Samsung 213T 21" LCD Review - PAGE 2

Navigation / Controls:

The 213T contains six elegant buttons for navigation and configuration of the LCD.It is the run of the mill controls that all user's are familiar with.What is different though is the "source" button which toggles from the analog and digital inputs.

Back view of the 213T, illustrating dual inputs and power cord.

Physical Feel and Use:

While we don't use LCD's much around the office we've had the occasion of reviewing several, and of course everyone does browse LCD's at their local Best Buy. The 213T is very versatile in terms of screen placement and ergonomics - the screen can pivot left and right very smoothly, and is very easy to tilt up and down - the feel of the LCD when you adjust the tilt of the display is a testament to the quality of construction. In fact, the ease with which you can position the screen will make it a delight for users who often have to adjust their screens to show clients or co-workers. The only downside was that the screen cannot pivot fully 180 degrees, which would allow an investment banker, for instance, to rotate the LCD such that their client sitting across a desk could fully view the image.

Image Quality:

The image quality of the 213T is very good. It is a wicked combo when you have something as big and as flat the 213T for your viewing pleasure. In Windows colours are vibrant and very bright. You image quality is striking even from a distance. Text is very legible and sharp, although some users might find that even at 1600x1200 the default text size in Windows is a tad small.

Gaming Quality:

We used a few first person shooter games to assess to critique the 213T:

Halo
Unreal 2003
Quake 3 Arena

In terms of sheer wow factor, it's hard to beat watching Unreal Tournament running on such a large, perfectly flat screen. The geometry of and LCD is of course near perfect, and the naturally non-reflective properties of LCD's make them very ideal for low glare imagery.

The one thing you'd be concerned about is response time in fast action games. We were not able to observe any ghosting or distortion during our gameplay, though one of us felt that the screen didn't "feel" the same as a CRT. GamePC has already completed their review of the 213T and they noticed a prevalent amount of ghosting while playing GTA: Vice City (one of the most popular PC titles here). Although the stated 25ms pixel refresh rate is suitable for all types of applications and gaming, the hardcore gamers will want something with a pixel refresh rate of no more than 16ms.

Software was included with the LCD which allows for rotation of the 213T to suit your needs, whether you want to surf, watch a movie, or vertically view a portrait.

For most people, the first thing that catches their eye is the thickness of LCDs.Wherein 19" plus CRTs occupy the entire table, the 213T takes up less than nine inches!

Application/Productivity:

Everyone knows that the more screen real estate you have the more productive you can be. Programmers, analysts, developers, graphics artists, and media editors will benefit the most, but even a hardcore home user will benefit from being able to fit more on screen at the same time. We found that with the bigger screen we could leave more "extras" visible while we surfed or worked. For instance, you can designate a special place for Winamp, and leave some room for your IM client while still leaving enough room on the desktop for a browser to show as much information as you would have on a regular 19" CRT monitor. Sure a 22"-24" CRT monitor can give you the same sort of experience, but it'd take up several magnitudes more space and looks so much less sophisticated.