Samsung SyncMaster BX2240 review

It’s official: LEDs are catching on. Whether you’re talking about TVs, laptops or PCs, LEDs are clearly – in the minds of manufacturers at least – the future. Samsung’s BX2240 is the latest 22in Full HD monitor to roll into Shopper’s labs boasting about its LED backlighting or, if we want to be precise about things, edge lighting. Essentially, the LEDs replace traditional cold cathode fluorescent lamps and shine parallel to the screen, being diffused to give even light across the whole screen.

In our tests, the BX2240 used just 17W – roughly half the consumption of a CCFL-based LCD monitor. That’s good news for your wallet, but LEDs have failed to live up to the hype where image quality is concerned. They’re supposed to increase contrast and saturation, among other things, but we’ve seen almost no evidence of this.

We first tested the BX2240 using a VGA cable, but contrast was appalling. For example, we couldn’t see any difference between new email messages which were highlighted in white, and read mails which were a light shade of blue. This could be improved only by reducing brightness significantly. However, switching to the DVI interface, the problem largely disappeared, so avoid the BX2240 if you have only a VGA output on your PC.

Still, contrast remained disappointing overall, as did brightness (it’s rated at 250cd/m2 while most CCFL-backlit monitors put out 300cd/m2). Colours were generally accurate, though, and looked natural. Viewing angles in landscape mode were slightly better than we’d expect for a TN (Twisted Nematic) panel, so you don’t have to be sitting square on to see accurate colours. Backlighting was even and there was no light bleed, which appears as a bright strip of light at one of the edges.

At least the SyncMaster is practical. Both the stand and screen have a matt finish, so they’re not reflective. The stand also raises or lowers the screen by 100mm and can also rotate to portrait mode. On the rear, the ports face backwards, so it’s easier to connect cables than on displays which have the ports parallel to the screen.

There are VGA and DVI interfaces, as are cables for both in the box. Buttons are on the bottom edge of the screen and the menu is easy to navigate. There are all the usual settings, plus gamma and the unusual MagicAngle. The latter alters the contrast to improve viewing angles – Samsung gives the odd example of ‘when lying down’. MagicEco lets you set how much extra power saving you want to achieve, and reduces brightness accordingly. Given the low standard brightness of the BX2240, we can’t imagine many people using this.

One of the buttons cycles between Custom, Standard, Game, Cinema and Dynamic Contrast modes. Dynamic Contrast mode can improve quality for certain types of application, but it isn’t much use for videos, as the brightness lurches noticeably when switching between bright and dark scenes. Standard mode is fine for office work, but we preferred to tweak the brightness and contrast manually to make the screen a little brighter – making whites look less grey.

Apart from the height-adjustable stand, the BX2240 has no other extras – there are no speakers built in and no USB ports. At this price, though, that’s acceptable. You can buy cheaper 22in monitors with this resolution, but you’ll struggle to find one with height adjustment. If this is important to you, the BX2240 is good value. If it isn’t, buy the BenQ G2222HDL.