The recently launched SyncMaster D190S is a 19" monitor with a twist. The most obvious difference is the stand, which looks similar to that of a photo frame. Styled very lavishly with a rich piano gloss finish and a glossy screen, this TN panel should provide slightly richer colors and an overall more vivid picture.
Before we go any further let me just say that this model is currently not on Samsung's site. In fact the model number is different for different countries, which is quite strange. Just to highlight some of the main specifications, the actual screen size is 18.5" wide, so you get the 16:9 aspect ratio, native resolution of 1360x768 and a typical contrast ratio of 1000:1. Last but not the least, it has a 5ms response time with a 160 degree viewing angle.
The monitor looks very nice with its unconventional design and Touch of Color styled menu buttons, like we saw in the Lavender series. Let's see if this turns out to be as good as it looks.
Bundle
This is what comes with the Samsung D190S
- Power cable
- VGA cable
- USB cable
There wasn't any manual or driver CD in the box but I'm sure you can expect some reading material in the retail piece.
Design and Construction
The very sexy glossy black finish is revealed on unwrapping the shrink. Yes, I know this has been done to death but it never gets old, not if it's designed well. There are two thick rubber pads for the base which hold the monitor in place. The menu buttons are completely hidden in the bezel along with the touch sensitive power button.
The rear of the panel is glossy as well with some air vents on the top followed by the 'flip' stand.
The menu buttons are hidden and become active once you touch the bezel. You can switch between inputs here or try out different color presets.
The stand is built well and easily balances the monitor since it's not very heavy. The big hole in the stand is used for cable management while the rubber rollers at the bottom help extend and retract the stand with ease. It can tilt 40 degrees backwards, which makes it uncomfortable for desktop use, but even when closed you can mount the monitor on its feet so the screen is at eye level.
I was a little disappointed at first to only see an analog connection but this monitor wasn't designed for a hardcore desktop user. The USB upstream port is actually used for DisplayLink, which can be used to extend your existing desktop.
Performance
DisplayMate
The monitor reproduces vibrant colors in the synthetic test, more so due to the glossy screen. However, when it comes to differentiating between color intensities, it falls a bit short. There's also a little streaking seen in the 256K color spectrum and also little fringing around text, which could be due to the resolution. Overall it's not that bad, but what is unfortunate is that you cannot tweak the colors too much as you only have control over the brightness.
Multimedia Performance
We played a couple of HD movies and games to test the response time and color reproduction of the monitor and came back quite impressed. For movies its best to stick with Standard mode as Dynamic causes dark scenes to dim quite a lot and loose out detail. The same thing happened while playing Call of Juarez, I took cover in a tent which was quite dark and actually lost my way as I couldn't see anything. There was no ghosting or trailing effects seen and the black levels were quite good due to the glossy finish.
The menu is very plain and simple, which lets you access MagicBright, change the language, adjust the aspect ratio and the brightness. It's very minimal, which is good for beginners but not for those who like to tweak their settings. Thankfully if you're using a graphics card you can fine tune those settings.
This is where the fun begins. The USB cable that is provided is supposed to have software built into it that installs the necessary drivers required. For some reason the drivers would not auto install, so we had to go hunting on Samsung's site where this model is no where to be found! I finally tracked it down on the Samsung Singapore site where it's listed as LD190G.
Once the DisplayLink software is installed it automatically detects the USB cable and extends your desktop. You get a little icon in the taskbar, which lets you change the resolution and adjust the type of extension (Extend, Clone, etc). The best part is that this is independent of your GPU, so it will work on practically any machine. We tried it on XP and Vista and it worked fine.
After this, the Samsung monitor appears as the '3rd' display in Windows properties where you can adjust the resolution. This comes really handy if you're using your laptop or Netbook and need a larger display or need more space to work with. What's funny is that once connected via USB, the monitor resolution can be increased all the way up to 1440x900. Actually you can even increase the resolution of the Netbook screen a lot further.
Pricing
A typical 19-incher from almost every brand will be in the price range of 6.5K to 7K. The Samsung SyncMaster D190S costs Rs. 7,500, which thankfully is not to exorbitant, as I was expecting it to be priced around 8K-8.5K. If they had only thrown in DVI as well, this would have been a great deal. So the point is only if you're going to be using the DisplayLink feature should you buy this, otherwise it's better if you go for a regular 19-incher. On the other hand you cannot beat the styling of the Samsung, so I would say the slight extra premium is worth it.
Verdict
Once again Samsung has produced a stunner, combining great styling with functionality. An area once ruled by Viewsonic faces tough competition from Samsung, which is now dishing out aggressively priced monitors.
The D190S packs in plenty of style and features to keep you happy, delivering good picture quality for a TN panel as well as a very interesting photo frame like bezel design that's sure to grab attention. The downside of this is that it may be a little too low for some people who like their monitor at eye level. However, it's not that bad once you get used to it. Thanks to the glossy screen the colors are sharp and vivid, which is great for watching movies and gaming. The DisplayLink feature comes handy for your Notebook when you need more screen real estate to work with.
If I had to pick out a con, I would say the resolution could have been higher as 1360x768 is quite low for a 19" screen. Also, there aren't many options in the OSD for tweaking the color that you get in a typical LCD monitor. Overall for a price tag of 7.5K this is good monitor that's worth considering.
Test unit sourced from Integral PR
Specifications
