Hello dear readers,
Introduction
Today I would like to tell you something about my almost new Samsung XL2370 LED monitor with a size of 23 inches, which I bought 1 1⁄2 years ago to replace my old 19 inch tube monitor. The reason for buying here was that the new monitor consumes less electricity, compared to my approx. 7 year old monitor, as this is a TN panel with LED backlight, which in turn consumes less power than an LCD monitor. In addition, it is much larger in terms of image size and you have to go a bit with the technology.
I particularly like the design of the monitor, because the panel frame and stand are made of glass-clear plastic that is black inside, Samsung calls this “Touch of Color Design”. The stand itself is also made of the same material and has a glass-clear edge like the panel frame.
The LED monitor has a full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (native) and also has an HDMI and a DVI input to connect my graphics card with it via cable. Thus, the PC and a Blu-Ray player can be connected to the monitor at the same time because it has two digital inputs, and the reproduction of copy-protected media via HDCP is no problem for this model. For direct television, the monitor is not suitable because it has no tuner, as well as no speakers. For this purpose, however, the audio signal can be forwarded either analogously or via SPDIF to an external amplifier.
Data sheet
Name: Samsung XL2370 LED
Max. Pixel error (according to ISO 13406-2): Class II
Guarantee: 3 years
Pixel size: 0.265 mm
Response time: 2 milliseconds
Standard resolution: 1.920 x 1.080 (16:9) (native)
Visible image size/diagonal: 509 mm x 286 mm / 584 mm
Inputs, plugs: 1 x HDMI 1.3 (digital, with HDCP), 1 x DVI-I (digital + analog), 1 x 3.5 mm analog audio output, 1 x SPDIF digital audio output (optical)
Image frequency: 56 Hz – 61 Hz
Max. Line frequency/video bandwidth: 30 kHz – 81 kHz / 164 MHz
Equipment/delivery transfer: DVI-I-to-VGA cable, DVI-D cable, power supply and power cable, quick guide, CD HDMI cable not available!
Monitor dimensions (B x H x T) [mm]: 571 x 423 x 190 (with foot)
Weight: 5,5 kg
Mark: Energy Star, CE, RoHS
On/stand-by/off power consumption: 28 watts / < 1.3 watts / < 0.7 watts
Other: External power supply
I paid for it: 259 euros (beginning of 2010)
Packaging
Due to its small dimensions, the carton is also quite small and has a carrying handle, so that it can be transported well on the road. The complete weight of 5.7 kg can also be easily carried by a woman. All parts of the monitor and accessories are carefully packed with foam and foil. Because with the very sensitive surface of the materials it is recommended to be careful not to have the first scratches in the material.
Assembly
Once you have taken all the parts out of the carton you can start with the assembly, here you start to put the LED panel on the table and then plug in the standpipe on the rear wall, then the oval stand foot is plugged on the standpipe and secured with a screw, no fear tools are not needed here. Thanks to the assembly instructions and the many black and white pictures in the instructions, the assembly has been quite simple. You should mount the whole but everything carefully and without much effort.
Images from Samsung Syncmaster XL2370LED
Samsung Syncmaster XL2370LED – front view
. . . and be careful not to damage the delicate plastic parts.
Optics
Now I have assembled the monitor as far as possible and now it is in front of me. The screen looks very large and the frame and the back are made of a glossy plastic (piano lacquer), which has the consequence that you can easily see the fingerprints, so you have to clean here every now and then. Also dust will be seen on the back after some time. The surface, as I have noticed, is quite sensitive to scratches. In the long time that I have used it, fine and visible scratches around the panel frame can be seen through the cleaning, especially when the frame is lit with light.
In my opinion, the stand looks a little too small for the large monitor and unfortunately cannot be adjusted in height. If you want to have your monitor higher, you have to put some books or other under it. The display itself is matt, so you have no disturbing reflections on the display. In addition, the type designation is discreetly on the monitor on the upper left side of the panel frame and on the right side you will unfortunately find an ugly blue EnergyStar sticker, which somehow does not fit so well and unfortunately sits very firmly. The operating elements are located at the bottom right and are only inserted when touched.
The only thing that the monitor has is a tilt joint, so that you can adjust the display either completely straight and slightly obliquely to the rear. But here I have to say that in normal operation, as the monitor stands in front of me, it is so difficult to adjust that you have to put the display flat on the table and that you take the standpipe into your hands at the back and then set it in the right position.
Operation (OSD=OnScreenDisplay)
At the bottom right of the panel frame are the main adjustment options. The ON/OFF button is permanently (white) lit when the monitor is on and is pressure sensitive like all other settings. Here there are no more mechanical buttons to push or rotate. If you drive with your finger over the surface below, the various setting options are displayed. The sensitivity does not always work as much as you want it, it can well and gladly happen that you also have to go twice with your fingers over the surface, so that the five ads appear. The following 5 areas are available: BILD, COLOUR, Size&POSITION, SETUP&RESET, INFORMATION. In the 3 main setting ranges, the basic settings such as reaction time (normal, faster, fastest), the colors, brightness, contrast, sharpness, color temperature, color effect, gamma values, etc. can be set, which every monitor has to offer.
There are also factory pre-installed OSD settings which can then be placed on a button in the touch-sensitive menu. After that, the following values and settings are available: User-defined, text, Internet, game, sports, film and optimum contrast. You cannot change these values yourself. Most of it is used with me text and game.
Image quality
The image quality of a monitor is certainly one of the most important, since you also look at it here all day. The Samsung XL2370 has a matte TN panel with 0.265 mm pixel size and has an LED backlight, which allows you to use a high contrast. If you look at the side of the display, you notice that the picture seems a little pale. If you look at the display from below, you notice that it is darker. The best position, however, is if you just look at the center of the display. If you move your head a little to the right and left, you can clearly see the color differences in the sides of the display.
If you take a closer look at the backlighting on the monitor and only the monitor turns on, you can clearly see that this model does not have uniform illumination. What you notice is that there are no particularly bright halos. It also falls on the display that is not really black but looks gray. Due to the not quite so uniform illumination, you notice, however, when you read texts or watch videos, nothing actually.
Everyone uses their monitor for different application areas and I would like to go into them a little more.
Office area
In the office area, the monitor is in my opinion good to use to write and read texts should you set the sharpness between 60-72 in the monitor setup, so you get a good picture, lower values usually lead to light to strong blur. You should also leave the native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, it is also possible to choose a different resolution, but then you can clearly see so-called interpolation artifacts in the text lines and that looks then no longer good.
Image processing
Unfortunately, those who have much to do with image editing will not have fun with this monitor, because a differentiation of very dark and also quite bright colors he does not master so well. Just as already mentioned, if you move your head slightly back and forth, you fall on the sides of the panel such a slight shimmering (yellow-silvery) of the colors occurs and is therefore not suitable for a proper image processing. Therefore, one should find out exactly which monitor is best suited for such work.
Games
Due to the very high contrast of the display, it is well suited here. The bright illumination is ideal for games that are sometimes quite dark, so dark spots in the game are well lit and you can see everything better. In the setup menu of the monitor there is also a preset game mode, which sets the contrast value to 100% and thus illuminates the image really well, which I personally always use in online gaming. There you will also find the camper sitting in the darkest corner.
It is also important to pay attention to the fact that you play in the native resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and also has a correspondingly powerful graphics card, which gives such high resolutions backwards free. If you use a different resolution, this is also possible, but the entire image will unfortunately be a bit blurred.
Response time (games)
What is very important for gamers, a low reaction time, because no one wants to play in his fast games such as first person shooter or racing games that show the picture Schlieren. This monitor has a reaction time of 2ms, which is actually almost standard and most models have. Since I also daily games and especially first-person shooters in which fast movements occur, no streaks or artifacts have appeared in the game, because that masters the display very well.
Input lag (games)
The reaction time is necessary for a fast image setup and then there is also the so-called input lag in monitors. If too much time passes between the image input and the image output, then it can happen that the control in games becomes indirect and this can be perceived as extremely disturbing. With this Samsung Xl2370LED I did not notice such an input lag.
Video area
You can also use the monitor to connect your XBOX360 or Playstation 3, as it has an HDMI port. Unfortunately, I do not use a game console on this monitor. But if you want to view copy-protected content via the ports, the XL2370 can easily play it back on the digital inputs thanks to HDCP support.
Criticism
As chic as the monitor looks with its black piano lacquer, I have to say here, the plastic surface is unfortunately very sensitive to dust and scratches. The smooth back of the monitor attracts dust after a few days. Even if you clean the whole with a soft cloth, there are unfortunately small and fine scratches on the surface everywhere.
The thing that bothers me the most is the stand, which actually looks very measly on the quite large display and has no height adjustment. I plugged in the DVI cable on the rear of the monitor and due to its pulling force, it literally pulls the monitor down to the right side, since the connection is not central. Because the stand is unfortunately so extremely wobbly that you could think it would be made of wobbly pudding. Because the standing foot does not sit properly in its anchoring and thus the entire display can be moved back and forth to the right and to the left, while the plastic is clearly audible. So due to the strong pulling force of the cable on the back, I have to put myself a little under the display so that I do not always have a monitor tilted to the right.
I also tried to connect my graphics card via HDMI to the monitor and I am sure I have bought a pretty good HDMI cable. Unfortunately, I have trouble getting a reasonable picture. The colors are unfortunately very pale and the picture is also fuzzy. I get the better picture with the DVI cable. In the setup settings of the monitor and the graphics driver I did not achieve any improvement. A search on the Internet showed me that many have this problem with the HDMI input and Samsung allegedly recommends connecting the monitor via the DVI cable. So I still have no choice but to continue using the heavy DVI cable.
Conclusion
Its strengths are clearly in the high contrast value (brightness), which is particularly suitable for online gaming, and also in the Tagheller environment. The image quality is in my opinion good, even if with this LED technology the backlighting is not quite uniform, which you do not notice when playing or reading. The reaction time of 2ms is very good for fast movements and I could not determine input lag. Due to the partially restricted viewing angle, it is not suitable for image processing, because you should always look centrally at the monitor, otherwise you can see slight color changes on the sides. A big shortcoming is and remains the very shaky and creaking stand, which has no attitudes as far as the height is concerned. You can tilt the monitor, but that is only possible if you put it flat on the table beforehand and then move it back and forth on the stand, because so out of the stand it is such a great feat of strength, that is almost impossible.
In terms of power consumption, it is unbeatable, because with just 28 watts at 100% contrast, it is really very economical. In standby mode, 1.5 watts are used and then it is only 0.8 watts of power consumption. The monitor does not have a built-in power supply, thus the power supply takes place via an external switched-mode power supply, which is connected to the rear of the monitor by means of cables. On a positive note, the warranty period of 3 years, which I find very good for a monitor.
Assessment (school grades)
Suitable for play: 1
Office area: 2-
Video area: 3
Image processing: 5
General judgment: 3
Even if it is not a perfect monitor, I still say thank you for reading and reviewing.
With kind regards
Johnboymg
Declarations
Native: A resolution that corresponds exactly to the physical digital resolution (pixel number) of a display device is called native resolution. (Wikipedia)
Response time: The response time (also called switching time or response time) refers to the time (in milliseconds) that a pixel of an LCD needs to change its state. There are two different methods used to specify the response time for LC/TFT displays: the BWT (black-white-time or black-and-white-time) and the GTG (grey-to-grey or grey-to-gray-time). The smaller the response time of a display, the faster the image can change without blurring the image (e.g. streaks during fast mouse movements in video games).
This value is only important for TFT/LC displays. In the case of tube monitors, the reaction time is not relevant for technical reasons because it virtually does not exist. (Wikipedia)
HDCP: HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) is a copy protection feature for digital video ports DVI (Digital Video Interface) and HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface). If you have a monitor that does not support this, you can not watch these kinds of movies.