Samsung 2493HM vs Dell E248WFP

[keichan82]

Hi All,
I will be using this monitor mainly for gaming and Office apps. Which do you think will be a better choice if the price difference is $75 (Samsung higher). Samsung has HDMI Input
http://www.anandtech.com/displ...owdoc.aspx?i=3302&p=10

Thank you.

 

[keichan82]

Anyone with these monitors? Any suggestions?

 

[Isaac MM]

I personally like the Samsung, it can adjust height, pivot, swivel and tilt(which many other monitors don't), it's one of the best 24'' monitors for PC GAMING, also make sure if you buy it you get a powerfull card if you wanna keep it at 1:1 pixel mapping since it only does at native resolution from what i've read, and not a good monitor to buy if you play on using it for consoles(ps3 360).

There is a huge review here

http://www.hardforum.com/showt...98311&highlight=2493hm

 

[keichan82]

what do you think about the 2693HM? its a lil larger and people are running ps3 and xbox with no problem.

 

[Blazer7]

I do own the 2493HM and I'm very content with it. I haven't noticed any input lag and that's really something to watch for when you're interested in gaming on big LCDs. AFAICR the major difference between the 2493HM and 2693HM is contrast ratio but I don't think that this is something to worry about (10000 for the 2493HM vs 3000 for the 2693HM). One word of caution though, Samsung's auto-rotation software sucks big time. Samsung went in the trouble to develop the software but they are doing nothing to keep it up to date. The software is good but it doesn't work with many popular video cards from both ATI & nVidia (autorotation compatibility list). I would say that it's much worse than LG's fortemanager so if you're planning on using the rotation function of your monitor you'll probably have to rely on the video drivers to do the job.

Most people that use big screens for consoles do not spend much time very close to them. Most of the time they're sitting very far away. It is when sitting close to a monitor that you'll notice how imperfect its scaling is when not running in native res. On the other hand all LCDs are ment to be run on their native res and @1920x1200 you'll definitely gonna need some serious graphics card or cf/sli setup to get the framerates. IMHO it ain't worth it investing in a 24-26? LCD and not run it at it's native res.

 

[keichan82]

I dont plan on using the auto rotation software. This monitor is mainly used for gaming and office applications. I will be running GT280.

I di some research and these monitor are very good TN panels. Im debating if the 25.5 is worth $60 more than the 24. I the performance and display quality is the same, I will opt for the 25.5, Im just afraid that because of the slightly larger size, the quality will drop.

 

[Blazer7]

Yes they are TN and good ones. I haven't had the slightest problem with mine (2493HM review here) except from that crappy autorotation program. It's not the rotation function that's been bugging me as I can still use nVidia?s drivers to work around it, it?s the fact that the same program should let you fine tune your monitor without the use of the monitor?s touch sensitive buttons. I?ve been using LG?s fortemanager with my previous monitor (LG L1980Q) which does the exact same things and it was quite good, far better than the touch buttons anyway. It?s a shame that Samsung?s software is not up to par.

 

[Lightning983]

Do any of the 2 monitors have the ability to not scale the resolution if it's lower than native?

I mean if i load something with 640*480 (say Starcraft ) can i play it in its native resolution, with the monitor leaving the extra pixels black??

 

[Blazer7]

I?ve only tried this yesterday and had some success with it. I believe that this is mostly a drivers thing though. After playing with the scaling options in nVidia?s control panel I was able to run some old games @ 4:3 with black stripes on the sides but still the picture would upscale to 1600x1200 (UXGA).

Fortunately this is not too bad as there?re 4 pixel in UXGA for every single pixel in SVGA (1600x1200=1.920.000 800x600=480.000 1.920.000/480.000=4) and that?s the magic number. A ratio of 4:1 pixels is ideal when scaling as every pixel will scale in both dimensions resulting in a pretty good image. So at least everything that plays in SVGA or UXGA is not a big problem. Of course it is not the same with VGA (640x480) as the ratio of pixels does not allow for such a uniform scaling. For a VGA game to scale like this you?ll have to actually downscale the monitor to play @ 1280x960 (1280x960=1.228.800 640x480=307.200 1.228.800/307.200= magic number 4).

I haven?t tried to actually scale the monitor down to 800x600 or 640x480 but I don?t think that this is important. The dot pitch of a 24? 1920x1200 monitor is only 0.270 so if you actually downscale the monitor to such low resolutions that will result in a very small viewable area which will render these resolution useless. I?ll try playing with scaling a bit more as anything that will play in SXGA (1280x1024) but not in SVGA or UXGA will benefit from it.

 

[Lightning983]

Okay

Thanx for the tips...

I'm choosing between these 2 monitors too... and basically, which one is better?
Or is the general idea with Dell to wait a few revisions?

 

[Blazer7]

I can't comment on the Dell as I don't know the monitor. All I can say is that I'm satisfied with the Samsung and I doubt that there's anyone out there that can say that you can go wrong with this one. It's a well balanced all around monitor with a reasonable price tag. It's a pity though that Samsung does not update their autorotation software more often.

Not long ago AT reviewed some 24" monitors the 2493Hm included in their 24" LCD Roundup. I think that reading this is a must.

 

[Lightning983]

Ok, i already saw that review referenced a lot of times... and the only thing that annoys me with most Samsung monitors is that they tend to give out pretty "bluish" pictures...

Take the review you linked for example... the last picture from this model Samsung looks kind of blue... while all the others look more "white"

Can this be solved by adjusting the colors? or is it just the panel...

 

[Blazer7]

I'm not exactly sure of what you mean. If the monitor is on but there's no signal it looks a bit bluish but that's probably because the lamps are lit and that's a big screen. When the signal kicks in everything is as it is supposed to be. Besides autorotation Samsung provides another utility called Natural Color Pro. It's pretty easy to use and it lets you calibrate your monitor and create colour profiles. I've had this monitor for a few weeks now and I can't say that I've noticed any colour anomalies. Anyway even such cases shouldn't be a problem. You can always use Natural Color Pro or the monitor's controls to adjust any colour level you like.

 

[Lightning983]

no, its just something i've noticed on most Samsung monitors and TV's... they're just something "bluish" about them... could be the dynamic contrast or something...

And for the color, i had this in mind: http://www.anandtech.com/displ...owdoc.aspx?i=3302&p=12
The 1st and last picture are "bluish" in my view...


And do you know what's the difference between this model and Samsung's 245B?? because i really don't need HDMI, or speakers... is the panel the same?

 

[Blazer7]

Ok I get it. Yes those pictures appear kinda bluish, especially the 1st picture of the 2493HM although that picture may be of the HP LP3065 they were using as a reference. The pictures are from the ?Wings of Fury? test from 3DMark03. I've run it quite a few times and I can assure you that there's nothing bluish about it. Picture is excellent and all colours are depicted as should. It must be the way they took the photo.

Anyway if you're really interested in the Samsung or any other monitor out there I suggest that you do what I did. Visit a store and have a thorough look at the monitor while working. There you can notice such things like colour abnormality, bad viewing angles, defective pixels etc.


*** edit ***

I don't know whether the 245B has the same panel as the 2493HM. The 2 monitors do have some differences like dynamic contrast ratio, HDMI input on the 2493 and SOG synchronization on the 245B.

 

[Lightning983]

you're right, i should just go to the store and see for myself... which i'll probably do.

And btw, according to that review, its not really a gaming panel, so do you play any games? i mean is it good for playing FPS and stuff like that without any issues, or should i wait for something with RTC? i know that samsung put out a new T240 model... so maybe i should look into that also?

 

[Blazer7]

It has a fast response time, descent viewing angles and very low input lag. I think that you'll be ok. I mostly play RPGs like Oblivion & NWN2 so I can't really comment on FPSs. At some point I did run the Crysis demo and it was really nice. Based on the monitor's characteristics you'll have no problem running FPSs provided that you have the right cards for the job. Remember, this baby has more than 2 mil pixels. Having to render all these pixels is a tough job so you'll have to have some powerful card(s) if you want the frames.


*** edit ***

I would say that the T240 is a decent monitor but that's just my initial thoughts based on the monitors characteristics. It has a higher dynamic ratio and it's far better in power consumption (55W) than the 2493 but it falls behind in brightness and lacks the rotation function and hight adjustment the 2493 has. It wouldn't hurt to take a look at it but this is so new that there aren't any reviews out there and I doubt that any salesman can give you the specifics on things like input lag, colour gamut etc.