Home > Consumer Reviews > Samsung SyncMaster 743BX 17-inch LCD Monitor

I got this to use as a second monitor for my 20" aluminum iMac. Didn't have the room or need for another widescreen monitor. Fits in great. The screen's physical height is exactly the same as the iMac and the stand lets me raise it to the same level. Pixel height is 26 lines less, but it's not noticable.

The monitor comes with both a VGA and DVI cable! But for the iMac I needed to get a mini DVI to DVI adaptor from Apple. $20 if you don't already have one.

Also, I have another PC nearby and was able to hook it to the monitor's VGA input. There's a front panel "SOURCE" switch that easily switches between DVI and VGA. That button and the others are "touch" types and can be hard to see in the dark. Also not arranged very logically.

But it's going to work out very nicely.

Samsung SyncMaster 743BX 17" LCD Monitor

I have had my Samsung SyncMaster 743 17" LCD monitor for three weeks. The monitor is great. I like the adjustable movements and the price. The monitor picture is also very good. I would play games using my old monitor and could not see the clues or picture very well. This monitor allows me to see all the cludes and/or pictures excellent. It was very easy to install, even for an "old lady". I highly recommend this monitor to anyone that needs or wants an adjustable monitor with a good picture at a reasonable price.

Arrived with no bad pixels (a good start, anyway). The unmounted pedestal attaches easily, once you figure it out -- not very intuitive, though. The mounting arm is collapsed in the box; it pops to its extended position quite aggressively after you remove the locking pin (keep the pin! You'll never get this dude back inside its box without it). The menu's touch-sensitive controls are invisible in the kind of subdued lighting in which most PC monitors should be used. But most people use them in bright office or home lighting best suited for football stadiums; the controls are easier to see in such light, but proper image adjustment isn't possible. I used a penlight to spot the menu buttons while calibrating the 743BX in subdued light. The supplied CD has the monitor driver and calibration software. The software relies on the miserably poor ability of most humans to judge color accuracy and contrast levels by eye. I calibrated the 743BX with iMatch/EyeOne software, the only way to do it. Out of the box, the monitor is 400% too bright, highlights are yellow, blacks are red, colors are oversaturated, and the midtones are magenta to the point of making grays and monochrome images look purple. The color temp ranges from 5300 in flesh tones the color of Sunkist orange juice to over 8000K in the brights despite yellowy highlights. These factory-set effects appear to impress most buyers, who prefer a juiced-up and overly sharp image, and who'll accept anything that makes Aunt Tillie at least nominally recognizable in family photos, even if the offbeat colors and hot brights have her looking like Mr. Hyde in drag. After half an hour with EyeOne calibration, brightness was reset from 380 to a more natural 122. With a smoother grayscale the gamma simmered down to a close-to-spec 2.24 and a color temp of 6470. A 20-step grayscale actually displayed most of the gray bars as fairly neutral gray -- a rare feat for an LCD in this price range. Note that the RGB controls can't be used to correct the grayscale, as they appear to affect Y-level (saturation) only. The measured contrast range worked out to a decent 735:1, average for competent HDTV's. As usual, the claimed 7000:1 works only if you view this monitor turned off in a completely dark vacuum and then turn it on to its highest brightness and contrast levels. In use, text at all sizes is sharp and solid. The viewing angles are visibly wider than with older models. For an LCD the calibrated image is good enough for video or photo work if you're careful and know how to use a pixel color sampler. Oddly, I noted lots of movement noise in grainy videos (a problem with all LCD's), despite the 5ms speed. Considering that this monitor has the inherent innaccuracies common to all LCD's (it sure ain't no CRT), and that I'm about $8000 too short to buy a studio LCD for precise work, I'd say the 743BX is an excellent buy after calibration.

Purchased, waited as usual for the delayed "free" shipping. It installed on my 4 year old computer, on the digital cable provided, thank you Samsung. Looks and works wonderful!