Righto, im gonna be quite brief with this as the baby has been playing up!!
The first thing that grabs you is how big the monitor is. The box is massive!! Its weighs 24lbs all packed!! Pulling the monitor out of the box you really grasp how big it is.
Here it is compared to my old Samusung 191T, which isnt widescreen. ITS BIG!!
Brightness on first setup is enough to burn out your retinas! Ive had to set it down to about 40%, which gives a great picture and means as time goes on and it gets dimmer i can crank up the brightness.
The buttons on the front are small, outa the way and very easy to use. The light behind the power button is a bright blue, very nice. ( You know how it is, all things blue and in the pc industry means bigger, faster, better etc)
Viewing angles are excellent, there is a slight drop in brightness when looking from above, but it doesnt detract from the picture at all.
The viewing angles are excellent. I must apologise for the poor quality of the photos. I dont understand how i have made such a balls up, but they give a pretty good idea.
I actually went to a steeper angle and the monitor was still visible, obviously darker but still visible.
You can see here here how deep the monitor is, pretty good all things considered. The base is amazingly small considering how big the monitor is.
The entire construction is excellent, as i have come to expect from Samsung. It just feels well made, no flimsy plastic edges anywhere on this. I think the main place they have cut "corners" is by reducing the number of connection ports. You have the choice of DVI or VGA, but this is more than enough for my needs.
I have played Team Fortress 2 at 1920x1200 and i have to say even my lowly ATI X1950 Pro AGP ran it well. I noticed some shearing (only some mind) but no different to how it was on my last monitor. I wonder if it is directly related to my gfx card. Im afraid i havent played any other games yet, as i dont think anything new will run too well at full resolution, so i wont be able to update this until i build me new pc this year.
In conclusion i must say i am chuffed with this montior. It seems excellent value for money and gives a great picture. Yes its only got a 6 bit TN panel instead of an 8 bit PVA one, but what do you want for the price??
Yes you notice the screen gets darker when you stand up, but how many people work or game and then get up and sit down and go " oh no my screen has got darker" then sit down and say " oh wait, its ok now". I just see that as nit picking.
I give it an eight out of ten. Yes it could have more connectivity and a better panel, but not at this price!
Here is a conclusion from an online review,
"The Samsung SyncMaster 245B is definitely a value focussed 24in display, where hitting a price point was clearly the goal over offering great image quality[b]. If you're looking for a 1,920 x 1,200 monitor for gaming and you're on a very tight budget, then this is definitely an attractive option"
Last edited by Snaga on Tue Jan 01, 2008 7:39 pm; edited 3 times in total
I think its great value!! i really do. i dont see how you can better it for the price and i have to say i really admire the quality of samsung products. They always seem very well amde and as far as im concerned this is no exception.
Shearing as in, looking at a window frame in TF2, then turning quickly and seeing the vertical line to almost be out of sync for a moment. Dunnon if that makes sense. Hope it helps.
Dan, re your comments, yes its my actual baby thats playing up. Tbh comparing to the dell and the other Samsung, i dont know as i havent seen them in actiuon. But i know i like this monitor, simple and easy.
I see the Dell I mentioned above got 86% (compared to 71% for the Sammy) from Custom PC. I know it's more expensive (£446 inc VAT), and had heard about possible ghosting issues - but is the Sammy better ?
The Dell is a better monitor (its got a better panel) but the dell is very prone to ghosting which is the huge detraction! I also hear the power button etc on the monitor is very cheap and breaks after a few months
