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Samsung SyncMaster F2380 monitor review

Over the past two years, an empty niche has formed between monitors with a TN matrix and higher-quality LCD displays based on SPVA, S-IPS matrices, which are several times more expensive. The situation developed in such a way that a person who was not satisfied with the quality of the TN display could not buy a high-quality product with large viewing angles and better color rendering, having an amount of about 350-400 US dollars. In order to fill this market segment, Samsung has launched a new type C-PVA monitor with improved image quality.

Design

The design of the Samsung F2380 monitor is strict, it can even be called utilitarian. It is made of black matte plastic, the width of the frame around the display is small, it is only 15 millimeters.

On the bottom edge of the monitor, in the center, there is a small gray-silver panel with the designations of the control unit keys located at the bottom. The keys protrude somewhat from the body, so they are easy to find by touch, guided by the designations, but at first they are somewhat unusual to use. To navigate the menu, you need to move left and right, up and down, and all the keys are located in one row. The power indicator is white and cannot be turned off.

The rear panel of the monitor is neatly made, with a relief pattern applied to it, which is very convenient when the screen is turned to portrait mode. The ventilation grill and the stand attachment unit are covered with a flap, which can be dismantled if desired. The connectors are located at the bottom of the protruding rear of the chassis and point downward.

A mechanical power button is installed near the power connector. No extra effort is required to connect cables, it is very convenient to do it.

The stand is attached to the base with two screws. In the event that you need to install the monitor on a wall, you will have to use additional holes with an already cut female thread. Pull-out stand is made of aluminum, its surface is anodized. The base is made of stamped thick sheet steel. All metal structures have a plastic coating on top.

The stand is adjustable in height in the range of 130 millimeters, which allows you to change its tilt within 20 °, its height allows you to rotate the display in portrait mode. The large base area of ​​the stand provides good stability for the LCD monitor, even when set in portrait orientation. The construction of the stand is quite rigid, there are no slightest backlashes in the joints.

For convenient transportation of the monitor, a metal pin is included in the package, which is designed to fix the stand at a minimum height.

Commutation

The monitor has 2 DVI-D digital interfaces with HDCP support and analog video input. In the event that the input signal disappears, the monitor automatically switches to another input. You can turn off this automatic triggering in the menu.

It is very convenient that the monitor has a built-in timer that automatically turns off the display, which is very convenient when you watch movies at a later time.

Menu and control

Navigating through the menus is quick and easy. The display electronics remember the last page you accessed, but the settings on it are not saved. The bottom line of the menu displays a text prompt that explains the functions of the keys.

For convenient work with the menu, you can move it to the bottom of the screen so that it is opposite the control keys.There is a system of quick transition to preset profiles of brightness, color correction and aspect ratio using the "Down" key. The "Enter" button switches the signal sources, and using the "Up" button you can display the brightness settings of the image.

If the need arises, you can make the background of the menu semi-transparent. The on-screen menu is Russified, and the font is of very good quality.

Picture

The user is given the opportunity to choose from 5 preset MagicBright profiles. It is also possible to manually adjust the parameters of brightness, clarity and contrast. An interesting function called auto contrast, which dynamically controls the brightness, that is, in dark scenes, the brightness level increases, and in light scenes, on the contrary, decreases.

An adjustable parameter called "Response time" is intended for setting the operating mode of the accelerating pulse, which is used to reduce the response time of the matrix.

The MagicColor program has 2 pre-installed color correction profiles and one demo mode, in which the screen is divided into two parts: the first one displays the original picture, and the second - the corrected image.

To adjust the hue, there are three preset color temperature profiles and one custom one in which you can adjust the color gamut.

With the convenient Color Mode function, you can easily switch the LCD monitor to black and white, or use different shades of green, aquamarine and other colors. The Gamma parameter is used to determine the current profile of gamma correction. The image can be geometrically transformed as follows: you can leave the original image parameters (Auto mode) or artificially stretch it by interpolation (Wide mode).

Automatic adjustment when an analog VGA signal is connected to the monitor is fast and high-quality, in both cases, both when using a digital input and an analog one, there is support for a resolution of 1920 × 1080. When the monitor is operating in the 1920 × 1080 mode, you can see small stripes, there are no artifacts, colored lines, the thickness of which is only 1 pixel, are displayed almost perfectly, the color clarity in this case does not change. All colors are natural and rich. If you look at the screen strictly perpendicularly, you will notice that the first few shades cannot be distinguished from black on a gray scale. The filling of the white field showed that it is uniform, and on the black field you can notice a slight flare in the corners, which decreases towards the center of the screen. There is no dynamic color shift (dithering). It is even visually noticeable that the response speed of the matrix is ​​small. When the "Response time" parameter is set to the "Normal" position, a trail is clearly visible behind moving objects, if the "Fast" and "Fastest" modes are enabled, this trail is noticeably shortened. When white objects move quickly against a dark background, their front will take on a green tint. When watching a video, the Samsung SyncMaster F2380 monitor demonstrates very good viewing angles.

To test the monitor in different video modes, a Sony S300 Blu-ray player was used. Subtle gradations of hues are clearly visible in both light and dark areas of the image. Color clarity and luminance clarity are at a high level, they depend only on the resolution of the input signal supplied to the monitor. Artifacts do not appear when scaling is applied at low display resolutions. The monitor electronics make geometric transformation correctly, regardless of the type of signal, in full accordance with the selected mode. It is very good that in the 1080 mode interpolation is not activated, so the image clarity is maximized.

The F2380 monitor under review does a very good job of displaying video material, demonstrating excellent image quality in films with a predominance of dark scenes, as well as in those where the action takes place in bright sunlight.

LCD matrix test

The matrix parameters were measured using precision instruments. During the tests, an exclusively digital DVI interface was used. The brightness control of the matrix was set to 100, the hue control to the “Normal” position, and the contrast to 79.

Color quality

In order to accurately assess the color quality of the monitor, a GretagMacbeth LT colorimeter was used. The gamma setting was 2.2 and the white point setting was 6500K.

The closest to the value of the color standard turned out to be when the "Normal" profile was turned on. If you use manual correction of the brightness of green, blue and red colors, then the color reproduction can be slightly improved.

The graph shows that for the "Normal" profile the correction curves slightly diverge, so there is a need to slightly increase the signal level in the shadows. In this case, the gamma curve takes on an almost standard form.

The gamut values ​​are very close to the sRGB standard.

In order to assess how the brightness rises, the brightness of 256 shades of gray was measured on a gray scale. The graph shows the increase in the brightness level when the gamma value was set to mode 1 (measurements were made between adjacent semitones).

The obtained data of gamma curves were averaged and as a result the following indicators were obtained: for mode 1 - 2.09, for mode 2 - 2.30, for mode 3 - 2.50.

It should be noted that a narrow-beam sensor was used, which was installed perpendicular to the display. Therefore, if you look at the screen strictly at right angles, then small details in the darkened areas of the image will be lost.

Measurements of uniformity of brightness fields

In order to measure the brightness of the screen in a small area, a highly sensitive narrow beam sensor was used. It was sequentially fixed at 30 points on the screen at right angles to the display surface. To measure the contrast, calculations were made, with the help of which the ratio of the brightness of the fields at the measurement sites was calculated. All measured values ​​are summarized in one table:

Measurements at the hardware level showed that the contrast of the monitor is very high, as for the uniformity of the white field and the contrast level, they are simply excellent. As for the uniformity of the black field, it is at the average level.

The Argus 03 photometer was used to measure the brightness of the white field in the center of the display. When the brightness and contrast parameters were set to the maximum values, the readings of the device were 243 cd / m2. As for the maximum operating brightness, its values ​​are approximately the same. As the brightness values ​​decrease, the contrast also becomes lower, but even at the minimum brightness values ​​(26 cd / m2), its value exceeds 1000: 1:

This indirectly indicates that changing the Brightness parameter changes the glow intensity of the backlight, so the image quality is not compromised. The brightness of the monitor varies in a wide range from 26 cd / m2 to 243 cd / m2. This provides comfort for watching movies both in a darkened room and in a brightly lit room. The electronics of the monitor use a high modulation frequency of 180 Hz, so the flickering of the backlight system is completely invisible.

Determining Response and Output Delay Values

During the test, the response time of the device at transitions between halftones and from white to black was measured. When switching from black to white and vice versa, the response time is 22 ms, when the acceleration pulse is turned off, it increases to 39 ms.The graph clearly shows that in all modes, there are no bursts at the transition fronts, and their steepness only increases slightly.

Display latency is minimal, even when compared to a CRT monitor, whether using digital DVI or analog VGA. On average, it is 5-6ms.

Viewing angles

In order to determine the viewing angles, a series of measurements of the brightness of gray, white and black shades in the center of the display were carried out in a wide range. As a result, it was found that the brightness decreases smoothly when you deviate from a right angle to the display in any of the four directions. There is a subtle diagonal effect, that is, in the case of a deviation along the diagonal, the brightness of the black field increases somewhat faster than in the case when there is a deviation in the vertical and horizontal directions.

Conclusions and assessments

The F2380 monitor can include a high level of contrast, the ability to adjust the brightness in a very wide range, excellent image quality, three interfaces for connecting a video signal, HDCP support, a convenient stand and a Russified menu.

The disadvantages include the partial loss of small details in the darkened areas of the image.

The F2380 CPVA monitor has good technical characteristics, it has very wide viewing angles and excellent backlight uniformity. The speed of the matrix is ​​average, but it is quite sufficient for films and for not very dynamic games. This is a solid monitor with a good price / quality ratio.

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