Samsung SM-960BF 19" vs. Xerox XA7-19i 8ms 19"

.Lethal · 2 Feb 2006 at 13:05

Its come down to these two monitors.

For months I was hooked on the Xerox, but due to so many lil things, the panel issue, dust behind the glass and now someones issues with colors fading I'm tending to swing to the Samsung.

But, I would preferably like Baddass' opinion on this since he is the guru here when it comes to which should you buy. So if he or any other can give some good hard arguments over each other I would love you lots and lots!!

This would be used for gaming/movies etc and would go with my new PC (which is in another thread)

Thanks

Baddass · 2 Feb 2006 at 18:56

hi mate

I agree that the issues with the Xerox have sadly been a problem. With the stock confirmed as using a TN Film panel from CMO imo i think they are a little overpriced compared with other TN based models available. For a gamer, the Samsung 960BF / 930BF would be a better choice imo. The application of overdrive on this model has helped improve pixel responsiveness and the panel is about as fast as you are going to get at the moment in real terms. The panel Samsung has used (a TN Film panel they made themselves) has also been well established in the 8ms models before it (Hyundai L90D+, Samsung 913N, 940B etc) and offers some excellent colour reproduction in that sector. I would definitely recommend this above the Xerox for these reasons

However, if you are planning to watch a lot of movies on the screen i think you should be aware of a few draw backs of the technology used. TN Film by it's nature is very restrictive in terms of viewing angles, especially in the vertical field. This might not be a problem if it's just you using the screen, but something to be wary of. Movie playback is a little noisy on this technology and sadly this is only accentuated by the overdrive being aggressively applied to the panel. This means that modern "fast" panels like this are not really well suited to movie playback.

to get a truly all round screen which doesnt suffer from these issues i think you would have to spend a fair bit more money. I dont know what your budget is, but if it's ~£250 then you will have to make some sacrifices. If you want a slghtly more all rounded screen but on a budget still, the Samsung 913N might be a good choice too. Same panel as the 960BF but without the overdrive it doesnt suffer quite as much regards to the noise in movies...

hth

.Lethal · 2 Feb 2006 at 19:32

Thanks for that, I had no idea about the noise issue and to be honest that has put me off.

The 913N Monitor is alright, but I'm curious, of the 19" Monitors you talk of which is the top 3 that you would recommend regardless of the price (I assume its not over £400?). Perhaps the SM-193P+?

The monitor is one of the most important parts for me so I really do want to go that bit further and get the right one.

Baddass · 2 Feb 2006 at 20:02

well the noise is sometimes apparent on TN panels due to the way the technology works, you sometimes get some artefacts and twinkling in playback. Like i said, the overdrive doesnt do this any favours, especially when, at the moment, the control of the overdrive impulse is not particularl well controlled. Samsung haven't done a very good job controlling it on their models and their overdriven PVA models like the 970P and 193P+ do suffer as well.

As far as all round performers go, i think you need to be looking at the MVA and PVA market. In the 19" range the Viewsonic VP930 stands out as one of the best. This is arguably the best all round panel in the market. A decent response time, thanks to overdrive, wide viewing angles, good colour depth and black depth thanks to MVa tehcnology, and because the overdrive is well controlled by Viewsonic / AU Optronics, no real major issues with noise in movies. This would be a good choice imo for an all round screen. The Samsung 970P is similar in many aspects, but the overdrive control is quite poor and so movie noise is a bit more apparent than on the VP930. The Samsung 193P+ is good on paper, but really doesnt offer any improvements over it's predecessor, the 193P. This offered excellent static image quality, arguably some of the best, but was not very responsive when it came to gaming. With the application of overdrive, Samsung managed to get the PVA panel down to a rated 8ms, but in real practice, there wasnt much difference in performance compared with the older 20ms rated version. As such, for gaming, this remains a step behind the VP930, and Samsung only really made a noticable difference when it came to their 6ms generation (like the 970P). Viewsonic VP930 would be my suggestion i think here

If you want a larger screen, the Belinea 102035W is basically a larger version of the VP930, being based round a similar, but larger P-MVA panel from AU Optronics. Aside from a few issues with backlight bleeding and build quality, this is an excellent monitor and a really good price. There are some other models emerging soon using the same panel as the Belinea, but they are likely to be much more expensive sadly

.Lethal · 2 Feb 2006 at 21:25

Thanks for all your help.

I've sorta been put off buying one for now unfortunately, the Viewsonic just isn't very attractive to look at. Its another thing I'm looking for and thats a nice looking good performance monitor. I guess I'm setting my sights a little to high here it seems.

I might just hold off for these new monitors showing up and hope something takes my fancy. If not I'll take the plunge and get the Viewsonic since it has what I really need.

Baddass · 2 Feb 2006 at 22:00

no worries, glad to help