Samsung SyncMaster 305T review

Performance
The display performed extremely well in our DisplayMate-based tests. It did particularly well on the colour and sharpness tests. On tests that measure a display's capability to show distinct variances of the same colour without compressing them, the Samsung did not disappoint. This indicates that the display will be able to show subtle differences in colour shades, making for better overall colour quality. When we watched DVD and Blu-Ray movies on the Samsung, we definitely noticed its high quality colour output.

On our contrast test, the SyncMaster 305T achieved a 999:1, which comes impressively close to Samsung's claim of a 1,000:1 contrast ratio. Backlight bleed was never a problem with dark screens in normal room lighting.

The viewing angle was very impressive as we did not notice a drop in picture quality, no matter how angled our view was. Blu-ray and DVD playback were as good as we've ever seen. Both Kill Bill and Swordfish looked great with very accurate colours and at 2,560x1,600 pixels, the picture quality on World of Warcraft was beautiful. As for normal office use, we were again very pleased as the high resolution affords tonnes of screen real estate.

Our only bugbear was some slight streaking problems in testing. These problems only occured where the contrast was heaviest, however.

Conclusion
The Samsung SyncMaster 305T has a sparse feature set, but it more than earns its keep with excellent all-around performance. It showed accurate and vivid colours, stellar Blu-ray and DVD picture quality and impressive viewing angles. If you're looking for a large display for gaming, movies and normal office use with a high-quality picture and don't need HDMI or component video connections, then the Samsung SyncMaster 305T will not disappoint.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday