Good Looks, Great Features, Fair Price, And I Bought It Anyway!

I tend to live my life by the old standard, "YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!" Unfortunately these days, you usually get a bit LESS than what you pay for. As I am a die hard electronics nut case, my wallet tends to be drawn to the higher end of the price spectrum, when purchasing computer and electronics gear. As a married father of 3, my wife spends a great deal of time disgusted at me for always spending great gobs of money on things that she considers useless. [*GASP!*] I know, isn't that just sick! Anyway, when I decide that it is time to replace or upgrade a product for my home office, I like to spend countless hours on the Internet researching products of interest, to see what will perform the best for my needs. I usually end up battling between a product that seems to fit the bill, but a higher priced alternative, although having basically the same features and specs., keeps taunting me and making me feel that more money MUST mean better quality. I mean, doesn't that make sense? Most of the time that frame of mind has worked out just fine for me. I may pay an arm and a leg for that new color laser printer, or for that big screen color television set, but I figure quality costs money. I don't like to buy something that just barely meets my needs, figuring I'll save the money now and buy the better one later. It ends up costing more money in the long run that way. Step up, slap down the cash, and buy the better product right up front. It will pay off in the end, right? As I stated above, most of the time that frame of mind has worked out just fine for me. The key words here being "MOST OF THE TIME!" I am starting to learn that more money doesn't always buy you more quality, and/or more happiness. I have had to learn that lesson the hard way in the past. That is why I decided to really dig deep into reviews from "real people" when searching for a new CRT monitor, rather than just looking at manufacturer specifications, and vendor reviews. After all, it's the REAL people out there that use these things every day, and that ultimately have the most experience in describing a products good points and bad. That is why I love Epinions so much, and have grown to look here before checking anywhere else.

For my own personal computing needs, I prefer to build and modify myself. I like bells and whistles and features galore! I like BIG monitors that are awarded top scores in PC magazines. I have stuck with Sony for my CRT monitors in the past, and I have been quite pleased with their products, for the most part. When my wife decided that she wanted a computer for her and the children (something that I would not complicate with all of the extras that mean absolutely nothing to her!), she turned to Dell for her computing needs. She did not want me building something for her, and wanted to order something herself. She did allow me to give her some advice when customizing her PC choice on the Dell web site. I have to admit, she bought a very nice PC, at an extremely amazing price! However, she went with the basic CRAP monitor that comes with their middle of the road computer systems. It's a basic Dell 17 inch "Bubble" monitor. It suited her just fine for a few months, but she eventually started talking about wanting something bigger and flatter. She actually decided to trust me in finding her a good 19 inch monitor, but she told me that she did not want to spend a penny over $300.00! What? How could she put that kind of restriction on me? Well, I stood up to the challenge and assured her that I could find her the best quality monitor that three hundred dollars or less could afford. I looked at 19" Sony CRT monitors, but I had to quickly dismiss them as a choice in my allowed price range. I instead looked strongly at NEC, ViewSonic, Samsung, and IBM. I even looked at a DELL 19 incher, which had some pretty impressive specs., and had received some pretty respectable reviews. After much research, and many sleepless nights, I had narrowed my choices down to a NEC MultiSync FP912SB, and the ViewSonic G90fb. I liked a ViewSonic “Pro Series” monitor as well, but the reviews given were not as high as those for the G90fb. I swayed between the two choices for a few days and ultimately it was the reviews of “smalltoycar” and “jjanigo” right here at Epinions that made me decide to give the ViewSonic G90fb a whirl. My wife insisted on ordering the monitor from Dell (she likes them quite a bit), and I was fairly pleased with their price tag of $239.95 (plus FREE shipping). It arrived recently, packaged very well I might add, and I eagerly tore into the box to see what this puppy was like. I know it was for my wife, but she just doesn’t get excited about these sort of things. I figure one of us may as well get a rush out of our new electronic purchase! I quickly went about the task of swapping out her dinky fish-bowl monitor with this sleek new flat screened CRT.

The hookup was a breeze. The RGB cable is attached to the monitor, so you simply plug the power cord into the back, snap on the riser stand (which isn’t necessary if you don’t want the extra height, as the monitor has rubber feet for sitting it flat on its case), and it’s ready to be plugged in and powered up. The included ViewSonic Wizard CD loaded into Windows XP flawlessly, and the drivers installed as planned. I set the resolution for 1280x1024 (my wife would not let me go any higher than that!), the refresh rate for 85 Hz (she has a crappy GeForce4-MX420 video card in her Dell, that would not allow for a higher refresh rate!), made a few screen size adjustments, and tweaked the Pincushion a bit, and it was all set to go! The whole shebang took little more than 10 minutes to accomplish. I spent some time playing with this new CRT, and I am wildly impressed. The contrast, clarity, and color saturation is remarkable! I would only expect this kind of picture from a monitor costing nearly twice as much. After messing around with some different games, causing resolution mode switching, I noticed some bottom hook in the display. I went into the menu and was SHOCKED to see a Top and Bottom Hook adjustment. Again I am impressed with the features of such a reasonably priced CRT. My wife and I simply love this monitor, and the kids are quite excited about their game's much larger display characteristics, and with more detail and color I might add. The focus is very crisp at the 1280x1024, and even at higher resolutions, all the way up to 1600x1200 (I played around a little while my wife wasn’t looking!), I found the clarity of text to be quite impressive. I didn’t try the 1920x1440 setting. I was afraid that GeForce4-MX420 video card might just go up in smoke! As the other reviews pointed out, this so called “totally flat” screened monitor seems to have a flat outer screen, while the inner tube seems as though it may have a slight curve to it. However, you honestly do not notice it when using it, unless you poke your nose right up to the glass. As also described in a previous review, the display seems a bit “inset” from the outer glass. I have noticed this on other monitors as well, and although I don’t quite understand the reason behind this design, it really is not of any significance. It is not noticeable after using this monitor for a short while. The onscreen menus are a breeze to navigate, and offer a generous variety of adjustments, many of which are only seen on high end monitors of higher cost. The size and weight of this monitor are smaller and lighter than I would have imagined as well, only weighing roughly 50 lbs., and the anti-reflection coating on the glass works wonderfully. No glare or reflections from lights in the room were noticeable at all. In fact, my only complaint (and it is a mild one) is that there is no Degauss button on the monitor, but rather you must instead select degauss from the onscreen menu (on the second display screen). This is becoming a common but rather frustrating issue with most new CRT monitors today. I like to degauss my monitor every so often, during prolonged use, and I miss the good old days when most monitors had a button right on the face of the monitor for just that purpose. But I guess the R&D guys figure less buttons means less consumer confusion.

I would highly recommend this monitor to anyone and everyone who is currently looking for a high quality, feature packed 19 inch flat screen CRT monitor. If my wife would not have set a price limit for me, I would have likely purchased her a 19” Sony Trinitron CRT that would have run us in the neighborhood of $500.00! As a previous and current owner of several Sony Trinitron CRT monitors (I have always been impressed with the Trinitron technology), I have to admit in this case that this ViewSonic G90fb monitor offers the same quality picture and features, for roughly half the cost of the comparable Sony competition. That my friend is very impressive indeed. And as noted in a previous review of this model, I also noticed a much cooler temperature emitted from the case of this monitor than I have experienced from other competitors. I wish I could offer at least one solid reason to justify my old adage that more money buys better quality, but in this case I have none! This ViewSonic is a quality product, offering a plethora of features, a brilliant level of color, contrast and clarity, a very impressive max resolution ability (1920x1440 @ 64 Hz), a solid 3 year warranty, and all for under $250.00! I stand corrected, and in this case I am happy to report that with the ViewSonic G90fb CRT monitor, “You get MORE than you pay for!” Buy one for yourself, and let ViewSonic make a believer out of you too!!!

I hope you have found this review helpful. Thank you for reading.