SyncMaster 931BF

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If you are looking for an attractive simple LCD monitor with flawless display quality, you can't go past the 19 inch Samsung SyncMaster 931BF. Despite our best efforts to find a fault with this unit, it passed all our tests with flying colours.

Pros

  • Excellent performance, Dual PC support, Attractive design, Helpful calibration options.

Cons

  • Nothing to speak of.

Bottom Line

The Samsung SyncMaster 931BF is a well-designed monitor with superb performance, dual PC support and an attractive aesthetic.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    $ 549.00 (AUD)

Special Offers

We put the SyncMaster through its paces by running an exhaustive set of tests with DisplayMate Video Edition. DisplayMate has a multitude of test images that are designed to push a monitor to its limits and reveal any inherent flaws. The Geometry and Distortion tests were executed perfectly. Sharpness and Resolution tests usually show problems in monitors when displaying finely rendered vertical lines and moire test patterns, but the Samsung displayed the test patterns with clarity and precision. The Colour and Grayscale tests were equally impressive with nothing untoward to report. The only issue that we could find in all our tests was a slight darkening in the extreme corners of the screen during our uniformity tests, but it was barely noticeable.

There was also no backlight bleeding and the horizontal viewing angle displayed no colour shift for approximately 150 degrees. With a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 and a 700:1 contrast ratio, there is very little it cant handle. We ran gaming tests to evaluate the speed of the monitor and checked for ghosting to ensure its reported 12ms response time was accurate, and found no ghosting to speak of.

The design is comprised entirely of silver and white with curved edges and a circular stand. The bezel is silver and sits on a white frame, with buttons hidden on the underside, allowing access to calibration menus and source switching. Enveloped in a ring of neon blue light, a metallic silver power button rounds out the aesthetic.

The 931BF can accept both DVI and D-Sub inputs at the same time from two different PCs, with the aforementioned source switching button allowing the user to flip between each simply and easily. This is a great feature that PC and notebook users alike will appreciate.

The calibration options are comprehensive and offer more than just the standard brightness, contrast and colour controls. In addition to these basic options there are also more specific colour calibration tools that allow you to manage the red, green and blue levels in the image. If that seems like too much work one can always use the preset colour tones or, for the ultimate in laziness, let the Samsung MagicColor option do its job. With MagicColor switched on, the monitor is meant to automatically adjust the display for optimal output. In our tests we found that the screen became much brighter and the colours were far more vibrant. However, we found it easier to work without MagicColor turned on as it made the image a little too bright.

The Samsung SyncMaster 931BF is a well-designed monitor with superb display quality, dual PC support and an attractive aesthetic. It passed our testing procedures without a problem and we have no hesitation in recommending it.

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