Samsung 27-Inch Monitor Delivers World-Class Color [REVIEW]

Good color is easy to find in a computer monitor, but the 27-inch Samsung Series 9 monitor aims for great color. Just how great is it?

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First impression: This is a gorgeous monitor that is so well designed, it looks like it could be a sculpture on display in an art museum. Its matte-finished chrome base holds up a shiny stalk that supports the display itself, which from the front looks like an shiny black slab. So this is what $1,200 spent on a monitor gets you -- it's obviously a premium product, despite its plastic back.

Placing it down in a sunny room for an afternoon of testing, I was disappointed at how its glossy screen was more effective as a mirror than as a monitor. If you're working in an area with windows or any bright lights behind you, you might have to look elsewhere for a matte-screened monitor. Or, get yourself some opaque curtains and sit down to feast your eyes on some spectacular color with this one.

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The monitor has a height adjustment -- and it tilts backward and forward -- but I was disappointed to see there was no way to rotate it, for those times when you want to show something on your screen to someone else. That seems like it would've been easy to include; perhaps that feature is not in great demand by the professionals who will most likely be using this monitor.

Yes, Samsung is obviously aiming this Series 9 monitor at photographers, artists, video editors and publishers who must have accurate color reproduction for their work. The monitor is ideal for those who are comfortable with the whole process of calibration. There's even software included that lets you plug in an optional sensor for calibrating the screen to your liking. For those of us who aren't so inclined, Samsung helpfully calibrates the monitor at the factory, and includes a datasheet that shows precisely how accurate it is.

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Looking at it with my own eyes, I quickly realized I was gazing at a superb monitor with excellent 10-bit color, 2560x1440 resolution and an extraordinary viewing angle where objects on the screen looked sharp and bright, even when standing to the side. Color saturation was just right, and out-of-the-box the blacks and white levels were adjusted perfectly.

When you want to adjust this monitor, its backlit touch controls are right there at the bottom of the stand, and they work quite well with just the right amount of sensitivity. I was also delighted to see the inputs for the monitor are at the back of the stand, rather than on the bottom of the display. This makes it a lot easier to connect cables to its variety of inputs, including DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, and even MHL that lets you plug in smartphones that are compatible with that format.

This display is an excellent choice for those who might also be considering Apple's $1000 Thunderbolt monitor. They both have 27-inch screens, but the Apple monitor lacks all this professional calibration capability. But I was thinking, for these prices, would it have been impossible to include a Thunderbolt hub for those of us who are of the Mac persuasion? Perhaps relations between Samsung and Apple are so bad that no such technology will find its way onto Samsung products anytime soon. In addition, I was disappointed when connecting USB to the monitor, discovering it only acts as a USB 2.0 hub, and not the latest USB 3.0.

Enough of what it doesn't have -- the monitor surprised me with a pair of speakers that are invisibly installed on the bottom of the display itself, and for those who don't really need to do close listening to music, they will do fine if you don't mind plugging in the monitor via its HDMI or DisplayPort connections. However, if you want to do some serious music listening, these speakers won't cut it. Their bass is weak, and they barely sound better than an old clock radio from the '70s.

But we didn't come here for the sound -- we came here for the superb color reproduction, and this Series 9 display did not disappoint. If you have a serious need for color accuracy and tack-sharp resolution -- or if you're a dandy with $1,200 to blow who's looking for one of the prettiest monitors on the market today -- this monitor should certainly be at the top of your list.

Samsung Series 9 Display: Superb Color

It's hard to show you exactly how accurate the colors are on this monitor, but it looks extraordinary, the best we've seen.

Click here to view this gallery.

Samsung Series 9 S27B970D Display

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-27-inch-monitor-delivers-world-class-color-180434850.html

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