Samsung SyncMaster 305T review

There are only a handful of vendors -- Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway and Samsung -- that offer 30-inch LCD monitors at the moment, so your choices are limited if you're in the market for an extra large LCD.

The Samsung SyncMaster 305T is a good place to start. It's available for around £975, which compares favourably with other 30-inch LCDs.

Design
For a display so large, the footprint is relatively small at 690 by 502 by 280mm with its stand. Despite this, the display never feels unsteady. The bezel is 22mm thick on all sides, which have a smooth and somewhat soft finish. The overall design makes for a very simple and elegant look.

The height of the display can be extended 76mm and the display rotates back about 30 degrees and to the left and right about 60 degrees via a lazy susan design on the bottom of the stand.

The two brightness control buttons are located in the bottom right corner of the bezel, right next to the power button, which gives off a cool blue glow when the display is turned on.

Features
The biggest selling point for the Samsung SyncMaster 305T is its huge 30-inch screen, which supports a native resolution of 2,560x1,600 pixels. To view the screen at this very high resolution, you must have a high-end video card and a dual link DVI cable. If you use a single link DVI cable or your video card does not support a resolution that high, then the display will output to 1,920x1,440 pixels at its highest.

As far as calibration options are concerned, there is only one. Samsung has included controls for brightness calibration and nothing else. The contrast and colour are calibrated and locked by Samsung at the source before the monitor is shipped. However, if your graphics card has contrast and colour control options, you can affect the quality of the display from there.

Video connection options are also limited. There are no other connections options other than the one DVI port located on the back left side of the display. This port is easy to access, as is the power port on the right. Right next to the DVI port are four USB downstream ports and one USB upstream port. It supports HDCP, but this is expected with such a large display.

We are disappointed that there are no HDMI or component video connections. This limits the number of devices this display can be connected to.