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ProCreative > Reviews > Widescreen displays > Samsung SyncMaster XL30

Samsung SyncMaster XL30

Samsung SyncMaster XL30
  • Manufacturer: Samsung (http://www.samsung.com/uk)
  • Pros: Large surface area allows for critical working
  • Cons: Bulky, expensive
  • Price: £2,819.99
  • Star rating: 3

Samsung obviously has high expectations of the 30in XL30, as the version supplied to us arrived complete with a dedicated colorimeter and a hood with which to block out extraneous light. However, with a monitor of the sheer size of the XL30, the 13cm depth of the hood was less effective than some we’ve seen.

Setting up the XL30 was a physical challenge, as you can’t rotate the display through the vertical plane (as you can with, say, the Dell), to simplify the insertion of the mains and display connectors. Even working at the rear of the display involves a certain amount of neck craning. On the positive side, Samsung at least thought to place two of the four USB 2.0 connectors on the right-hand side of the display, thus putting less strain on the user’s neck. While we’re on the XL30’s physical attributes, we should say that you can’t alter the vertical adjustment of the unit until a locking pin is removed from the stand, to which the display is attached when it arrives. Incidentally, the stand can be removed, and instructions for this are provided in the manual.

Once the XL30 is fired up, its sheer physical size might take a little getting used to. We also found that our Mac Pro set up the display for the lower of the recommended resolutions, 1,280 x 800, which was slightly disconcerting at first. Once this was manually changed to Samsung’s other recommended figure of 2,560 x 1,600 (using Mac OS X’s Display System Preferences), we quickly became acclimatised to the extra surface area.

Adjusting the settings of the XL30 is slightly different to the other monitors in this review. The buttons, well-placed at the bottom right-hand corner at the front of the display, consist of the on-off switch, a button to toggle through a number of preset modes (sRGB, Adobe RGB, and so on), and a pair of buttons marked with up and down arrows that can be used to adjust brightness and contrast in Custom mode. They can also be used to select the user-defined calibration arrived at with the included colorimeter.

This product is part of our Widescreen displays group product review. Other products in this group are:

 

BenQ FP241W

  • Star rating: 3

 

Dell 2408WFP

  • Star rating: 4

 

Eizo ColorEdge CG241W

  • Star rating: 4

 

LaCie 526 LCD

  • Star rating: 4

 

NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi

  • Editors ChoiceStar rating: 5

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