Samsung SyncMaster T240 24-inch LCD Monitor Review
By: Michael Phrakaysone
Samsung has been on a roll lately with their great TOC (Touch of Color) HDTV series. It was only logical that Samsung would transition TOC into their line of computer monitors. Read on to see if that transition makes the perfect 24-inch monitor you can get from Samsung, introducing the Samsung SyncMaster T240.
Samsung ships the T240 monitor in an elegantly designed corrugated cardboard box with product image and information throughout.
The Samsung T240 is one of the higher-end offerings on the market. It features HDTV-like aspect ratio of 1920x1200, it offers an HDMI port, native contrast ratio is 1000:1 (20000:1 through dynamic contrast), a pixel response time of 5ms, USB port for hub use and DVI-D input.
Open the packaging and you are revealed with the following goodies…
- Samsung SyncMaster T240 LCD monitor
- Circular rotating stand
- Standard DVI cable
- USB Cable
- Power Cord
- Quick Start Guide
- Warranty Card
- Software CD
The Samsung T240 looks amazing at first glance. It looks reminiscent of how I felt when I first saw the TOC Plasma HDTV. The bezel contains a rosy black color and while it looks prominent in pictures, in reality it’s subtle and will not be distracting under usage. The frame contains straight 90 degree edges contributing to its very sleek and beautiful look. The bezel doesn’t feel cheap but rather made of a solid piece of clear plastic. Tap it and it feels upscale and something of quality.
The T240 has a matte screen surface and this will prevent reflections you have when having a glossy screen and in some cases offer truer color reproduction.
There are no buttons anywhere at the front of the monitor or even a conventional push power button. Five buttons are recessed at the side of the monitor and Samsung chose to utilize a touch sensitive power button at the front with an orange LED to confirm the monitor is indeed on.
I’m going to call out the touch sensitive power button on the T240 right now. I’ve used touch sensitive power buttons in past Samsung monitor reviews and I’ve no problems. The problem with this one is that it’s not sensitive enough and needs me to push harder.
Also the negative of having five buttons on the right hand side is that you have to remember what each button does since the labels are to the right. This makes changing options awkward since you may have to go back and forth. Implementing labels in the front right side of the bezel would have helped.
Every square inch of this monitor is glossy. We come to the rear and have the prominent Samsung logo and a lower cover protecting the connections. Removing this cover reveals the AC, HDMI port, DVI connector, VGA connector, headphone jack, digital audio out, and three USB ports that you can use.
The Samsung T240 features a circular stand that can tilt up to 21 degrees and rotate 360 degrees but offers no height adjustment. The monitor as a whole is lightweight so sometimes this can be a con as the lightest of movements of the desk can make the monitor wobble.
The T240 can only be viewed in landscape mode and cannot be turned into portrait mode like other monitors can.
Performance – Usage
I really enjoyed my time with the Samsung T240 and I feel it has great potential but some things I was not too pleased about should be fixed.
The positives were the picture quality and contrast. Images and text were distinctly sharp even at 1920x1200 resolution and colors were reproduced accurately. This monitor is one of the brighter ones I’ve tested so you know you have lots of headroom.
Being only 5ms in response time, I did notice slight ghosting playing games and watching DVD’s but it did not distract me or make things uncomfortable. My Xbox 360 was hooked up through HDMI and boy did it look good and I enjoyed the nice colors.
Biggest complaint that I have was backlight bleeding and non-uniform clouding. This review unit had unusually high amounts of backlight bleeding and clouding. These would be highly noticeable when watching DVD’s or whenever the screen was dark. I would notice it a little bit in Photoshop too when editing photos. Hopefully this is not a problem with other units.
Powering up the monitor is average (5 seconds) but slows down once the monitor scans inputs automatically.
Conclusion
If you’re on a market for a good 24-inch widescreen LCD monitor, the Samsung T240 is a good choice to look at. I just cannot give this unit recommendation because it had unusually high amounts of backlight bleeding and clouding. If these issues were fixed, I would have recommended it.
Pros and Cons
- + Looks great
- + Construction
- + Image and text is sharp
- + Good colors
- + Lightweight
+ Maximum resolution 1920x1200 - - Only included DVI cable and no HDMI cable
- - Unusually high backlight bleeding/clouding
- - Touch sensitive power button needs to be more sensitive
