Samsung S27A950D 120Hz

That FED EX guy probably took a look at the house.... a look at the monitor... maybe a look at the exotic cars in the driveway...Thought about his decreased wages, longer delivery route, and loss of benefits and said F*$K it.... Still a dick move.
 
I just got one of these on a promo $650 USD (normally $850 or more here in rip off NZ) or so, must say i am mighty impressed, and the 3d is quite fun especially Batman AC, not 100% sold on design but 120hz for competitive fps games works a treat.
 
I'm loving mine as well. The only issue I had was getting one without any dead pixels. I got it shipped with a zero dead pixel policy and I'm on my 3rd one right now.

Each one I've received has had a dead pixel.. just one too lol. The last one I received is in the very bottom right corner so I probably won't bother replacing it.
 
KaptainKhaos said:
I just got one of these on a promo $650 USD (normally $850 or more here in rip off NZ) or so, must say i am mighty impressed, and the 3d is quite fun especially Batman AC, not 100% sold on design but 120hz for competitive fps games works a treat.
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Yes, but i saw a user review that stated the picture in 3D was dark and the glasses use a battery, and they go dead within 10-12.

Why does'nt Samsung include rechargable batteries? especially at the price of these monitor's.
 
so what is the verdict on this monitor? I'm interested in it mainly for 2D 120hz, thinking about leaving my IPS bubble and taking a leap =p
 
Have had this monitor for a week. Was initially worried about poor QC, light/dark spots, dead pixels or other anomalies on screen, but everything is good. Was also worried about the glossy screen, reflections in my room (window behind me) but thats OK too. Yes, it is reflective as hell, but screen is bright and vivid enough for me to 'see through' the reflections and not be bothered by them. I've seen a small amount of light bleed in lower right corner, but it is very small and insignificant. This is probably the most near perfect LCD monitor I have bought in terms of absence of flaws, screen consistency and uniformity.

Quite striking image quality once settings adjusted. Final settings: 40-80-52 for B-C-S and 40-40-40 for RGB. HDMI on low (normal gives blacks a slightly washed out look), on low blacks are more accurate and agreeable to me. Gamma mode 3, response set to 'faster'.

Was not bothered by dot pitch, resolution for size, have tried a friends p2770hd and that was OK to me. My last monitor was a 25.5" Sammy @ 1920x1200. I much preferred that resolution over 1080 but I think I'll get used to it.

TN quality seems to have caught up with IPS with the SA750/950 series (except for viewing angles). Quite pleased with this monitor.
 
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Digital Viper-X- said:
so what is the verdict on this monitor? I'm interested in it mainly for 2D 120hz, thinking about leaving my IPS bubble and taking a leap =p
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I did just that, the 2D 120hz processing is pretty much the monitor's standout feature. The processing is sublime, the most near-CRT I've seen since my old 21" SONY CRT. I would not go back to 60hz, period. The viewing angle is inferior to IPS panels though, if you sit fairly close to it as I do you see a ever so slight horizontal variance between grey shades... The worst example is the forum index on this very site... You can see that the grey towards the bottom washes out just a tad. In normal use and gaming you dont notice.

1000
 
amenx said:
Have had this monitor for a week. Was initially worried about poor QC, light/dark spots, dead pixels or other anomalies on screen, but everything is good. Was also worried about the glossy screen, reflections in my room (window behind me) but thats OK too. Yes, it is reflective as hell, but screen is bright and vivid enough for me to 'see through' the reflections and not be bothered by them. I've seen a small amount of light bleed in lower right corner, but it is very small and insignificant. This is probably the most near perfect LCD monitor I have bought in terms of absence of flaws, screen consistency and uniformity.

Quite striking image quality once settings adjusted. Final settings: 40-80-52 for B-C-S and 40-40-40 for RGB. HDMI on low (normal gives blacks a slightly washed out look), on low blacks are more accurate and agreeable to me. Gamma mode 3, response set to 'faster'.

Was not bothered by dot pitch, resolution for size, have tried a friends p2770hd and that was OK to me. My last monitor was a 25.5" Sammy @ 1920x1200. I much preferred that resolution over 1080 but I think I'll get used to it.

TN quality seems to have caught up with IPS with the SA750/950 series (except for viewing angles). Quite pleased with this monitor.
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I don't like setting the HDMI to low, it crushes blacks and virtually destroys shadow detail. I don't like any sharpness setting other than the default 60 either, setting it below that makes text look smeared and setting it higher looks ugly.

I am interested in your color settings 40/40/40 though, I set mine to the same to test it and it looks quite nice. I used to have mine set to 43/50/51.... I'm going to try yours for a few days to see which I like more (80% of my PC time is SWTOR, if it looks good in that, I'm won over)

1000
 
I found some settings I'm very pleased with:

Magic Angle enabled
28 Brightness
64 contrast
60 sharpness
Normal HDMI black level
42 red
46 green
46 blue

This display is amazing.
 
Is this monitor discontinued? Any info on a similar monitor being released to replace it if it was discontinued? Can't find much info on Samsung's website.
 
Valaire said:
Is this monitor discontinued? Any info on a similar monitor being released to replace it if it was discontinued? Can't find much info on Samsung's website.
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What gave you the idea they are going to discontinue this monitor?
 
I just got mine and set it up, and there's definitely some backlight bleed at the lower right corner. It's only noticeable in dark scenes though, and other than that the monitor is beautiful so far.
 
It seems like every single one of these have the BLB in the lower right corner mine is no exception.

I am not sure why Samsung did not find a way to fix this issue.
 
Valaire said:
Is this monitor discontinued? Any info on a similar monitor being released to replace it if it was discontinued? Can't find much info on Samsung's website.
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burningrave101 said:
It's supposed to be replaced later this year by this one:

http://technodocs.org/samsung-s27b970-serie-9-27-inch-led-monitor/
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They are not discontinuing it.
That's just a new monitor with a higher resolution 2560x1440, it doesn't even have 3D/120Hz, and has a 5ms response time.

It will be in the lineup as well as the s27a950.

It's a different category.
 
wand3r3r said:
They are not discontinuing it.
That's just a new monitor with a higher resolution 2560x1440, it doesn't even have 3D/120Hz, and has a 5ms response time.

It will be in the lineup as well as the s27a950.

It's a different category.
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I posted the wrong link but Samsung has a range of new 24" and 27" monitors coming and one of them is no doubt a replacement for the S27A950 because the S27A750 was for a fact discontinued already.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/05/samsungs-bringing-three-new-displays-to-ces-commence-throwing/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398425,00.asp
 
How is the viewing the horizontal viewing angle on this TN monitor, are there any changes on the left or right side if you center your vision in the middle like S-PVA panels?
 
Does anyone think these are better than the Korean IPS monitors for gaming? I already have a Dell 2412M.
 
Ingenieur7 said:
Does anyone think these are better than the Korean IPS monitors for gaming? I already have a Dell 2412M.
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The 120hz is definitely a great benefit of this monitor for gaming. You'd have to weight that against the higher resolution and IPS panel of the Korean monitors. That, or try to get one of those 2b overclockable Catleaps.
 
The Korean one's aren't like a 120hz gaming TN. You can send as many screen updates to the screen as you want, that is only part of the equation. The ips are 10ms+ response time and lack the aggressive response time compensation (RTC) ~ high/very high overdrive in the osd. They will smear on FoV movement. Even a 120hz, 2ms, high/very high overdrive gaming TN will blur but it will be appreciably reduced vs a low response time 60hz tn, let alone a 10ms+ ips that lacks the aggressive RTC. (All lcds blur).

elvn said:
These seem like a great deal. People appear to be latching on to the 100hz plus feature. Just be aware of why 120hz TN monitors reduce blur, and even artifacts due to reducing blur, so much.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/samsung-sm2233rz_10.html#sect0

I have an apple cinema display and if 120hz was possible, being sent to it would still blur/smear on FoV movement since the response time is 10ms+ (vs 2ms TN) and it lacks the tech outlined in the link above. I'd still jump on this deal if I didn't already have one. This is an incredible deal regardless of the hz, response time, and RTC.
.
2560x1440 60hz ips has gorgeous imagery, high color (around 85% adobe 1998 on my ACD), great desktop real-estate, screen/color uniformity, high ppi.
For appreciable blur reduction, a 120hz input TN with high/very high overdrive~Response-Time-Compensation(RTC) is the best you can get outside of a fw900 graphics professional crt.
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just bought like-new from amazon for 430 dollars. crossing my fingers.
 
Brutus75 said:
How can a PLS panel replace a TN with 120Hz refresh rate? :D
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Well what are you talking about? PLS panels are a totally different market. PLS panels are more for professional/business/photo heavy related work whereas TN 120Hz panels are more for gaming and movies. Pick your poison.
 
Exactly what I said. "How can a monitor aimed at a completely different segment replace a gaming monitor?!" My previous post was a response to this:

burningrave101 said:
It's supposed to be replaced later this year by this one:

http://technodocs.org/samsung-s27b97...h-led-monitor/
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P.S. A 120Hz monitor doesn't help you in movies (motion wise) because the vast majority of them are at 24fps. They are quite bad for movies because of the TN panel.
 
on a side note amazon warehouse has this for 396 now, instead of the 430 I paid couple days ago :(
 
Both TN and IPS are bad for movies because their black levels are inferior. VA and plasma tvs have much better black levels and detail-in-blacks.
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120hz input displays can actually be better for 24fps film because it makes a clean multiple .. 5 x24 = 120hz. Modern 60hz TVs fake 120hz by generating a frame in between every two frames which is an interpolated frame. Some go further to fake 240hz, usually by strobing the backlight. This trades uneven frames vs hz judder and artifacting for another set of oddities like the look of a cutout floating across the screen, trailing/artifacts, halos, "soap opera effect" , etc. A 120hz input TV would be much better for 24fps movies. 60hz doesn't make a clean multiple.
 
Anyone else have the problem where the screen goes black and says something like 'not optimum mode 1920x1080' ? I have to cycle the inputs or turn the screen on/off to fix it. Any ideas how to stop it happening?
 
I never really thought I'd be buying a TN panel after using a bunch of 30" IPS monitors but I recently got the urge to try 120Hz gaming and bought this monitor (was originally going to go for the 750D but I needed DVI, plus it supposedly has a lot of issues with DisplayPort).

Anyway, I'm loving this thing so far. The plan is to keep my U3011 and use this one for gaming. But I like the glossy panel so well, I'd probably consider using it as my primary if it weren't for the 1920x1080 resolution cramping my desktop. I'll agree with others that the colors ARE very good for a TN panel. Initially I noticed the lack of color lushness, but if I kept using this one as my primary I'd probably get used to it rather quickly. It's very acceptable though, and the motion fluidity/response time is pretty amazing. I don't plan on doing any 3D gaming on it; this was strictly for 120Hz 2D.

I don't regret not going with the Asus or Acer. Glad I did my research first as it paid off. This thing is pretty amazing!
 
Coming from IPS displays do you get any sense of it being dark at the top and bright at the bottom, with a gradient between the two extremes? that's been my main objection to TN forever, and I could never really tolerate larger than 19"-20" for anything more than email, browsing and light word processing.
 
There is some color shift, but it's not as bad as I expected (I was worried about it also). Not as bad as some of the matte 27" TN monitors I've used, so I don't know if the glossy panels helps offset the apparent color shift or not. Obviously the effect will be lessened with a smaller monitor, but I've been using large screens for so long I was afraid that I'd be unhappy with a 24". I can deal with 22-24" at work, heck even a 19" if I have to, but when I'm home I want a large screen (or screens) in front of me.

Trust me, I was anti-TN for a long time as well but this monitor is very acceptable to me when you consider its strengths. I've come to realize that all large panels have some flaws whether it's TN color shift, IPS glow, etc. The color shift isn't bothersome to me with the S27A950D, but I'm fortunate to have the U3011 alongside it if I ever decide it's annoying. So far I feel like I could be totally happy with this monitor, though.
 
imyourzero said:
Trust me, I was anti-TN for a long time as well but this monitor is very acceptable to me when you consider its strengths.
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this is why I'm interested, I've always had IPS aside from an ASV (Eizo with Sharp panel) at work. I still mainly want another IPS, but lately I've found that I'm watching more TV on the computer so would like a little more contrast occasionally, and also a little more speed with less tearing whilst gaming.

Thanks for the reply anyway, good info. I really want to see if any stores in the UK have demo units to look at.
 
I used to had the HP LP1965 and loved its P-MVA black quality and color richness. Adapting to the Samsung SA27A950D was kinda easy, the colors weren't as good and the blacks a bit terrible, but the smoothness of the screen, high speed refresh rates and the breathtaking 3D images were good enough for me to hold on the fact that I had a P-MVA monitor. I have to admit that the black richness of the P-MVA panels are beyond anything currently on the market, even for a 4 years old monitor like the HP LP1965.
 
Picked up 3 of these for Surround/Eyefinity and impressed so far. Amazon had some "like new" on sale for $392. So I decided to sell my three 24 DELL's(hate the AG coating) and go with these. Picture quality is better overall on my other IPS displays(DELL 2412m and Apple Cinema 27) but the 120hz makes a noticeable difference in games and during desk top use. Colors and viewing angles are the best I have ever seen in a TN panel. Only negatives-Web browsing sucks at 27" with that resolution and no height adjustment or VESA mount :(
 
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