Hands on: Viewsonic VX2876iml

The new Miracast feature on Viewsonics’ VX2876iml worked strongly in the crowded suites of CES.

Much the way that T-1000’s multiple liquid pieces came together after getting shattered to bits in Terminator 2, PCs, PC components and mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are merging now more than ever. We got to spend a few minutes and go hands on with the 28-inch 1080p Viewsonic VX2876iml monitor at the company’s suite here at CES 2014, where we got to test the display’s Miracast wireless technology.

The VX2876iml includes Miracast, which allows anyone in possession of a mobile device running Android 4.2 or later to connect to the monitor, granting the user the ability to display not only what’s on their phone or tablet, but transmit any audio that comes from the mobile gear through the monitor’s speakers as well. We tested this out by connecting a Samsung Galaxy S4 to the monitor, simply using the phone to connect without any configuration on the display required. Setup took roughly 10 seconds.

Consuming content transmitted from the phone onto the monitor was a breeze, though everything looked somewhat blurry. There was also a slight delay when scrolling up and down using the phone, but everything displayed on the monitor, just super-sized.

We took our test phone and walked away from the VX2876iml, which played our test track almost flawlessly regardless of how far we were from the display

Miracast not only transmits video from the device to the monitor, but audio as well. We decided to test this by heading over to Youtube and playing Cocaine by Eric Clapton. The song played flawlessly, and skipping around between different parts of the track did nothing to hinder Miracast’s performance on the VX2876iml. We then decided to test out Miracast’s transmission range to see if distance would play a factor in performance. We took our test phone and walked away from the VX2876iml, and at a distance of about 20 feet, we heard a single, brief stutter that lasted about half a second. However, the song continued playing after that slight interruption. We continued walking away from the display with phone in hand and exited the room, stopping at a distance of about 30 feet. Aside from that single brief stutter, the VX2876iml played the track almost flawlessly from the phone.

The VX2876iml also ships with an MHL input and cable, which performs the same task as Miracast, but does so with a wire. Viewsonic will include an MHL cord with the monitor when it ships. Viewsonic told us that MHL is compatible with Android phones and tablets that have MHL compatibility built in . The devices also need to be running Android 4.1 or later as well.

Viewsonic plans to ship the VX2876iml during the second half of 2014. Pricing details have yet to be released.

Hands on: Viewsonic VX2876iml

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