Samsung SyncMaster 930B 19 inch LCD Monitor

I got this one with a good mail-in rebate, so it was OK for the price. It had no dead pixels, which is good. But definitely not worth the full price. Of course, this is not the very worst monitor that exists. But if you are trying to buy something of reasonable quality, pick something else. This monitor is only OK for word processing. Not suitable for photoediting, watching movies, or gaming. Spec response time is 8 ms. Based on the moving object trails, it is no better than my other 15 ms screen. A little better than my third, 40 ms screen. Besides, different color pixels have different response time, so moving objects get a very visible color cast. Unsuitable for watching movies or gaming. Viewing angle in the spec is clearly bogus. At about 45 degrees off axis you get a strong yellow cast (left, right, and down), equivalent to changing color temperature from 5500 K to 3000 K. If you move off-axis upward, the cast is blue. I use other two LCD monitors, and none of them does it to such a degree. Makes the monitor completely unusable for photoediting. Contrast ratio 700:1? I doubt it. Comparing to my other two screens, 1:300 at best. Control buttons are laid out poorly. Button names are impossible to see. For gamma, you only get three presets, not color-separated.

Let me think of something good about it. DVI input. But it comes without the cable. Expect to spend a lot to buy. Large screen size. But you don't expect a 15-inch screen from a 19-inch monitor, do you? Good brightness. Will help if you are planning to work in the full sun. I am not. My brightness is set at 15%. Crisp image (compared to CRT). But again, there should not be any such thing as unsharp image on LCD, unless you are using a non-native resolution.

I heard a lot of good things about Samsung monitors. Now I see this is not real. I got this monitor cheap, so I will probably just stay with it and attach it to my third, rarely-used computer.