Samsung S24C650 review
Summary
Our Score
9/10
Pros
- Attractive and practical design
- Easy pivot and height adjustment
- Easy to access USB ports
- Very good colour accuracy
Cons
- Overly cool white point out of the box
- Uniformity could be better
Review Price £190.00
Key Features: 24-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 PLS panel, LED backlit, USB hub built into base, height, tilt and pivot stand
Manufacturer: Samsung
Samsung S24C650 review
What is the Samsung S24C650?
This is the monitor equivalent of a pair of M&S slippers: eminently practical, but not exciting. Practical is good, though, where a business focused monitor like the Samsung S24C650 is concerned. This 24-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution monitor has height, pivot and tilt adjustments built-in, and a handy USB hub built into the base, and at around £190 inc. VAT it's damn good value, too.
Samsung S24C650: Design and Features
Did we say the Samsung S24C650 wasn't exciting? Well, actually... no, no, that is true. On appearances the S24C650 doesn't look exciting, but it does look classy. In this instance classy is better than exciting, and the simple black exterior, slim bezel and robust base exude class.Of greater interest are the various features that mark this out as a practical, businessy monitor. There's a handle built into the stand so you can pick up and move it easily, and the S24C650 has height adjustment and pivot in addition to standard tilt that even the cheapest monitors have. This means you can use it pretty much as you please, and ensure it sits at just the right height for your setup.
There's also a built-in USB hub. Ok, not exciting on its own, but instead of tucking the ports away in awkward inaccessible places, the two USB ports are built into the stand. These are the kind small touches that make using any day-to-day workhorse such as this a little less troublesome.
All would be for naught if the build quality wasn't up to scratch, but the Samsung S24C650 has no problems here. It's impeccably put together, while the pivot and height adjusting stand is smooth and easy to manipulate as you please. The cluster of control buttons at the front click reassuringly, too. All is exactly as it ought to be.
Connections are straightforward, with one each of D-SUB, HDMI and DisplayPort available. There are built-in speakers, too, and audio in/out ports. It's all you're ever likely to need from a work monitor.
Samsung S24C650: Setup
Setting up the Samsung S24C650 is easy as you like. There's just one screw it tighten to fix the monitor securely to the stand, and it's the work of but a moment. The only criticism we have, and it's a very small one, is there's a pin for locking the height adjustment in place for transport. Something more permanent, and not so liable to being lost, would be better.Unlike a lot of consumer monitors, which rely on fussy touch sensitive buttons, the Samsung S24C650 has proper buttons to access the menus and fine tune the settings. The menu controls aren't quite as attractive and easy to use as those on the LG 29EA93 we tested recently, but they're simple enough and have all the basic controls you really need.
Samsung S24C650: Image Quality and Verdict
Summary
Our Score
9/10
Review Price £190.00
Samsung S24C650: Image Quality and Verdict
Samsung S24C650: Image Quality
It's fair to say that Samsung has nailed the design and ergonomics of the S24C650, but what about image quality? For the record, Samsung quotes a static contrast ratio of 1000:1, a 5ms response time and a peak brightness of 250nits: all fairly standard. It's also worth pointing out it uses one of Samsung's AS-PLS panels, not the VA or IPS derived panels seen in most rivals.
Out of the box the Samsung S24C650 looks crisp, clean and bright. We have no complaints about its rendering of text, while the viewing angles are very good: more than good enough for business monitor.
Indeed, this is true of the monitor as a whole. Putting it through its spaces using our X-rite i1 Display Pro, we were a little dismayed at first to discover a colour temperature of 6,924K that's a fair way off the 6500K (D65) ideal we'd like. Of course, it's not such a critical issue on a monitor designed mainly for office use, but it's still a shade disappointing. With tweaking we managed to hit 6514K using the following colour settings: Red, 53; Green, 50; Blue, 42.
Contrast and brightness are good, however, hitting a decent 1167:1 and 262 nits respectively. More impressive, however, is the colour accuracy. After our tuning, the S24C650 has a DeltaE of just 1.27 (lower is better). Anything below 1.5 is very good indeed and beats the BenQ GW2760HS (1.96) and LG 29EA93 (1.76), and neither are bad themselves.
The results of our uniformity tests, which measure both the brightness and temperature consistency across the panel, are more mixed.
Colour temperature (white point) consistency is pretty good, though the top-right segment is on the edge of acceptability.
But the brightness (luminance) test shows the top edge is noticeably dimmer than the rest of the screen. For most people this won't be critical and it's not bad for a monitor at this price, but it's a shame all the same.
It's a slightly mixed story, then, but overall we have to stress this is still a very good monitor. The actual accuracy of colours is excellent, while the viewing angle and brilliant adjustable stand make the Samsung S24C650 well-suited to its intended audience. We'd prefer it if it came better calibrated out of the box, but anyone this effects with either: a) know how to fix it and b) be looking at more expensive monitors.
Should I buy the Samsung S24C650?
If you need a proper office monitor, it's as a good an option as we've seen in recent memory. The key here is the excellent stand and design, which is unobtrusive and flexible. The neat USB hub in the base is a thoughtful nice-to-have, too, and what few image quality issues exist are minor and will affect very few.Verdict
The Samsung S24C650 is a well-designed and thought out monitor and slavishly delivers exactly what people need from the real work monitor. It's easy to recommend.Source : http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-s24c650_Monitor_review
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