Samsung SyncMaster 2233SW

Full Review

The Samsung 2233SW is a very good looking monitor, with an all-black glossy exterior. It has a stylish curved bottom bezel, with a transparent plastic strip accentuating the design, and a blue LED indicator placed at its center.

Attaching the display to its stand is quite a headache. One's almost in danger of applying too much force while securing the ball-hinge stand to the panel's socket. But once fixed, the entire unit is quite sturdy. Owing to its no-nonsense stand, the monitor only supports forward and backward tilt, and no swivel or pivot.

Not the most overloaded monitor in terms of features - no USB ports, built-in speakers, or an HDMI port. Samsung has kept things simple with only VGA and DVI inputs, although we would've loved to see an HDMI port. It supports a screen resolution of 1920x1080 which is great for watching high-definition movies. The monitor is a TN panel with good horizontal viewing angles but poor vertical viewing angles. The monitor's on-screen control panel is tucked away to the bottom right and is easy to work with. 

Samsung has kept things simple with only VGA and DVI inputs, although we would've loved to see an HDMI port.

Through our DisplayMate benchmark tests, the monitor had good brightness (222 candelas per square metres) and decent contrast levels (792:1 ratio). It reproduced colors well, overall, but ran into trouble with low saturation colors. The monitor also suffered from backlight bleed on the edges, but this is taken care of in its dynamic contrast mode.

Bottom Line

The Samsung falls to fourth place due to a slightly higher price, but all else is good with this one.