Looking for feedback on 17" SyncMaster 753DF

[Lawton]

Does anyone have this monitor, or has anyone seen it running? There's only one review online for it (which is quite positive). The price on the monitor is excellent right now (under $200 after a MIR), and the specs look quite good. It has the Samsung DynaFlat screen, 16.1" viewable, .20-23 dot pitch (depending upon which spec sheet you read).

Help & thoughts are appreciated! Thanks.

 

[Effexor]

I bought a 753DF about 2 weeks ago, but ended up returning it and going with a viewsonic aperture grill flatscreen (A75f). The 753DF had some great qualities: the screen image (text, etc.) was extremely sharp and crisp. Also, the screen geometry was excellent. The flat screen is very nice, and the backside of the monitor seemed rather small for a 17" screen, which is fine with me. The ONLY issue I had with it was the color saturation. After seeing an aperture grill monitor (trinitron or diamondtron), I was hooked on the vibrant colors. The old rule of thumb is.. if you work with photos and like vibrant, rich colors, go with an aperture grill. If you need razor sharp images..go with a shadow mask tube.

Now, I think there are shadow mask monitors out there with better colors than the 753DF, but they may cost you more. I think Samsung makes a nicer shadow mask than the 753DF. They also make an excellent aperture grille tube. (700NF? I could be wrong on this)

Anyway, that was my take on the 753DF. Great crispness and geometry, but the colors are richer on my viewsonic diamondtron (yeah it's a diamondtron.. i saw the mitsubishi diamondstar on the tube). I guess I'm a sucker for rich colors. Good luck!

 

[Lawton]

Hey. Thanks for the response. I found one at my local CompUSA today, and I have to agree with you--not very impressive color-wise. I looked around a bit at some of the other monitors there, and I'm afraid that I'm suffering from expensive taste.



My main home PC monitor for the last year or so has been a Nokia 447XiPlus, a PC-World Top 5 17" Trinitron monitor. I'm a bit spoiled, in other words. The only monitors I saw at CompUSA that came close to looking good to me were a couple of the Viewsonics (Trinitron tubes), the Sony models (duh), and two of the Hewlett Packard models (they were the only shadow mask tubes that got my attention at all). It may be that just like you, it's gonna have to be Apeture Grille or nothing for me!

 

[Hawk]

So why are you changing monitors? Did you get the shimmering effect or something?

 

[duragezic]

It is a great shadow mask. The price is really great, which really lean ya towards it. The only problem I think with it is the low refresh rates. The others of the DF line are all like that. If you don't use the high resolutions or aren't bothered by refresh rates 75hz or so then it is no problem. The dot pitch is .23mm or .24mm diagonal I believe, which is very good. The colors aren't quite as good as say the 900NF or competing AG monitor, but that's a given since AG monitors pretty much always have superior color.

So check out the refresh rates and it they look ok, then it should be a great buy.

edit: Samsung makes the 755DF, which has slightly higher refresh rates but I don't think it's on the current MIR. They also make the IFT line. It looks like the DF line with higher specs. Still based on the DynaFlat tube. I heard the IFT's have a glass covering that makes it look like the image is set back but if they do then I would think the DF's do. But I also heard the IFTs don't look as good in overall image quality. Just something I heard from one or two people so it's not necessarily true.

 

[Lawton]

Hey. Thanks for the responses.

Hawk, I'm not changing monitors, I'm upgrading/replacing my office monitor. I had an Hitachi SuperScan Pro 620, not a bad monitor at all, but not the bright full color that I have with the Nokia AG model. The Hitachi went into the Wife 'n kid's Xmas PC upgrade, and I've been using a little Gateway 14" monitor that just isn't cutting it.

I've found another Nokia, a 447ZiPlus, for $226. It's also an Apeture Grille monitor (same specs, pretty much, as the 447XiPlus I already have). The dot pitch is one-hundredth of a point higher (.26 instead of .25). I don't imagine I'll miss it.

The only shimmering I get, btw, is playing Counter-strike, with a sniper gun (AWP, G3, or the new Sig sniper gun) in full scope view--and then only when I am playing at anything higher than 1024x768.