ViewSonic Elite XG270 Monitor Review

The ViewSonic XG270's design is fairly understated. It has thin bezels on three sides and a thicker bottom bezel. The stand lays flat on the table, so you can still use that space for other things, and the whole monitor has a matte black finish. The anti-glare panels are included with the monitor if you want to use them and there's RGB lighting on the back of the monitor.

The stand is made out of plastic and supports the monitor well.

Good ergonomics. The stand allows for all manner of adjustments and the screen can rotate to portrait mode in either direction.

The back of the monitor is rather plain. There's RGB lighting in the form of a hexagon, and there's basic cable management built into the stand.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting, which is great for multi-monitor setups.

The screen isn't particularly thick on its own, but the stand tilts backward a bit, so the thickness varies depending on the height at which the monitor is set.

Build quality is good. The stand is sturdy and the monitor doesn't wobble when nudged. However, there's a bit of flex on the back. If you want a similar monitor with a better build quality, take a look at the Dell Alienware AW2720HF.

As is the case with most IPS panels, the ViewSonic XG270 has a mediocre contrast ratio, making blacks look like gray when viewed in the dark.

This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

The ViewSonic XG270 has great SDR peak brightness. There's no variation in brightness when displaying different content and it's bright enough to combat glare in a well-lit room. Our peak brightness measurements were taken after calibration in 'Standard' mode and at maximum brightness.

HDR peak brightness is decent. Again, there's almost no variation in brightness. It's decently bright for most HDR games, but it's not bright enough to make a big difference in HDR movies. Peak brightness was measured after calibration in 'Standard' mode, at maximum brightness, and with HDR10 set to 'Auto'.

The ViewSonic XG270 has impressive horizontal viewing angles. Images should remain accurate when viewed from the side, which is great for co-op gaming or for sharing content.

This monitor has mediocre vertical viewing angles. This can affect the top and bottom of the screen if you tend to sit very close.

Excellent gray uniformity. It's slightly darker around the sides, though it's not noticeable in regular use. There's virtually no dirty screen effect and uniformity is near perfect in dark scenes.

The ViewSonic Elite XG270 has bad black uniformity. There's clouding, flashlighting, and backlight bleed throughout the screen.

Before calibration, the ViewSonic Elite XG270 has decent color accuracy. There are inaccuracies with most colors and shades of gray. The color temperature is on the warm side and the gamma follows the curve well for the most part, though some dark scenes may appear darker than they should.

After calibration, color accuracy is outstanding. Any remaining inaccuracies shouldn't be visible to the naked eye.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

The ViewSonic XG270 has an excellent SDR color gamut. It can cover almost all of the commonly used sRGB color space, and it has good coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, which is used for professional photo editing.

This monitor has an excellent SDR color volume, but it can't produce dark, saturated colors due to its low contrast ratio.

Decent HDR color gamut. The DCI P3 coverage is good, which is used for most HDR content, but coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is mediocre.

The ViewSonic Elite XG270 has an adequate HDR color volume; however, it's limited by the monitor's low contrast ratio, as it can't produce dark colors well.

There are no signs of image retention on this monitor.

Impressive gradient performance. There's some fine banding when displaying gray and dark green.

There's no visible color bleed on this monitor.

The ViewSonic XG270 has great reflection handling. Its matte coating diffuses light well and you shouldn't have any issues using this monitor in a bright room.

Good text clarity. With ClearType enabled (top photo), text appear sharper in general, especially diagonal lines.

The ViewSonic XG270 has an excellent response time when playing at maximum refresh rate, resulting in clear images with very little motion blur. We recommend using the 'Faster' overdrive setting, as it provides the best performance with no overshoot. If you're looking for a 240Hz monitor with an even better response time, check out the LG 27GN750-B, or the 280Hz ASUS VG279QM.

When playing at maximum refresh rate, the different overdrive settings don't seem to affect the performance by much, which is why most of the charts look nearly identical. However, this doesn't apply if you play at 60Hz.

Response time when playing at 60Hz is excellent, even slightly better than playing at maximum refresh rate. The recommended overdrive setting is 'Fast', as the faster, ultra fast, and fastest settings result in the appearance of artifacts.

This monitor has a flicker-free backlight that can help reduce eye strain.

Update 12/11/2020: We updated the monitor's firmware and retested the BFI range. It can flicker as low as 75Hz when you set a custom resolution and use a 75Hz signal.

This monitor has a Black Frame Insertion feature called PureXP. It can't be used when VRR is enabled. We also took a photo of the BFI at 120Hz, which is quite a bit clearer, but there's still noticeable crosstalk.

The ViewSonic Elite XG270 has an exceptional refresh rate. It has native FreeSync supoport and it's G-SYNC compatible as well, although it requires a DisplayPort connection for G-SYNC to work. If you want a monitor with a higher refresh rate, check out the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG259QN.

Outstanding input lag. It's slightly higher when playing at 60Hz or when VRR is enabled, but it shouldn't be noticeable for most people. Since this monitor has an 8-bit panel, we weren't able to test it with 10-bit HDR. Input lag with 8-bit HDR at 60Hz was 14.2ms.