Customer Reviews

Samsung XL-2370-1 23-Inch Widescreen LED LCD Monitor

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I built a gaming rig and was looking for a nice 20+ monitor to finish the deal.

I originally went with the HP 27" LCD monitor and was looking around, price comparing and spec comparing.

I ended up looking at the Samsung LCD predecessor to this monitor, and went to buy it, and they were all out of stock. They asked if i would like this one as a replacement/upgrade, seeing the LED on the box sealed the deal.

This monitor hooked up through HDMI is STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL! True color on intelligent during movies really adds a certain likelife contrast to the video.

It is glass smooth playing games (MW2, L4D2, TF2, Bioshock 1&2, Crysis, ect.) It is the BEST monitor i have ever owned.

An awesome buy and very well worth the price!

Mac people would be wasting money to get the 24" studio LED instead of this. After calibration, this monitor epitomizes the advantages inherent to LED technology. Samsung seems to think the selling point is lower power consumption but it's really the visual accuity and dynamic range. If imaging is your business then this monitor, once calibrated, delivers quality only seen in higher end NEC, Eizo, and Apple monitors at a fraction of the cost.

I was in the market for a monitor to use with my PS3 (for my bedroom). I tried 2 other Samsung TV's (one was a Samsung 26" UN26C4000 and the other one was a Samsung 32" LN32C530) and both of these other Samsung TVs I bought has horrible ghosting artifacts during my game playing and movie watching. I couldn't stand it and it was giving me a headache.

Then I saw the 23" LED XL2370 that I am reviewing right now and with the 2ms response time there is absolutely NO ghosting whatsoever and there's next to no lag. I'm so glad I returned the other 2 TV's and purchased this one. It has an HDMI port in the back for the PS3 to plug into and it even has an audio out jack (3.5mm) in the back to plug in external speakers. Therefore there is no need to run a separate cable from your PS3 to a speaker set.

My games look very nice on this monitor (unless of course you're sitting 4 inches from it). From a normal distance of about 3 feet or so, your games will look just as good as if you're playing them on a 40" TV.

If you're a hardcore gamer that is looking for the fastest, most lag-free display with absolutely no ghosting or overdrive, look no further than this XL2370. It's really a great deal.

I found this as a recommended product on CNET, and personally i find it to be a good monitor. When it's on fastest refresh rate it works perfect for any game, no ghosting or lag. The buttons are a little hit and miss but they work. The colors seem ever so slightly off, particularly on the bottom. The main problem I have is that the bottom has a little backlight bleed, which I was hoping to be spared of by it being LED, and the angle from the TN panel is a little lacking but Ive seen worse. Otherwise Ive had no problems and I use it all the time for games, videos, and even text looks great on it since I'm a programmer. The Hdmi, dvi, and vga all work perfect. Its a little bright even at low but its general quality is good enough to be worth looking at.

Update 9/23/10 - I returned the Samsung due to poor color and black-level performance and bought the ASUS MT276HE, which I have found to be excellent.ASUS MT276HE - 27" Wide LCD Monitors - Black

Since most reviews have covered the basics of this monitor, I do not want to rehash the same info. This is what you need to know if you are an EXTREMELY fussy buyer, like me:

Gray-Scale:
While the gray-scale is very good, it CLIPS all data below and above standard RGB profiles. If you need an extremely accurate monitor for photo or video editing, move on, you will not be satisfied. However, if you can get away with a monitor that is "good enough", then you should seriously consider the 2370.

Color Profile Setup:
I initially started setup of the monitor with DVE Blu-ray 1080p using PowerDVD Ultra Mark II, which leads back to the gray-scale. While the monitor performs well, it does have some artifacting and skews to red on the scale. It took considerable tweaking of the OSD, which is very good, to START to CALIBRATE the monitor. However, I also needed to run Samsung's freely available "NATURAL COLOR PRO" app to get a correct blue hue, and tame those reds.

Brightness and Contrast:
Unfortunately, the brightness control does not control the gray-scale. It controls the AMPLITUDE. This is the primary reason why the monitor is so difficult to calibrate. Also, this is an extremely bright monitor, and you will be spending time trying to find the correct brightness vs. contrast ratio without affecting true blacks.

Bottom Line:
I wanted a solid monitor for gaming, non-professional photo and video editing, and productivity work. Overall, it is highly unlikely you will find a monitor this decent at this price point. If you need better color accuracy and a near-perfect gray-scale, you will want to look at the Dell Ultrasharp 24" IPS; however, the monitor is $600. I am waiting for wider availability of 120Hz monitors, so this is an excellent choice to hold me until then.

I hope that helps the "picky" customers, like me, to determine if this monitor suits your needs. One final note, I am using an EVGA 470 GTX card, and I found that DVI-D was the best way to go. Depending on your card, your mileage will vary.

This is an amazing screen, simply put. The picture is simply wonderful, and as the CNET reviews have said, there is no ghosting or weirdness that would cause you to dislike the picture. The technology is sound. For MBP users, the best quality seems to come from connecting everything, putting the macbook to sleep, and then waking it up. It also works as a second monitor, if you want.

The reason I took off a star is there is a little fussing necessary to get it to work well. I have a MBP 2009 13" unibody with a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, and it thought my computer was a DVD player. I had to calibrate the screen a little (from the MBP preferences panel), and take off the weird blue tint that it is preset with (from the syncmaster menu). After about 5 minutes of fussing my screen looks great, and I have a picture quality unparalleled by anything below the $600-$800 range.

In my opinion, if you are looking for a budget screen to watch movies, edit documents, run video games, and anything else that would merit an amazing and large video picture, get this screen. Fussing aside, this is the best screen that I have ever owned.

On features, the buttons are touch-sensitive (but aren't very sensitive-use flat of thumb to push them) and light up on the front only when you are using them.


It comes with a DVI-dual to DVI-dual cable, and a DVI-single to VGA adapter cable. No HDMI included (be sure to get a $10 category-2 HDMI cable if you go this route). On the back there are more than enough ports for anyone's needs.

Also to note, the screen is quite light and thin, and can's be adjusted from its stand in any way. Since this means I can take apart the stand and travel with it more easily, and since this also means weight and/or desk space won't be a problem, I really don't care. Just make sure you don't bump it off your desk. Picking up the screen and accessing the back is quite easy. There is no mount on the back, so I will do some jury-rigging for that when I have the time.

Now I will sit back and watch some mind-blowing graphics.

I've had my 2nd XL-2370-1 for over two weeks now. I returned my first one after the lighting mechanism failed on the 3rd day of use (power light was on, connections were good but the screen went permanently dark during use on the third day).

For the price, it's a beautiful monitor. It is much thinner than my Samsung SyncMaster 245T or my LG Flatron W3000H LCD monitors. The housing for the XL-2370-1 stays remarkably cool due to the LED lighting.

The colors are great, the refresh is insanely fast and the brightness is greater than I expected. It really is a beautiful little monitor.

However, I really don't like how the monitor hardware is non-adjustable. There is no height adjustment nor swivel. After you plug the base into the LCD screen, you are left with one complete rigid product. The monitor face is tilted up slightly but then you are left to adjust your chair height if you want your eyes to be at the perfect level with the monitor.

The electronics also seem to be little flaky. Like I said earlier, I had to replace the first monitor because of an electronic failure (with the lighting). And even with this new one, the monitor will occasionally act like the DVI cable is disconnected (the monitor displays a "searching for signal" message). This happens randomly and about every other day. I swapped the monitor between two computers to rule out a faulty graphics card but the behavior is the same.

So I don't know if Samsung just went on the cheap with the manufacturing for this model (my other Samsung monitors and Samsung HD TV are wonderfully flawless) but when it's working, it is an impressive little 23" display.

Summary:

*) Now that I have the monitor adjusted, it is very nice. The text is sharp and the color
is quite good. It did take some effort to get it that way.

*) Very bright -- I'm still experimenting with what works best for me. I turn brightness
down to somewhere between 40% and 67%.

*) I could do without the wide shiny black bezel. It may look good in marketing stuff,
but it distracts from what is being shown on the screen, and its bulk is annoying in
my dual-head setup. I'd rather have a narrow flat black bezel.

*) Good overall quality -- no stuck or dead pixels, no edge bleed

Initially my monitor was blurry -- especially noticeable in text.
Samsung support was great -- they get 5/5 stars).
They spent about an hour on the phone with me trying to solve the problem, and
then emailed me a pre-paid UPS shipping label to return for service. Service found no defect.
I still saw same problem, so after some more troubleshooting, they were set up to exchange
the monitor.

Before the exchange could happen, I finally found the two problems myself,
and now everything is clear and sharp.

1) In the OSD, under Setup, if you scroll down there is a setting for PC/AV. Mine was set to AV.
It really must be set to PC if you are using the monitor with a PC.

2) My lighted area did not fill the glass. The problem turned out to be that my ATI video card was
set to 5 notches of underscan. Clearing that made the lighted area fill the glass, and also fixed
the remaining artifacts. It is important to neither overscan nor underscan -- otherwise there
is scaling and the software pixels are not 1:1 with the hardware pixels. The result is visual
artifacts, such as off-color and blurring.

I did have to take the time to adjust the colors. I used the program they supply, Natural Color Pro.
The result looked too washed out to me, so I turned on Magic Color. That made the colors pretty good.
Then I went back to Natural Color Pro and adjusted colors a little more. Colors now look good
(to my amateur eye) except that they seem just a little washed out in a few cases.
Based on my experience so far, I'll eventually get that adjusted better, too.

I notice that the color changes on text as it is moved -- either scrolled, or the window dragged. Samsung
support confirmed this is normal. Not really a problem to me, but makes me wonder whether moving
things like games will see anything like that -- if so, I would think it might be a problem.

Comments on some of the other reviews here:

> the old HP had better resolution and just looked better than the ... Samsung
Resolution is known (1920x1080), so I am guessing the author meant sharpness. My photos were
a little fuzzy, too, until I fixed the settings as described above. No longer a problem, once I did that.

> The colors seem ever so slightly off, particularly on the bottom.
I saw some of this, but in my case it was fixable. Some color adjustment helped. The other thing that helped was tilting the monitor to be more perpendicular to my line of sight.

That said, colors are off at the edges of the monitor, especially left and right -- just normal TFT effects.
If you are in the center of the monitor, then there is enough viewing angle on this big a monitor to see TFT
effects at the sides. Move your head so it is directly over the side of the monitor and the off-color goes away.

> there is a little fussing necessary to get it to work well
Definitely true in my experience -- for me, more than "a little"

> it thought my computer was a DVD player
I would expect that would be fixed by the PC/AV setting I mentioned above

> I hate the finger sensing buttons. It's extremely unpredictable.
I guess YMMV applies here -- the menu system, including the buttons, works fine for me.

> this monitor cycles through every input when you turn it on until it finds the right one
Mine does not. It does bring up the symbol for what I am using (HDMI), I suppose
to remind you which you are using in case you have more than one hooked up. No
hunting/cycling, though.

> You don't have to pay for the defective one to be sent back to you and they send you a replacement right away.
Samsung support also does it this way when needed. I was about to do just that when I discovered the
correct settings (as noted above).

I bought this monitor after doing some research into technology, reviews, etc. I was looking to replace a HP which was 3 years old with a monitor with more resolution for some photograph and video work. Turns out that the Samsung had somewhat better color accuracy but strangly enough, the old HP had better resolution and just looked better than the much better rated and brand new Samsung. Yes, I did try to calibrate the new monitor to my satisfaction. Note that the stand is not adjustable and sort of cheap, So I returned the Samsung and will continue my search for something better, perhaps a step up in budget is needed. Let the buyer beware, Amazon will refund you 85% because they consider this a computer.

The Samsung XL-2370 is a beautiful monitor. It is an early generation LED monitor without much competition at the moment. Externally, I give this a 5/5. You cannot beat the beauty of this monitor compared to its competitors. The sharp black lines and tempered glass exterior. The barely noticeble thickness. The stand that just seems to flow from the monitor. All these come together to create a beautiful piece of machinery that will catch anyone's eye who glances at your desk. However, functionally, I think this device could do better.

Image quality on this monitor is pretty good. I can see sharp images, great 1920 x 1080 HD resolution. It's well manufactured without any visible defects or dead pixels. However, I feel the colors aren't as sharp and vivid as other monitors I've seen. Compared to my old 19" sub $150 Westinghouse, I feel that colors aren't as vibrant. I've played with every setting this thing has and still can't come up with that vibrant image I was expecting for this thing. Additionally, this monitor cycles through every input when you turn it on until it finds the right one. I find this strange and I've never seen it before. You turn on your machine, and it switches for about a minute input after input until it finds the right one. There is no way to default it, as far as I know.

A few other quirks. Because of the beauty of the external design of this machine, you are unable to rotate the monitor. I don't know if this is a big deal to everyone, and it wasn't a dealbreaker for me, but it would have been nice to have that option.

Finally, the last bad thing I'll say. This is marketed as a great gaming monitor. I do agree that it is! But it doesn't have a 120hz refresh rate. For all you gamers out there, you are paying $300+ for a pretty monitor, great for gaming, but you'll never be able to do 3D gaming on it. You'll have to pick up the Samsung 2233RZ non-LED similarly priced monitor. You would think that Samsung would release all these features together on this recently released monitor, but unfortunately they did not.

In conclusion, despite its several shortcomings, I give this monitor a 4/5. I can't give it any below that because it simply doesn't not deserve that. It's a great monitor. Would I buy it again? I don't know. I probably would have opted for the one I mentioned above. But hey, I have it now and I can deal with its shortcomings. Do I love it? Do I think it's the best? No.

Do your research and see this monitor in person before you buy it. It's a large money commitment, and I don't quite feel it's worth it.