Review - Samsung SyncMaster 940BW
Introduction
The Widescreen fever has begun and caught up with most computer enthusiasts in the world. I decided to join the group and went shopping with a limited budget. After a month of beating around the bush, I finally landed myself with the sleek Samsung SyncMaster 940BW.
If the model name doesnt mean anything to you, its just a 19inch widescreen (16:10) LCD monitor.
Before i proceed on the review, following are the technical specifications of the monitor.
[BREAK=Technical Specifications]
Technical Specifications
Panel Type: TN
Width: 43.9 cm
Depth: 20 mm
Height: 32.7 cm
Weight: 5.6 kg
Enclosure Color: Silver
Compatibility: PC, Mac
Diagonal Size: 19" - Widescreen
Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch: 0.285 mm
Max Resolution: 1440 x 900 / 75 Hz
Color support: Up to 16.2 million colors
Max Sync Rate (V x H): 75 Hz x 81 kHz
Response Time: 4 ms (Grey to Grey)
Controls / Adjustments: Brightness, contrast, H/V position
Interface: DVI, VGA (HD-15)
Features: MagicBright 2, MagicTune
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 500:1
Max H-View Angle: 160
Max V-View Angle: 160
Video Input: Analogue(RGB) / Digital (DVI)
Power consump (idle/op): 1W/42W
Compliant Standards: TCO '03, CE, TUV GS, EPA Energy Star
Warranty: 3 years onsite.
[BREAK=The Package]
The Package
The package contents included:
1) The Panel
2) One Standard Base (non height adjustable)
3) One RGB and One DVI cable
4) One Power cord
5) Manual + Warranty Card
6) Driver + Software CD
[BREAK=Initial Impressions and Powering up]
Initial Impressions
Everything came titghly packed in the carton and when the panel came out first, I couldnt drool over the thin, sleek and sexy bezel of the monitor.
Next came the standard, which to my disappointment was the standard non height adjustable stand and not the adjustable one.
Anyway, installation was as simple as turning a screw and the monitor was setup on the desk.
Powering Up
Next comes the part of connecting the cables.
The rear of the lcd was covered by a thin panel, which covers all the connectore ports (power and display interfaces).
Upon removing this panel/cover, the connector were revealed and as expected, there were the power socket and the two display interfaces (analogue/digital).
As you can see, the DVI cable has been connected and the monitor is ready for some action.
[BREAK=Initial Impressions (in action)]
Initial Impressions (in action)
My first reaction after the monitor displayed my desktop was "Wow!!! Thats bright!" and indeed it was. I had to turn the brightness down all the way to the setting "12" before i could comfortably view the screen.
Next, i went on to install all the sofware given in the CD, namely:
1) MagicTune
2) NaturalColor.
I calibrated the colors and contrast settings and on rebooting my rig, i was faced with a rude shock. All the colors were so badly screwed up that i had to recalibrate everything again. Later, i found out that i had to do this procedure after every reboot. After some fiddling, i caught the culprit: "NaturalColor". This piece of software literally screws up all the settings made by Magictune. Anyway, i got rid of it and i was back in action.
wait..let me drool over the monitor's looks a bit more.......
[BREAK=The Testing]
The Testing
BadPixel Buddy
Any testing of an LCD always begins with looking out for bad-pixels. I used the software thats most used for this purpose: Badpixel Buddy.
Needless to say, i was delighted not to find a single bad pixel, the screen was full with a single color.
DisplayMate
Next came DisplayMate for LCDs. What i had here was a demo version and i couldnt access the video and advanced fuctions. However, the monitor passed all gradient and shades tests with flying colors (even with the blacks, whites n grey tests
). Well, so far so good.
[BREAK=The Testing - II]
Now, time for some more tests:
Backlight Bleeding
This is a problem that plagues almost every LCD out there. For those who arent acquainted with this term, backlight bleeding means leaking of the backlight on the screen and hence washing out the colors a bit. Why backlight u say?..well, LCD panels are not self-illuminated and they need a backlight to make them properly visible.
So, back to the test. I switched all ambient lighting off and using badpixelbuddy, set a black color on the screen and i found quite noticeable black leaking on the top and bottom of the screen.
The following pic might prove this:
As you can see, there is quite a bit of backlight coming out there.
Acceptable, but dissapointing too, i must say.
Ghosting/Blurring
Now, comes the daddy of all tests. LCDs are notorious for ghosting/blurring problems. Ghosting/blurring of an image means that pixels of an image take their time deactivating themselves even after the image is no longer present there.
This problem has more or less been solved with fast panels that are available nowadays.
Even this monitor boasts of a 4ms grey-to-grey response time. Needless to say that, this specification means that there shouldnt be any sort of ghosting or blurring.
After some careful observations, i realised that this indeed isnt true. I could clearly make out trails in fast movements in games. I dint notice this earlier, but now that i found it, i can see through this easily and it becomes irritating after a while. To put an analogy, i can say that theres about 1mm of ghost-images trailing a fast moving object on the screen. Is this a unique problem with my screen? I cannot say for sure, because i examined two other monitors at the showroom and found the exact same problem. Maybe its the panel, maybe its my eyes, because i find other users disagreeing with my observations.
[BREAK= The Testing - III]
With that ghost behind us, now time to take a look at the viewing angles of the LCD.
I managed to click some pictures at the specified extremes of the viewing angles (160 degrees) of the LCD and they are:
From straight on:
From the extreme left:
From the extreme right:
And from below:
As you can observe from the pictures, the image washout is severe and non-uniform as can be expected from a TN panel which is the most inferior of the available panels out there (the others being MVA and IPS).
[BREAK=Display Adjustments]
Display Adjustments
Well, adjusting the display is important and varies from user to user and the following are the functions provided by the monitor.
Hardware Adjustment -
1) Swivel
2) Tilt
Software Adjustment-
1) Via OSD
2) Via MagicTune (DVI only)
Nothing much can be said about the hardware part of the adjustments except for that height adjustment hasnt been provided.
Coming to the software part i.e. color,contrast,brightness,gamma control part of image adjustment, the monitor provides with two different interfaces for the user.
One is through the buttons on the panel, that control the simple yet comprehensive OSD of the monitor.
The OSD buttons are soft-touch type and have a solid and durable feel about them. The power button lights up in blue when active.
The actual OSD itself is multi-lingual and multi-positional i.e can be placed anywhere on the screen.
It is also smart enough not to appear dead centre on the screen when watching movies so that you can comfortably adjust your image settings.
The second interface is provided by the MagicTune software that can be used when the monitor is operated via the DVI interface. This is nothing but a UI that can be operated with ur mouse instead of the OSD buttons.
It has some nice features to save your profiles and a color calibration wizard as well.
There are also some MagicBright presets in the monitor which change the colors and brightness and contrast accordingly.
The presets offered are:
1) Text (Dark)
2) Internet (Bright, cool color tone)
3) Game (Extra bright, normal color tone)
4) Sports (Extra bright, cool color tone)
5) Movie (Bright, warm color tone)
[BREAK=Summing it up...]
Conclusions
Well, thats about what i can say about this neat little monitor.
Oh...almost forgot to mention that this monitor supports HDCP and this makes it quite a bit future-proof. HDCP means High Definition Copy Protocol which is used to watch encrypted high definition videos which are expected to be a norm in the near future.
Now, summing up the pros and cons of the Samsung 940BW
Pros
1) Sleek with a thin bezel
2) Multi Interface (Analogue + Digital)
3) Excellent image reproduciton
4) HDCP support
5) Easy to setup and use
6) The price (14,700 INR - Sept2006 - Hyderabad,India)
Cons
1) Fast moving images are not entirely blur-free
2) Rubbish viewing angles (Has to be viewed straight on)
3) No height adjustment
Well, that about does it. Will I recommend the monitor? Yes, if you are on a budget and you want a future-proof, uber-cool looking display to show off!
Something like this:
:tongue:
Pardon me for the low quality pics and if i made any technical blunders (which im sure i did ).
OnO
Introduction
The Widescreen fever has begun and caught up with most computer enthusiasts in the world. I decided to join the group and went shopping with a limited budget. After a month of beating around the bush, I finally landed myself with the sleek Samsung SyncMaster 940BW.
If the model name doesnt mean anything to you, its just a 19inch widescreen (16:10) LCD monitor.
Before i proceed on the review, following are the technical specifications of the monitor.
[BREAK=Technical Specifications]
Technical Specifications
Panel Type: TN
Width: 43.9 cm
Depth: 20 mm
Height: 32.7 cm
Weight: 5.6 kg
Enclosure Color: Silver
Compatibility: PC, Mac
Diagonal Size: 19" - Widescreen
Dot Pitch / Pixel Pitch: 0.285 mm
Max Resolution: 1440 x 900 / 75 Hz
Color support: Up to 16.2 million colors
Max Sync Rate (V x H): 75 Hz x 81 kHz
Response Time: 4 ms (Grey to Grey)
Controls / Adjustments: Brightness, contrast, H/V position
Interface: DVI, VGA (HD-15)
Features: MagicBright 2, MagicTune
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 500:1
Max H-View Angle: 160
Max V-View Angle: 160
Video Input: Analogue(RGB) / Digital (DVI)
Power consump (idle/op): 1W/42W
Compliant Standards: TCO '03, CE, TUV GS, EPA Energy Star
Warranty: 3 years onsite.
[BREAK=The Package]
The Package
The package contents included:
1) The Panel
2) One Standard Base (non height adjustable)
3) One RGB and One DVI cable
4) One Power cord
5) Manual + Warranty Card
6) Driver + Software CD
[BREAK=Initial Impressions and Powering up]
Initial Impressions
Everything came titghly packed in the carton and when the panel came out first, I couldnt drool over the thin, sleek and sexy bezel of the monitor.
Next came the standard, which to my disappointment was the standard non height adjustable stand and not the adjustable one.
Anyway, installation was as simple as turning a screw and the monitor was setup on the desk.
Powering Up
Next comes the part of connecting the cables.
The rear of the lcd was covered by a thin panel, which covers all the connectore ports (power and display interfaces).
Upon removing this panel/cover, the connector were revealed and as expected, there were the power socket and the two display interfaces (analogue/digital).
As you can see, the DVI cable has been connected and the monitor is ready for some action.
[BREAK=Initial Impressions (in action)]
Initial Impressions (in action)
My first reaction after the monitor displayed my desktop was "Wow!!! Thats bright!" and indeed it was. I had to turn the brightness down all the way to the setting "12" before i could comfortably view the screen.
Next, i went on to install all the sofware given in the CD, namely:
1) MagicTune
2) NaturalColor.
I calibrated the colors and contrast settings and on rebooting my rig, i was faced with a rude shock. All the colors were so badly screwed up that i had to recalibrate everything again. Later, i found out that i had to do this procedure after every reboot. After some fiddling, i caught the culprit: "NaturalColor". This piece of software literally screws up all the settings made by Magictune. Anyway, i got rid of it and i was back in action.
wait..let me drool over the monitor's looks a bit more.......
[BREAK=The Testing]
The Testing
BadPixel Buddy
Any testing of an LCD always begins with looking out for bad-pixels. I used the software thats most used for this purpose: Badpixel Buddy.
Needless to say, i was delighted not to find a single bad pixel, the screen was full with a single color.
DisplayMate
Next came DisplayMate for LCDs. What i had here was a demo version and i couldnt access the video and advanced fuctions. However, the monitor passed all gradient and shades tests with flying colors (even with the blacks, whites n grey tests
). Well, so far so good.[BREAK=The Testing - II]
Now, time for some more tests:
Backlight Bleeding
This is a problem that plagues almost every LCD out there. For those who arent acquainted with this term, backlight bleeding means leaking of the backlight on the screen and hence washing out the colors a bit. Why backlight u say?..well, LCD panels are not self-illuminated and they need a backlight to make them properly visible.
So, back to the test. I switched all ambient lighting off and using badpixelbuddy, set a black color on the screen and i found quite noticeable black leaking on the top and bottom of the screen.
The following pic might prove this:
As you can see, there is quite a bit of backlight coming out there.
Acceptable, but dissapointing too, i must say.
Ghosting/Blurring
Now, comes the daddy of all tests. LCDs are notorious for ghosting/blurring problems. Ghosting/blurring of an image means that pixels of an image take their time deactivating themselves even after the image is no longer present there.
This problem has more or less been solved with fast panels that are available nowadays.
Even this monitor boasts of a 4ms grey-to-grey response time. Needless to say that, this specification means that there shouldnt be any sort of ghosting or blurring.
After some careful observations, i realised that this indeed isnt true. I could clearly make out trails in fast movements in games. I dint notice this earlier, but now that i found it, i can see through this easily and it becomes irritating after a while. To put an analogy, i can say that theres about 1mm of ghost-images trailing a fast moving object on the screen. Is this a unique problem with my screen? I cannot say for sure, because i examined two other monitors at the showroom and found the exact same problem. Maybe its the panel, maybe its my eyes, because i find other users disagreeing with my observations.
[BREAK= The Testing - III]
With that ghost behind us, now time to take a look at the viewing angles of the LCD.
I managed to click some pictures at the specified extremes of the viewing angles (160 degrees) of the LCD and they are:
From straight on:
From the extreme left:
From the extreme right:
And from below:
As you can observe from the pictures, the image washout is severe and non-uniform as can be expected from a TN panel which is the most inferior of the available panels out there (the others being MVA and IPS).
[BREAK=Display Adjustments]
Display Adjustments
Well, adjusting the display is important and varies from user to user and the following are the functions provided by the monitor.
Hardware Adjustment -
1) Swivel
2) Tilt
Software Adjustment-
1) Via OSD
2) Via MagicTune (DVI only)
Nothing much can be said about the hardware part of the adjustments except for that height adjustment hasnt been provided.
Coming to the software part i.e. color,contrast,brightness,gamma control part of image adjustment, the monitor provides with two different interfaces for the user.
One is through the buttons on the panel, that control the simple yet comprehensive OSD of the monitor.
The OSD buttons are soft-touch type and have a solid and durable feel about them. The power button lights up in blue when active.
The actual OSD itself is multi-lingual and multi-positional i.e can be placed anywhere on the screen.
It is also smart enough not to appear dead centre on the screen when watching movies so that you can comfortably adjust your image settings.
The second interface is provided by the MagicTune software that can be used when the monitor is operated via the DVI interface. This is nothing but a UI that can be operated with ur mouse instead of the OSD buttons.
It has some nice features to save your profiles and a color calibration wizard as well.
There are also some MagicBright presets in the monitor which change the colors and brightness and contrast accordingly.
The presets offered are:
1) Text (Dark)
2) Internet (Bright, cool color tone)
3) Game (Extra bright, normal color tone)
4) Sports (Extra bright, cool color tone)
5) Movie (Bright, warm color tone)
[BREAK=Summing it up...]
Conclusions
Well, thats about what i can say about this neat little monitor.
Oh...almost forgot to mention that this monitor supports HDCP and this makes it quite a bit future-proof. HDCP means High Definition Copy Protocol which is used to watch encrypted high definition videos which are expected to be a norm in the near future.
Now, summing up the pros and cons of the Samsung 940BW
Pros
1) Sleek with a thin bezel
2) Multi Interface (Analogue + Digital)
3) Excellent image reproduciton
4) HDCP support
5) Easy to setup and use
6) The price (14,700 INR - Sept2006 - Hyderabad,India)
Cons
1) Fast moving images are not entirely blur-free
2) Rubbish viewing angles (Has to be viewed straight on)
3) No height adjustment
Well, that about does it. Will I recommend the monitor? Yes, if you are on a budget and you want a future-proof, uber-cool looking display to show off!
Something like this:
:tongue:
Pardon me for the low quality pics and if i made any technical blunders (which im sure i did ).
OnO
