My first foray into LCD screens certainly didn't leave me feeling flat! (Samsung Syncmaster 913N)

Member Name: valve90210

Product:	Samsung Syncmaster 913N
Date:	05/11/08 (199 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic screen, great picture, great value for money

Disadvantages: Only one input meaning it's not as versatile as newer models for hooking up consoles etc

I work as a Print Designer, using photoshop and Quark on a daily basis. I used to do this on a single 17inch monitor however, about 3 years ago my department moved offices, along with moving everything, we also had a few upgrades etc to make life better, I asked if it would be possible to have a dual monitor setup to give me more working space on screen as both Photoshop and Quark have a lot of tool bars which take up space. This was agreed to and soon I had a pair of 19inch monitors sitting on my desk.

It really did revolutionise my working experience. It helped hugely with Photoshop and Quark as I had hoped as I was not about to have all my tool bars open fully on one monitor, meaning I had fast access to everything I needed, whilst leaving the entire other screen empty and hence able to be used to display the document I was working on, allowing me much more room for zooming etc etc. It also helped in ways I had not thought about. While tidying files and sorting out my files and folders on the computer, it was also amazinginly helpful. I could have two instances of Windows explorer open, one on each screen, allowing me to have one showing the folder I wanted to put things in and the other I oculd use to find the files I wanted, it was then a simple case of dragging items between the two rather than having to switch between windows etc when using a single monitor.

It made multi-tasking so much easier, any task where I was using more than one piece of software etc was made so much more simple.

As well as my full time work, I also have my own business, also doing design work. Having gotten so used to having the two monitors at work I started to find it very frustrating to be working on a single 17inch monitor at home. I decided that I needed to upgrade to give myself dual screen at home too. This required a new graphics card, which in turn required a new power supply (isn't it always the way that one computer upgrade leads to several more...) At that time I didn't have a huge amount of spare cash so I went for the power supply, graphics card and a single 19inch monitor to start with.

The monitor I got was the Samsung 913N. My main reason for getting this particular model I have to admit was the price, however I had also read reviews and it seemed like it was a decent monitor for a good price.

When it arrived, I put it in place and got rid of my old 17inch CRT, despite having similar monitors at work, I was still surprised by how much space it saved on my desk (as I think everyone is when they first switch to a flat screen!), also surprising was the size of the screen area. Unlike my 17inch crt which had a viewable area of about 16inches, this screen had a viewable area of 19inches which really did seem huge!

The monitor looked much the same as most other monitors of the time, a narrow matt silver frame round the screen, a stand attached to the back etc. This model has a row of buttons along the bottom right of the frame, for the menu, adjustment and power etc.

On the back of the monitor is the power connector and a VGA socket.

I connected the monitor up to my graphics card using a DVI - VGA adaptor that cam bundled with the graphics card.This proved to be really rather fiddly as there is not a great deal of room for your fingers to manipulate the gripping screws at the sides of the socket but with a little perseverance I managed.

When I first switched on the screen and booted the computer, everything was huge so I upped the screen resolution so everything was a decent size, and was amazed by just how much room there was on the desktop. The factory settings as ever were horridly bright and vivid so I manually calibrated it using the Adobe Gamma program that comes with Photoshop, and everything seemed great. Having done a bit of reading up on LCD screens I opened up Photoshop and created a completely black image and displayed it full screen to see if there was any light bleed round the edges and to see if there were any stuck or dead pixels. I was pleasantly surprised.There didn't appear to be any dead pixels (I also tested with a white screen and that seemed ok too) and light bleed was minimal, certainly not enough to cause any problems or for me to be unhappy.

The picture on the screen was superb, everything was lovely and clear and crisp. In fact I had to switch on the cleartype option in Windows, which slightly blures text etc as the extra sharpness can be a bit hard on the eyes.

The extra screen estate made life easier in Photoshop and Quark but I was still wanting a dual monitor setup as I knew from my work that it would really help. Eventually I got myself a second Samsung to match as I was so happy with my first. This time there was a little more light bleed though not enough to be a problem. There was also one pixel which was stuck but being right in the corner of the screen it wasn't too bad. I did phone samsung and ask about this as they apparently have a 'no dead pixels' guarantee but I was told that it wasn't dead, it was stuck and would probably begin working fine.....so far it hasn't but as I use this as my secondary screen, I haven't noticed it for ages and it really isn't a problem.

I fairly recently mounted the screens using some cheap wall mounts I found online, and I must say this has been a great thing, it has freed up even more room on my desk, and looks greta when the desk is clear as the two screens are just floating in space.

I had heard many people going on about viewing angles of LCD screens causing colour uniformity to be a problem and such like but I have not found this to be a problem. If you have the screen at the correct height for working, I have found colours to be uniform across the screen with no problem. I have also used these screens for gaming, mainly first person shooters which are often fast paced and full of action, early LCD screens struggled a bit with fast action and it caused colours and details to smear. I have never noticed anything like this on these screens, gaming has been a pleasure!

I know these monitors are getting on a bit now and in terms of LCD technology they are probably dinosaurs but they are still great, and until they die I have no need to be upgrading them, I very happy with them! Certainly a great buy!!!

Summary: I love my screens and will keep them till they die!

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