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This is a printable version of the article found at http://onepc.net/reviews/0052/ To print, press CTRL + P on your keyboard now. |
By Kelly Lu (kellylu@onepc.net) - August 30, 2001
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As you will see when you continue to read through this review, the Samsung SyncMaster 180T has thoroughly impressed me and will surely impress any person who comes within viewable sight of it. Not only is it physically appealing, but the images that it reproduces are also second to none. So, without further ado, let's delve into the details of this beautiful gem.
Specifications
| SyncMaster 180T |  |
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| Panel | a-si TFT/CE | |
| Viewable Area | 18.1" | |
| Pixel Pitch | 0.281 mm | |
| Brightness | 220cd/m2 | |
| Contrast Ratio | 350:1 | |
| Viewing Angle (h/v) | 160/160 | |
| Interface | Analog (Analog RGB)/Digital (DVI Digital Link) | |
| Video Level | Analog: 0.7Vp-p, Digital: TMDS | |
| Input Connectors | 15 pin D-SUB, DVI-D | |
| Horizontal Frequency (Max.) | 81KHz | |
| Vertical Frequency | 56Hz-85Hz | |
| Maximum/Optimum Resolution | 1280x1024 | |
| Power Consumption | 40W (Max) | |
| Power Management | Energy Star / NUTEK | |
| Special Features | Dual CPU Input (Analog/Digital) & Auto Signal Detection | |
| USB Powered Hub Option | Yes | |
| Dimensions (mm) | 449.4 x 461.2 x182 | |
| Net Weight | 9.15kg |
If you just take a look at the specifications of the SyncMaster 180T, you'll find that it has quite an average set of features. With a 0.281mm pixel pitch, which is, like most other 18" models, larger than a 17" TFT LCD such as the Radius RAD-7 and a 1280x1024 recommended and maximum resolution, the 180T is just like any other LCD monitor. Also like other 18" LCD monitors is its 220 cd/m2 typical brightness rating and its 350:1 contrast ratio--the 350:1 contrast ratio is one of the better specs in the industry, but isn't top-notch either. Finally, it has a relatively good viewable angle of 160-degrees in both vertical and horizontal directions.
As you can see, the SyncMaster 180T might not seem much by just looking at the specs, but, like all other monitors, the specifications cannot show us the whole picture of what the monitor is able to do...
The SyncMaster 180T comes with a basic set of accessories for an LCD monitor: a user's manual--which was very-well written and with lots of detail--, a analog VGA cable, a power adapter and, something that is seldom seen bundled with a monitor, a software CD. Of course, the actual SyncMaster 180T TFT LCD monitor was included in the package.
The moment I took out the SyncMaster 180T out of the box, I was very impressed by the grey-silver color combination that it boasts. While I was awed at how the Radius RAD-7 gave a futuristic look to the desktop, I'm equally impressed with how the SyncMaster 180T gives the desktop an elegant feeling instead. The attention to detail that Samsung had contributed to designing this monitor was very obvious, since they even jazzed up the part of the casing that was under the OSD controls on the front of the monitor by making curvy finger placements. Finally, the dark-grey stand along with the dark-grey buttons and labels adds great contrast to the overall look of the monitor. Plus, the triangular shaping of the bottom stand further contrasts very nicely with the curvy finger placements to enhance the stylishness of the this monitor even more.
The base can also be unscrewed, which allows the SyncMaster 180T to be mounted onto a wall using any set of 100mm x 100mm VESA-compliant mounts.
The SyncMaster 180T has both analog and digital DVI connectors to ensure that this monitor will be compatible with any video adapter one can use it with. This is a trend that I have seen many manufacturers follow, and I really like the idea of including both DVI and D-Sub connectors to ensure compatibility. These connectors, as well as a DC-in plug for the AC adapter, are hidden at the rear of the monitor and placed in a row. I like how Samsung tried to hide these connectors to complement the overall aesthetics of the monitor when looking at if from both the front and back.
My only gripe about the actual physical package itself is that Samsung chose not to include a digital DVI cable as well. Users who wish, or need to use the DVI connector feature of the monitor will have to go out and purchase it separately. Because of this reason, I was unable to test the quality of the display when running with the digital connector. Fortunately, though, I do know that the difference between the two is so negligible now that it is hardly ever noticeable.
Powering Up
Before I move on to assess the quality of the display itself, I must comment on the included software. As mentioned before, Samsung included not only a driver disc, but also a piece of software called Colorific as well. This particular piece of software, which I had initially found to be very useful but later found to be total a waste of hard disk and memory space, allows the user to calibrate their monitor's color level on a software-level. After calibrating the color level, it will create multiple pre-set settings for the color-levels that the user can switch to with a click of a button. A few examples are for "Desktop Publishing" and "Business" use. I don't find these very useful, and, frankly, I find that none of the built-in settings will ever suit my liking--I prefer the default setting of the SyncMaster 180T.
Colorific, also helps the user to adjust the viewing angle of the monitor, which I found to be the only useful feature of this piece of software since the viewing angle of a TFT LCD monitor--not so much with a larger model such as the 180T, but more important for smaller models such as 15" TFT LCD's--is very hard to calibrate properly.
The evaluation of a LCD monitor is very tough, because many of the results are of the qualitative type, rather than the easier to measure quantitative type.
Dysfunctional Pixels
A property of LCD monitors that can be measured quantitatively is the number of broken pixels. LCD monitors are made up of millions of thin-film transistors. Thus, it is very common that, on a TFT LCD display, a few of these transistors might be damaged, where they might be seen as missing, discolored, or as lighted dots. By counting the number of obvious dysfunctional TFT's, it can used to help determine the quality of the manufacturing process of the LCD monitor. It must also be noted that each LCD monitor, even with the same brand and model, are made differently, so, while one may contain many of these dysfunctional TFT's, another might not contain any; therefore, this test is only a rough estimate of the quality of the product line.
The 180T exhibited no clear signs of these dysfunctional TFT's, which is a rough indication of the quality of this display.
Quantative Assessment
For the quality portion, I can safely say that the SyncMaster 180T has the best image quality, period. Its colors are the most vivid that I have ever seen on any monitor, regardless of LCD or CRT, and the images are extremely crisp. The whites are very bright, although, I do find them to be a little to the creamy side, and blacks are the best that I have seen on any LCD.
The viewing angles of the Samsung SyncMaster 180T are also the best that I've seen ever on a LCD monitor; no matter what angle you view the display at, you will always be able to see the contents of the screen. Like all LCD monitors, the more you are not directly at a 90-degree angle to the screen, the more the colors will become altered--the 180T was just a tad better than the Radius RAD-7 in this area, which I felt did a great job already.
Picture Scaling
Because the pixels on a LCD monitor are already defined, the recommended resolution and maximum resolution becomes more important on a LCD than a CRT. When the resolution is not at the recommended resolution, in the 180T's case, 1280x1024, the image must be stretched and blended to fit those defined pixels. I found that the SyncMaster 180T does a decent job in this area, but found it to be a little bit poorer than the Radius RAD-7--probably because of its larger screen size and that the same amount of blurring is easier to notice on a larger area. This shouldn't be too big of a problem since it's only in games that this feature becomes a small factor (not all video cards are capable of handling such high resolutions of 1280x1024) and running any LCD display in Windows at anything other than the recommended resolution is a death sentence for your eyes.
On-Screen Controls
The on-screen controls of the SyncMaster 180T, which I found to be a little hard and confusing to use, included the usual settings that you would find on mostly any monitor these days, such as contrast, brightness, and position. There are also some very unique and useful features that the SyncMaster 180T boasts, such as scaling settings. As mentioned before, when the monitor is running at a resolution other than the recommended setting, it will stretch (or scale) the image onto it specified pixels, thus, making the image blurrier than usual. The 180T allows the user to turn of this scaling, so that the images will just become smaller in relation to the resolution, thus, maintaining the sharpness and eliminating the need for blurring. I find this feature to be VERY useful, since I far prefer to have a sharper and easier-on-the-eyes image in exchange for size. The 180T also boasts an Auto-adjustment feature that is seen on other LCD monitors to automatically adjust the phase and coarseness of the image, which I find to do a very good job of making the image as sharp as possible.
Motion Blur
Finally, another property of LCD displays is that poor-quality displays tend to blur more as a side effect of rapid movement on the screen, such as mouse movement or turning in Quake III: Arena. This is because most LCD monitors are not able to refresh their screens as fast as an equivalent CRT monitor. This is frequently noticeable in older displays, or even on some newer displays. The Samsung SyncMaster 180T has virtually no noticeable motion-blurring--it has almost the same level as a CRT monitor, which usually never exhibits such behavior.
It is apparent that Samsung designed their SyncMaster 180T with quality in mind. From the moment the product is lifted out of the box, elegance and detail seem to be written all over it with its silver-gray color combination and nice color and shape contrast. Powering up, the 180T was able to reproduce some of the best images that we've seen on any monitor. The on-screen controls, although being a little confusing, houses the necessary controls that one would expect out of any modern monitor, plus a very unique and useful control to sacrifice size for clarity when the monitor is not running at its recommended resolution.
The only major flaw that I can find in this monitor is its price--at a retail price of $2899 CDN (or about $2000 USD), this monitor isn't cheap. But if you have the cash to burn, and are in the market for an 18" TFT LCD monitor with excellent image quality, then this Samsung SyncMaster 180T will be for you.
Pros
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