Samsung SynchMaster 2053BW

Very good despite the small size


THE SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 2053BW ($279.99) is a modest 20-inch LCD monitor that delivers great color, excelent text readability, and a wideformat 1,680x1,050 resolution.
The 2053BW's specs include a pixel pitch of 0.26, a pixel response of 2 milliseconds (gray to gray), a brightness of 300 candelas per square meter, and a contrast ratio of 1,000-to-1.
The monitor is a beauty, but the architecture has one big, misleading feature. That thin acrylic ledge is etched with the legends of the monitor's onscreen display (OSD) controls, and at first glance, they seem to be the "buttonless touch controls" that Samsung promises in the documentation. As it turns out, they simply serve as a roadmap for the actual controls, which are tucked away behind the bar and up the bottom of the bezel. It's not devastating, but it's a peculiar design choice. To use the buttonles touch controls, you'll have to install Samsung's MagicBright and MagicTune utilities onto your computer, which will allow you to adjust monitor settings with your keyboard and mouse. That only applies, of course, if you feel a compelling need to adjust anything: Our 2053BW test unit needed no tweaks whatsoever.


In the Displaymate (www.displaymate.com) tests, the 2053BW was absolutely perfect in the gray-scale test, displaying the full range. In white saturation, the monitor lost detail at the upper end of the scale, but that loss occured well beyond what's considered acceptable for a consumer-grade display. Q quick press of the monitor's auto button cured some jitters produced by the VGA connection during the pixel-tracking test. Color, geometry, and overall performance were just as good as with the digital connection.-Bill O'Brien.

source: Computer Shopper October 2008.
www.samsung.com