ViewSonic VG1655

amazon ViewSonic VG1655 reviews

The ViewSonic VG1655 monitor s a smartly designed portable monitor with some uncommon features. It offers a folding stand with a wide tilt range.

A small five-way joystick controller replaces the unwieldy buttons found on most mobile screens. An on-screen display (OSD) menu system allows you to access many settings instead of a single handful of tables the opponent offers. It has two USB-C ports — one for power and one for data/video transfers — along with a mini HDMI port. Its poor sRGB gamut coverage makes it best for working with text and spreadsheets (compared to photos and videos), but it shines brighter than most portable panels. Its surprising abundance of features, including built-in speakers.

An outstanding stand and more

VG1655 is black in front and silver on the sides and rear, measuring 22.4 x 25.6 x 1.5 cm (HWD). The top edge of the screen is amazingly thin (about 0.7 cm), while the bottom – where the ports are – is 1.5 cm wide. The screen is a 15.6-inch IPS panel with a native resolution of 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). That is the de facto standard for recent laptop-friendly mobile displays.

A hinged, foldable stand supports a 45-degree tilt at the back, more than most desktop monitors.

The VG1655 is one of the few portable monitors we’ve reviewed that incorporates a built-in kickstand. The others are the Lenovo ThinkVision M14 and the ViewSonic TD1655, the touchscreen variant of this monitor. Most portable displays include a rigid, notched, magnetic board that folds to support the board as a primitive stand and can act as a protective cover. VG1655 also comes with one; it can act as a kickstand, and the notches can also hold the screen and stand when rotated to portrait position.

Inputs include two USB-C ports, one of which supports data and video transfers. The other provides up to 60 watts of power when the monitor is connected via a USB-C cable to the wall adapter included or laptop. Additionally, there’s a mini HDMI port, along with a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI cable. You’ll also find an audio-out jack for connecting to headphones if you prefer to use it with the monitor’s built-in speakers.

OSD Control: Delicate and easy to use

Navigating the VG1655’s OSD menus is easy, thanks to the five-way mini-joystick controller located in the lower-right corner of the display at the rear. It is equivalent to four arrow buttons (press the bar up, down, right, or left) plus the Enter button (press the bar straight).

While some portable monitors have simple OSDs with a few options beyond changing brightness and contrast, the VG1655 has a neat, full-screen display that rivals many OSDs on the desktop. The six items in the main menu are Input Selection (HDMI or USB Type-C), Sound Adjustment (Volume and Mute), View Mode (Office, Movies, Mac, Monochrome, Game, and Off), Color Adjustment (Contrast/Brightness, Color Temperature, Color Space, Color Range, and Gamma), Manual Image Adjustment (Sharpness, Aspect Ratio, Overscan, and Blue Light Filter) ) and Settings Menu (with many options). It’s a choice of desktop screen style on a mobile screen.

To the right of the OSD is a schematic of the controller, showing what each joystick press does. The choices change depending on where you are in the menu system. In general, much better than most portable screen display programs.

As is typical of IPS panels, the VG1655 offers wide viewing angles (rated at 178 degrees both vertically and horizontally). The color was only slightly affected when viewing sample images at extreme eccentric angles in our testing.

Test VG1655

I performed brightness, contrast, and color gamut tests using a Klein K10-A colorimeter, a Murideo SIX-G signal generator, and Portrait Displays CalMAN 5 software.

ViewSonic rates the VG1655’s maximum brightness as 250 nits (candelas per meter squared); in our testing, it came to achieve 245 nits. I measured its contrast ratio as 1,040:1, which is slightly better than the 1,000:1 rating.

In our color coverage test, the VG1655 nailed only 61.1% of the sRGB color space. Essentially, all colors can be created by mixing different percentages of red, green, and blue.

Some of our test scores are in triangles, showing a skewed color gamut, particularly near the spectrum’s red/purple/blue portion.

That is a very familiar color signature, a pattern we’ve seen in nearly all of the portable display panels we’ve tested since 2019 — we suspect most panels cores all come from the same or similar sources. The VG1655’s 61.1% sRGB is on the low end of their color coverage, but the others aren’t much better — the Asus ZenScreen Go hit 72.7% sRGB, with other monitors showing this particular color pattern. We look for sRGB coverage of at least 95% in desktop monitors and the only all-in-one mobile monitor topped by the Lenovo ThinkVision M14, which has 97% sRGB coverage.

When watching a video with the VG1655, the effects of this limited color gamut are visible in the often dull reds, purples, and greens. That is true in both the monitor’s default mode and Movie mode. When viewing our selection of test shots, the situation was similar, with reds and greens slightly off.

Lessons learned from this? The VG1655 is acceptable for viewing videos and casual photos, but a photo and video lovers prefer mobile displays with stronger color coverage, such as the Lenovo ThinkVision M14.

The sound from the VG1655 pair of 0.8-watt speakers is rather soft, but the speakers can prove useful quickly. Many portable displays do not include speakers; The Lepow 15.6-inch USB-C Portable Monitor, the MSI Optix MAG161V, and Asus ZenScreen Touchscreen are a few.

Doing the right small screen, in the small details.

The ViewSonic VG1655 has a typical screen for mobile screens, a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS panel with fairly limited color coverage, making the display more suitable for work than play. It’s brighter than average and has a slightly better contrast ratio than its rating.

However, what sets it apart is in a few special features: a built-in foldable stand with a wide tilt range, a sophisticated OSD, and a mini-joystick controller to scroll through a menu.

where can you get a ViewSonic VG1655 online

ViewSonic 15.6 Inch 1080p Portable Monitor with 2 Way Powered 60W USB C, IPS, Eye Care, Dual Speakers, Frameless Design, Built in Stand with Cover (VG1655): Buy it now