| Similar to the smaller-screened SyncMaster series monitors, the Samsung 305T SyncMaster 30-Inch Large Format Digital LCD Monitor offers razor-sharp image clarity and a host of innovative features, but with some serious extra width. Take the next step with the 305T SyncMaster and bring the world into your home or office with greater clarity than before. The image quality of the massive, 30-inch screen offers wide viewing angles with bright colors for a very favorable viewing experience. With a wider viewing angle (178-degree vertical and horizontal viewing angle) Samsung makes sure you can see objects on your screen even when you're leaning over to grab a snack. With millions of colors bombarding your rods and cones, you'll be impressed with the clearer, brighter imagery that this wide spectrum monitor has to offer. Another impressive feature of the 305T is the pixel pitch, or the distance between pixels. This specification is usually measured in millimeters, and the smaller the pitch the sharper the image. Samsung offers a remarkable 0.250-millimeter pixel pitch for outstanding image clarity. The most talked about spec associated with LCD monitors is the measure of the difference of brightness levels between the brightest white and the darkest dark--the contrast ratio. With a contrast ration of 1000:1, this monitor assures crisp, easy-to-view images. Lastly, Samsung has designed this monitor with MagicContrast to process high-contrast ratios to guarantee an abundant palette of perfect color. Whether you're watching movies or videos with color-rich images, this monitor is the perfect choice. Other features include compatibility with all major operating systems and a quick 8ms response time that virtually eliminates the "blur" that is present in 25, 16, and 12ms monitors (this is especially good news for gamers). Speaking of a gaming, this monitor is compatible with the Nvidia Geforce 7900GT, GeForce 7800, GeForce 7600, Quadro FX3000 (AGP Type) ATI Radeon X1900XTX, Radeon X1900XT, and Radeon X1800XT graphic cards for some serious large-format gaming action. Connectivity is also important when choosing a monitor. The 305T features a Dual DVI digital link input video signal, a separate H/V sync-type input, and a DV-D (dual link) input connector. |
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 Vibrant large display that's easy on the eyes |
| Review Date: March 2, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Krishna M. Sadasivam, Tampa, FL USA |
I'd been shopping for a good 30" display for my computer system for the past three months. I'd read the reviews on various tech sites, including the reviews on Amazon. My criterion were the following:
-warranty - had to be greater than 1 year
-price - can't be more than $1300
-functionality - had to be bright, vibrant, and easily adjustable for the type of digital illustration work I do
-good reviews based on reputed tech websites / magazines
My choices were between Apple, Dell and Samsung. Despite its good looks, Apple was off the list due to its expensive price tag and its puny 1 year warranty.
Dell was also considered - as it had a 3 year warranty and fit most of my other parameters - but reviews on the web were mixed - and I've certainly read my share of horror stories about Dell's customer support (or lack thereof).
By process of elimination, and based on my research - the Samsung 305T was the best monitor for me. I'm running this monitor on a early 2008 model Mac Pro, with usage primarily between Photoshop and Painter.
The 30" real-estate affords me a nice, large workspace - replacing my 19" and 20" dual monitor set-up. It was definitely a step-up. Build quality was excellent - this monitor feels solid and stable on my desk.
Colors and brightness on the display were uniform and sharp. Two front mounted buttons can be used to adjust brightness. Out of the box, it was really bright.
There is one DVI port in the back, and several USB ports to hook into. My only quibble about the Samsung is that getting to those ports is a little difficult. However, once the cables are in, they're presumably not going to be removed - so it's a minor quibble.
Shipping was incredibly fast from Amazon. The box arrived in good condition (always a good sign, especially when dealing with UPS). Set-up, outside of angling around to plug in the cables, was easy. The display can be adjusted vertically, and locked into position with a single pin in the back of the unit. It would have been nice to have the pin somehow tethered to the display.
All in all, this is a great monitor. I waited for a few weeks before writing my review, because I wanted to spend some time 'living' with it. I'm very satisfied with my purchase and would recommend this monitor to anyone seeking a large display that's easy on the eyes.
Highly recommended. |
Great Monitor
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| Review Date: February 5, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Todd Martin, Austin,Tx |
My usage model may be a little different than most. I'm a professional programmer (not a gamer)and I was running out of screen real estate with my 19" LCD monitor, I looked at multiple monitors but the frames kept annoying me, I wanted one large screen monitor. I looked around and did a lot of comparisons and decided on the Samsung and I was not disappointed. I've got plenty of room 2560X1600 the colors are crisp and definitive. There were only two frustrating moments
#1 was finding an AGP card to drive it (I finally found the PNY GeForce 7600GS) Yea I know AGP is technically an old technology but in my environment I'm no where near taxing my CPU or cache.
#2 The manual for the monitor does not tell you there are two power buttons, there's the obvious on/off button on the front but there's also a master toggle switch on the bottom which is easily missed if your not paying attention.
All in all a great product and worth every penny..
After owning the monitor for about a month now I noticed a faint reddish halo on Bold san serif fonts (especially on tall thin characters packed closely together (ie. llll, llb, or ttin) at first I thought this was some chroma bleeding from the monitor that only showed up under certain conditions but it turns out to be something with Windows. If Display properties->Appearance->Effects->Smooth edge screen fonts is enabled & set to "Clear Type" it creates this reddish halo, setting it to "Standard" clears the problem up. Thought it was worth mentioning since it was extremely annoying... The monitor is still a great monitor I still have no regrets in my pricey purchase. |
Good color, great size... [now with woeful update]
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| Review Date: December 27, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Graham, Palo Alto, CA |
This is definitely a great monitor. The color is crisp, with no visible blur or lag. It is also extremely quiet. My previous Sony 22" monitor hummed noticeably, but I can't detect any noise from the 305T.
The 2560x1600 size is wonderful. I suspect 30" is about as large as I'll want to go: I need to move my head, not just my eyes to scan across it. You need a "Dual Link" DVI-D capable graphics card to drive it at full size. (I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT card.) The 305T box includes a six foot Dual Link DVI-D cable, as well as power and USB cables.
The stand allows easy rotation, tilting and up-and-down positioning.
After careful searching, I did find one bad pixel, where the red component is permanently on. It's unfortunate, but one or two bad pixels are common on a big LCD, so I can't treat that as a major negative. (It was hard to spot - the first three "bad pixels" I found turned out to be fluff on the surface.)
Update September 2009:
Alas, after 20 months of very happy use, my 305T has now developed persistent outbreaks of flickers and the dreaded vertical pinstripes.
The effect may have simply been due to aging and to some internal failure of the monitor. However, by chance, my dishwasher had kicked into high gear and caused the lights to briefly dim a few minutes before I first noticed these issues. This may only have been a coincidence, but it is vaguely possible a power spike was the final straw for some aging part. In any event, I'm going to invest in a good surge protector for my next monitor. Sigh.
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Stunning Monitor
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| Review Date: July 25, 2007 |
| Reviewer: David DeCurtis, Orlando, FL USA |
| This monitor is out-of-the-box-gorgeous. Zero dead pixels, no lag, gorgeous color and detail without any over saturation. Height adjustment is one-hand simple and smooth. I am running this montior on a Mac Book Pro as the secondary montior at full 2560x1600 resolution. The O/S is Windows Vista using Apple Bootcamp. I couldn't be happier. |
9/10 for the Samsung 305t Plus
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| Review Date: June 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Andrew M. Choi, |
I was on the verge of purchasing the Apple Cinema Display 30" for the photography work that I do.
However, as of June 2008, the ACD is already considered old and overpriced especially for the currect specs.
I started to take a look around and was interested in the 30" Dell LCDs however there were issues with oversaturation on the red hues. I know how that is since Ive had previous Dell LCDs.
I luckily found reviews on the Samsung 30" 305t and quickly became interested. However there were few reviews but the ones out there were great.
I finally pulled pulled the trigger and purchased it and got it a few days later.
I must say, the reviews out there say that the LCD is pretty well calibrated out of the box. I am currently running a Macbook Pro (Feb 2008) and when i hooked it up, the colors looked very hyper saturated. Reds, Greens and Blues.
I have a Gregtag Macbeth i1 display 2 for screen calibration. Without the OSD on the Samsung, I was not able to manually adjust the RGB color levels and the LCD was not giving me what I wanted.
I calibrated over 5 times with different light settings and it was still the same.
I called eye-one for assistance and they told me that the RGB controls werent that great and it was better to let the i1 adjust it. For some strange reason after that, I ran it again in advanced mode (which I did prior) and after a couple of resets, The colors in CS3 (PS & Bridge) were giving me accurate colors. Some icons and programs still had "hyper" colors but as long as the photos looked good, I was ok with it.
The other main issue I had was colors on Firefox looked super oversaturated. I soon found out that Firefox 2.x did not load color profile whereas Safari did (althoug Safari was close but it was still slightly less colorful). My solution to this was downloading Firefox 3.0 beta and installing a color management add-on. Solved the problem. Next week, Firefox 3.0 will be out and I wont have to use the beta anymore.
So overall, after 5 days with it, love it! Everything looks great. Don't hesitate for a moment. |
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