Samsung S27A350H 27 inch Widescreen LED monitor (MEGA DCR, 1920 x 1080 Full HD, 2ms, HDMI/VGA) - Gloss Black

 

 

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Although it's quite a subjective thing most people who I showed the monitor to agreed that the S27A350H is a nice looking bit of kit - the pictures don't really do it justice, as is often the case. It has gently rounded corners and a very glossy black bezel (as is usual for entertainment monitors these days) but has the usual Samsung refinements including a flush perspex border and red accents. There is nothing sticking out in the control area as the buttons are touch-sensitive. Some people would prefer tactile buttons but you rarely have to use the OSD of the monitor once it's set up and they were pretty responsive anyway. The power LED is red but is relatively small and not overly bright so isn't generally distracting - but is certainly in keeping with the overall colour scheme on the monitor.

The monitor provides a pretty decent performance out of the box but was easy enough to tweak to enhance the image. Using the following settings provided rich varied and balanced colours (spot on 2.2 gamma and 6500K whitepoint) without upsetting contrast too much - a contrast ratio of around 1000:1 was recorded in the centre of the screen which is very good, particularly after calibration. The colour balance tends to differ a little between individual units so these should only be used as a guide, but all S27A350Hs tend to react in a similar way to contrast and gamma settings:

- Brightness 75 (according to preferences)
- Contrast 60
- Gamma 'Mode 3'
- Red 50
- Green 48
- Blue 56

To keep costs down and make connectivity as universal as possible Samsung decided to forgo DVI and provide HDMI. Some Nvidia GPUs in particular will treat the monitor as an HDTV and output the wrong colour signal type but this is easy to tweak in the driver:

- Go to `Display' and `Adjust desktop color settings'
- From the `content type reported to the display' dropdown select `Desktop programs'.

This will tell the GPU it's connected to a monitor, not a TV and the image should appear similar to on AMD GPUs natively.

The monitor is also very responsive with some good news for gamers - next to no input lag and relatively low levels of trailing. The default response time setting of 'Faster' proved optimal. The 'Normal' mode disabled grey to grey acceleration whilst the 'Fastest' mode did little to reduce conventional trailing but only added additional 'overdrive trailing' (inverse ghosting if you prefer). Under the 'Fastest' mode the performance of the monitor is similar to a scaled up version of the infamous Samsung PX2370 which makes it good for any genré of game and about as good as you're going to get from a 60Hz monitor.

At time of writing Amazon's price (under £250) makes this a stellar buy in the 27" size range.

Finally, a 27" monitor I can afford... but when you can buy a full HD 32" LCD TV for less money, you have to wonder if it's worth the cash. Normally I wait for lots of reviews to be added before I decide - but with limited stocks on this model, I took a gamble. I thought it would be less hassle to set up for PC use than a TV, display clearer text, have faster pixel response and lower input lag (important for watching sports & playing games) and lower power consumption. ALL TRUE (eventually).

Watching fast action movies/sport and playing games in HD is a real pleasure. The screen is bright, there are no dead pixels on my model and no motion blur. With bit of tweaking, you can bring the overly vibrant out-of-the-box colours under control. This is the first monitor I've used where the backlighting (LED in this case) is really even, and I can't see any leakage in the corners or edges of the screen. The non-glossy finish effectively prevents reflections in bright conditions. There's good contrast, with only the very darkest blacks being 'crushed'. 'Black' looks rather more like dark grey with the brightness set high, but in a darkened room the 'eco' settings can be used to quickly reduce the brightness level. Unfortunately the 'dynamic contrast' mode is too eager to reduce the screen brightness, so in dark images you end up not being able to see anything!! The monitor's settings can be effectively controlled via a PC with Samsung's 'Magitune' software. It also works flawlessly with other HDMI enabled equipment. But there are a few problems;

- the screen is big enough for the TN panel's limited viewing angles (picture fades from the sides or when looking from above or below) to be a problem if you sit close. The 'magic angle' settings do help somewhat, but they only compensate for a problem you'll definitely notice.

- it arrived with a European style 2-pin plug for the PSU and a larger UK 3-pin 'kettle lead' that doesn't fit the power supply used for this monitor... not good.

- the touch controls are shockingly bad. It may be a fault on this specific model, but some of the 'buttons' barely work at all. The only reason I haven't returned it is that it's easier to use 'Magitune' on the PC to control the settings anyway.

- there's only one HDMI port (VGA does work ok but you'll need a splitter to connect multiple digital devices) and NO DVI. If you connect the screen to the HDMI port, an NVIDIA graphics card will think it's a tv, and for a while I couldn't get the PC image to look right. Text looked both oversharp in some places and blurred in others. Colours in the lower half of the screen were washed out. I had to play with the sharpness control on the monitor and change the colour setting in the NVidia Control Panel from 'RGB' to 'YCbCr444'. Now it's much better and doesn't strain my eyes. There is discussion on the web about this HDMI connection issue and possible fixes for those technically inclined. Playing with the 'magic angle' settings also helps, even if you're sat right in front. I prefer the 'side' setting regardless of where I sit.

In summary while I really like the video/game performance, it takes a bit of work to get it to do what it should do best - display text properly - and the limited connectivity and poor touch controls are limiting enough for me to drop it from 4 to 3 stars.

I have had this monitor for over two weeks now and I am so glad that I ignored the other reviews here and went for it!

I recently decided to build my own PC and knew that I wanted a 27" display as I am a video editor and avid gamer. Unfortunately there is not a great deal of choice once you start looking above the 24" size, and so I spent a long time carefully considering the few models available out there at the moment. Of course, Samsung is a well-known brand, but what really drew me to this particular monitor was its stunning looks and its very reasonable price tag. Needless to say, when the box arrived and I opened it up, I was not disappointed...

The backlit display is stunning and shows bright whites and deep blacks beautifully. A good first test was to go to YouTube and find some HD music videos - I was blown away! Gaming looks excellent as well, displaying fast frame rates with no loss. I bought this gold plated HDMI cable with the screen: HDMIKing - 2 Meter (6.6 ft) HDMI KING Gold Plated v1.3 HDMI to HDMI Cable with Ferrite Cores - [Fuss-Free Packaging] (the screen only comes with a VGA cable, but this cost me less than a fiver extra and is well worth it) and I am extremely happy with the results. No dead pixels either (Thank goodness!) and the settings are fully adjustable and very user-friendly. Sometimes I find the monitor can be a little too bright for every day use so I have it on about 70% when working, but when I want stunnning visuals for films and games I crank up the brightness and colour and it looks fantastic. The viewing angles are also a very nice feature, enabling you to watch the screen from vitrually any position in the room: standing, sitting or leaning back. It's a very versatile product.

If you're looking for a decent 27" LED display at a competitive price but without compromising on picture quality, I cannot recommend this monitor highly enough! Please don't be put off by the other reviews here, I did not experience any of the issues they described and I am a very, very happy customer :) If you order this, you will not be disappointed.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Monitor
The unit provides a very high quality easily used display which was easy to set up. I was impressed with the clarity and brightness of the display and its ability to cope with... Read more

Published 6 days ago by Miket4674

5.0 out of 5 stars vary pleased
very pleased with everything it was delivered on time and it works perfectly it fits well into my room decor. I wish i had bought one years ago

Published 25 days ago by Graham Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars great monitor for the money
I was looking for a decent size led monitor to go in my bedroom with the dual purpose of using my xbox and to plug in via hdmi to my laptop. Read more

Published 1 month ago by lunaldo

2.0 out of 5 stars Incorrect cable and plug
Samsung are a good make, and this monitor is possibly quite good.

The box had been opened and resealed, which is always a bad sign. Read more

Published 6 months ago by Michael Lloyd

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