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I recieved my Samsung Syncmaster 740B today in the mail, so I figured I'd give you all a heads up on how it performs. Not a lot of attention paid to 17" panels these days...
SETUP
Setup was very simple, all that I needed to do was screw on the base, plug in the cables and install the drivers & MagicTune software. Originally I had the monitor hooked up via DVI, but I switched it later, for reasons I will explain below. I used UltraMon to extend my desktop and for window switching.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Extremely bright. Blindingly bright. The first thing I did was turn down the brightness to a level that would not pierce my eyes with brilliant shards of light. Once the Windows desktop loaded, I immediately noticed the substantial lack of color depth caused by the 6-bit panel. It was very hard to swallow, especialy with my Dell 18" sitting right next to it cheerfully displaying its full 16.7 Million colors. But I wanted to give the Samsng a chance, so I fiddled with MagicTune and MagicColor for almost half an hour, trying to find a happy balance of contrast and brightness that would give me decent IQ. When I was finished, the difference between the two panels manifested itself in several areas.
In terms of brightness, then Samsung won hands down (no big surprise). For midtones, the 8-bit Dell panel couldn't be beaten. The Samsung, however, has a very pure white and a very "Dark" black, compared to the Dell's grayer blacks and dim by comparison whites. I still preferred the Dell for its color at this point. The 740B seemed to be lacking in reds and midtones. Attempting to display a purple or brown color, for instance, resulted in something less than ideal.
GAMING
I loaded up CSS and KOTOR on the new panel while it was still hooked up via DVI. Ghosting in CSS was less noticable than on the dell, but the overall image was horrendous by comparison due to the brightness and lack of color depth. I just couldn't get over how much richer the games looked on the Dell. Furthermore, the pixels on the screen appeared to be slightly blurred/squished together, which made things a bit hard to see (this may just be because I'm used to 1280x1024 on an 18" panel).
BACKLIGHT BLEEDING
Yes, it exists. Along the right side of the panel, there is a strip of light where the backlight shows through. It's nothing major, but slightly disappointing considering Samsung's reputation for making quality products.
CONCLUSION
In the end, I put the 740B as my secondary on the VGA connector, and left the Dell on DVI where it belonged. While the Dell looked horrendous on VGA, the Samsung looks exactly the same as on DVI. This is the reason that I will be keeping the monitor....it is an excellent panel for a secondary display. I'll be keeping my AIM windows, Photoshop toolbars, and browser on the Samsung. I'll use the Dell for gaming, actual PS editing and watching movies. The samsung is faster, but the loss of IQ makes for a poor picture in the end.
SETUP
Setup was very simple, all that I needed to do was screw on the base, plug in the cables and install the drivers & MagicTune software. Originally I had the monitor hooked up via DVI, but I switched it later, for reasons I will explain below. I used UltraMon to extend my desktop and for window switching.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Extremely bright. Blindingly bright. The first thing I did was turn down the brightness to a level that would not pierce my eyes with brilliant shards of light. Once the Windows desktop loaded, I immediately noticed the substantial lack of color depth caused by the 6-bit panel. It was very hard to swallow, especialy with my Dell 18" sitting right next to it cheerfully displaying its full 16.7 Million colors. But I wanted to give the Samsng a chance, so I fiddled with MagicTune and MagicColor for almost half an hour, trying to find a happy balance of contrast and brightness that would give me decent IQ. When I was finished, the difference between the two panels manifested itself in several areas.
In terms of brightness, then Samsung won hands down (no big surprise). For midtones, the 8-bit Dell panel couldn't be beaten. The Samsung, however, has a very pure white and a very "Dark" black, compared to the Dell's grayer blacks and dim by comparison whites. I still preferred the Dell for its color at this point. The 740B seemed to be lacking in reds and midtones. Attempting to display a purple or brown color, for instance, resulted in something less than ideal.
GAMING
I loaded up CSS and KOTOR on the new panel while it was still hooked up via DVI. Ghosting in CSS was less noticable than on the dell, but the overall image was horrendous by comparison due to the brightness and lack of color depth. I just couldn't get over how much richer the games looked on the Dell. Furthermore, the pixels on the screen appeared to be slightly blurred/squished together, which made things a bit hard to see (this may just be because I'm used to 1280x1024 on an 18" panel).
BACKLIGHT BLEEDING
Yes, it exists. Along the right side of the panel, there is a strip of light where the backlight shows through. It's nothing major, but slightly disappointing considering Samsung's reputation for making quality products.
CONCLUSION
In the end, I put the 740B as my secondary on the VGA connector, and left the Dell on DVI where it belonged. While the Dell looked horrendous on VGA, the Samsung looks exactly the same as on DVI. This is the reason that I will be keeping the monitor....it is an excellent panel for a secondary display. I'll be keeping my AIM windows, Photoshop toolbars, and browser on the Samsung. I'll use the Dell for gaming, actual PS editing and watching movies. The samsung is faster, but the loss of IQ makes for a poor picture in the end.