February 27th, 2005
Product Review: Samsung’s Stunning SyncMaster 243T 24-Inch LCD Monitor
By Alice Hill
My recent experience with the spectacular and downright HUGE 24-inch flat panel LCD monitor from Samsung had me worried about the non-technical just when the tech world was finally offering up some products that were approaching plug-and-play. After all, what could be more plug and play than a monitor?
Not so with the SyncMaster 243T and my IBM ThinkPad. When the monitor arrived in a massive box that literally drew a small crowd, I set it up and attached it to my laptop’s docking station with more anticipation than I’ve had for a tech product in along time. But when I fired up the laptop and I also had deep and instant buyer’s remorse. Wailing remorse. After all for nearly 2,000, shouldn’t the text be as sharp and appealing as my previous Sony 17-inch display or the amazing Samsung 213T I use happily at home? How can three more inches of screen real estate result in such a blurry and washed out output?
For the next hour I tinkered. I changed resolutions, I used the various color matching utilities that came with the unit. I even went in desperation to IBM’s website and looked for a new ThinkPad driver wading through obscure OS/2 drivers and others with little luck. And then I started worrying. Could this really be what a big screen looked like up close? Did I order something not meant to be used as a monitor? Should I position it across the room? Would I even want to work that way? The questions were relentless and unpleasant.
Finally as an afterthought I used Windows itself to search for a new graphics driver, did a quick install after it downloaded, and restarted my machine – all I can say is, what an incredible moment. The text was razor sharp , the screen bright and colorful, and I was literally in awe. Silent awe. Read Complete Review Here
