Viewsonic TD2340 review

The Viewsonic TD2340 is a 23in 10-point touchscreen monitor with a maximum resolution of 1,920×1,080. Unlike other touchscreens we’ve tested, it’s surrounded by edge to edge glass that extends all the way across the screen and bezel. Its glossy finish makes it particularly prone to picking up fingerprints, but it’s hard to resist leaning over to bring up the Windows 8 Charms bar or flick through individual windows.

You wouldn’t think it’s a 23in monitor when you first take it out of the box, though, as its 32mm wide bezel underneath its scratch-resistant glass cover makes the screen look disproportionately small. It’s a shame so much room is taken up by black bars, but we suspect it’s to balance out its very large stand and base, which measures 350x330mm. You’ll certainly need a lot of room on your desk to use this monitor, but the large stand is necessary: the screen can fold back 90 degrees so it can be used horizontally.

The TD2340 can also twist into portrait mode, should you need it. You’ll need two hands to move it from one position to another, but the hinge is very sturdy and secure. The screen, on the other hand, feels a little more unstable when used horizontally, particularly when tapping the upper part of the screen where it’s less supported by the stand. Playing touch-orientated games from the Windows 8 Store made it wobble regardless of whether it was elevated, flat against the table or in portrait mode. Still, you shouldn’t have much of a problem with it unless you’re particularly heavy handed.

LOOKING GOOD?

The TD2340’s overall image quality was good, if a little below average for an IPS panel. At its default settings, our colour calibrator showed it was displaying 95.4 per cent of the sRGB colour gamut. This is just under the 96 per cent average we normally expect to see on an IPS screen, and it was mainly its blue coverage that let it down. Greens and reds were very well represented, but cooler colours suffered. We couldn’t increase this score after calibration, but we did manage to reclaim a very small amount of its purple coverage in the process.

Thankfully, this slight deficiency wasn’t particularly noticeable in day-to-day use and our subjective image tests looked great. Its glossy finish made viewing darker images a bit tricky due to the amount of reflections it creates, but our high contrast test photos had plenty of detail in both the light and dark areas of each image. This was backed up by our excellent contrast ratio measurement of 1032:1, but our low black level reading of 0.24cd/m² didn’t quite come across in our solid colour image tests. Instead, they appeared grey, at least compared to the true black of its thick bezel, but we were pleased to see no evidence of backlight bleeding. Primary colours, on the other hand, were very crisp and vibrant while whites were bright and uniform across the screen.

It has a good range of inputs, too, although we were a little disappointed to see no DVI-D support alongside its VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort inputs. Still, its two-port USB3 hub more than makes up for this. Even more impressive were its integrated speakers, which produced a decent amount of bass and a pleasingly full sound in our test tracks. You can plug a pair of speakers into its 3.5mm headphone jack if you prefer, but we didn’t feel this was particularly necessary.

CONCLUSION

The Viewsonic TD2340 is an impressive and highly capable monitor, but our main concern is its price. At £440, we expect perfection, especially for such a small screen, but its average colour accuracy lets it down. Many of its extra features may also be superfluous unless you’re using it for professional graphic design. There are also much cheaper touchscreens available that take up far less room, such as the Iiyama ProLite T2452MTS. Even so, if you’re looking for a flexible monitor that also doubles as a touch table, the TD2340 is for you.