Samsung SyncMaster 2233sw mini Review

This line of monitors was released just over a month ago in Japan. However, I bought one today at my local Sam's Club. I'll say up front that I am not a graphics artist or professional video editor although I do a bit of amateur video editing.

The monitor does require a little assembly. See photo 1 below. The stand and base have to be screwed together. Fortunately this is designed so that you can tighten it by hand without need of a screwdriver. But you can use a screwdriver if assembling a large number of monitors.
Once the little stand is built you have to press it into a rubber-lined pocket on the bottom of the display, with the arrow symbol facing out as you look at the display. I mention these steps because it isn't in the directions, though simple to figure out.

The picture below gives a reference on size of this "22 inch class" (21.5 inch) monitor. The smaller monitor is a 15-inch model that is similar in size to what comes on most PC notebooks.

I am happy with the Samsung. I have no dead pixels, and it works with the Mac Mini wonderfully. I did not even have to restart the Mac. The 2233sw came with a DVI cable (and VGA cable) that I plugged into the Mac and by the time I turned on the Samsung and the screen had come on, the Mac had readjusted the display settings and I had a glorious new and WIDE desktop. My only minor complaint is because of the curved case there is no place to set my old iSight camera. You can see from the picture below that it was bright enough out of the box to cause my camera's auto setting to decide it didn't need a flash in my dark cave of a room.


I recommend using the Calibrate function of the Mac OS displays setting to tune the monitor. (All of the settings on the monitor are disabled when the DVI input is used.)

Also this is the first monitor in this class I have seen with true 1080P display. Most of the others are 1440x900 or 1680x1050. This one is a full 1920x1080, which makes me feel that for $200 its a steal or a sign we will be seeing much better monitors at reasonable price points in the near future.