Samsung S24A300H 23.6 inch Widescreen LED Monitor (MEGA DCR, 1920 x 1080 Full HD, 2ms, HDMI/VGA) - Gloss Black

Overall I'm really pleased with the Samsung S24A300H. I ordered two and they arrived super promptly in great packaging (as you can expect from amazon).

The base is nice and easy to assemble, and the (bigger than I expected) flat panel fits snugly and what feels like safely on top of the small stand. Out of the back the HDMI, power and VGA out are all out at a 90 degree angle, so this could cause a problem should you be mounting the monitor. In my case - not.

I immediately hooked one up on VGA to my graphics card and one up on HDMI. After fixing the scaling problem with HDMI (not by fault of the monitor), it worked a charm. I had to fiddle a little to try and get the settings the same for HDMI and VGA (as some options like screen position aren't available for HDMI), but this didn't take too long.

After reading a few reviews I was unsure as to which "Samsung Magic Angle" setting to set them to - but after playing with it for a while (and also because I will only ever be viewing them from a straight-on angle), I opted for the "Group View" option - it seemed to be both the brightest and the one that fit me best. It may differ for you, I guess it's all preference.

Other options in the settings seem fairly simple, and the buttons are sort of the old PS3 style - touch-buttons. Nice touch. Settings such as contrast, brightness, color, size and picture positioning are available in the settings - a pretty standard list.

The glossy black plastic is the type that gathers dust easily - it's pretty hard to keep these monitors dust-free. If you're a young bachelor like myself, it's no big issue. I can see clean-freaks disliking this.

The monitor's ON light is a bright blue. It does not take away from the brightness of the monitor when it is on, but when the monitor is not receiving a signal, it flashes and is fairly bright in the dark. For me, I had to make sure both were turned off before I could sleep properly.

Overall, I'm really pleased. They're bright, the packaging came with all of the cables and warranty information necessary, neither of the monitors had any dead pixels or functional problems and it was a breeze to set them up and get going. Settings on the monitors seem fairly simple and standard and nothing is really too complicated bar the "samsung magic angle" gimmick, which is really just a one-time selection.

If you are deciding as to whether or not you should buy this monitor, here are a few things you should know about first:

The screen:
The screen is fantastic, great black levels and next to no input lag. The monitor is connected to my GTX 480 via HDMI. Games such as Crysis 2, Battlefield 3 etc on this screen are simply stunning. The screen is perfect for gamers looking for a monitor at a reasonable price. After extensive testing, I've concluded that the input lag on this panel is below the threshold of human perception, which means that it won't hold you back when playing games which require fast reactions e.g. first person shooters etc.

Build quality:
The monitor seems to have fairly good build quality and the touch screen controls are less liable to break than physical buttons.

Cleaniness:
Monitors which feature glossy plastic are prone to dust. This may be a problem if you don't like dust or have any skin conditions as you may be required to clean the monitor often.
This however is not a problem for me as I've always cleaned my monitors regularly.

All in all, if you're looking for a nice affordable 24" monitor then this is the one to get. It's great for gaming and movies alike.

Grab it while you can! =)

The good bits...I love this monitor for its clour, its super lightweight and there is not much it cant do (given the wealth of software with it)....
calibration, viewer angle choices - lower, lower+, side, straight on, and a magic screen that acts like the snapto feature of windows 7 - but user definable! (all software works with win7 64bit - some need to be downloaded from website - software CD has links to these)

Downside - buttons very sensitive - although only because i was moving for best position - you can use an application to use mouse to adhjust all settings). HDMI took me awhile to sort....connect up and restart PC (shows windows loading then will go blank), pull out and plug in HDMI cable again - bingo!

So my only REAL criticism - and a number of people comment about cables stick out back so might have trouble with wall mount - well you definatly will because therer are no VESA wall screw fixings, which is why I went for this model. SO IT IS ONLY A DESK MONITOR, NOT WALL HANGING