Samsung SyncMaster S23A550H

Samsung monitors have long been known for their style and solid image quality, and the SyncMaster S23A550H ($259.99 list) continues the trend. This 23-inch beauty delivers outstanding color quality and great dark grayscale performance, and does so without using much power. However, it only has one digital input and is short on features.

Design and Features
Fans of Samsung's Touch of Color design will appreciate the S23A550H's Rose Black finish, which happens to be the same finish used on the Samsung SyncMaster T220D. The 23-inch 1,920-by-1,080 TN+ panel is framed by reddish black bezels that are covered with clear trim and are slightly curved, giving the monitor a sense of style and preventing it from appearing too box-like. The Samsung logo appears on the lower bezel as well as on the back of the monitor. The 7 pound glossy black cabinet measures 1.5 inches at its thickest point and is supported by a clear round base with piano black trim. The mounting arm provides tilt adjustment, but lacks height and swivel movement. It also has a cover that unsnaps, so you can tuck cables away and keep them out of sight.

Input connections are sparse; you get an HDMI port and a VGA port, and that's it. A secondary HDMI port, like the one on the ViewSonic VX2753mh ($349.99 list, 4 stars), would make it much easier to connect to a gaming box or external Blu-ray player. In keeping with the clutter-free motif, a rounded cover snaps onto the back of the cabinet to hide the cable connectors.

There are six touch sensitive buttons on the right side of the lower bezel. In addition to the power switch, there's a Menu button that launches the on-screen display (OSD) menu, an ECO button that doubles as a navigation button, a brightness button that is also used for menu navigation, an input source/navigation button, and an Auto Adjust button for use with an analog signal. Pressing any button activates on-screen labeling above each button with icons that show you what the button does, making it easy to work your way through the menu system.

Picture settings include Samsung's Magic presets; MagicAngle lets you select one of six viewing angle modes optimized for your viewing position. For example, if you lean way back on your chair to the point where you look up to see the screen you can choose one of the Lean Back modes. There are also modes for standing and viewing from the side, but side angle viewing is already quite good on this monitor. You will get a better picture if you happen to be standing or sitting at an off angle, but the best all-around picture comes with this feature disabled and the monitor positioned for optimal viewing.

MagicBright consists of five presets offering brightness and contrast level settings that are optimized for specific applications. Standard mode gives you the best picture for everyday use and Cinema mode is useful for watching movies in a dimly lit room. Colors in the Game mode are way too oversaturated, and the Dynamic Contrast mode offers automatic brightness and contrast control depending on the content and is a bit sharper than Standard mode. Users can create their own preset using the Custom mode.

When enabled, MagicColor enhances skin tones and punches up colors in Full mode, while Intelligent mode enhances everything except skin tones. Both MagicColor settings produce slightly oversaturated colors and cannot be used when the MagicAngle feature is enabled. You can also tweak Red, Green, and Blue color levels, color temperature, and gamma settings.

The ECO button takes you to a screen with several neat power saving options; there's an ECO Motion Sensor setting that when enabled will put the monitor into power saving mode if no motion is detected. You can choose one of five time intervals (5, 10, 20, 30, or 60 minutes) for the sensor and have the screen turn off or go dim if no motion is detected during the selected time frame. You can also select one of three ECO Saving modes (Off, 75 percent, 50 percent). When set to Off the panel uses only 19 watts of power, which is great for a 23-inch panel, but not quite as good as the 24-inch Lenovo LS2421P Wide ($219.99 direct, 4 stars) (16-watts). Changing the setting to 75 percent knocks power usage down to 18 watts with only a slight decrease in luminance, while the 50 percent setting brings it down to 14 watts with a more noticeable loss of luminance. All things considered, I'd suggest leaving the ECO Saving mode off as this mode offers the best picture and doesn't use much power anyway. Either way, the S23A550H's low power characteristics and useful power-saving options earn it our GreenTech stamp of approval.

Performance
The S23A550H produces inky blacks, which in part helps it to deliver bold, well defined colors. The panel had no trouble displaying every shade of dark gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test, although light grays were a bit washed out at the bright end of the scale. Colors scaled evenly from dark to light on the Color Scales test and there was no noticeable tinting or oversaturation. Small text was sharp and easy to read at 5.3 points (the smallest font on the DisplayMate Scaled Fonts test), and as mentioned above, viewing angle performance was quite good from the sides. There is, however, some color shifting when viewed from the top and bottom angles.

Although the S23A550H lacks the necessary ports to be considered a gaming monitor it does have a speedy 2-millisecond (g-g) pixel response and does a fine job of displaying fast motion sequences. I hooked the monitor up to my PS3 via the HDMI port and fired up the fast action racing game Need for Speed Carbon and did not detect any blurring or ghosting while zipping through the city streets at a high rate of speed. The Cohen Brothers True Grit in HD, streamed via Netflix, looked great on the 23-inch screen, which delivered natural-looking skin tones and crisp colors.

If you're looking for a 23-inch monitor that delivers bold colors and deep blacks, the Samsung SyncMaster S23A550H is right up your alley. You don't get many ports with this model, and its light grayscale performance could be better, but it'll save you a few bucks on your utility bill and bring a touch of style to your desktop. That said, the Editors' Choice Lenovo LS2421p Wide offers equally impressive performance and energy efficiency, comes with a four port USB hub, and gives you a slightly bigger screen. It's around $30 cheaper, too.

COMPARISON TABLE
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