ViewSonic's venerable 19" VP191b continues to hold its own against newer LCD models. Its image quality is competent but not extraordinarily good, falling into the middle ranks of current models. We found the display's balance generally pleasing, though the screen seemed slightly dim at the default settings.

Vendors report response time in different ways. Some clock the inter-grey (also called grey-to-grey) response time, while others record the white-to-black-to-white (also called rise-and-fall) response time. The VP191b's reported response time of 8 milliseconds refers to its inter-grey response time. Its black-to-white response time is 20 milliseconds. When we ran motion tests on the VP191b, its performance was average.

A few features set the VP191b apart from other monitors in its price range, and make it a good choice for an office setting. This monitor includes ports for one digital (DVI) and two analog (VGA) inputs, giving you options for sharing the monitor between two PCs. You can lock the on-screen display controls, ensuring that other users can't fiddle with the monitor's settings.

In addition to tilt, swivel and height adjustments, the VP191b has the ability to pivot from landscape to portrait mode (a boon for viewing long documents or Web pages). On an accompanying CD, ViewSonic adds software for screen pivoting; this bonus makes the monitor's moderate price an even better deal.