Customer Reviews

Samsung SyncMaster 213T 21" LCD Flat Panel Monitor -Silver

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Samsung 213t is significantly cheaper than other 21.3" monitors, although it should be noted that you'll spend a lot less on a 20" monitor. So if you're looking at this one, you'd better value that extra inch. Should you? This depends on whether you like high pixel density or low pixel density. The 21.3" monitor yields about 94 dpi (dots per inch); a 20" monitor is more like 100 dpi. Some of the smaller 1600x1280 displays (especially for laptops) go above 120 and even 130 dpi, and some people prefer the high density, even though the text gets smaller. WinXP has a setting to increase font and dialog box sizes based upon the local dpi, but this is imperfect, since graphics, unlike fonts, are not resized. We can argue theory forever, but the essential question is, what do you find easiest on your eyes? For me, the lowest dpi is most comfortable, because it draws larger characters, but I know of people who prefer the high numbers. If you're like me and you want low dpi and a lot of screen real estate, this is your monitor, at least in 2004. (There's a wider model, the 243t (24"), but it costs about twice as much.) The 213t price has been dropping over the year (with periodic rebates!) and may drop farther, and this model may well be replaced before long.

With any modern LCD monitor, be sure to use the digital connection to a DVI video card. The digital connection assures that the monitor will display *exactly* what the PC intends. If you use the VGA analog connection, you'll be open for some smearing and ghosting.

The 213t has no frills (no speakers, no USB). Its response time (25 ms) isn't as fast as some other monitors, so it's not the optimal choice for gaming or video. But it's a sharp, clear, large display. For the market niche it fills, it's the best monitor at the best price.

As a graphic designer, I'd been considering this monitor but just couldn't justify the price....but finally broke down and decided to give it a shot. Setup is easy, and I was up and running in no time. I was impressed with the image quality and text sharpness, but as I spent more time with it, I discovered reds were displayed with a magenta cast, and it lacks some very important controls I need for my everyday graphic design work. I lay out several full color magazines, and the on-screen images need to be pretty close to what will be seen in print with regard to brightness, contrast, color, etc. In comparing this monitor's on-screen images with the press-printed magazine pages, no matter what settings I tried, I couldn't get it close. When I got the brightness about where it shoud be (images in magazine print are ususally darker than what you normally see on a monitor screen), contrast was too low and couldn't be adjusted any higher. Images looked muddy as compared to what they should look like. And there's no brightness adjust button to quickly go back and forth between user and programmed settings. I'd have to completely redo the settings each time I go between magazine work and everyday viewing for web, e-mail, basic design, etc. I'd expect more user-specific controls with a monitor of this price.

So for my personal use, this monitor is lacking in necessities for the price. Overall, colors are pretty good, and for those who aren't demanding with regard to very precise color reproduction and don't need the ability to control the image brightness with the press of a button, this is a fine monitor. I'm normally too busy for gaming, so it's not a concern to me.

Although smaller, I now have a Sony SDM-HS73B, which is sharper, truer color reproduction, and offers 4 brightness settings, which coupled with selected gamma settings, provides me with exactly what I need in a monitor. With the press of a button, I can instantly go from everyday viewing to magazine work. Image quality and color reproduction is superb.

The 213T was returned.

A great monitor for the photo or video professional!

Samsung has stuck to a more sophisticated and costsly LCD matrix (PVA) in it's large monitors even while other manufacturers are chasing "fast response time" specs at all costs and going back to older, more primitive LCD matrices in order to keep costs down.

I had the chance to compare at lenght the Sony Xbright 19" and the Samsung. With the Xbright 19" Sony has given in to the mass market pressure and gone back to the older TN+Film matrix in the 19" realm. At first you are captivated by the Sony's brightness. But go off to the side of the Sony even a hair and the colors start dimming and degrading. The Samsung looks unchanged and the colors remain true. Even viewed from an extreme angle the Samsung's colors don't shift, and the image is clearly visible. That's one huge advantage of the newer, more elaborate LCD matrices such as S-IPS (found in some NEC's) and PVA (found in the 213t).

The Samsung's contrast is excellent, and I haven't noticed any problems with "speed" running video or intence graphical programs such as iTune's "Visualizer." And, you get 21.3 inches of this quality!

With included Pivot Pro software (PC only) or the Radeon 9800 Pro for Mac you can pivot the monitor in real time to portrail mode. Great for proofing portraits or displaying an entire score of music.

I have had a 20G 20" Viewsonic CRT monitor since 94 or 95, and although it's been good to me, it was starting to show some signs of aging, like not being able to handle strange resolutions ( like 848x480 ), and different refresh rate combinations. At times it would get stuck between switching resolutions and never recover until hours later.

After much on-line research, I decided to spend about the same about ($1200) I did 8 years ago, and get the best monitor for coding, e-mail and gaming I could find.

After having dual 18" LCDs at work, I decided that I needed at least a 20" LCD at home.

I bought the Samsung 213t...and got it plugged into my Quadro4 ( similar to GeForce4 ti 4400 ) through the DVI. The display model at Fry's was using Analog and looked awful due to ghosting. When I tried the DVI, it looked great. Based on that, I can't recommend this monitor unless you have a DVI connector on your video card or are willing to upgrade to such a video card.

I run it at native 1600x1200x60hz and it looks stunning. After getting ClearType set up properly through the Microsoft web interface, it looks even better. Text is so crisp I could cry, and gaming didn't exhibit noticeable ghosting to my eye so far.

No dead or stuck pixels on this monitor either. This is the best computer upgrade I've ever done. Highly recommended.

I bought this monitor after browsing monitors ranging in size of 17" to 21". The size is spectacular, although the price from a 19" to 20" to 21" is significant, so only get this one if you value those extra 1 or 2 inches or will outgrow one of the smaller sizes (note the resolution jump from 19" to 20" though). I was a bit nervous when I purchased this monitor because I wasn't sure if the extra few hundred were worth it, but I am very please so far. It is huge, sharp, switches to portrait mode (more convenient than you may think), and plays movies quite well.

The portrait mode is great for documents and surfing the web. I can view 1 1/2 pages of Word documents and search web pages faster. Be sure to get the software to switch your computer to portrait mode (I'm not sure if it usually comes with the monitor; I use PivotPro). I also sometimes do homework with as much viewing space of the document as a 17" monitor and still have a movie playing in the bottom quarter of the screen... one of the many conveniences of the portrait mode. Also, increase the sensitivity of your mouse (or get a mouse with more sensitivity) so scrolling across the screen isn't an inconvenience.

I watch movies quite frequently and, when viewing from 4' or more away, the only noticable differences from a TV is higher resolution in the monitor (pro) and very slight distortion with fast movements (con, but barely noticable). I haven't played games on this monitor (yet), so I cannot vouch for the performance there.

Overall, I am very pleased. Also, no dead pixels or blemishes (at least yet). I don't think I will ever outgrow this monitor; an increase in size would actually be an inconvenience for most of my uses because then there is too much to keep track of (only pros I can think of for a larger monitor would be dual document viewing and a larger screen for movies). I would highly recommend this monitor for anyone considering an 18" through 24" monitor!

This monitor has a truly amazing picture at 1600x1200, and the colors are great, too. With DVI, the picture is very stable and quite beautiful

HOWEVER:

If you are a hardcore gamer, pass this one up.

Many people may disagree with this, but for me the ghosting is too noticeable and it is distracting and can actually detract from your gameplaying.

For instance, if you play Unreal Tournament 2004 online, you need to be able to rotate the camera all the time while still retaining the ability to discern motion in the distance (say, an enemy running at you). With this monitor the ghosting is just too much and it can seriously hinder your playing.

However, everything else about it is good as far as LCDs go. For me, I am going to return this monitor and go with a ViewSonic 22" CRT instead. It's half the price and offers just as good a picture quality in my opinion. Plus, I like being able to run my monitor at any resolution without having to worry about interpolation. And, I'll say it again -- for me ghosting is a show stopper.

Here's a small experiment: try tracking the mouse pointer with your eyes in windows while moving it at various speeds. On this monitor is blurs easily. On a CRT it doesn't. If you are a gamer -- stay away. For this price you can get a CRT that will blow this LCD out of the water.

However, other factors such as the ergonomics of this monitor are pretty good..

I bought this monitor about 5 months ago now and love it. I have it coupled with a new Nvidia GeForce 6800 256 MB graphics card. For those of you who worry about "Ghosting" when game playing I have not seen it. Half life 2 and Doom 3 look truely amazing. With full resolution 1600x1200, colors are vibrant and blow away the normal "glass" monitor I had before. The monitor also pivots any way you can think of and comes with cool software that will keep everything legible no matter how the monitor is turned. The size is great and it's footprint is small.

Inasmuch as this monitor alone cost more than my last IBM computer system (including monitor and printer), I was highly critical of it the first couple weeks -- looking for dead pixels (none found) -- etc. I edit several newsletters in QuarkXpress and my eyesight is slowing failing. I bought this unit because of its nifty pivot-to-portrait-mode capability, a feature I value highly, and which reminded me of my old Macintosh Portait (monochrome) Monitor years ago, which I loved. Anyway, I was less than pleased at first with the sharpness of small fonts, when viewed in portrait mode: five lines were sharp, the next five line fuzzy, the next five were sharp, etc. In checking with Samsung's 1-800 technical support, a techie worked me through 20 minutes of fine adjustements until he suggesed I push the monitor's "Auto" button (I hadn't done so earlier, as I assumed incorrectly that it would merely discard all my fine adjustments are return to factory-preset defaults). But that did the trick! All type everywhere on the massive screen popped into equal sharpness, and now I'm 100 percent tickled with this unit and can recommend it to others.

I use this monitor exclusively for gaming. It's hooked up via DVI-D to an nVidia GeForce FX 5950 card. I have nothing bad to say about the monitor's performance - the games I play look spectacular with it.

I am used to a Sony Trinitron 19" CRT and now, when I look at the CRT alongside this Samsung LCD? The CRT looks terrible :)

Best part of this Samsung LCD? The blacks are REALLY black. When I use xterms the clarity of the text is out of this world.

If you can afford ~$1200, I really recommend this monitor to anyone.

I've owned this monitor for almost 3 months now and think its the best purchase I've made in a long time. The size of the monitor, the resolution, and the ability to rotate are just some of its great features. I use it for various reasons, but I was suprised how great it is with games. I play graphic intensive games and I notice absolutely no refresh rate problems that apply to many lcds. I notice no differece between it and my old crt's refresh rate. I researched buying a new large lcd and found that this was the best bang for the buck. You will especially enjoy it if you think, as I do, that Bigger is Better!