Reliable and low cost monitoring! (Samsung Syncmaster 550S)

Member Name: richard_richard

Product:	Samsung Syncmaster 550S
Date:	20/05/04 (224 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clear image, Value for money, £ year warranty

Disadvantages: Conventional design takes up more space

The Samsung Syncmaster 550s monitor is a 15? CRT conventional monitor. It has a pure-flat screen and a compact design.

This monitor has been used for over a year now in our server room, connected to one of the Windows 2000 servers.

I believe that these monitors will set you back around £150, although this price may have gone down, due to the increasing popularity of LCD screens.


Specs
This monitor boasts a 15? screen with a dot pitch of 0.24mm. The monitor is flicker-free and can display a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768. It is worth noting that the monitor is designed primarily for use with PC?s as opposed to Macs.

The dimensions of the monitor are as follows: (WxDxH) 14.03? x 14.97? x 15.02?. The unit weighs in at a reasonably manageable 25.36lbs.

The front panel contains five buttons. Reading from left to right these are, Exit, Minus, Plus, Menu and the On/Off button. These buttons allow control over all the monitor?s features.

Around the back of the monitor is an input for the power cord and the connecting lead for attaching the monitor to a computer. That?s it, well apart from a sticker which holds the serial number and other technical information.

This monitor is decked out in that ever so popular colour scheme, beige!


In Use
Setting up the monitor is pretty straightforward really. The power cord needs to be attached into the socket at the back of the monitor, (to give the monitor some juice!), then the connecting lead from the monitor needs to be attached the computer. Switch both pieces of equipment on and unless there is something seriously wrong, the monitor should display the computer images.

The monitor has a set of on-screen menus, which allow adjustments and fine tuning to be made to the picture. These menu options are very useful for setting the computer image correctly onto the screen as they allow for such adjustments as, horizontal position, vertica
l position, horizontal size, vertical size, pincushion and geometry alignment. Brightness and contrast are also catered for as well as degauss, zoom and timer functions.

Let?s press onwards then, to the quality of the screen image. I must say that I have been quite impressed by the clarity of the images that this budget monitor is able to display. The flicker free picture means that images are sharp and not likely to cause eye problems or headaches, if you are in front of the screen for long periods of time.

The maximum resolution of 1024 x 768 may not sound that impressive, but on a 15? display this is really as high as you would want to go without having to bring out a magnifying glass to see what you are doing!

The screen is bright and images appear crisp without fuzziness around the edges, which was a problem that used to affect a lot of budget monitors. I?ve seen some monitors that are so fuzzy, they make you feel like you?ve had one drink too many!

I feel that the image quality is better than that of an equivalently priced TFT 15? monitor, although of course you lose out on the advantage of the space saving, or ?small footprint? that a TFT monitor will give you. That said, the Samsung is pretty compact for a conventional monitor.

This monitor comes with a 3 year warranty, which is quite reassuring. In terms of reliability, for the last year it has functioned without any problems and it is nice to know that if there are any malfunctions within the next two years, it will still be covered by the warranty. For the price of the monitor, I feel that the 3 years warranty is very good value.


Conclusion
For the price, this monitor gives very good performance. The screen images are clear and crisp and very good quality for the price. Also the monitor is generally very easy to set up and use, with straightforward on-screen menus.

The 3 year warranty that is provided is a reassuring presence, and
with a bit of luck these monitors should provide trouble free use for a number of years.

Overall then I wouldn?t hesitate to recommend this Samsung model if you are after a cheap, reliable conventional 15? monitor.


Thanks for reading!

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