Like most hardware companies, Viewsonic thinks gamers need to lighten up, and it's upcoming XG240R enables exactly that. It's another fast 1080p monitor like its predecessor, the XG240, but with the addition "Elite RGB," a marketing term Viewsonic coined for what boils down to accent lighting on the back.
Some people are into that sort of thing—Google is filled with images of big screen TVs with LED strips on the back, which provide a colored glow. It seems Viewsonic is going after the same concept. Whether it works to the same degree, however, will depend on how bright the lighting is. Viewsonic says it adds a "prismatic glow to your existing RGB peripheral setup."
Other than the addition of fancy lighting, this looks to be the same monitor as its predecessor. It's built around a 24-inch TN panel with a 1920x1080 resolution, speedy 144Hz refresh rate, and low 1ms response time, making it most appropriate for esports and fast-action games. The monitor also supports AMD's FreeSync technology.
Viewsonic rates the brightness at 350 nits. That's above average, though below the minimum 400 nits requirement that VESA requires for its entry-level DisplayHDR 400 certification. That's no sweat off Viewsonic's back, though, as it doesn't support HDR anyway.
Input options include a pair of HDMI 1.4 ports and a single DisplayPort 1.2 connector. There's also a 3.5mm headphone jack, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and a pair of built-in 2W speakers.
There's no word yet on when the XG240R will be available or for how much. As a point of reference, the non-RGB model has been selling for $179.99 on Amazon for the past several weeks, down from $259.99 for most of 2018.
