you ask us. However, it’s not a problem for gaming, just not much of a plus point if you’re looking to buy this for corporate purposes. It’s just that the picture quality on the XG270 is slightly more pixelated due to the low pixel density of roughly 81 PPI (pixels per inch) – while some users despise it, some prefer it since bigger pixels aid their precision in FPS games. Overall, for gaming and other entertainment purposes, we think the 27″ 1080p monitor is an appropriate fit as XG270’s IPS panel provides vibrant, accurate, and consistent colours that remain intact with clarity at all angles owing to the 178° wide viewing angles it offers.
The main feature of the ViewSonic XG270 gaming monitor is its PureXP+ Motion Blur Reduction technology that we’ve been raving about – because that’s how good it is! It makes intelligent use of backlight strobing to reduce perceived ghosting and motion blur significantly. While it does sacrifice some picture brightness in the process, the high level of peak brightness and vibrant colours of the ViewSonic XG270 ensure that the image remains adequately bright and colours vivid when PureXP is enabled. The resulting effect is CRT-like motion clarity accompanied by the excellent picture quality.
To bring out the best performance with MBR, we recommend setting the ViewSonic Elite XG270 to 100Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz depending on your preference and the FPS rate your PC system can maintain. In order to avoid double images, the FPS rate should not deviate much from the monitor’s refresh rate. The PureXP+ technology on XG270 works from 75Hz to 240Hz, so we experimented to see what works best in which setting. The best settings can vary between games, so we suggest playing around with them to figure out what turns out to be ideal for the games you play. Please note that PureXP+ and FreeSync/G-SYNC Compatible cannot be active at the same time.
ViewSonic Elite XG270 delivers an incredible MBR performance with minimal strobe crosstalk, and we simply love the fact that it offers an imperceptible input lag of ~2ms with a rapid 1ms GtG pixel response time speed. You can find five different response time overdrive modes, namely, Standard, Fast, Faster, Ultra Fast, and Fastest for users to customize.
Connectivity
Connectivity options on the ViewSonic Elite XG270 include a wide selection of ports – two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2, a headphones jack, and a USB 3.0 hub which comprises 1 upstream and 3 downstream ports.
Verdict
All in all, we feel that the ViewSonic Elite XG270 gaming monitor offers impressively responsive as well as enjoyable gaming experiences. We found the motion clarity to be incredible owing to its intelligent backlight strobing implementation – it might just be comparable to some older CRT display, which is pretty impressive, to be honest. Its bright picture quality, colour vibrancy and wide viewing angles accompanied by features like certified G-SYNC compatibility up to 240Hz make it quite a stellar choice as far as we are concerned.
