Samsung 245BW Review:

The Samsung 245BW combines a 24″ screen with a 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio to give you a bigger window on your world. Whether you use that power to work more efficiently or to watch a bigger blockbuster, you get shart text and crisp motion through a fast 5 ms response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio and exclusive technologies like MagicColor and MagicBright2. And it’s all topped off by a height-adjustable stand and optional integrated speakers. With the Samsung 245BW, it’s not hard to imagine.

I made the decision to buy based on a direct side by side comparison (in a popular retail store) between this 24″ LCD monitor vs. another same size, competing, (but much higher priced), Gateway model.

In the store both monitors were displaying an endless loop video demo via VGA inputs; there was no way at the time to test out the more purified digital DVI interfaces. Albeit, I would have preferred to see a demo of the full capability of 1920×1200 video resolution for assessing each LCDs overall quality, but at least their was a relatively equal playing field for this subjective comparison.

First and foremost, the biggest differentiator and why Samsung’s monitor wins hands down, is based on the prices; after rebate, the difference is nearly $100. Plus, Samsung offers a 3 year factory warranty. Of course, as to be expected for such a substantially lower price, this monitor has fewer “extra” features - no PIP, USB ports, fancier stand, etc. But an LCD screen that rotates 90 degrees for profile mode text viewing may well be worth paying more.

Samsung’s widescreen LCD is landscape only, but does have a nifty lazy-susan-like, base rotatable and height adjustable stand just like the Gateway. All LCD monitors generally have “tilt” adjustable stands as a standard feature, but lesser models often are NOT height adjusted.

Color contrast and sharpness of full color pictures, like photo images on Gateway’s display, were somewhat natural looking and more pleasing to the eye. That might tend to explain the difference in price as well. Then again, maybe not, as Samsung’s dynamic response time (spec’d 5ms typical) was immensely better than Dell’s, spec’d only millisecond slower. This obvious difference, other than the many $$$ saved, really sold me on the Samsung 245BW!!!

I noticed this difference during a fast transient in the displayed image during the endless loop video demo. When an advertiser’s large block white lettering on the displays quickly became superimposed with another, the Gateway image momentarily degraded becoming significantly blurred. Response times were SIGNIFICANTLY more noticeable than merely a one millisecond difference in the specs might otherwise suggest.

Dynamic response times are generally quite important certainly for digitally sourced video game applications, as well as viewing HD action movies on an LCD display screen. Larger HDTV LCDs costing far more than either of these monitors, have the same tendency to blur during fast moving image changes. However, less savvy consumers probably don’t pay close enough attention to even notice the momentary degradation effects. This is the one characteristic of all LCD displays that vary widely, and usually the higher the price, the less degradation can be visually detected by the naked eye. No so, in the case of these two monitors, so let the buyer beware.

The smeared fast moving imagery on the Gateway LCD stood out like a sore thumb, and that was all I needed to declare the Samsung victorious in this apples to apples, or is it apples to oranges, comparison.

I initially set up my Samsung 245BW to display the output of an Xbox 360 Elite, through a six foot long, HDMI to DVI cable. I set the video resolution of the Xbox to its highest possible resolution (1920 x 1080) and started out going through the various dashboard panes, and played a few hi-res games. I could not detect any dead pixels anywhere on the LCD. Then, I watched a standard anamorphic widescreen DVD with 2.35:1 aspect ratio and of course, thin black bars showed up on the top and bottom of the screen. Unlike many HDTVs, unfortunately without any aspect ratio controls, nor any way to stretch or expand the picture, the black bars were my constant companion throughout the movie. However, in all truthfulness, after a while, I did not even notice them anymore.

There was (thankfully) no blurred images noticeable during the movie. On the downside, I noticed quite a bit of bleed-thru on a totally black (static) picture image, especially in a dimly lit room lighting situation. I tried adjusting down the brightness and contrast to make this effect slightly less noticeable, which did not really help. This is the Samsung 245BW’s only perceptible flaw, but for the price paid, I did not find objectionable.

The Samsung 245BW comes with a minimalist power cord, VGA and DVI interface cables, and installable PC drivers and full instruction manual provide on a CD-ROM. For initial user set up, a bare bones (foldout) Quick Setup Guide is included as well.

Samsung 245BW monitor was easy to set up and go through the various OSD menus to personalize for individual preferences. I have not yet had a chance to load and try out the video drivers, but am planning to use the Samsung 245BW with Vista Ultimate on a new HP Pavilion, Duo Core, Multimedia TV PC with a good quality graphics card with DVI. According to Samsung, the Samsung 245BW is already Vista Home Premium “Certified”.

This monitor really has all the “right stuff” where it counts, so perhaps deserves more kudos than given in this review.

Bottom line, the Samsung 245BW is a very high quality, 24″ LCD monitor display. The 1920×1200 picture resolution looks fantastic and is surrounded by an elegant, glossy black bordered bessel, on an well designed, adjustable stand. At Amazon’s current selling price (plus $14.95 for shipping), Samsung 245BW is a terrific value and will meet most expectations.

—– By Dsinned

Samsung 245BW Features

• Viewable area - 24? wide
• Approximate 16 - 10 perspective
• Pixel Pitch - 0.270 mm
• Brightness (Typical) - 400 cd/m2
• Response Time (Typical) - 5ms (GTG)

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