Date: April 16th, 2007
Article by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Samsung Canada
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PRODUCT USE & TESTING
Over a testing period of close to a month with an everyday average use of around 4-8 hours I have put this monitor through the ringers to see just how well it works during work, or play. And yes, that is my car. ;)
Standard Computer Use
With the increase in desktop real estate, productivity for web administrators like myself get a huge boost from having the space to have a multitude of multi-tasking windows open at one time. I no longer have to change windows constantly seeing I can have all of them open simultaneously. For a publisher, this monitor is a must and is worth its' weight in gold.
Moving on to visual quality, this monitor's contrast, brightness and overall visual quality is just as good as any smaller model. The days of sacrificing visual contrast for size is over. In fact, I have the contrast turned down quite a bit seeing it is a lot of monitor to have taking up 60% over your field of view when you are working. It can easily get too bright when you get rather aggressive with the contrast and brightness levels.
In 95% of cases, nothing will need to be adjusted when you fire the monitor up for the first time. I found the factory setting to be spot on for my needs. Overall a great balance of picture quality and brightness levels for extended periods of use.
Widescreen DVD Viewing
(there is something about this guy that always makes me laugh....)
High definition DVD viewing on this monitor was nothing less than amazing. It has been two years since I enjoyed a large LCD monitor for viewing a DVD when I needed to kick back and relax (which needs to happen more often). The clarity and color reproduction along with the fast 6ms response rate results in silky smooth movie viewing with no ghosting (even in fast action sequences) whatsoever.
In fact, I found myself more often than not abandoning my home theater setup in the livingroom to sit back in my office recliner to enjoy a movie on this crisp LCD display. Trust me, it is that good.
Three Dimensional Gaming
Gaming with this monitor is an enigma. Though I tried to game using this monitor I was left empty handed. Why? Well, try to find a game that natively supports 1920x1200 widescreen resolution. And if you find one, try to find a computer on hand that will game properly at such an insane resolution.
Of course this can't be claimed as a monitor disadvantage seeing it isn't its' fault in any way, shape, or form. If you are thinking about buying this monitor for gaming, I would seriously buy something smaller or be prepared to shell out $2000+ minimum on a gaming machine that will be able to support it.
