Samsung P2770: 27'' and 2ms

It seems that top of the range monitors won't reach 30'', a form factor that manufacturers continue to leave behind, but will instead top out at 27''.  At this size, two different tribes are set to do battle: Full HD displays, like this P2770, and those that have even higher resolutions, like the Dell U2711 and its 2560 x 140 pixels.  The latter, are, of course, more expensive.

Samsung P2770 MARCHANDS €     Pixmania  249.34  Amazon mark...  255.09  Amazon.co.uk  258.86  Amazon mark...  379.99  Amazon mark...  439.99  Compare prices

Here, both the frame and the stand are in transparent plastic to give a more lightweight feel to such an imposing product.  The buttons at the front are back-lit and touch-sensitive.  Both DVI and HDMI inputs are available.  The specs we've found online don't mention VGA, but we'd be surprised if it wasn't available.  The response time is said to be 2 ms, which should normally make for a very fast display, but it wasn't that long ago that Samsung left us with a nasty surprise in this area.  While we're on the subject, as important as it was to keep on pointing out the negative ghosting that shocked us so much in the manufacturer's 2008 range, it's just as important that we welcome the progress that Samsung made in 2009.  All of the 2 ms monitors that we tested met our expectations: the quality is improving, and that's good news as far as we're concerned.

What about contrast?

Let's conclude our tour of this screen with our pet project for 2010: contrast ratios.  You might already know that we've decided to challenge the incredible figures quoted by manufacturers for this statistic.  In this case, Samsung has been more reasonable than others by saying the contrast ratio is 70 000:1--meaning that black areas of the screen are 70 000 times darker than white areas), adding afterwards '(typical: 1000:1)'.  Let's be realistic: even if Samsung hasn't followed others by talking of a contrast ratio in the millions, we'd still like to know how it intends to reach 70 000:1 on a monitor like this.  Just how was the test performed?  Honestly, we'd love to know what you need to do--however technical it is--to produce such a fanciful result.  And of course, I'll be delighted to issue a retraction afterwards if it turns out it really is possible.

Also available: Samsung P2770HD

Careful, though, as Samsung has two different versions of this monitor: there's the basic P2770, which we described above, and then the P27770HD, which has much more extensive connectivity, includes a HD TV tuner and comes with a remote so you can control it from your sofa.

Samsung P2770HD MARCHANDS €     Pixmania  249.34  Amazon mark...  255.09  Amazon.co.uk  258.86  Amazon mark...  379.99  Amazon mark...  439.99  Compare prices

The display panel still uses TN technology, meaning that the viewing angles from side to the other will be wide open but much less impressive from above and below.  Looking down on the screen, the image will dip to white; look up at it, and it will appear black.

There is however one other very important difference between the two models: the P2770 has a 2 ms TN panel, while the P2770 HD uses a 5 ms TN panel.  Despite looking identical and having very similar names, these screens couldn't be more different.  The contrast, colours and responsiveness will all be different.  It's about time that Samsung stops lumping together very different products like this, which often leaves customers unhappy because they've ordered the wrong version.  The situation should change soon, however, as we've heard that the manufacturer is planning to its TV/monitors over to 2 ms panels as well.  But there's no fixed date or even an official confirmation, and they could very easily be more expensive than the current crop of 5 ms models ...




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