ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Gaming Monitor Review: Up There With The Best

ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Specifications

• Model Code -- Elite XG270Q
• Screen Size (Class) -- 27-inch
• Panel Type -- IPS
• Contrast Ratio -- 1000:1
• Resolution -- 2560 x 1440
• Response Time -- 1ms
• Refresh Rate -- 165 Hz
• Viewing angle (H/V) -- 178/178
• HDR -- HDR400
• Anti-Screen Tearing Tech -- NVIDIA G-Sync,
• I/O -- 2x HDMI (2.0), 1X DP (1.4), 3.5mm Audio Out, USB 3.2 Type A Down Stream (3), USB 3.2 Type B Up Stream (1)
• Cables -- DisplayPort Cable

ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Review: Design And Build Quality

The ViewSonic Elite XG270Q is definitely one of the well-built gaming monitors on the market. It comes with a solid metal stand which gives this monitor a steady positioning and the monitor does not wobble at all. On top of that, you can also wall-mount the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q using a VESA mount with ease.

Upfront, the monitor has a thin bezel design on three sides with a bit of a chin at the bottom, which also houses the Elite logo in a subtle way. The monitor also has plenty of physical buttons, which lets you play around with the settings menu to customize the picture and sound quality.

Similarly, the back of the monitor (which most of the users might not notice) is also designed very gracefully with the ViewSonic logo at the top and an Elite RGB light which is hexagonal in shape and behaves like ambient light, which adds a bit more RGB to your gaming setup. The monitor also comes with an easy-to-access I/O plate, which will help to hide wires going in and coming out to offer a cleaner-looking setup.

The single DisplayPort 1.4 offers better bandwidth and can offer a full 1440p resolution and 165Hz refresh rate. If you are using the monitor via the HDMI 2.0 port, you can only use the monitor at 1440p and 144Hz refresh rates and not at 165Hz refresh rates. Given the price of the monitor, the company should have offered at least a single HDMI 2.1 port for better bandwidth.

A few more mention-worthy design-specific features of the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q are the modular headphone hook, again a neat thing to have in a gaming setup. The height and tilt-adjustable stand also work pretty smoothly which will help you set the height of the display, depending on the height of the table and the chair.

ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Review: Gaming Capabilities

The ViewSonic Elite XG270Q is tuned for gaming, as it offers 1440p resolution with a 165Hz refresh rate. To play games at these settings, you might have to have a PC or a gaming laptop with at least RTX 3080 or higher graphics card, especially at higher graphics settings.

The ViewSonic Elite XG270Q monitor offers 1ms (GtG) response time along with NVIDIA G-Sync technology, which when enabled will reduce screen tearing while gaming. As mentioned before, you have to use the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q monitor in DisplayPort mode to get the best possible results.

During my testing, I have played games like the Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, Far Cry 6, and Forza Horizon 5. Each of these games just looked splendid and more vibrant, especially when compared to the built-in monitor of the gaming laptop that I hooked up to this monitor. In the default settings, the colors looked a bit more saturated and vibrant, which is something I personally prefer over true and dull colors.

ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Review: Panel Performance

The ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Review comes with a 27-inch IPS LCD panel with a peak brightness of 400nits, which is plenty bright for indoor usage. The monitor is also HDR400 certified and supports HDR gaming and HDR content streaming on platforms like YouTube. The is an 8-bit panel and it can reproduce 10-bit colors using 8bit + FRC technology.

Do note that, true 10bit monitors are mostly used in high-end production studios and they cost a lot of money. The 8bit + FRC technology offers almost 10-bit like color reproduction at a much lower price range, hence, I have no issue with the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q, especially when it comes to colorspace.

Besides, the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q offers 95% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, hence, this monitor can even be used for light photo and video editing, as the monitor will render an almost true-to-life like color gamut. Other than gaming, I also watched a lot of movies on ViewSonic Elite XG270Q and most pictures just look great.

Do note that, the monitor has a static contrast ratio of 1000:1, similar to most IPS LCD monitors, and it also has a dynamic contrast ratio of 120M:1, hence, it does manage to deliver good picture quality even with darker scenes. However, if you are a movie buff more than a gamer, then we recommend you to get an OLED monitor, as they are just better, especially when it comes to contrast ratio.

ViewSonic Elite XG270Q Review: Verdict

The ViewSonic Elite XG270Q for the asking price is definitely a good gaming monitor and can compete against the likes of the LG Ultrawide 29WN600-W and the Samsung Odyssey G7 1000R. The ViewSonic Elite XG270Q has a lot of minor details such as the headphone holder, RGB lighting, and even the sturdy stand, which makes this a great product.

Again, make sure you have a PC that can fully utilize the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q's 2K resolution at 165Hz refresh rate, as there are a lot of good 1080p monitors that costs less than half of the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q and another really interesting aspect of the ViewSonic Elite XG270Q is that the monitor has built-in 3Wx2 stereo speaker setup that offers above-average audio output.