Customer Reviews

Samsung SyncMaster 2693HM 25.5-inch LCD Monitor

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To address the previous "reviewer's" comments on this monitor. I, within the last few days, purchased the Samsung 2693HM 25.5 in. monitor, and can attest to the fact that not only are Blu-ray movies allowed to play on this monitor, they look great! Using an HDMI chord I was able to play "I Am Legend"(Blu-ray disc), through my Playstation 3, with no problem at all. Pausing the movie on Will Smith I was able to see every detail of his face, something only an HD equipped display can do with such clarity. I know also that with a little tweaking of the factory settings, I can customize it to suit my needs.
The one real gripe that I have is one that I do share with the other reviewers, concerning the menu buttons in the lower right corner of the frame. Although I do appreciate the esthetic quality of the all black frame, trying to operate, much less see the menu "buttons" is pretty frustrating. I suppose like anything though, given time one can get the hang of their operation. I just wish they were illuminated, at least while I was operating them. The good far outweighs the bad here, and I feel I made a good choice.

Aside from the ability to play Blu-ray Movies, and Playstation 3 games, I was thrilled to have this great monitor for my creative endeavors. being an artist, and a Mac person, I can really appreciate the real estate that I have to work with, with this size monitor (especially when working in Photshop, or iMovie). I originally was looking at the Apple cinema displays, but was encouraged to look into the Samsung's for getting more bang for your buck. With HDMI, and more flexibility in making adjustments to suit your needs, it seemed the clear choice. Not to mention the price.

Do yourself a favor and always trust reviews of people who have actually tried the product out or ran it through its paces. Research is key, as are more than one, or a few reviewers opinions.

Hope this helps!

I have to say that I whole-heartedly disagree with the past few reviews of this product. I own it and have been very satisfied with both the build quality, color reproduction, and screen resolution of this monitor. A higher resolution than 1920 x 1200 on a monitor this size would display text that is borderline unreadable. I am not old, either. I am in my 20s and I work in front of a computer for over 40 hours a week as a graphic designer. My eyes are very well trained and well adjusted to reading text on a computer display. The resolution is perfect for a display this size. I actually upgraded from a 24 inch display (same make and model with the exact same resolution) because the text was very small in many applications at the display's native resolution. That is, unless you sit 2 feet away from your monitor. When viewing a display this size, though, it is best to sit around 4 feet away.

This display is an excellent product, and I have very few gripes. Yes, the touch-sensitive method that Samsung chose for the buttons is nearly impossible to see without a flashlight...but damn is it sexy! I do wish that they had included a backlit remote with the display so that I wouldn't have to strain my eyes and trigger the wrong menus all the time because I can't see what option I'm touching.

Also, when a PS3 or Xbox 360 is connected via HDMI (and YES, you can connect a console to this display! The other reviewer is wrong), there are no options on the display to tinker with the screen size. With my PS3 set to output 1080p, the image is stretched to fill the screen, and I would prefer to view the image unstretched. I have not been able to find an option that will allow this.

Other than those two small gripes, the display is fantastic. Oh, and don't be put off by the fact that this is a TN panel. The technology has improved greatly and the viewing angles on this display are more than adequate for a computer monitor.

I did not have a good luck with 20",22",24" monitors, mostly due to the very small pixel size 0.25 - 0.27mm. I only feel comfortable with 4:3 19" monitors with pixel size 0.291mm. Anything smaller would usually put more stress on my/your eyes. It could be improved a little with enabling "Clear View" option in windows, but it makes small fonts excessively fuzzy. Also, some monitors luck a deep black level. This one is as close as it gets to be perfect and very easy on eyes. I dropped brightness to 50%. This was the only adjustment I had to make to get my test color charts to provide very good color gradation and rendition. No stuck or dead pixels. It is almost impossible to find inexpensive monitors with angels of view more than 160 degrees this days and even with 160 you may get big color variation even with in specs. I did not experience any color inconsistency with-in normal working position angles of view or across the screen. At extreme angles colors will either wash out (looking from the top) or darken (looking from the bottom) as expected.

Of course, the display controls are hard to manage and even to see. You will need a flash light during adjustment process, so you would touch correct touch sensitive spots on the bezel. I never change settings once it is done, so it is not an issue for me.

About HDCP: This monitor does support HDCP, but on DVI input only. HDMI input does not have this feature. If you are in desperate need to connect HDMI equipment required HDCP, you can always use HDMI-to-DVI cable or converter. There will be no loss of quality.

I do not use built-in speakers, so I could not comment.

If you want reasonably priced monitor, easy on your eyes and 97% of color gamut (makes it acceptable for pro: photo/video editing)- this monitor is a bargain.

I did a lot of research on monitors, learning the lingo which had changed since my last monitor purchase. I upgraded from a 21" Sony Trinitron Multiscan 500PS which I was very happy with, but Sony no longer makes monitors so I was back to square one. After reading many reviews on various brands I decided on a Samsung. Overall the reviews were very good, and Samsung had the best warranty (3 years). Some brands I researched folks said crapped out the minute the 1 year warranty expired.

After creating a chart of specifications and plugging about 15 Samsung models into it, and reading reviews on Amazon and several other websites, I decided on the Samsung 2693HM. First thing most folks wouldn't know is that Samsung has a BUNCH of different models, most aren't available in stores so go to their website and you can see a very detailed PDF file of the specs for each model.

I found a really good price here on Amazon but was afraid to buy online because of the few bad reviews. What if I hated the quality or it had bad pixels? Virtually all the manufacturers allow some bad pixels and won't take it back for that. I couldn't get a clear answer on how easy returns would be so I figured I'd go to a local store and look at it in person.

That didn't help. The picture clarity in the store was AWFUL. But my tech fella who went with me told me that the way they hook up monitors in stores to display them isn't going to show you the best it can offer. He said I could not trust what we were looking at.

Long story short I bought it locally, in the store with a really good return policy in case I hated it, their return policy allowed even for bad pixels, got it home and hooked it up to my MacPro1,1 (the original MacPro that came out in 2006). I paid $120 more for buying it locally to have the return policy peace of mind.

I do not have any addons to the MacPro, no extra graphics or game cards, just how it came off the shelf. It took a LOT of diddling to get it to my happy place, both in it's calibrations and using the Mac preferences. But once I got it to the happy place, the picture is excellent. No problems with the viewing angles or colors fading at the edges. No bad pixels that I can find. The picture is very clear. I had to change the fonts for everything, finally settling on Verdana 14 for most things. And turned font smoothing off for 9 and smaller. Originally the text was awful and hard to read until I made the changes. I had to make the text much bigger for this monitor and go with a heavier font.

Would I recommend this monitor? Yes, absolutely. Picture quality is excellent, this model has a lot of features including built in speakers, height adjustment, swivel, tilt, pivot, fast 5 ms response time.

Downside: Yup, as everybody said the buttons are awful. Not only do you need a flashlight, but the menu keeps turning itself off before you've finished making your changes so you have to bring it back up again. Of course once you've gotten to your happy place the buttons won't matter anymore so it's a minor downside. Also, don't make a bad judgement until you've done everything possible to maximize the picture quality and font quality. I spent hours getting it to its happy place. Especially the font (which you'll need to change the default in all your programs) because it initally looked awful, fuzzy and hard to read. If you have it too small some of the letters turn green. If you increase the size and choose heavier fonts the green goes away and the text becomes very clear.

What do I use it for? I create graphics for t-shirts and computer games, so image quality is important to me.

I recently purchased this based on some good reviews, but now that I have one I regret the purchase. Bigger is not better here. The monitor uses a TN panel which means it does not maintain solid color top to bottom, left to right. When viewing normally the top is slightly darker than the bottom. So looking at a gray strip in photoshop, the gray will be noticeably darker at the top than at the bottom, creating a gradient effect. Even when viewing left and right, there is a slight red shift on the edges. When the monitor is turned vertically, the viewing angle is really bad and if viewed from the side a bit the image will invert. If you care about color quality and a stable image (read graphic designer or photo person) stay away from this thing. You will be very disappointed. I learned my lesson the hard way about what is happening in the LCD market with less quality TN screens becoming popular with larger screen sizes. If you are a gamer or just a casual computer user you may not really care about this stuff, but if you care about image stability on an LCD, move along to something else. Oh, and another thing. The touch monitor controls are awful. I had to use a flashlight to see the labeling since it is printed with a dark gray on black. Really ridiculous...very poor usability.

I had been looking for a new monitor for about a year, I wanted a large monitor for photo editing. My trusty AOC monitor was dying. I chose the 2693HM monitor because the 30 inch monitors seemed very inflexible. Most of the 30 inchers only work with one or a handful of video cards, don't have multiple inputs, no onscreen menu (I think one of the newer Dells is an exception) . Basically, if you want a 30 incher you have to build a computer for the monitor you want.

The SAMSUNG 2693HM worked out of the fox with my current computer, a venerable Fedora 4 system with an NVIDIA N6200 AGP video card via D-Sub/RGB. It took about an hour to get DVI-D working at the proper resolution, but that's only because I had to reboot to switch the card into DVI mode. And, I had to include the:
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP,TV"
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP,TV"
Modes "1920x1200"
My TV output doesn't work at the highest resolution, not sure why yet, probably the video card.

The monitor is big, bright, high resolution with a good refresh rate. I've taken to keeping two browsers side by side. I'm still waiting to try out two of the features I bought the monitor for, the speakers and HDMI to my PS3. The amazon cables didn't ship until after the monitor arrived and I'm still waiting on them.

I have two minor complaints. The menu buttons are hard to see on the SAMSUNG unless it is turned off. The buttons are the touch-only type and do not light up, so you are using the the buttons by aproximating their locations. And, sitting at the monitor there seems to be a little bit of fade towards the edges away from my position, but if I move they go away.

For the most part I really like this monitor, looks and functions great with the exception that I can hear a high-pitched hiss emanating from it. If you are somebody that can hear higher frequencies than normal ears, I'd evaluate if the hiss bothers you. When working in a quiet room at night it definitely bothers me - so I'm going to return it :( Too bad Samsung paid attention to so many details but missed this one :(

I am a part-time professional photographer so monitor quality is important to me. I have used mostly Apple brand monitors over the past few years because I have found that they were the sharpest and most accurate for the price. I never could quite get settled on a particular one, however. I have tried many, many other brands of LCD monitors (besides Apple) over the years trying to get that perfect fit and I believe my serch is over. I love this monitor.

Apple 20" Cinema display/20" Dell/20" LG: awesome monitors for most purposes, however the size is somewhat limiting for daily editing work.

Apple 22" Acrylic Cinema display/Samsung 22"/LG 22": terrible. I don't know what it is about the 22" size but I have never seen a good display at this size. The pixels always look washed out and fuzzy at this size, which I have attributed to using the same resolution as the 20" monitors but stretched to a larger canvas.

Apple 23" Cinema display: again an awesome monitor but the 1920x1200 resolution packed into a 23" size means ultra sharp display for editing accuracy but leaves you squinting trying to read email or internet sites. The resolution is so fine (at the optimal res) that for me it was too tiny and hard to read.

Apple 24" iMac/24" Samsung: a noticeable improvement on the 23" size since it has the same amount of pixels on a 1" larger screen, but not a huge difference.

Samsung 25.5" (this one right here): just right. The same amount of pixels as the 23"/24" offerings with 2.5" and 1.5" more inches of screen space respectively. This means you get the same resolution for editing as on a 23"/24" screen but you can still actually read words on the screen without squinting. Photo editing is also easier and smoother with the larger pixels. This monitor is a pure joy to work with right out of the box. very other monitor I have ever used took some getting used to but this one is off and running right out of the box.

I was worried that like the 22" monitors that have the same resolution as the 20" monitors, this would mean that this monitor would look fuzzy or washed out compared to the razor sharp 23" Apple Cinema Display. Thankfully, at least with this unit (I can't speak for other 25.5"/26" offerings) the picture is just as sharp, just as contrasty, just as everything as the 23" display only like I said easier to read and easier to edit on. I just can't stress enough how happy I am with this monitor.

I bought this for a pc monitor. I own TV's and don't play alot of games . For surfing the net or editing my pictures it does a great job. The factory settings were way off. If you want a bright monitor this is it. It came with the brightness set at 100 and the contrast set at 75. Now the brightness is set at 36 and the contrast is set at 4. I looked at alot of monitors before getting this one. My previous monitor was a Dell 2005 fpw which was a pretty good monitor in its day.I'm not going to compare this to $1200 monitors because it costs half as much, but if you need a big screen to surf the net, this is the best bang for the buck I have seen ! If you want to edit photos you have to sit directly in front of screen or there are shifts in the colors . This also happens with the majority of the 24" monitors I have looked at. My only complaint is the buttons on the front panel , you can't see them and they are very touchy, very poor design. Fortunately you don't need to use them often. This costs about $100 more than a good 24" and the bigger size is very noticeable! I paid $599 at Bestbuy.

I replaced a 19" Viewsonic VX924 with this monitor, and so far my choice has been a good one. My monitor had 0 dead pixels, which was the first thing I looked for when I got it connected. The second thing I did when I got the monitor, was turn the brightness down. I think I burned a hole in my retinas... No joke, this thing is BRIGHT.

The screen is gorgeous, and the housing is attractive as well. The colors really seem to "pop" compared to my last monitor. I really like all the physical adjustments that can be made to the monitor, which aren't present in some of Samsung's other monitors (the ones with the TV tuners and the boatload of input connections). I think this is a much better "computer" monitor.

As for the negatives on this monitor, I have only one complaint. I thought that everyone that complains they can't see the monitor controls was just a blind whiner, but I stand corrected. The controls are VERY hard to see in dim lighting. Even in not so dim lighting, you still need to get up close to read the controls. The faint wording might not be so bad if there were raised buttons (after a while you might not need to read them, much like how you memorize the television remote's button layout and don't have to look every time you want to change the channel), but they are all touch-sensitive. Even after you dial in the monitor to the proper color/brightness, you'll still encounter this problem every time you want to turn it on/off.

I would give the monitor 5 stars, except for the bad button design.

My other gripe is not monitor related, but Amazon related. They shipped my already boxed monitor inside a larger box with some butcher-paper used as padding, but they didn't use enough of it. There was (and I'm not exaggerating) probably 12" of extra space in the box that was not occupied by butcher paper. This means that my monitor made its journey from the east/midwest US all the way to California sliding back and forth inside its box. They should have just put a shipping label on the monitor box and sent it that way, it probably would have been safer. Plus, why even bother spending the money and wasting packing materials if you aren't going to pack it right?

A buddy of mine ordered a camera from Amazon a few weeks before I ordered my monitor, and his item was packed with the same lack of care. Maybe we got the same packing person.