Samsung SyncMaster 2253LW 21.6" LCD

Written by Tim Smalley

June 4, 2008 | 02:01

Tags: #8-bit #build #colour #evaluation #film #image #panel #quality #review #screen #syncmaster #technology #tn

Companies: #samsung #test

Subjective image quality

First, allow us to dismiss both MagicBright3 and MagicColor with the disdain they richly deserve. The former is an incredibly blunt instrument.

When displaying an all-black or very nearly all-black image, it admittedly makes a decent fist of reducing backlight bleed to minimal proportions. But it also crushes the lighting to such low levels that any slivers of colour that are being rendered become extremely murky.

Making matters worse, it requires very little image data to convince the backlight to switch to maximum brightness. In practice, therefore, the backlight is rarely running at anything other than full reheat, which rather defeats the object of the exercise.

The speed with which it changes states is also pretty slow, which gives the whole process an extremely clumsy feel.


As for MagicColor, the news is little better. Granted, it does add a little punch to the sludgy default colours. But unless a wonky, oversaturated mess is your bag when it comes to colour balance, odds are you won't be terribly satisfied with MagicColor either. Cycle through the various presets are long as you like, but you'll invariably settle for the more accurate and low key default setting.

The irony in all of this is that the SyncMaster 2253LW's panel is actually very respectable when these largely pointless frills are disabled. With the backlight in static mode, the SM2253LW actually offers impressive light occlusion. The 1,000:1 static contrast ratio is decent by any standard, especially for TN+Film technology.


Likewise, the real-world viewing angles in games and movies are impressive. The dark tone colour inversion that can be so distracting in many cheaper panels is conspicuous by its near absence on Samsung’s 2253LW. The nippy pixel response also makes it a good choice for blur-sensitive gamers. OK, it's not as vivid or as punchy as a good PVA or IPS screen. But once you've adjusted to the low-key look, it's not all that unpleasant.
Discuss this in the forums

Posted by MoRBiD - Wed Jun 04 2008 04:15

Nice.... i think i might get four ...

Posted by mrb_no1 - Wed Jun 04 2008 06:12

it looks nice but i'm not trading in for that as i still think my dell 20.1 can do the bizz with the best of them despite its age. My next trade up wlll probably be for a 30" Dell, but lets see what the market brings,

peace

fatman

Posted by Mister_Tad - Wed Jun 04 2008 06:15

and 0.4-inch shortfall in panel size
I was under the impression that all 22" panels were actually more like 21.6", its just Samsung being honest about it this time around :confused:

Posted by wyx087 - Wed Jun 04 2008 08:51

i'll take the LG L227WT monitor over this...... the stand is the same as the Pebble 22inch, which isn't really as stable as my current LG L226WTQ.
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