Review: ViewSonic VSD241 24″ Touch-Sensitive Monitor With Android
When I got my hands on the ViewSonic VSD241 touch-sensitive monitor with Android, I had difficulty finding a use case for it. It’s a a dual-function display.
This is the VSD241. This isn’t a bad shot. I deliberately wanted to illustrate the how glossy this monitor is. That may create issues for some depending on the lighting conditions. But the monitor is generally easy to read once you set it up in an environment that works for you.
It’s primarily a touch-capable 23.6in all-in-one desktop computer running the Android operating system, complete with audio, networking, storage and HD webcam, independent of any other device. That to me suggested that this was a really big Android tablet as you can use any Android app on it. The thing is that there are a ton of all-in-one PCs out there that consumers could go out and buy. Though it does have some features that will set it apart from anything else running Android.
For starters, it has Ethernet and a HDMI port on the back. That way you can also use it as a monitor which is good as the display does 1080P. More on that in a second.
It also has full sized USB ports, a mini USB port, and a micro USB port. Plus it comes with an SD card slot and a headphone jack. The latter is not in a very handy location for frequent use.
On the front between the two speakers (which have pretty good sound by the way) are five touch-sensitive control buttons, for switching video modes and navigating the on-screen display. The central button is the power switch. On the top middle section of the display is a webcam that does 2 megapixels which in my testing was decent for video conferencing over Skype.
The VSD241 comes with Android Jelly Bean 4.2.1 out of the box. and performance is decent via nVidia’s Tegra 3 platform. This is what you get out of the box:
- A quad-core ARM processor running at 1.7 GHz
- 1 GB of memory and 8 GB of built-in flash storage expandable via the SD card slot.
- Bluetooth, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet
One thing that I found during my testing is that some apps simply don’t work on such a large display. Facebook for example thinks it’s running on a mobile device, and blows up pictures so they don’t look as good as they could. Another oddity was with a Windows PC connected. The inage initially couldn’t reach the very edge of the screen, but an Overscan setting in the menu fixed this. But this then made the screen too large when I switched back to Android mode until it was reset again. Having said that, the image quality was pretty decent. One thing I did like was the on-screen keyboard. On such a large display makes typing easier than on handheld mobile devices. That’s handy since no mouse or keyboard is included. Having said that, spring for a Bluetooth or wired keyboard if you plan on writing essays on the VSD241. ViewSonic appears to have hooked up with Google to provide full access to the Google Play store. Here you can easily download popular applications, with books, games and movie stores included as well. Bundled software includes nVidia’s Tegra Zone and ES File Explorer. Many of the apps have a short tutorial that show when you first load them, explaining pinching, long presses and double tapping.
So, what’s my verdict on the ViewSonic VS241? I think it could work as a simple computer for users who may lack computer literacy, or if you’re someone who needs to provide simple computer and Internet access in an all-in-one package. It’s priced at $569 which places it in the range of all-in-one PCs that cost the same or less. That may make it a tough sell. But I think a school or a library might be the ideal target audience of the VS241. If that’s you, check out the ViewSonic VS241.
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