Sync Your Teeth Into This Master Monitor (Samsung Syncmaster 710TM)

Member Name: anonymili

Product:	Samsung Syncmaster 710TM
Date:	17/03/06 (300 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent response time and clear screen

Disadvantages: Somewhat costly at around £300

I've been using the Samsung Syncmaster 710TM at work now for over a year and thought I'd write about how I feel about the monitor in general. We have 7 or 8 or these in the office used by staff and clients alike. I've found them to be reliable and with clear resolutions. No complaints whatsoever on any of them so far!

I'm not a highly technical person so I'll keep the technical blurb to a minimum, although I will cover some of it to hopefully satisfy all readers.


TECHNICAL STUFF
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The Samsung Syncmaster 710TM is a 17" TFT active matrix monitor. The brightness is up to 300 cd/m², dot pitch is 0.26mm and contrast ration is 600:1. It supports 24-bit (16.7M) colours and is PC or MAC compatible. The maximum viewing angle (both vertical and horizontal) is 160° (which I can confirm)! The audio output is 2 watts and it has a width of 37cm and a depth of 20cm. The screen's maximum resolution is 1280 x 1024, it is 40.4cm high and weighs in at a quite heavy 5.8kg. It also has a maximum refresh rate of 75Hz.

TFT means thin film transistor which is also widely known as flat panel. TFT screens are also referred to as LCD (liquid crystal display) screens.

The monitor has easy to access controls at the front just below the screen itself. It's easy to adjust the display with the on screen menu. You can also choose between 4 set modes: net browsing, text work, entertainment and a custom choice too, which you can customise to your own preferences. There's also an on/off button. If you leave your PC on over a period of time and have a screensaver set up the green on/off light will flicker on and off after a period of "idle time".


LOOKS LIKE?
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The monitor itself is silver and black and it's quite sleek and modern looking (to me anyway).

The stand on which the monitor rests is quite sturdy and I don't worry about it snapping or not holding the weight of the monitor. This is a definite advantage as some of our younger clients at work who use these monitors can be quite boisterous and have a tendency to bump into things!

One thing I've found though is it's very difficult to clean fingerprints off the screen, this seems, though to be a common problem with all flat screens. I never touch my screen and it drives me mad when others do this but I can't rarely chop their fingers off every time they come near my nice clean screen, or can I? Might have to investigate that possibility…


RESPONSE TIME
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The screen response time is 12ms which is quite fast as far as I'm aware. This doesn't mean much to me but would be something in the screen's favour for people who use their PCs for games. Basically the response time is the time taken for the pixels on your screen to change colour and when you're playing games a slow response time can make the game less enjoyable and make it seem sluggish and difficult to keep up with fast paced games. The sluggish effect is also referred to as "ghosting" for those in the know. But don't worry it's not an issue on this monitor!

This monitor is also ideal for viewing DVDs and using multimedia applications. I've not seen a clearer moving picture on a monitor to date.


VIEWING ANGLES
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I've had many a chance to view my monitor from different angles as often I'm on the other side of my desk pulling files out of a shelf and checking information on the screen and just have to lean slightly around to see my screen clearly.

There's no glare to speak of (not that I've noticed to date). I sit with my back to a window and haven't experienced any problems viewing the screen with the sunlight glaring in!


ANY OTHER BUSINESS?
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The M of TM in the product name stands for multimedia - this monitor has a built in speaker, although the sound quality is nothing to write home about - it's rather tinny, so don't rely just on the monitor's sound capabilities if you want to listen to music or watch DVDs.


WHAT'S THE DAMAGE?
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I would have to say that these are NOT the cheapest of 17-inch LCD monitors - retailing at well over the £300 mark some might find it a bit dear for their liking. Misco.co.uk are selling it for £386.58 (incl VAT) and I was hard pushed finding a current price for it anywhere else.


RECOMMENDED?
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If you're able to spend that amount of money on one and if you're into gaming and need a fast response time, I would definitely recommend this as a monitor to buy. If you don't need such a fast response time and/or feel it's a bit too costly for your budget, there's always the lower spec models in the SyncMaster range you can go for. I've got the SyncMaster 713BM at home which came as part of my PC package at PC World a few months ago which retails at around the £200 mark.

All in all the Samsung Syncmaster 710TM gets a big thumbs up for usability and a slight thumbs down for cost.



NB: for "Mantufacturer Support" and "Instruction manual" ratings I've stated "Satisfactory" as I've had no call to use them in over a year.

Summary: A very reliable all rounder with a fast enough response time to satisfy all gamers

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