Product Review - ViewSonic VSD220
I don't always do product reviews, but when I do... yada, yada, yada. Today I'm reviewing a relatively recent technology purchase - the Viewsonic VSD220.
Computers always interested me. I'm always interested in seeing what new technology will come to computing. Some of it is bad, some of it is good. A lot of it is hard to grasp if you're not immersed in checking up on and understanding it. It can be difficult to separate the hype - of which there is a ton - and the reality.
I did a series of posts on an obscure topic of submerged oil cooling starting back at the end of February. As you can see, my interest can be somewhat eclectic.
I haven't been too interested in the move of computing towards tablets. My view isn't against tablets themselves, but in the implementation thus far. Essentially the concept of a tablet is simple; take a laptop, give it a touchscreen, and remove the keyboard. Congrats, you've got a tablet.
But concept and practicality are rarely perfectly aligned. Tablets are meant to alleviate mass and provide intuitive action. No longer do you fiddle with an alternate device to move a cursor across a screen to what you want. You simply it on the screen. Ideally, you don't even need a keyboard, you just write naturally, and the computer interprets and standardizes your writing as a set font for a polished looking document.
My specific problem with tablets has been power and size - they're lacking in both. Tablets generally lack enough power to do any but the simplest functions, and not enough to do multiple ones at the same time. And, for the most part, tablets only measure up to 10 inches. I once had a 15" laptop. It was a nuisance having a screen that small and pretending it was alright just because that was the norm everyone became used to. My next laptop was a 17" laptop. It was pretty close to ideal in my opinion, and I don't really consider myself a "power" user. Unfortunately it's almost a decade old at this point, and unfortunately laptops have never been particularly adept at lending themselves to being updated. It's simply really old now and breaking down.
For my desktop what I need most at the moment is screen real estate. Looking at images, while also referencing a spreadsheet, or any type of document, while working in another document. It becomes cumbersome to switch back and forth between windows. It's easier to just have all the windows open on various screens to look over to.
So, that was my situation; I need a mobile computing device, need a screen of decent size and resolution for my desktop, and I had an interest in seeing how well touch works in a desktop environment. The ViewSonic VSD220 seemed to be a solid hit.
Well, it's not. First off, it's not really a tablet. In fact, you can almost make a case for false advertising by ViewSonic, as this device is in no way mobile. It's not the fact that it's 22". It is actually merely an All-In-One that boots to Android 4.0, but can also be connected to a desktop to function as a monitor. There is no battery, and you have to plug it in, so you're only as mobile as the nearest outlet. At 22" there is no expectation of a robust battery life. But you would figure they could have fitted it with one, or not advertise it as a tablet.
As a touch device it uses optical touch technology. Most touch devices (smartphones really) use capacitive touch. The former is able to pick up potential input without having to actually touch the screen, provided its settings are sensitive enough. But it lacks the ability to detect pressure, so you can't really make light or heavy strokes, so it's not good for something like writing or drawing. With the ViewSonic in particular, its not very accurate, likely a function of the various sensors overlapping poorly and thereby overriding and/or cancelling each other out as you try to use it. This issue is likely compounded by the paltry specs. Having only a single GB of RAM and a lightweight Cortex processor, it lacks enough real power to even keep up with basic functionality very well. If you try typing too fast, it will bog down, confusing itself and reacting by repeating the last letter you tried typing several times, or simply not responding for several seconds.
The limited specs don't seem so much so relative to other tablets. But those tablets, as I mentioned, are generally 10 inches or less, meaning a lot less resources dedicated to driving the display. Given this is a 1080p display at more than twice the size, a lot of resources are being consumed just to get a good picture. While light viewing of videos are no problem, those of higher quality tend to need a lot of buffering. This is in part due to the less the ideal wireless on the system, which while is a relative champ at acquiring a signal, is fairly slow. It does have an Ethernet port. I've yet to test that connection - I'm loathe to make this any less mobile than it already is.
As for connections, it's not a whole lot more than you'd expect. There is a headphone jack and a mini-USB port on the left side. You'll need the mini-USB to get touch functionality when using it as a desktop screen - this one has to be plugged in. On the back there is the power connection, a MircoSD card slot for added storage, the mentioned Ethernet port, and a micro HDMI port. That HDMI port is the only means of connecting it to a desktop, though with the relative inexpensive cost of various adapters, it shouldn't be an issue. I bought an active HDMI to DisplayPort adapter due to the number of screens I'm running. The adapter only cost me about $20. Finally the right side has two standard USB 2.0 slots.
There is of course a learning curve involved. I've used Windows since about 7th grade. I did use Apple before that (don't even remember what Macintosh's OS was back then, It's not much, but Android is a different OS pinned to different technology, meaning a little adjusting is necessary. The technology attached to touch is not particularly mature as of yet, either. It still needs to develop and mature to reach a state of being fully effective. Remember, even today it can be hard to get a keyboard or mouse that performs exceptionally well if you skimp too much on cost. But at their base they all function. And that is more or less what you have here with the VSD220. At its base, it functions. I cannot honestly say it has been wholly incapable of doing any of the reasonable things I've asked it to do. Is it going to outperform my desktop? No, because the CPU alone in my desktop cost more than I paid for this thing (which was about 50% off MSRP).
For one, it would be nice to have a battery. It is certainly within the capacity of current technology to do so. Again, you're not going to ask for more than maybe 2-3 hours of battery life given the match of screen size and the inner components. Improvement in the touch technology is also needed. It lacks accuracy and consistency, issues which may be alleviated by adding a bit more RAM and a better CPU. A better wireless adapter would also be plenty nice.
ViewSonic does have a "newer" model. It does have an upgraded CPU and memory, but it still lacks a battery, and they went up to 24", which is getting too far away from any hope of being a mobile device. It would be nice if other companies go in on making devices like this. A little healthy competition would drive some better innovation. To be honest 22" is a little too big for what I originally had in mind. I would really prefer something in the range of 16 to 18 inches, 16 probably pushing it on the low side. Here's to hoping for better things to come for this rather niche product segment.
Computers always interested me. I'm always interested in seeing what new technology will come to computing. Some of it is bad, some of it is good. A lot of it is hard to grasp if you're not immersed in checking up on and understanding it. It can be difficult to separate the hype - of which there is a ton - and the reality.
I did a series of posts on an obscure topic of submerged oil cooling starting back at the end of February. As you can see, my interest can be somewhat eclectic.
I haven't been too interested in the move of computing towards tablets. My view isn't against tablets themselves, but in the implementation thus far. Essentially the concept of a tablet is simple; take a laptop, give it a touchscreen, and remove the keyboard. Congrats, you've got a tablet.
But concept and practicality are rarely perfectly aligned. Tablets are meant to alleviate mass and provide intuitive action. No longer do you fiddle with an alternate device to move a cursor across a screen to what you want. You simply it on the screen. Ideally, you don't even need a keyboard, you just write naturally, and the computer interprets and standardizes your writing as a set font for a polished looking document.
My specific problem with tablets has been power and size - they're lacking in both. Tablets generally lack enough power to do any but the simplest functions, and not enough to do multiple ones at the same time. And, for the most part, tablets only measure up to 10 inches. I once had a 15" laptop. It was a nuisance having a screen that small and pretending it was alright just because that was the norm everyone became used to. My next laptop was a 17" laptop. It was pretty close to ideal in my opinion, and I don't really consider myself a "power" user. Unfortunately it's almost a decade old at this point, and unfortunately laptops have never been particularly adept at lending themselves to being updated. It's simply really old now and breaking down.
For my desktop what I need most at the moment is screen real estate. Looking at images, while also referencing a spreadsheet, or any type of document, while working in another document. It becomes cumbersome to switch back and forth between windows. It's easier to just have all the windows open on various screens to look over to.
So, that was my situation; I need a mobile computing device, need a screen of decent size and resolution for my desktop, and I had an interest in seeing how well touch works in a desktop environment. The ViewSonic VSD220 seemed to be a solid hit.
Well, it's not. First off, it's not really a tablet. In fact, you can almost make a case for false advertising by ViewSonic, as this device is in no way mobile. It's not the fact that it's 22". It is actually merely an All-In-One that boots to Android 4.0, but can also be connected to a desktop to function as a monitor. There is no battery, and you have to plug it in, so you're only as mobile as the nearest outlet. At 22" there is no expectation of a robust battery life. But you would figure they could have fitted it with one, or not advertise it as a tablet.
As a touch device it uses optical touch technology. Most touch devices (smartphones really) use capacitive touch. The former is able to pick up potential input without having to actually touch the screen, provided its settings are sensitive enough. But it lacks the ability to detect pressure, so you can't really make light or heavy strokes, so it's not good for something like writing or drawing. With the ViewSonic in particular, its not very accurate, likely a function of the various sensors overlapping poorly and thereby overriding and/or cancelling each other out as you try to use it. This issue is likely compounded by the paltry specs. Having only a single GB of RAM and a lightweight Cortex processor, it lacks enough real power to even keep up with basic functionality very well. If you try typing too fast, it will bog down, confusing itself and reacting by repeating the last letter you tried typing several times, or simply not responding for several seconds.
The limited specs don't seem so much so relative to other tablets. But those tablets, as I mentioned, are generally 10 inches or less, meaning a lot less resources dedicated to driving the display. Given this is a 1080p display at more than twice the size, a lot of resources are being consumed just to get a good picture. While light viewing of videos are no problem, those of higher quality tend to need a lot of buffering. This is in part due to the less the ideal wireless on the system, which while is a relative champ at acquiring a signal, is fairly slow. It does have an Ethernet port. I've yet to test that connection - I'm loathe to make this any less mobile than it already is.
As for connections, it's not a whole lot more than you'd expect. There is a headphone jack and a mini-USB port on the left side. You'll need the mini-USB to get touch functionality when using it as a desktop screen - this one has to be plugged in. On the back there is the power connection, a MircoSD card slot for added storage, the mentioned Ethernet port, and a micro HDMI port. That HDMI port is the only means of connecting it to a desktop, though with the relative inexpensive cost of various adapters, it shouldn't be an issue. I bought an active HDMI to DisplayPort adapter due to the number of screens I'm running. The adapter only cost me about $20. Finally the right side has two standard USB 2.0 slots.
There is of course a learning curve involved. I've used Windows since about 7th grade. I did use Apple before that (don't even remember what Macintosh's OS was back then, It's not much, but Android is a different OS pinned to different technology, meaning a little adjusting is necessary. The technology attached to touch is not particularly mature as of yet, either. It still needs to develop and mature to reach a state of being fully effective. Remember, even today it can be hard to get a keyboard or mouse that performs exceptionally well if you skimp too much on cost. But at their base they all function. And that is more or less what you have here with the VSD220. At its base, it functions. I cannot honestly say it has been wholly incapable of doing any of the reasonable things I've asked it to do. Is it going to outperform my desktop? No, because the CPU alone in my desktop cost more than I paid for this thing (which was about 50% off MSRP).
For one, it would be nice to have a battery. It is certainly within the capacity of current technology to do so. Again, you're not going to ask for more than maybe 2-3 hours of battery life given the match of screen size and the inner components. Improvement in the touch technology is also needed. It lacks accuracy and consistency, issues which may be alleviated by adding a bit more RAM and a better CPU. A better wireless adapter would also be plenty nice.
ViewSonic does have a "newer" model. It does have an upgraded CPU and memory, but it still lacks a battery, and they went up to 24", which is getting too far away from any hope of being a mobile device. It would be nice if other companies go in on making devices like this. A little healthy competition would drive some better innovation. To be honest 22" is a little too big for what I originally had in mind. I would really prefer something in the range of 16 to 18 inches, 16 probably pushing it on the low side. Here's to hoping for better things to come for this rather niche product segment.
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