Samsung SyncMaster 245T

Exactly one year ago, Samsung proudly unveiled the SyncMaster 245T in its stand at the CeBIT (the big technological expo which takes place every year in Hannover, Germany).  This monitor was said to be the forerunner of a new generation, half-way between televisions and monitors, half-way between LCDs and tube screens.  From TVs it has inherited the HDMI and YUV inputs which are useful for connecting the latest generation consoles and players.  From CRTs, it had an artificial sweeping system where a black band is displayed on the screen at high speed in order to reduce afterglow.  The idea is only logical but it isn’t completely new as BenQ introduced it a few months earlier on its 241W Z.  (It’s interesting to point out that BenQ confirms having used entire images instead of black strips while our lab found the opposite to be true).  However, this innovation unfortunately did not reap the expected praise.  In our opinion, we find that their solution which is based on vertically sweeping an 1/8th of the screen noticeably improves afterglow although it is to the detriment of color homogeneity and causes noticeable shimmering.

On its 245T, Samsung doesn’t use 1/8 of the screen but rather a band that almost covers a ¼ of the monitor.   Our verdict this time is that once the function is activated it’s worse than BenQ’s result.  There is no visual progress in eliminating afterglow while the sensation of shimmering and lack of homogeneity is amplified.


Forget MPA, remember its ergonomics and price

Moreover, Samsung is on the same track.  Their labs probably found the same thing and for this reason a year after having been unveiled the function is still deactivated by default and simply omitted from basic monitor characteristics.  You have to delve into the American product sheet (the 245T is absent from the French site!) to read a brief ''MPA HAS'' without any other explanation.  Samsung France even confirmed having made the choice of finally not listing this technological ''improvement''.

For more details on MPA and images on this screen, see our article on Behardware.com

Verdict:  in the end, the 245T can be summed up as a high end 24 inch with fine ergonomics (it still lacks a card reader and USB hub present with Dell), and equipped with a PVA panel.  Once MPA is deactivated, the 245T has performances in the upper average.  Reactivity is particularly good, barely inferior to that of 2 ms TNs, its blacks are deep and color fidelity is good especially in grays while being more problematic in pure colors.  Graphic artists won’t want to skip calibration.