Samsung SyncMaster 2032BW

The 2032BW is the 20 inch version of the 2232BW, a top Samsung screen at this year’s end as well as being one of the best sellers for several large on-line stores.  Samsung France told us they wouldn’t be able to lend us one for tests, our demands being sent to the hierarchy who concluded that we should "understand that the entire Samsung line was not part of the lending pool''.  OK.  Unfortunately, the reality appeared much crueler when we started to dig a little and especially when we tested the screen once again thanks to one of our readers!

    On the forum:

    •    Question: Are 2032BW owners satisfied with their purchase?
    •    Response: I have the same in its 22 version (2232BW) and it’s great.

Unfortunately, these two screens are entirely different.  To our knowledge (testimony on various forums), 100% of French gamers that took a chance with the 2032BW lost and they actually received a CPT panel, a component which is extremely problematic.  You may recall, the panel is the heart and brain of the monitor and upon which 90% of the screen’s quality depends.

Colors are off and not correctible

This panel suffers from an extreme blue dominance except in white which is very pinkish.  The gamma is also very poorly managed.  There are three adjustments in the OSD but none surpass 1.7 (at best!) while we should be at 2.2.  Therefore, in general we have a poor color balance in images without the possibility of correcting this by hand.  We measured three possible levels: 1.3, 1.5 and 1.7 with results ranging from very poor to unsatisfactory.


For color rendering it gave by far the worst measurements we’ve seen this year.  Grays are very mediocre and whatever the monitor you are currently using, look at this image.  To not see this blue dominance means your screen has a similar problem.  As for white, it isn’t reproduced but rather is actually a pink (5300 K for experts!).  The least damaging manual adjustment is Personalized /Warm.  The blue dominance is reduced while the red dominance is slightly increased in white.  It is nevertheless better overall or rather our best option.

Reactivity was reduced

As for reactivity we have a similar situation to the 2232BW: the intensity of its overdrive was reduced to minimize its defects.  For this reason it is less efficient and the screen is noticeably less reactive in games than other 2 ms monitors. If we wanted to split hairs we could say that the 2032BW is slightly more reactive than the 2232BW upon which Samsung made some rather large modifications. Either way, reactivity in games is halfway between a 2 ms et des 5 ms.

PS : For those who are color experts or are used to the tests on Behardware.com, dE (the differences compared to perfect colors), 7 out of the 18 standard test colors were superior to 9.5, two of which at 17 or above.  The average was 7.9 and by far the worst score of 2007. In Personalized /Warm settings, we go just under 5.