Samsung have been a major player in the monitor market now for some time, and thankfully still produce a wide range of new and interesting models for buyers to consider. With their own panel module production arm, Samsung also have access to their own PVA / S-PVA panel technology, and while it is becoming less widely used nowadays, it is still encouraging to see it has not been phased out completely. We have already reviewed one of their flagship 24" models, the SM245B, which interestingly has received far more attention than the model we have with us today. The SM245B was one of the first 24" models in the market to use a TN Film technology panel, whereas the SM245T features the generally more highly regarded S-PVA matrix. Further to this, the 245T offers an extensive range of ergonomic and connectivity options, an extended colour gamut, and is the first Samsung model to feature their new Motion Picture Acceleration (MPA) technology, designed to help reduce perceived motion blur. It is therefore perhaps quite surprising that the 245T has not received more interest amongst potential buyers, but it is likely due to its high price compared with other competing models. Currently the 245T retails for ~�590 in the UK, which is considerably more than the TN Film based SM245B which is only ~�300. We'll discuss this in more detail later, but for now, let's take a look at the screen's specs:

Above: Front and side views of the 245T. Click for larger versions

The 245T is finished all over in a matt black colour, with only a silver coloured Samsung logo in the middle of the lower bezel, and 'SyncMaster 245T' logo in the top left hand corner. The screen itself uses traditional Anti-Reflective (AR) coating as opposed to any glossy solution. The design is simple, and the same as that we saw from the SM245B last year. The black finish is attractive, and materials all feel sturdy and of a good quality.

Above: Side view of 245T showing maximum and minimum tilt range. Click for larger versions

The screen offers an impressive range of ergonomic adjustments. These include a height adjustable stand (100mm - as shown below), tilt function (maximum variance shown above), pivot and rotate adjustments. A screen of this size is quite difficult to use sensibly in portrait mode I feel, but at least the option is there for those who might want to use it. All the ergonomic adjustments are very smooth to operate, and easy to manouvre. My only critisism is that the rotate feature is perhaps a little too easy to move, and so getting a nice horizontal position can be tricky. The screen therefore feels a little 'flimsy' when you try to move it around, simply because the movements are so easy and light. The rotate feature actually goes a little too far round when you return to a normal landscape setting, and so you have to manually try and align the screen to a straight level, it doesn't 'click' back into a set place as such.

On the side of the screen there are also 4x USB 2.0 ports and component connections for external devices, as shown above.

Above: rear view of screen, showing minimum and maximum height adjustment (100mm). Click for larger versions

Above: Connectivity options on back of screen. Click for larger version

The screen also offers a wealth of connectivity options, helping to separate it from the SM245B which only features a VGA and DVI interface. On the back of the screen you have access to VGA and DVI as expected, and there is also an HDMI interface (1080p supported), composite and S-Video interface. This affords you with a wide range of options should you want to connect external devices such as DVD players or games consoles. The DVI interface is also HDCP compliant, for all your encrypted Blu-Ray and HD-DVD content. Component is located on the side of the screen for some reason, presumably to make it easier to access? It would have been nicer to see this at the back of the screen to be honest, where cables are more hidden and out of the way. On that note, there is no cable tie facility at the back of the screen either which is a shame.

Above: power connection and switch. Click for larger version

The 245T has an integrated power supply, and so you need only a normal kettle lead plug (provided) to power the screen. There is also a power on/off switch at the back (as shown above) which is quite rare really for some reason.

Above: OSD operational buttons on front of screen, click for larger version

The front of the screen features the usual Samsung design OSD operation buttons. These are small and discreet, and easy to operate. There is quick access to the MPA function (more on this later), the MagicBright preset modes, brightness control, source (interface options), auto (for setting up VGA) and PIP (picture in picture).

Above: OSD interface showing MagicBright preset modes

The power buttons glows a subtle and attractive blue colour when turned on, and goes orange when in standby. Overall, I can't really fault the monitors range of interface options and ergonomic adjustments.

Colour Quality and Accuracy

The Samsung SM245T utilises an 8-bit panel offering a colour palette of 16.7 million colours. The screen uses enhanced W-CCFL backlighting and so it's colour gamut covers 97% of the NTSC colour space according to Samsung's specification.

An important thing to consider for most users is how a screen will perform out of the box and with some basic manual adjustments. Since most users won't have access to hardware colorimeter tools, it is important to understand how the screen is going to perform in terms of colour accuracy for the average user. I restored my graphics card to default settings and set it to its standard profile. The  245T was tested at default factory settings out of the box using the LaCie Blue Eye Pro and their accompanying software suite.

Default OSD settings of the screen were as follows:

Samsung SM245T - Default Settings

Out of the box the screen looked nice and bright and colours felt vivid and quite attractive. You could immediately tell that the screen uses W-CCFL backlighting as green and red shades looked very deep and considerably different to the eye as compared with a standard monitor (72% NTSC colour gamut backlighting). The screen was a little bright however for comfortable use. I hooked up the LaCie Blue Eye Pro to determine what the default results were.

The results here help confirm our initial subjective analysis. The screens luminance was way off the desired 120 cd/m², that being the recommended setting for LCD screens in normal lighting conditions. The value was recorded here at 320 cd/m², massively out from the target luminance, and even slightly higher than the manufacturer specified 300 cd/m² maximum brightness. At default settings black depth was recorded at a respectible 0.25 cd/m², giving a static contrast ratio of 1280:1. This was a very good result, and even higher than the 1000:1 value quoted by the manufacturer (note, DCR was off in these tests, so this was a static contrast ratio).  Gamma was recorded at 2.1, which is very close to the target 2.2 level, being the default for computer monitors. Colour temperature was also pretty close to the target 6500k (daylight temperature), and was recorded at 8% out, at a level of 5989k.

The CIE diagram on the left hand side shows that the black triangle representing the monitors colour gamut stretches outside that of the the sRGB colour space. Traditional monitors use standard CCFL backlighting, which offers a colour gamut covering 72% of the NTSC colour space. Remember, the NTSC colour space is just a reference standard which is being commonly used at the moment to quote specs of monitors, and 72% coverage of NTSC equates to pretty much the sRGB standard colour space. The SM245T, like many modern screens, uses enhanced wide colour CCFL (W-CCFL) backlighting, capable of offering a gamut which extends beyond the sRGB space. In the case of the  245T, the NTSC coverage is specified as 97%, and this is evident by the fact that the monitors gamut in the above tests stretches much further outside the sRGB space, particularly in green shades.

As a reminder, the graph on the right hand side above shows DeltaE (dE 94) values across 16 shades of colours as measured by the device. In simple terms, the lower these bars are down the Y-axis, the better, in terms of colour accuracy. For reference, LaCie describe the DeltaE readings as:

• If DeltaE >3, the color displayed is significantly different from the theoretical one, meaning that the difference will be perceptible to the viewer.

• If DeltaE <2, LaCie considers the calibration a success; there remains a slight difference, but it is barely undetectable.

• If DeltaE < 1, the color fidelity is excellent.

Overall, at default settings the 245T had an average dE of only 3.8, with a maximum value recorded at 7.5. Colour accuracy would be considered pretty poor overall, but the degree of inaccuracy was fairly consistent across the colour range. Clearly some form of calibration would be needed here if you wanted to get the most out of this screen, or use it for any work which requires colour accuracy to be reliable. Unfortunately this is becoming quite common on modern screens, where accurate colours from the factory are sacrificed in favour of bright vivid settings. The screen may look nicer in a shop window, and some people may even prefer the bright and cartoony colours for video and games, but in reality, the accuracy of the colours displayed is way off. Fortunately, we have a high-end colorimeter device available here which will allow us to calibrate the screen properly, and determine what it is capable of with adjusted settings.

The calibration process takes us through several stages, allowing us to fine tune the monitors OSD settings, before following an automatic adjustment of the video card LUT. It should be noted that the OSD adjustments (which are shown above) form only a small part of the overall process, while the vast majority of changes are carried out at the LUT level, with an ICC profile being created and saved.

The calibration process was a great success! Gamma, colour temperature and luminance were all corrected very nicely, as you can see from the above report. With luminance now at a far more comfortable 120 cd/m², black depth was recorded at a very slightly improved 0.24 cd/m². This wasn't really much of an improvement from the default reading of 0.25 cd/m², and actually reduced out static contrast ratio considerably to 500:1. One might have hoped for a more impressive black depth from an S-PVA panel such as this.

The most impressive improvement came in regards to colour accuracy, where dE was now reduced on average to 0.5. Maximum dE was also only 1.2 and so overall, LaCie would classify the colour fidelity as excellent. The screen would now be far more suitable for colour critical work, and this goes to show again that with correct calibration, it is possible to greatly improve default factory settings of these screens. Testing the screen with colour gradients showed no obvious banding of colours, but some slight gradation in darker tones.

Above: Color Innovation mode set to 'normal'

The SM245T lacks any sRGB simulation mode, like we have seen on some other monitors offering extended colour gamuts (e.g. Dell 2408WFP). This can be useful for those wanting to work with smaller colour spaces where they do not have the high gamut content to match the monitors output. The screen does offer quite a few colour adjustments as we discussed in the intro section of this review. One of those is the 'Color Innovation' setting. The default setting is 'Custom', but switching to 'Normal' simulates a smaller gamut to a degree. I tested the screen with the LaCie probe to see how close it was to the sRGB space, and the results are shown above. The monitors gamut is slightly reduced from the 97% NTSC coverage, but not enough to simulate the sRGB space.