Samsung SM-2493

[Cov(enant)]

Hello

I intend to order this monitor by the end of this week.
Stepping up from my good old Compaq FP1707 (3:4) to a 24 inch (16:9) will be nice. Hope that the different format won't mess up the aspect ratio.

Well, first I was thinking to get the Dell 2408 but I'm not sure what it is but I don't feel comfortable with it anymore. I know it has a S-PVA panel, so the quality is supposed to be better than TN ones, but to be honest, I'm happy with my old Compaq TFT and think a TN would be fine for me.
Then I liked the Acer P243W, but the response was negative so far and I'm put off now.

The HP W2408H is heavily promoted in our area, you find it at almost every shop on sale. I quite like the stand - in fact it's the most beautiful of them all. (Looks is very important to me)
Then again, the thick frame around the panel spoiles it again ... it looks too chunky. Besides this, it hasn't got a DVI socket.

Now I think to have made my mind up with the Samsung SM-2493 or SM2693.
I would like to ask the owners of this monitor if you could let us know the positive and negative points please ?

Any banding / ghosting issue ? Any dead pixels ?
Is the viewing angle of 160 degrees enough (Dell has 178 degrees) ?

Thank you very much.

[Cov(enant)]

Dell 2408




Acer P243W




Hewlett Packard HP W2408H




Samsung SM-2493 HM

[Cov(enant)]

Alright, looks like it would be either the Acer or the Samsung.

Strange, but I havent found any reviews about either model on the internet.

Would anyone know a website address please ?

[Shalamay]

try cnet.com and go under monitors. Don't know what they have reviews of, but they had quite a few the last time I went there. Or google monitor reviews and see what comes up. Hope that helps some.

[little_scrapper]

The Acer P243W appears not to have an anti-reflective screen. I hate that. It like looking at a mirror with a screen behind it hewhe

[Tonucci]

If im not wrong the Samsung SM-2493 is 16:10, not 16:9. I saw in samsungs website. Am i missing something ?

[Cov(enant)]

According to Samsung's website (PDF file) the aspect ration really is 16:10 ... you were right, but I don't think that'd any problem.

Samsung SM-2493 HM

Specification PDF

If nobody has any objectives, I will order this Monitor then.

[Cov(enant)]

Alright then ... just ordered it from eBuyer ... for Wednesday 2nd April 2008.

I will give you a little review (with pic of course) about positives & negatives.

Oh by the way, I asked wether there's anything I could do in case of dead pixels, and a lady said that I could return it within the first 10 days - no questions asked.

Cool dude

[Shalamay]

Please update us when you get it.

[atomicvai]

I own the Samsung and love it, no regrets.

[jimmyz]

the soyo 24" that is sold at officemaxx stores uses the new panel also and is only $299 when it is on sale. plus 15 day no question return policy and they will replace if you have any dead or stuck pixels. also you can get the extended warranty for 30 dollars more. It is very sparse on features but it works great.

[Cov(enant)]

I own the Samsung and love it, no regrets.

Which one, the SM2493 HM ?

Please update us when you get it.

Will do, promised ...

the soyo 24" ...

Sorry to say, but this model has received a very bad review here:

The Soyo 24" Screen

... Reliability ? Sh1t is what I can say from my experience. You don’t know how long it’s gonna last before you take it in for repairs ...

[Origin_Unknown]

does the samsung do more than 60hz @ 1680x1050?

[Cov(enant)]

CRT monitors only look bad at 60Hz because they have to refresh the phosphors at the front of the screen. They fade quickly after being hit. That's what makes them flicker and hurt your eyes. LCDs don't suffer from that problem because each pixels "glows" all the time ... not pulsating like a CRT seems to.

It isn't a problem, even if you were to run it at 20Hz. The only thing refresh effects for an LCD user is how often the screen will change frames - which for an average (16ms) panel is an absolute maximum of 62.5 times per second...just about like your 60Hz refresh. Going higher would do absolutely no good. Also keep in mind that you are incapable of detecting all frame changes at even 60Hz, yet alone 70/75/85/+.

Another note - if you are using a VGA or DVI-A connection instead of DVI-D, higher refresh rates may make your screen actually look worse.

[atomicvai]

59hz or 60hz is it.... but as Cov was saying, it's not the same effect as CRT refresh rates.

Yes the 2493HM as listed in my sig.

[Cov(enant)]

Alright, it had arrived on Wednesday afternoon, and what can I say ? It's AWESOME !!!!!

First of all, I changed the resolution from 1280 x 1024 ... to ... 1920 x 1200 widescreen while keeping the aspect ration of course.

Then I checked for dead pixels with the help of a little program called DPB - Dead Pixels Buddy, and there are NONE ... not a single one !

I was concerned wether a widescreen would be any good for office work, but I can say that the additional space left & right is very useful and besides this, it gives a feeling of liberation compared to my old 17 inch (3:4) one. I find it hard to explain, maybe you have to experience it for yourself. One thing is for sure, there is no going back to 3:4 anymore for me.

Reagarding the size I would say that 24 inch gives you every space you could possibly need for computer work, going any bigger would result in sacrificing the comfort of having the space under control, in my opinion.

If you do use it 90% for watching videos I would have gone for the 26 inch version.
Which ever monitor you will get - Samsung won't let you down in respect of picture quality. It has to be the sharpest and clearest screen I have ever seen.

One of the first things I have done is I played my current favourite PC game Halo - Combat Evolved.
Well, well, well ... playing this game on this monitor makes it a totaly different experience. The 3D effect comes to live and the peripheral eyesight gets really busy with this screen, because suddenly there is something going on on the left and right where before was the limitation of my 17 inch 3:4 one.
Besides this I noticed that the graphics quality has improved extraordinary, but this is down to the new PC - not to the Samsung. My old PC was not able to show that there is actually gras all over in Blood Gulch and that the head lights of the cars throw a beam on the floor. There are many examples of quality improvements with better hardware - incredible ... I was just blown away.

While I give you with this posting a little review about the Samsung SM2493 HM, I have to highlight that I have serious problems with setting up my new PC. For example there is no sound for no obvious reason on the motherboard Asus P5E-VM HDMI, and the other drivers give me headache too, like frozen screen (Chipset) or illogical error messages.
Meaning I won't be able to post any pictures at the moment, and my opinions are based on the short time testing. Will be too busy sorting out the other problems in my little free time.

What else was in the package ?

A quick setup guide, warranty card and user guide, monitor driver, natural color - and auto rotation software.
Two power cords (one for GB and one for Germany)
A d-sub cable
A audio cable
Despite being listed as "sold separately", there was a DVI cable and a very soft blue cloth for cleaning the screen too.

ok here are the positives and negatives:

POSITIVES
---------------
The looks is great. The thickness of the frame around the panel is very sleek - I like that. The high-gloss black does not obstruct at all and even fades totaly into the background if the light is not bright in the room.
The depth of the panel is hardly thicker than my old 17 inch one and from there you can see that the technology has advanced here too.
It is not nearly as heavy as I was afraid it would be.

The stand makes a solid and good designed impression, moving the screen up and down is done without effort and turning to the right and left too.
When you rotate it however, it doesn't give a proper feedback for when it has been set horizontally or vertically. As well can you feel that the backside of the stand is not as stable as you wished it would be.
That would resolve itself if you could fix it with a wall mount instead.

The 160 degrees viewing angle are sometimes mentioned as a disadvantage of TN screens. Well, I can say now that this is no point to be worried about. The usage of this screen from any angle doesn't leave any space for complaints.

The buttons of the control panel are awesome. In fact there are no buttons but a touch sensitive surface on the right bottom side of the frame.
A tiny little blue Power LED is lit when switched on - looks very decent.

The front and the back of the panel gets hardly warm, and that's after having it switched on from 14.00 (when I received it), non-stop until 05.00 am - that are 15 hours. I highlight that because when I was browsing around at PC World recently I noticed that one of the cheaper 20 inch screen felt rather hot.

On the bottom of the backside are the connections:
Power with a little switch - very nice.
HDMI in for an BluRay player for example.
DVI in (HDCP)
RGB in
Audion in / out (headphone)

NEGATIVES
-------------
The sensor buttons are not lit and the writing on the frame is very faint, that means you have to look really close before you touch them. But then again, you only adjust the monitor once and that was it.

There are really no USB sockets on this monitor. A picture in the quick guide shows two USB sockets built into the stand but that is only labled as "optional". I wished it came with that as it's very handy to have.

I should have bought this monitor much earlier ...

[Cov(enant)]

Monitor ... Samsung SM2493 HM

[Origin_Unknown]

is the 2nd one just on there for comparison? or is it dual display

[Cov(enant)]

Haven't tried dual display yet ... the old 17 inch Compaq is just to compare to the 24 inch Samsung.