Posted: June 12, 2002
Written by: Adam Honek

Samsung 1200NF

Installation

Setting up the unit was really no different than for other screens. The only difference was the use of BNC cables which we chose to ensure the highest attainable image quality. This in itself was a quick step in the installation setup, as was bringing the in-built USB hub to life with the appropriate cable hooking it up to a USB port on the PC. Once this and the power lead was connected as per requirements the last stepping stone was turning it all on. The BIOS screen showed up successfully and we progressed in loading Windows 2000 (and later Windows XP). In Windows we noted the monitor having not been fully setup correctly by Samsung so we undertook the liberty of doing so before attempting any tests. This involved removing as far as possible any barrel affects as well as leveling out the lighting in all areas where certain darkness was evident. This proved to be a job needing some lengthly attention, but we felt without it evaluating the monitor would be almost pointless. Eventually we got things to respectable levels, from here onwards it was time for testing.

Testing

In order to verify how well the monitor performs we used a program by the name of Nokia Monitor Test. This utility is commonly known and used amomngst the IT community for it's simplicity yet effective tests. The graphics card was the Visiontek GF4 Ti4600. The 1200NF faired very well but not ideal, all tests except two did it pass with flying colors. Geometry proved difficult for this monitor, especially the right side of the screen where a noticable inward curve was noticed. This again was much more profound in the lower corner than the top. This problem did not persist on the left side of the screen. Some more adjustments may rectify this slightly but it will be more a test of your patience rather than obtaining better results. It's worth noting we are talking about 2mm margins of error here, noticable but nothing to write home about. A surprising result was that at the recommended 1600x1200 resolution the geometry seemed to correct itself. At this same resolution the moire test took a slight nose dive producing some swirls, these were not apparent at a lower resolution of 1280x1024. Everything else seemed exceedingly good, even the focus/sharpness test where the whole screen is filled with tiny text on both white/black backgrounds. The text might of been small but anyone with good enough eyesight could read it with ease. Color reproduction is one of the monitors most strongest point scoring an excellent mark throughout. Shades of gray were wonderfully crafted making it easy to distinguish between each and every one however small the differentiation was. The 1200NF will even let you work at 2048x1536 but at this resolution moire became a prominent factor, gemeotry and others however scored top marks. Overall the Samsung 1200NF is an exceptional montior with little to speak against it. Our only wish would be marginally better geometric and moire capabalities in areas where it is bound to be used quite frequently (at 1280x1024 for instance). Some of our findings are contributed to us using BNC connections, without it we are sure the results would have been worse (especially in sharpness/focus tests).

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