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SAMSUNG P2070
Samsung's P2070 is a much glitzier product, with a glossy black bezel, invisible buttons that light up to the touch, and a soft blue LED that illuminated the transparent plastic stem of the stand. It is a Mac to Lenovo's PC; a work of art and sex appeal versus a utilitarian tool. The difference is immediately apparent in the marketing material on Samsung's web site. The monitor is described in non-terribly-subtle sexual terms, with "ultra-slim dimensions" and "image quality that's sure to catch your eye". The most outrageous is probably this: "This SAMSUNG monitor gives you something beautiful to stare at, whether it’s on or off."
Flirty as the marketing is, it disappoints when it comes to substance, which is frustratingly light on technical details and <ahem> hard data. Although it is apparently "eco-friendly" thanks to "a unique manufacturing process", only by digging through several reviews of other monitors online was I able to discover that the low power consumption is attributable to a "dual lamp" design, and I was unable to find any supporting data about what that design entails.
Unfortunately, thanks to this dearth of actual, useful information or any environmental certification (including the somewhat basic TCO'03 certification), the ways in which the P2070 is actually environmentally friendly shall have to remain a mystery.
Oooh, shiny sexy black bezel. A soft cloth is included for cleaning —
A warning that it won't stay pristine for long?
She looks good from behind as well...
The design principle of sexy over sanity is more than just skin deep. In comparison to the Lenovo, the Samsung feels very limited when it comes to actual use. The stand is short and not adjustable in any way except very slightly forward and back. There is only a single DVI-I input, with no adapter included for VGA inputs (luckily, the adapter included with many graphics cards should work).
Power is provided by an external 12V brick, which means more clutter under the desk. However, it does open up the possibility of replacing the default brick with a more efficient model if power consumption is critical (the small amount of watts saved will probably never offset the amount of power used to produce the new brick though...)
...but the input selection is kind of basic...
Perhaps the most irritating compromise between style and usability is the "Starlight
tough buttons" that are invisible until you prod around the bezel with
your finger to get five lighted icons that are touch-sensitive buttons. The
buttons only stay lighted for a limited amount of time, and do not provide any
tactile feedback. They are at their worst when trying to adjust brightness or
color when you need to be looking at the screen during the adjustment, not staring
at the bezel trying to find the right square centimeter to touch. Perhaps I'm
being unfair, but the already-clumsy five-button interface that all modern monitors
favor gets worse when you can't tell where each button begins and
ends. But, yes, they are gorgeous. Just not very useful. (Editor's Note: Ironically, this is the same problem I noted in my review of the Lenovo all-in-one A600 PC.)
... and her buttons are hard to find.
Specifications: Samsung P2070 |
|
Screen Size |
20" Wide |
|
Resolution |
1600x900 |
|
Brightness |
250 CD/m²
|
|
Contrast Ratio |
DC 50,000:1 (1000:1) (typ.) |
|
Response Time |
2 ms (GTG) |
|
Viewing Angle (Horizontal / Vertical) |
170° / 160° (CR > 10) |
|
Colors Supported |
16.7 M |
|
Video Signal |
analog RGB / DVI |
|
Sync Signal |
separate H / V, composite, SOG |
|
Connector |
DVI-I |
|
Power Consumption (Typical / Standby) |
26W / <1W |
|
Dimensions (with stand) |
500 x 382 x 190 mm |
|
Weight |
3.3 kg |
The specs for the P2070 are quite similar to the Lenovo, with similar brightness,
contrast, viewing angle, and size ratings. One place where the Samsung does
seem superior is the aspect ratio, which at 16:9 properly accommodates DVD and
Bluray formats without cropping or boxing. The 1600x900 resolution is also slightly
higher — an additional bonus of the 16:9 aspect ratio.
One thing that is conspicuously absent from the spec sheet is any kind of certification.
While Lenovo pushed the envelope by getting the L1940p rated by GreenGuard,
Samsung doesn't even bother with TCO'03. Though "TCO" is listed as
a possible spec, the rating for the P2070 is "No".
Power consumption is rated significantly higher, at 26W typical (as opposed to 16W for the Lenovo). As before, these are specs only — we did our own tests as well, but the Lenovo will be tough to beat given how much it improved over its specifications.
COLOR REPRODUCTION
Color fidelity was tested by comparing a slate of ten original photographs
with a high quality (if aging) imaging monitor, a Viewsonic G225f, calibrated
with a Spyder 2 calibration device. The P2070 was tested with various color
profiles engaged, including a corrected profile calibrated in software using
the Spyder 2. This corrected profile was used to see how good the monitor's
color could potentially be, rather than to evaluate its color performance
out of the box.
Reference photos were taken of the Lenovo's color reproduction, with the camera
white-balanced to a solid white screen on the calibrated reference monitor (nominally
6,500°K). This ensured that, as far as possible, color variances could be
attributed to the monitor, not the camera. Due to differences in brightness
across the various monitor profiles, exposure was not corrected for in the camera,
some artifacts related to brightness (notably the darker shadows in most shots)
can be seen that are not monitor related.
|
"Original" is the uncorrected original photo. "Stock
color" shows the color out-of-the-box. "Hardware corrected"
shows a calibrated version using the red, green, and blue sliders in the
monitor itself, while, and "Software corrected" shows a calibration
done solely in software. Calibration was done with a Spyder 2 calibration
device. Note how unnatural the green cast of the default color profile
looks next to the original photo and the corrected versions.
|
Out of the box, the Samsung P2070 looked far more natural than the Lenovo.
The default color profile had a slight green cast, but nothing too serious.
However, the default brightness (set at 100) caused the blacks to glow quite
a bit; blacks looked much more natural with the brightness turned down.
A number of unhelpfully labeled color profiles are built into the monitor.
Each profile is labeled "Gamma Mode" followed by a number. No explanation
of what each mode corresponded to could be found, but they appeared to range
up and down the color temperature scale to be used "to taste". There
was also a mode called "MagicColor", which may or may not have adapted
to the ambient lighting in the room — the only explanation we could find
did little more but tout "dynamic" color, without explaining what
dynamic color might mean. In our lab, the effect of enabling it was to boost
the reds and saturation in a rather unnatural way. Because no good explanation
of any of the various color modes could be found, we did not feel justified
in testing any of them in detail.
On a more serious note, the monitor exhibited a serious color shift depending
on which angle it was viewed. Above 90°, the monitor took on a green cast,
while below 90° it looked magenta. The shift from green to magenta was sudden,
not gradual, and was particular annoying when the screen was angled at close
to 90°, since the color cast would change depending on the position of the
viewer's head.
|
The lighting on the downpipe clearly shows the unnatural green color
cast of the default color profile. Corrected versions appeared much better,
but also much more saturated than the original.
|
Two separate calibrations were done with the P2070. The first was done "in
hardware" by tweaking the red, green and blue sliders in the menu of the
monitor itself. This calibration was less than satisfactory, since it tinted
the whites significantly even while correcting the midtones. We do not recommend
attempting any correction in hardware for this reason.
The second calibration was done with all the color sliders left at their default
value of 50, using only the custom gamma curve generated by the Spyder 2 sensor
to correct color fidelity. This method produced a much better result.
We also briefly played around with Samsung's proprietary color correction utility
called "Natural Color Pro" — until it caused a BSOD on our machine.
We were unable to ever get this software working properly, even with the latest
version downloaded from Samsung's web site. A different problem occurred with
the "Premium Magic Tune" utility which is intended to allow control
of the hardware menu via a Windows application. In this case, it simply refused
to recognize the monitor, popping up a message stating the monitor was "incompatible"
and then closing immediately. Like the Natural Color Pro application, downloading
the latest version from Samsung did not resolve the issue.
POWER CONSUMPTION
Power consumption is tied to the amount of light the monitor must produce,
so power was measured several times with the monitor in two states: pure white
and pure black. Power was measured at the wall with a Kill-a-Watt AC power meter.
| Samsung P2070 Power
Consumption |
| Setting |
Screen Output |
Power Consumption |
Default:
100 Brightness
75 Contrast |
Black |
24W |
| White |
22W |
Calibrated:
73 Brightness
75 Contrast |
Black |
19W |
| White |
17W |
As with the Lenovo, we were pleasantly surprised to find that the typical power
consumption the we measured for the P2070 was noticeably lower than the rated
consumption. This was particularly true when the brightness was turned down
to the correct level; power consumption averaged 18W. While it didn't hit the
11W level reached by the Lenovo, the under-20W performance still puts the
P2070 in good company. Whether it's Samsung's "Dual lamp" technology
or something else, it still qualifies as a power miser in our books.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Perhaps it's just the starkly different market segments they are targeted at,
but seems like the engineers at Lenovo and Samsung should have teamed up and
produced one monitor between them. Lenovo's offering is eminently practical,
well thought-out, and usable — but very stodgy and a bit ugly. Samsung's
P2070 is the opposite; here style appears to be the guiding principle, to hell
with usability (or comprehensible menu options). And both companies would probably
benefit from stealing an engineer from Apple to redo the awkward five-button
interface that has become standard on monitors for some reason.
Lenovo's strength is in its focus on ergonomics and providing a complete package.
And, of course, its extremely power-frugal performance cannot be ignored —
if power efficiency is your main criteria in a monitor, this is your choice
hands down. However, color performance — especially uncalibrated —
was pretty poor. The extremely blue color cast may be acceptable for an office
environment where it's all spreadsheets and word processing, but it's not suitable
for any sort of color work, and it's not the nicest monitor to view photos on
either.
Samsung's advantage is style, a better out-of-the-box color calibration (if
you discount the odd color shift above and below 90°), and, if you watch
movies on your PC, its 16:9 aspect ratio. Its relatively efficient power performance
doesn't hurt either, though it's not good enough to stand out on the strength
of efficiency alone. Subjectively, it may have had slightly higher contrast
(and thus a punchier image), but it's not clear whether this reflects more accurate
color performance.
The Samsung's downsides are all related to the compromises made in the name of style
that sacrificed usability. Poorly labeled and unexplained menu options,
nonfunctional software package, and the maddening lack of any useful information
on its web site all speak volumes of a division run by marketing executives rather
than engineers. And, though it definitely exudes style, it has the cheap gaudiness
of a $10 disposable watch. If the P2070 were a woman as the marketing material
suggests, she's is a tramp rather than a Milan supermodel.
Our thanks to Lenovo
and Samsung for
the monitor samples.
* * *
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