Samsung SyncMaster 915N: 8ms Response Times

Quantitative Analysis

For the duration of this review, we connected the Samsung SyncMaster 915N to a Radeon X800 Pro with factory default settings on the Analog connection unless stated otherwise. Brightness has been set to maximum as well (with the exception of some of the application tests). Our lab is set up in a controlled white room with two incandescent and two florescent light sources.

Luminance

Brightness ranked as one of our most important display qualities. In a well lit environment, a bright display will actually offer less strain on your eyes than a dimly lit one. Below, you can see a comparison of the brightness for each of our LCD monitors.

Like LG's Flatron L1980U, the Samsung 915N is one of the brighter displays in our analysis. When we received the unit, the factory setting had the brightness down to 80%, which seemed to be about the sweet spot for this display. Using MagicBright on settings other than Entertain resulted in a dimmer backlight setting. For the remainder of the analysis, we set the display on "Entertain" mode.

Our Contrast Ratio

We will use the same observation from the 19" LCD Roundup several months ago. Using PreCal and our ColorVision Spyder, we will measure the luminance of a pure white image and a pure black image on the LCD monitor. The observed contrast ratio is simply the highest recorded luminance divided by the lowest. All measurements are in candela per meter squared; larger contrast ratios are more desirable.

Observed Contrast Ratio
	Highest Recorded (white image)	Lowest Recorded (black image)	Observed Contrast Ratio
BenQ FP931	256.4	3.6	71.2
Dell 1905FP	234.6	2.6	90.2
LG L1980U	254.6	2.8	91.0
NuTech L921G	278.2	2.6	107.0
Planar PE191M	234.0	3.0	78.0
Samsung 193P	230.4	2.2	104.7
Samsung 910V	219.8	2.6	84.5
Samsung 915N	264.2	2.6	101.6
Sony SDM S94	233.8	3.0	77.9
ViewSonic Q190MB	261.8	2.6	100.7

Samsung actually doesn't perform too badly with regard to contrast ratio. Although our equipment is not particularly sensitive on the low light luminance recordings, the disparity between the Samsung 915N and the Dell 1905FP is more than apparent. The Samsung is the brighter monitor, but it cannot produce a dark enough of an image that many of our other displays can. You may recall that the Hitachi CML174B had very similar problems two years ago when it was the only 16ms display available.

With some applications, the "wash out" effect is slightly more prevalent on the SyncMaster 915N than on other displays. We use Dell 2005FPs almost exclusively for day-to-day operations in the lab, and going from one of those displays to the 915N is almost painful. However, when compared to the ViewSonic Q190MB and the NuTech L921G, the result is fairly comparable. The Samsung 193P and Dell 1905FP (which both use the same 25ms Samsung panel) lead the pack for 19" displays as far as real world comparison with the contrast ratio goes - even if the NuTech unit scored slightly higher in our Observed Contrast Ratio chart.