Review: Viewsonic ID1330 ViewBoard Pen Display

Over the past couple of years, a lot has changed about how we work and learn. With educational institutes being shut and teaching moved online, the demand for portable devices has increased. Viewsonic is a brand known for quality display products for years. The company also offers a range of portable pen displays on the market under its Viewboard series.

The company sent us the new ID1330 ViewBoard Pen Display which is aimed at distance learning and remote work use. The ID1330 is a portable touchscreen display tablet that can connect to a desktop or a laptop, to either extend the display of your laptop or PC or duplicate your laptop or PC’s display.

While the Pen Display itself does not come with an operating system of its own, it can be controlled with a bundled electromagnetic pen that recognises up to 8192 levels of pressure. This means you can use the ID1330 for taking handwritten notes, comments, and even for sketching if you are into creative content generation.

Inside the box, you get the Viewsonic ID1330 ViewBoard Pen Display, with a bunch of accessories that include a protective cover, a battery-free pen, three pen nibs, one pen nib clip, one USB-C to USB-C cable (1m), one mini HDMI to HDMI cable (1m), one USB-C to USB-A cable (1m), and the Quick Start Guide. The display measures 13.3-inches diagonally and offer a full HD resolution of 1920-by-1080 pixels.

The display also weighs less than 1-kgs, which is perfect for moving it around, if required. The ID1330 is also compatible with Windows 7 and above and it features a writing response of 266 PPS (point per second). In terms of I/O ports, the ViewSonic ID1330 offers two USB 3.1 Type-C ports and an HDMI interface.

On the left of the screen, you will find a set of physical control buttons, the functions of which can be customised through the Display Manager. There is no setup required to start using the device. All you need to do is to connect the ID1330 using either the USB 3.1 Type-C cable, if your laptop or PC has the USB-C thunderbolt port, or using the HDMI cable and the USB-C to USB-A cable to get started.

Once connected, you can either choose to extend your laptop or PC’s display or duplicate them. By extending the display, you will have two workspaces to work with. So suppose you are into an online classroom session and you would like to take notes, all you need to do is fire up any note-taking app and use it on the ID1330. If you are a creative artist, you can use the ID1330 as a sketching tablet. And if you are a content creator and would like to edit videos effortlessly, you would open the timeline on ID1330 and the preview screen on your laptop display, to make your job easier.

One of the things I liked about the ID1330 is its display comes with a matte finish. It is scratch-resistant and the overall look and feel is pretty good. As mentioned earlier, the ID1330 also comes with six customisable keys on the left side of the display. You can use these keys to open a specific application or use one of them to erase the screen instead of rubbing the digital eraser all over the screen.

The pen bundled with the display is very responsive and we hardly encountered any lag using it on multiple applications – whether it was taking notes or sketching. And since the pen is battery-free, you don’t have to charge it ever. We used ArtWeaver Plus to sketch on the ID1330 using the pen and we came away impressed. Everything worked as it should.

Pricing of the Viewsonic ID1330 ViewBoard Pen Display is, however, on the higher side, at AED 1900. Since it doesn’t come with any preloaded operating system, and you cannot install one, it can only be used as a secondary display with your PCs or laptops, which adds pen support if you need to write or draw something.

Having said all of that, the Viewsonic ID1330 ViewBoard Pen Display is suited for educators and creative artists. However, the high price tag may be a barrier for those considering purchasing it.

Price: AED 1900