The Samsung SyncMaster T220HD is a computer monitor that thinks it’s a television. Besides DVI and VGA connectors, this 22-inch LCD has two HDMI ports and component-video and coaxial inputs, as well as a built-in ATSC TV tuner. In fact, the $449 monitor shares the same Touch of Color bezel design as Samsung’s Series 6 and 7 LCD and Series 6 plasma HDTVs, and it even comes with a remote control. For home and office users who want a good-performing monitor that stands out, the T220HD has you covered. It’s also an excellent buy for consumers looking to purchase a small HDTV for a bedroom or kitchen.
Right out of the box, the monitor looks great. The T220HD’s red and black bezel is surrounded by a clear plastic frame, making the monitor look like it’s made of glass and giving it an expensive feel. (Samsung says the red color is injection-molded, so that it won’t wear off like paint.) The base of the unit, which resembles the pedestal of a vase, adds to the T220HD’s high-end looks—but the plastic does feel slightly flimsy and lacks the sturdiness one finds in heavier stands.
Samsung continues its well-designed appointments with the ports on the back of the display. Not only are they well-identified, they’re well-placed—a welcome change from monitors that hide their ports beneath the display or in other hard-to-reach spots. Besides the myriad video connections, the T220HD has an analog audio input and optical audio output to channel the signal to a high-end sound system. A USB port is reserved for servicing; a built-in USB hub would have been a nice plus. Facing the screen, on the left side you’ll find one of the HDMI ports and a headphone jack behind a closed door.
Like all good TVs, of course, the T220HD has built-in speakers; these support Dolby Digital Surround. While the audio won’t blow you away as a true surround-sound system would, the T220HD’s speakers sound great, especially for watching TV.
In keeping with the design, the T220HD has a touch-sensitive power button on the front. Although it’s elegant, we found the button to be unresponsive at times, and the monitor chimes a musical tone each time you press the button, which can be irritating. The rest of the on-screen-display (OSD) buttons are found on the right side of the bezel (four of these double as volume and channel buttons). The OSD is exactly the same as those used in Samsung’s TVs, and it’s nicely designed and easy to understand. Navigating through the menus using the physical buttons can be confusing and a chore, however; we recommend using the remote control.
So what about the picture? The T220HD has a max resolution of 1,680×1,050 pixels, which is enough to handle 720p high-definition content natively. The display will handle 1080p sources just fine, but it can’t support more them at their 1,920×1,080 native resolution. The rest of the specs include a 0.258 pixel pitch, a 5-millisecond response time, a brightness of 300 candelas per square meter, and a contrast ratio of 1,000 to 1 (dynamic contrast ratio at 10,000 to 1).
To test its built-in digital tuner, we connected an antenna to the T220HD’s coaxial jack. Some analog stations came in snowy, and we weren’t able to pull in many digital stations, but we attributed that to the weak signal. The digital stations we did receive came in clear, and the picture quality was quite good. (For those who don’t need TV functionality, Samsung offers the similar SyncMaster T220 without a tuner.)
When we connected the display to a computer, we noticed a big difference in quality between an analog VGA connection and a DVI one. With VGA, the Windows desktop’s colors looked soft, and text was somewhat blurry. With DVI, the same image was bright, and text was sharp. (The same was true when we connected a Gateway M-151X notebook to the display via HDMI.) While the T220HD’s analog performance isn’t a deal killer, we recommend using a digital connection when possible.
In our DisplayMate tests, the T220HD did fairly well. It had a slightly weaker performance with a VGA connection during the color-scaling, high-contrast, and midrange-streaking tests. Font scaling was good down to 6.8 points; anything smaller than that was a bit difficult to read. The digital connection yielded better results, except when reproducing extreme light blue in the color-scaling test. The T220HD won’t please color purists, but most users will find the performance more than satisfactory.
The T220HD had some minor issues with noise and color when we played a movie DVD—nothing that detracted from the content, though. As expected, the movie looked sharper using a DVI or HDMI connection. When we turned on the monitor’s dynamic-contrast feature, the picture quality was more film-like, but a bit too dark for our liking. With games, there was minor clipping, and we wished details were a bit sharper in dark areas. Overall, however, gameplay was generally quite good.