Samsung SyncMaster 193V

I have had the Samsung Syncmaster 192v (19" screen) for 3 and a half years now in conjunction with a Mac Mini by Apple. Having used it for a multitude of different purposes, I will endeavour to explain all the benefits and drawbacks of this monitor.

COST
First thing I did, of course, is buy it. At around £300, it was one of the more expensive in Dixons, but then again, Dixon's is expensive. At time of writing (June 2008), ...
...me use something like this Samsung and its standard port, and it's excellent. Ypu also get some software that runs on Windows based PCs that allow simple calibration. You will most likely never need this as it's a plug and play monitor, and this bundle was added in as a needless value-add for techy-heads who really want to fiddle with settings that mainstreamers will never bother with.

You can angle the monitor from a flush 90 degree ... more

I have had the Samsung Syncmaster 192v (19" screen) for 3 and a half years now in conjunction with a Mac Mini by Apple. Having used it for a multitude of different purposes, I will endeavour to explain all the benefits and drawbacks of this monitor.

COST
First thing I did, of course, is buy it. At around £300, it was one of the more expensive in Dixons, but then again, Dixon's is expensive. At time of writing (June 2008), one of these monitors is very hard to find online - its much newer cousins sell for around the £200 mark via Amazon. I found a 193v exactly like mine on eBay for £36 with a day or so to go. I'd be surprised if it reaches over £100. In short, these monitors devalue quickly, so with chances of selling at a good second hand price out of the window, you need to be sure you're buying something that's very good for you long-term. This monitor is exactly that.

HARDWARE
Once unboxed, the monitor consists of a power cord, a base that screws on (with one big screw being the only thing you need to tighten up, so very easy and quick), a small horse shoe style clip that holds the cords in place as they run from the monitor down the back of your desk, table etc, and a cord that runs from the monitor to your PC or mac. Now, I use a mac mini which comes with its own adapter to let me use something like this Samsung and its standard port, and it's excellent. Ypu also get some software that runs on Windows based PCs that allow simple calibration. You will most likely never need this as it's a plug and play monitor, and this bundle was added in as a needless value-add for techy-heads who really want to fiddle with settings that mainstreamers will never bother with.

You can angle the monitor from a flush 90 degree ange to the dektop, to 35 degrees backwards tilt. This is good for most users - very tall people can tilt the monitor back and it still retains its balance and stability very well thanks to a very low centre of gravity (the base containst a great deal of weight.) Having said this, the 193v monitor is highly portable. It weights 5.8Kg (I weighed it myself) and is an absolute cynch to move around. Full marks!

MENU
Just under the front of the monitor there are five buttons. Left to right these are Menu, Magic Bright, On/Off, Brightness and Auto-adjustment. When pressed, a small box appears for each, usually in the centre of the screen. The immediate benefit is that you can still see what you're displaying while you make various adjustments to the settings. Here is what each button does:

1) MENU BUTTON
Pressing Menu brings up a six level menu, and simultaneously turns the second and fourth button into a navigation button (pressing 2 navigates downwards, while button four navigates back upwards, this is marked on the monitor for ease.) Button five becomes the 'select' button. The menu's first level is Brightness/Contrast - when highlighted, you hit the select button, then either increase or decrease the setting with the up and down buttons. The second level is colour tone, colour control and Gamma settings, the third deals with image sharpness and the posityioning of the display on the screen (move it horizontal or vertical.) Number four changes the language of the menu, changes transparency settings and display times (how long before the display switches to stand-by when not in direct use), Menu level five allows you to reset colour and image settings, and number six gives you information ablout the number of pixels showing (pixels x pixels) and the Herz output of the monitor.

2) MAGICBRIGHT BUTTON
Pressing Button Two by itself gives you four quick brightness settings. The only one you'd ever need is the brightest setting (the other three are darker, which seems pointless.) Pressing the MagicBright button again and again rifles through these four settings. The menu can be exited with either button five, or the menu autohides after about 3 seconds of inactivity.

3) ON/OFF
Yep, you got it! Turns the monitor on and off. This happens very quickly. The monitor takes about 2 to 3 seconds to fire up and switches off instantaneously.

4) BRIGHTNESS
A standalone button for brightness is helpful as you

5) AUTO-ADJUSTMENT
Hitting this button immediately sets the focus adjustment off - your monitor is thrown into blurriness as the in-built monitor sensors start focussing it. As much as you press this button, the screen will only focus as much as I described above. Ultimately the monitor will never need re-focussing as it does everythinjg automatically, even when you change your display size on your computer.

DISPLAY
The monitor is, as you'd expect, utterly silent when on (and of course, when it's off.) Even better, it simply doesn't heat up. I've had this monitor plugged in and on for a week at a time and it has yet to make the slightest complaint. No dead pixels, no overheating, no flickering or distortion, nothing to suggest a wavering of quality of any kind. Full marks again. The quality of the display is perfect for watching movies, browsing the net and displaying documents.

Two important caveats - documents with a lot of small print do suffer, as do any images or text with very small text or details - this monitor's most sharply focussed setting is still not sharp enough. When I started editing and displaying images with Photoshop, the lack of sharpness became very obvious when I viewed the same files on an iMac, another Mac Mini or any other PC. The other big problem is that this monitor has an overly blue colour setting (there's a blue hue in every colour.) This is not rectifiable via the settings. Now this means that balancing your colours in Photoshop will be off, as you're starting from an uneven point. This can be fixed with a few programs that are available on the internet but it is a hassle to find the right one, download and install it and then try and fix your monitor.

All in all this monitor is good for those who use their computer for low to medium end activities. Videos, net browsing, word processing etc it handles very well. As stated above, it isn't the sharpest monitor there is, nor is the colour definition completely on. But after 3 years and countless hours of service, these two drawbacks are surprisingly tolerable for the quality, reliability and sheer no-nonsense ease of use. If other Samsung monitors are like this, I will probably not ever switch brands. 

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