The ViewSonic XG241 gaming monitor boasts a refresh rate of 240 Hz, which means it can display up to 240 frames per second on supported games, less than 0.5 milliseconds of response time and sports a Full-HD resolution.

I've had the monitor for roughly two weeks, and I have thoughts.

Having done most of my gaming and on a console — I have a PlayStation 5 and a 65-inch 4K TV ̉— playing on a gaming monitor was a return to basics, of sorts. I had last gamed using a monitor when I was still a PC gamer pre-2011.

That said, I could immediately spot the drop in resolution, from 4K to Full HD, while I switched from playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on myTV to the monitor. While the visuals were softer, the far-superior high dynamic range on the monitor — the HDR on my television is abysmal, to put it kindly — made for a superior experience.

The visuals were smooth, the gameplay was like butter, and the HDR was a revelation for someone who never used it.

In simple terms, HDR ensures the visuals on the screen – the bright parts and the dark parts — are balanced enough so that the viewer/gamer will be able to see all that's present, rather than squint or struggle when the game takes you into a dark cave, which, if you've played The Witcher 3, there is a lot of.

There was absolutely no screen tearing, even in the most fast-moving of scenes — the fast response time and the AMD FreeSync are to be thanked for that.

I similarly tested some of the most graphically demanding games on the PS5 — God of War: Ragnarok, Red Dead Redemption 2, Grand Theft Auto 5 — and the XG2431 does the job, every single time.

Priced at around Rs 30,000 on Amazon, the XG2431 is on the higher end of gaming monitors, but this 24-inch display with its impressive internals more than justifies the price, in my humble opinion.

What's in the box?

The monitor comes packed with a solidly engineered swivel, tilt and raise stand, a power cable and an HDMI cable. It's ready to plug and play and has two HDMI ports. The button interface on the monitor is intuitive and you won't have to spend more than a couple of monitors tweaking it to suit your visual needs.

In conclusion

The XG2431, while compromising on resolution, gave me a superior gaming experience on every other front, so much so that it was my preferred gaming display during the entire period of testing. So, if you have Rs 25,000-30,000 burning a hole in your pocket, and you want some of the best HDR implementation on a monitor, go for it. You won't regret it.