The Samsung 245B: the 1st TN 24'' TN vs 24'' PVA, MVA... (page 1: LCD 24''survey: They will replace 22'' displays)

24 inch displays for everyone! The end of the 22"

The latest news is that Samsung will launch the first 24 inch equipped with a TN panel, the SyncMaster 245B. More specifically, this display is a TN 5 ms. It doesn’t bring any technological miracles as much as it sets another precedent in the current price war; a 24 inch that goes below the 500 euro mark. This is something new and means we can now afford this product for the price of certain 22 inch screens or even a 20 inch, which are at the same price and are losing ground in terms of sales. For this reason, buying habits are about to change. Those who want to purchase a 22 inch, will have to think again, because 24"s offer serious advantages :

- First of all, their Full HD resolution with 1920 x 1080 pixels is ideal for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD films, practical for games with a lot of space like Wow, and are comfortable for all types of office use such as web surfing, spreadsheets, etc. Also, they are well suited for photo editing (palettes won’t get in the way of images).
- The diversity of panels. There are MVA, PVA, and TNs,
- Ergonomics. Even in the entry level, we find vertically adjustable bases, a DVI input with HDCP support.

The downsides: First of all, their size, which are roughly 50 cm wide, followed by energy consumption (around 80 watts, versus 40 or so for the 22 inch).

As for prices, the Samsung 245B is impressive for its very low starting price. However, we have to keep in mind what happened with other 24 inch displays released in the last few months and that are less expensive now. For example, the 245B is rivaled by the Acer AL2416W equipped with a PVA panel for 550 Euros. The Dell 2407WFP (also a PVA), a 24 inch star, is currently at 736 Euros, instead of 1150 Euros upon its release. The ViewSonic VX2435wm and LG L245WP-BN are both roughly at 690 Euros and with MVA panels.

So between 500 and 750 Euros, we have the choice between TN, PVA or MVA!

The tests

We carry out tests in game reactivity, for delays in display, video rendering (in SD, HD
720p and HD 1080p), evaluate the ergonomics, viewing angles, interpolation quality, and brightness homogeneity on the panel surface. In short, we take a look at all aspects of a screen.

For color fidelity, we use the new version of the LaCie Blue Eye Pro colorimeter, which is based on a Gretag probe and combined with a new LaCie software suite. This tool allows us to compare the display quality of the screen’s default colors (the product right out of the box) with measurements (gamut and DeltaE) after calibration. Results are sometimes surprising and it’s often in your best interest to manually correct colors or at least modify contrast, brightness and color temperature.
This part of the test, which consists of studying 18 color patches, also allows us to establish a table of the screen’s gray shades in order to compare them to ideal results.

In order to evaluate afterglow, rather than taking time measurements with an oscilloscope, we photograph the screen in action using the program, Pixel Persistence Analyzer (or more familiarly PixPerAn). These pictures are taken with a Canon 350D reflex at 1/1000 s. Fifty photos are made in burst mode for each test to see the precise evolution of afterglow between two images. This of course doesn’t mean that we have abandoned the practical part of tests with games, HD and DVD video, web surfing, etc.

Finally, we measure the display delay by comparing the LCD to a CRT side by side.

The test machine is a self assembled PC based on an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor and an NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX graphic card.