Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1116

One of the most anticipated LCD releases ever came and went with the April 22 announcement of the Samsung 192T.  Many of you recall our July 2002 review of the 191T.  Since then, we have received hundreds of emails and forum posts inquiring about both the 191T and 192T.  Fortunately, Samsung was able to get us a sample model early.  As a result we are able to bring AnandTech one of the first reviews of this monitor.

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The Samsung SyncMaster 172T that we reviewed earlier this year was hailed as one of the best looking monitors by us and many others.  The unusual bezel and stand have reappeared in the 192T, much as we expected.  This design allows for the DVI, analog and power adaptor to plug in without tipping or tilting the monitor.

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Most LCDs we see plug directly into the back of the panel.  Samsung moved all of these connectors to the base of the stand so that the upper bezel can move freely and also allow for easy access to the VGA and DC connections.

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While the 192T does not incorporate the same ultra narrow bezel as the 191T, the panel itself consumes less desk space.  Also, since the panel is wall mountable, the total depth of the LCD can become as shallow as 4 inches.  Conventions and presentations that have traditionally used the AG Neovo S series (it folds down to a horizontal position) may begin to use the 192T and 172T series now that they both incorporate their own horizontal folding.

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The 191T was a large success, but it had a few pitfalls that needed to be addressed.  Perhaps it was our particular review sample, but we had a slight problem replicating certain warm hues correctly.  Since the substrate in both the 191T and the 192T are identical, upgrades in the signal processor and firmware might result in enough changes to remedy any problems we ran into.

Samsung SyncMaster 192T
LCD	19” a-Si TFT/PVA LCD (Active Matrix) pixel pitch: 0.264mm Anti-glare coating PVA Mode
Scanning Frequency	Horizontal: 30-81kHz (analog)                  30-63kHz (digital) Vertical: 56-85Hz
Response Time	25ms (Typical)
Contrast Ratio	500:1 (Typical)
Compatibility	1280 x 1024 (Native)
Brightness	250 cd/m2
Dimensions (WxHxD)	16.4" x 17.7" x 8.2"
Power	Working : 45W Max Standby/Off: 2W
Weight	12.1lbs
Warranty	3 years parts and labor

Samsung SyncMaster 191T
LCD	19” a-Si TFT/PVA LCD (Active Matrix) pixel pitch: 0.264mm Anti-glare coating PVA Mode
Scanning Frequency	Horizontal: 30-81kHz (analog)                  30-63kHz (digital) Vertical: 56-85Hz
Response Time	25ms (Typical)
Contrast Ratio	500:1 (Typical)
Compatibility	1280 x 1024 (Native)
Brightness	250 cd/m2
Dimensions (WxHxD)	16.4" x 17.7" x 8.2"
Power	Working : 40W Max Standby/Off: 5W
Weight	13lbs
Warranty	3 years parts and labor

As no surprise, the specifications for each monitor are pretty much the same.  Interestingly enough, the working and standby wattages are different.

Our monitor came with two dead green sub pixels.  However, after about a day of use, the sub pixels rejuvenated.  While it is not uncommon for sub pixels to come back after going dead, we are surprised that this occurred with dead sub pixels that we did not rub or coerce back to operation, particularly after just rolling out of the factory.

About nine months ago, we saw the Samsung 763MB CDT which had several modes of brightness for entertainment, text and mixed media (accessable via one button on the control panel).  This feature was absent in the 172T but reappeared with the SyncMaster 192T.  The simple idea behind this feature is to just increase the brightness on media that contains more images than text.  This way, word documents and web surfing can be a little gentler on the eyes while full motion video can deliver more vibrance.

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Below are pictures of the monitor running in all 3 modes during DVD playback.  During our ColorVision Spyder test, we will fully analyze each mode.  Each picture displays the Text, Internet and then Entertainment modes from top to bottom.

Unlike the SyncMaster 191T, the 192T is wall mountable right out of the box.  Because of the unique stand, monitor needs only a small metal plate to attach it directly to a wall or practically any other surface.  We were very happy that Samsung included this plate.

The 192T goes an additional step beyond anything available in terms of tilt.  The panel tilts about 10 degrees forward and a full 90 degrees backwards, and thus is capable of sitting at all sorts of unusual angles, including walls and embedded in desks.  Institutions can take the additional precaution of fixing the wall mount to a desk to prevent the monitor from being moved. The substrate has a particularly good viewing angle that also makes this monitor ideal for presentations or conventions.

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However, since the 192T is now wall mountable out of the box, certain features like the pivoting bezel have been sacrificed.  We did not especially miss this feature, simply because every time we attempted to use the pivot feature on the 191T, we ended up using so much effort it was almost not worth using.

We have been very happy with how simple and clean Samsung’s OSDs are, but we have not seen much evolution with their controls in recent months.

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As you can see, the On Screen Display looks very much the same it did two years ago.  Tried and true continues to work for Samsung, so we won’t be too critical about their look.  However, with all of the experience Samsung has in the mobile industry, it would be nice to see an upgrade here or there. 

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Basic operation of the OSD consists of six buttons, not unlike the 191T.  The Auto adjust button does exactly that, automatically adjusting the screen.  While using the DVI connector this function has been disabled, but we haven’t seen an occurrence when we needed it over DVI.  The Input select and MagicBright options can both be accessed with one touch rather than going through the OSD.

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We will briefly touch on the fact that the DVI connection does not disable any options other than position and color temperature.  We have mentioned in the past that the color temperature should only be adjusted on the software side anyway, but we will get into this more during our Color Vision Spyder test.

Power from the 192T comes from the standard Samsung 14V brick.  One of the more covert ways we can tell if a monitor is a Samsung OEM partner is if the power supply voltage and connection syncs up with a similar Samsung display.  This 14V adaptor shows up in several familiar displays.

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The 192T stays much cooler than the 191T.  Perhaps the unique stand design separates enough of the components to dissipate heat evenly. 

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The most subtle and perhaps ingenious aspect of this display is the total absence of any ventilation.  The unit is able to stay cool without active devices (fans, etc) or holes.  This is very exciting because the design doesn’t allow dust to get inside the monitor where it can become a problem later.

We usually spend a lot of time talking about a monitor in its native resolution but rarely about an image when it is scaled.  As a result, we decided to include a couple high resolution pictures of the screen scaled on different resolutions.  In our opinion, if you get an LCD you want to run it on the native resolution as much as possible.

1280 x 1024 (native)

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This is the best the image is going to look, the native resolution allows for one physical pixel per pixel on the display.

1024 x 768

ClearType Off

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The image has scaled considerably.  Using Microsoft ClearType, text from any document looks much more readable.

800 x 600

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Compared to other monitors, this LCD scales extremely well.  Gaming was not an issue, even on Counter Strike which does not natively support 1280 x 1024. Below is a picture of Rise of Nations running at the non-native resolution of 1024 x 768.

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Here are a few quick looks at some demanding full screen applications (except solitaire, which is windowed).  All tests were run using the “Entertainment” MagicBright mode on the monitor.

The Fellowship of the Ring – Everything thing looked well.  Colors were vibrant and motion did not seem to ghost on the screen at all.

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The Matrix – There was no detectable motion blur in The Matrix.  Granted, it is not the best movie for testing subjective colors, it did provide us with enough high speed motion to determine that motion blur was not a problem with the 192T.

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Men In Black II – Again no noticeable artifacts even during the excessive amounts of explosion scenes.

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Jedi Knight II – While not extreme, motion blur could be detected when bright objects appeared rapidly over dark ones.  Case in point is the bullet flying out of the gun. (Pay very close attention near the cross hairs)

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Max Payne – The ultimate near black and white video game, Max Payne did very well in our image quality test.  Everything looked ok, and any sort of motion blur did not seem noticeable.

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Solitaire – We saw it partially in Jedi Knight II, but the image is definitely showing off a touch of motion blur.  Gray to Gray response times look challenged.

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A lot of people made a big deal about 16ms response time LCDs a few months ago with the introduction of the Hitachi CML174 (and others).  We were skeptical about the hype but gave the monitor a lot of credit for producing some noticeable difference when playing fast action games.  In fact, during our simplest “solitaire” test, we saw the most motion blur due to response time.  Still, we only slightly noticed the blur occurring, but the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

The interesting thing a lot of companies have been stressing is the Gray to Gray response times.  These response times are rarely published and do not appear in the VESA Flat Panel Display Manual. Since we have an entire article lined up to talk specifically about response time in the near future, we won’t go into much detail right now.

When we see the image go from White to Black to Green (ie mouse cursor over a green background), the response times appear clearly in excess of 40ms.  As we will discover more in the near future, gray to gray response times can actually be as high as 100ms. 

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Before running DisplayMate and our subjective analysis of the LCD, we ran ColorVision’s Spyder and OptiCal software.  Not only does this accurately calibrate the monitor on the DVI and analog interface, but it also gives us specific luminescence information not obtainable though subjective analysis.  Special thanks to our friends at Color Vision for providing us with both a Color Vision Spyder and their OptiCal software. 

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From our test, we can logically conclude that the 191T still has some problems replicating the warm colors in the 6500K color temperature.  We were using the DVI connection for this portion of the analysis, which does not allow us to modify the monitor temperature through the OSD.  Thus, we had to use OptiCal in order to properly bring the curves into balance.  For those of you whom do not have OptiCal or Photoshop, you must use the Samsung software in order to bring the colors in the right balance.

DisplayMate

Since we reviewed the 191T on the same benchmark platform, we took the liberty of placing the Hitachi CML174 and the Samsung 192T in the same chart.  The CML174 and SyncMaster 191T both had troubles producing vivid colors.  Feel free to check out the original benchmark back here.