Update 06/07/09: Samsung also produces the P2370, with a 23'' screen instead of the 21.5'' found here, for almost the same price.  It's also a better performer, and to be preferred over the P2270 tested here.

The Samsung P2270, successor to the T220, is here. This is the manufacturer’s star screen with, this time, more changes than usual. The base is now transparent and gives an impression of lightness. The panel is now in Full HD format (1920 x 1080 pixels instead of 1680 x 1050) and it is now an eco screen – low energy. Response time remains low: 2 ms.

The black glossy bezel is framed in transparent bands. The menu buttons light up when it’s in use but are otherwise invisible. The base, though described as being mounted on a platter, is in fact completely fixed. Another strange thing is that although the screen is ecological in terms of power consumption, a small label describes it as containing mercury. This is not particularly ecological! At 3 cm the bezel is very thin. The base however is standard size. There is very little advantage therefore. It’s a shame, as to get such a thin bezel, Samsung has externalised the power supply block and limited video ins to a single DVI socket.


Colours


Apart from the whites, all the colours have a strong blue tinge. The average difference between the colours you should have and those displayed on the monitor, or the deltaE, is 7.2, while the best are below 2.0. If you move the gamma to position 3 and colours to warm, you get slightly more faithful results. This setting attenuates the dominant blue, but affects the whites with a pink tinge. At best, you get a deltaE or 5.2

The contrast ratio doesn’t really help While your standard monitor has a ratio of 750:1, the P2270 only scores 650:1. Combined with poor colour fidelity, the screen only gets two stars on our colour handling rating.

This is disappointing. Things seem to be going in the wrong direction. Since the release of the 226BW, that preceded the 2232BW, that made way for the T220 and now for this P2270, this is the worst score of all. This screen is way off the pace. If you compare its design and colour rendering with the Dell 2209WA the results really do show the Samsung up.

We do hold out some sort of hope for it however. It seems we may have tested a screen that isn’t completely finished. We were supposed to receive a second model so as to check these early results: it hasn’t arrived yet. When and if it does, we’ll update this article if necessary.

Gaming

Responsiveness

Samsung does rectify matters somewhat, giving the P2270 great responsiveness. Although the tests highlight a slight reverse ghosting (a negative image that is slightly off), this certainly is a very responsive screen that will be great for gaming.

Display delay is also under 1 image. You’ll have nothing to fear in online or LAN games.

Films

After setting the brightness to 40 and putting response time in film mode, the results are pretty good. Of course, you would get a better result with a TV but compared to what you usually get with screens, it’s really very good. Flickering is minimal. Only your choice of source will do anything for upscaling however and do justice to your videos.