Samsung SyncMaster 204T Review

Push Mouse Buttons, Not Monitor Buttons

Thanks to a 700:1 contrast ratio, the view from in front of the 204T is sharp and clear, with wide viewing angles and good differentiation between even adjacent, similar hues in our DisplayMate test patterns. By contrast, we'd call the display's brightness (officially rated at 300 nits) good but not outstanding: We were able to get whiter-than-white backgrounds only by setting both brightness and contrast to the max. The 75- or 80-percent brightness that we choose for most work on most monitors seemed a trifle dim on the Samsung.

A MagicBright feature lets you rotate among half a dozen brightness levels aimed at different applications such as word processing versus DVD viewing versus try-to-spot-monsters-hiding-in-the-shadows gaming; the text and Internet modes were dismally dark (30- and 45-percent brightness respectively), but the entertainment settings were suitably sunny.

On a more positive note, the 204T's rated response time is 16 milliseconds, which won't impress PC game maniacs emptying their wallets for an 8ms or 4ms LCD. But in our real-world testing, we were never bothered by ghosting or smearing of fast-moving objects or video images.

The Samsung also acquitted itself nicely when scaling lower resolutions such as 1,024 by 768 to fill the frame. One Windows display configuration popped a "Not Optimum Mode: Recommended mode 1600 x 1200 @ 60Hz" Post-It onto the screen for a few seconds, but non-native-resolution text looked only a bit pixelated and images looked surprisingly sharp.

Various front-bezel buttons let you summon and navigate a pop-up menu of screen settings, but Samsung's provided MagicTune software replaces that chore with onscreen point-and-click options. Once you're done with the relatively simple brightness, contrast, and color-temperature menus, you can delve into detailed calibration settings and save and load different combinations or profiles for different users.

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round

We also found that MagicTune 4.0, downloadable from Samsung's Web site, is smarter than the MagicTune 3.6 supplied on CD in our box: With version 4.0 loading itself into the background at startup, the 204T will sense and automatically pivot the screen image 90 degrees when you rotate the display from landscape to portrait mode or vice versa. (Version 3.6 did the trick if left open on your Windows desktop, but otherwise required a separate MagicRotation utility and hotkeys such as Ctrl-Shift-R to rotate the image manually.)

Vertically oriented screens were generally just as clean and clear as their horizontal counterparts, but scrolling up or down through text or Web pages caused an annoying right-to-left redraw or flicker not seen in landscape mode.

The occasional flicker and good-but-not-great brightness keep this from being a five-star review, but the SyncMaster 204T is still well worth a look from shoppers hoping their $599 can buy more than a generic 19-inch flat panel. Its dual inputs; tilt, swivel, and height adjustment as well as pivot capability; and convenient MagicTune software make it an appealing way to join the 20-and-up club.

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