Galax Vivance VI-01 Gaming Monitor Review: Solid Value and Performance

The Galax Vivance VI-01 is a 27-inch IPS/QHD gaming monitor with 165 Hz, Adaptive-Sync, HDR and extended color.

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Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The VI-01 correctly processes HDR10 signals with a dedicated picture mode and automatic switching. There are no picture options available, but I found decent accuracy and a picture that was slightly better than its SDR counterpart.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

The VI-01 delivers good brightness in HDR mode with just over 363 nits peak. That’s enough to make a little extra impact in the highlight areas of the image. But with no dynamic dimming feature, black levels are the same as they are in SDR mode. That means contrast is the same as well. HDR delivers a bit more color saturation but that is all.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

I was happy to see that the VI-01 was very color accurate in HDR mode, especially in the grayscale test where I recorded no visible errors and a near-perfect EOTF. The only flaw in luminance tracking is a high reading at 5% black, which is too light. Fixing this parameter alone would increase HDR contrast by a good deal. The rest of the curve is right on the reference line with the tone-map transition point at 65%.

In the HDR gamut test, I noted over-saturation in red by around 15%. This isn’t a huge problem and given the VI-01’s light gamma, it makes color more vibrant at the expense of a little fine detail. Some bright areas show a bit of clipping, but you have to be looking for it. In the heat of an action game, you aren’t likely to notice a problem. 

Hue tracking is on point except for blue, which shows the same shift toward cyan that I observed in SDR mode. The VI-01 interprets Rec.2020 much the same way with over-saturation of the inner points. It manages to get up to around 88% red, but the other colors top out closer to 70%. This is typical performance when compared to all wide gamut monitors.

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Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor
  • Kridian
    Amazon search for this monitor yields nothing. Wtf?
    Reply
  • Sleepy_Hollowed
    Kridian said:
    Amazon search for this monitor yields nothing. Wtf?

    The only country that they use Amazon with is India.

    You can buy on the Galax store in USA and they have a list of where to buy in other countries.

    To me that's an extra plus on why buy this monitor.

    I don't know if you all know, but Amazon is a dumpster fire of fake listings and a place where companies get their products' information stolen by Amazon and then used for their own knock offs: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/amazon-copied-products-rigged-search-results-promote-its-own-brands-documents-2021-10-13/
    Any company that uses them outside of pure necessity due to being a monopoly is insane.
    Reply
  • Kridian
    Visited the Galax store (USA/galaxstore.net) and has no monitors on their page.
    Visited the overall Galax site (galax.com) and there is no option to buy.
    There is a word I'm thinking here... Fail, fail & fail some more.
    Reply
  • tylerwong2006
    Monoprice and multiple brands on Amazon says that QHD 165Hz IPS isn't expensive to be good
    Reply
  • GerarWolf
    Hello, could you please send me the icc profile of this monitor xd
    Reply