A couple of months ago, we received an
email from Alienware PR people announcing the launch of the
new Samsung SyncMaster 930BF 19” LCD monitor. Under normal
circumstances the press release would have been issued by
Samsung, which in this case wasn’t, so the product caught our
attention immediately. The reason that Alienware issued such
announcement was that the 930BF carried a 4ms response time,
making a perfect fit for the gamers who usually
buy their systems.
Eventually we managed to get an
Alienware ALX gaming system for review (coming soon), too,
but that’s a whole different story. For now we will
concentrate our attention in the SyncMaster 930BF, an
overall well balanced 19” analog and digital TFT-LCD
boasting a fairly impressive response time, 160/160 degree
viewing angle, and a 700:1 contrast ratio as its most
important features.
Even monitor manufacturers have
recognized an important niche to be fulfilled in the gamers
and enthusiast markets; no doubt the 930BF comes as
Samsung’s response to aggressive product offerings from
companies like Viewsonic and Philips, who have caught a lot
of media attention by releasing ever-faster panels, supposed
to improve your gaming experience (although I’m confident
saying most of you no longer buy on that promise ;)).
Some company background
Samsung is a very large company, which
dates back to 1938, and was originally an export company
which sold dried fish and vegetables. Founded in South Korea
by Byung-Chull Lee, they now have over 337 offices and
facilities in 58 different countries. There are 14 different
companies in the Samsung family, with over 200,000 employees
around the world. Samsung has companies involved with
electronics, chemicals, fire & marine insurance,
engineering, and even hotels and resorts.
The year 1973 was the birth of its
electronics division, which was then called Samsung Sanyo
parts. In 1977, Samsung began exporting its first color
televisions. From there, they exploded into several
different markets. Heck, they even own a soccer team! Today,
Samsung makes their living engineering and selling TV’s,
phones, camcorders, DVD players, dishwashers, air
conditioners, hard drives, fax machines, laptop computers,
memory, broadband DSL, wireless systems, and just about any
other electronic component one could ever think of.
What’s included
In the box you will find the monitor,
cables (digital and analog), AC adapter, desk mount, driver
disk, Natural Color disk, rear cable cover, and the
installation guide.
LCD technology overview
In one of our recent monitor reviews we
went through a brief explanation on
how LCD technology
works, if you are into that kind of stuff, we definitely
encourage you to take a look
here.
Monitor Specifications
Display Type
19.0” TFT/TN LCD Screen
Viewable Size
19”
Net Dimensions
16.6”(W) x 16.8”(H) x 7.9”(D)
Display Colors
16.2 Million
Contrast Ratio
700:01:00
Pixel Pitch
0.294mm
Max Resolution
1280 x 1024
Response Time
4ms
Frequencies
30-81KHz, Auto-Synchronous
Input Terminals
15-Pin D-SUB and DVI-D
Power Consumption
38 Watts
Weight
11.2 Lbs
Warranty
The Samsung monitor comes with a 3 year
warranty on all parts and labor. Samsung offers an excellent
explanation of their
dead pixel policy on the web site, perhaps the best I
have ever seen from a manufacturer. The amount of dead
pixels allowed for a claim varies depending to the actual
size of the monitor, the larger the size, the more pixels
needed. For a 19” monitor, they will only warranty the
monitor for 10 or more pixels. If you buy from Newegg, they
will honor 8 or more dead pixels for a replacement.
Special Features
The Samsung SyncMaster 930BF is not one
of those products that will overwhelm you with a ton of
features, which in my opinion, isn’t really a bad thing.
Some of the special features it does offer:
Magic Color - This is an intelligent
color enhancement, which is designed to enhance selective
color quality, yet preserves the natural skin tone colors
Magic Tune -
helps you adjust your monitor’s settings for your particular
viewing environment, and offers a number of preset display
modes which can provide a quick and easy way to adjust
settings.
Magic Bright - a set of presets which
optimize your viewing environment depending on what you are
viewing.
