Stories about: Viewsonic

The meteoric rise of the widescreen TV has robbed home theatre projectors of much of their former allure. Once considered the ultimate in cinematic luxury, they have since become something of an endangered species -- rather like the bearded, middle-aged men who swear by them (you know the type we’re talking about: most of them are also fans of Betamax and/or LaserDisc).

Ah, the joy of summer storms. A recent one involving a flooded basement (a torrential downpour traveled down a chipmunk burrow that led to an otherwise enclosed basement window with a broken windowpane) and several staccato blackouts sent one of my neighbor's computers, as well as one of my own, to their eternal rest.

In the world of computer gaming, speed is everything -- from your graphics card to the sensitivity of your mouse. That's why a quality monitor is a priority for a dedicated gamer. Not only do you need excellent colour and contrast, but low response times are a must to make sure that each shot is right on target.

It's too bad the late George Carlin never updated his classic '70s comedy monologue "A place for my stuff" for the Digital Age. Here's how I imagine it would've gone:

Viewsonic's mid-level PJ551D is a portable projector that punches above its price point. It's not lightweight, but it performs capably for both office presentations and displaying HD content. Travelling users may get put off by the weight though, and the comparatively low brightness may cause problems in some conditions.

Sitting at a price point that is quite low considering its size, Viewsonic's VP2650 is a monitor that is fairly good value for money. It provides impressive image quality, particularly with regards to colour reproduction, and offers a high resolution (1920x1080). It also gives you 26in of screen real estate and a few extras such as USB ports, making it an attractive package.

Viewsonic's VX1940w monitor is a 19in LCD display that performs reasonably well without being particularly impressive. It did well in some tests, particularly when handling fast motion, but there were some contrast and colour balance issues that hurt the overall image quality.

Ever since the CRT gave way to LCD panels, the world of monitors has been a little quiet. Sure there have been faster panels produced with better bit rates and high contrast ratios, but incremental increases aside, not much has really changed.

With a clutch of 24in models gathering menacingly around the $600 price point, this wouldn't seem to be a particularly good time for ViewSonic to be unveiling a 21.6in model for $699.

With this 7in digital photo frame, Viewsonic is offering a product that is close to the top of its class. The screen's picture quality is exceptional, and it's a good-sized and well-built screen. However, it can be hard to use and it's let down by a couple of omissions - it lacks remote control functionality and it can't be hung on a wall.

Do you know how much your home office costs? I'm not talking about the price you paid for the equipment (you probably do know that amount). Rather, I mean how much of a financial and environmental burden it is to you and your community on an ongoing basis.