Samsung SyncMaster 931B 19 inch LCD Monitor

About three months ago I apparently didn't appear to be busy enough (going to have to work on that) so my ever precious Mrs. Xeno announced that my office needed a makeover.

"Let's completely refinish the desk and computer station for a start." She suggested.

Now understand that when Mrs. Xeno uses the word "let's", she does so in the same sense that Queen Elizabeth might use it in "Let's re-paper the Palace."

So, after an appropriate amount of stalling on my part (I'm a staunch believer in the law of inertia, believing strongly that objects at rest should stay that way), my lovely decided to up the ante. "And I'll get you a new LCD Monitor", she cooed. Guess she figured that my price wasn't all that high.

I had been thinking about a new flat screen monitor for a while, a long while. But, I was just thinking mind you. My Viewsonic 17" CRT is pretty old, OK, very old, but it did everything I needed it to do. When it comes to some things I can be shall we say, "thrifty"?

Never mind that it weighs a ton. How often does one lift their monitor? Massive in size? Sure, but it tucks into the dead space created by the corner "L design" of my desk system. I can be so stubborn when I'm doing my thrifty thing.

But then I noticed the flicker on the screen. It was hardly noticeable at first, but once noticed it seemed to grab my attention. And don't the colors look a little dull? Self justification? Maybe.

And so, the law of inertia be damned, Rudi Xeno was launched into action. Long story short, over the next couple of weeks the makeover was completed to Mrs. Xeno's delight and approval. Now where's my monitor?

My requirements were really simple. I wanted it bigger and I wanted it cheap. I'm amazed at how prices for LCD monitors have plunged. I figured I'd have to spend no more than $250 for a 19" display.

I narrowed down the field to Viewsonic, Sony and Samsung very quickly. Viewsonic's CRT had served me well and their LCDs were available for what I wanted to spend. Sony makes beautiful displays. When it comes to styling Sony does it so well. In my mind only Apple has a better sense of style. But, where Sony often stumbles is in the area of performance specs. And, so it was with their 19" LCD monitor. A thing of absolute beauty, but in terms of contrast ratios and response time they pulled up the rear of the pack. And anyone who has dealt with Sony's customer service knows that it is not pretty.

Samsung, once a supplier of cheap low-end electronics from Korea, has over the last several years become a mainstream supplier of TVs and LCD displays. Having had excellent experience with their TVs (see Samsung - Eating Sony's Lunch), I decided to look at their 931b 19" LCD Monitor.

Samsung SyncMaster™ 931B (black) 19 inch LCD Monitor

With its 19" screen, 700:1 contrast ratio and 8 ms response time, it seemed to be all the monitor I needed. For those of you interested in a comprehensive list of specifications click through at this Detailed Product Specs link.

The display is bright (out of the box a little too bright) and can be adjusted for different uses; games, text, internet, movies, etc. by an on monitor control switch or through the software that accompanies the monitor. As I tend to spend a majority of my time writing I set the monitor control to text. Perfect for my use.

The display consumes 38W, considerably less than my old CRT and can be set to go into standby mode after some period of inactivity. Touch the mouse and the display comes to life in about 2 seconds.

Connections
The display connects to your computer either using the usual analog monitor cable (included) or a DVI-D Digital cable (not included). With DVI-D cables costing in the area of $60 or more this is a minor minus for Samsung. But I make do with the analog cable and for my purposes the resulting image is fine. Extreme gamers I'm sure would feel otherwise.

Set-up
Set-up required less than 10 minutes and much of this time was spent removing the hefty CRT monitor from its nest. Attaching the monitor cable to the computer and plugging in the power cord was all that was necessary. I did later install the monitor's software to calibrate the display colors with those of my HP PSC 2210 Printer. Again, this only took a few minutes and went off without a hitch.

So, how much?
OfficeMax featured the 931b for $209.00 after a $70 direct instant rebate. Unfortunately they had none in stock. Best Buy had been selling them for $199 after instant rebate, but same story and no rain check. Only Office Depot had any in stock but were selling them for $329. Small wonder they had some, huh? Asking whether they matched their competitors' prices drew an instant "of course" from the sale clerk. So after a few minutes we were at $199. A very nice price. Samsung warrantees the monitor for three years so I didn't think an extended warranty plan was necessary.

And the verdict is?

Being a pretty average PC user, the Samsung 931b does everything I demand of it and does it well. Most of my time on the computer is spent web surfing, word processing and similar applications and very occasional photo editing. The monitor also seems to satisfy my daughter who does use it for some light weight gaming. Although I have virtually no experience with extreme gaming I sense that one might need a higher performance monitor for those needs.

For the needs of what I think is the average PC user I enthusiastically recommend this Samsung. And, at $200, you'll be getting a 19" LCD bargain.

Regards,

Rudi

©Rudi Xeno 2006