Review on S27A950D 27" Samsung Monitor: Full HD, 3D Display, LS27A950DS/ZA by Jeremy Miller

Bought this monitor in early February. When I first unboxed it, I was struck by its overall design aesthetic. The brushed aluminum base and back panel look fantastic. I use it in a dark room, so the glossy screen finish wasn't a problem for me. When I set everything up and started to work, the brightness and size of the display hurt my eyes. There's nothing wrong with that, it just takes time to get used to. Previously I used a Samsung 2233RZ monitor, also at 120Hz but with 3DVision support. In terms of brightness and colors, the 950D is superior in every respect. One of the things that seemed like a great idea was a motion sensor that would automatically turn off the monitor if you walked away from it. I was never able to get it to work properly as the monitor didn't pick up any movement until I waved my hand right in front of the sensor, this could be a defect. I ended up disabling it completely and just letting Windows turn off the monitor itself, which is a more elegant solution. It's a good idea, but I don't see its usefulness in general. The first thing I did was pop in a Blu-Ray to see what it looked like. I saw "Time" and the picture was fantastic. Everything was bright and the colors really came out. After playing around a bit and getting used to the high brightness and much larger size compared to my old monitor, I fell in love. However, some manufacturing flaws soon ruined the honeymoon. The first thing I noticed was that the monitor seemed to be leaning away from the hinge. After the level was pulled, the side opposite the hinge sagged, probably about 1/8 inch total, but it was noticeable. Next was something I've seen in the reviews quite a bit and that was slight bleeding in the lower right corner. Or what I thought was a little bleeding, which actually seemed to have happened, was the monitor "spreading apart" at the corner at the hinge, probably due to the curvature of the design. A monitor there at the edge would solve the problem somewhat, but something inside seemed to come loose, possibly in transit. When the screen had a dark image it was very bright and washed out, when the image was bright it was dark and dull in this corner. Totally unacceptable for the price in my opinion. I thought I could adjust to this but I couldn't and sent it back to Revain for a replacement. BTW thanks to Revain I had to send something back for the first time and the process was completely painless, UPS pic Fixed a broken monitor yesterday, new one should be here in the next few hours. I also had issues with the touch controls on the front of the monitor, sometimes they worked well and I was able to navigate the menus smoothly, sometimes they didn't respond to touch at all, it seemed to be happening from the "bottom" most of the time. button, sometimes it was quicker to just click a few times to get to the 2 spaces down option because it just wasn't working. I've only tested 3D a bit, but I've had the 3DVision kit for a number of years and have never been impressed with 3D. The 2D-3D conversion on the 950D didn't impress me at all as it had a lot of ghosting and ruined the overall picture quality, but that may have more to do with the cheap 3D glasses that came with mine. 3DVision is not supported so keep that in mind if you are an Nvidia user. The Tri-Def software will work with your card, but you will not get the same image quality as with 3DVision. Overall, I was amazed at how excellent the overall look looked. Everything was crisp and bright when MagicBright (Samsung's name for dynamic contrast) was on. If there weren't any manufacturing issues, this would be the absolute best monitor I've ever had the pleasure of using, but unfortunately it's not. I would give this monitor a 5 for picture quality and overall aesthetics, but given the quality control issues I'm giving it a 2 star rating. If the new monitor has the same issues I'll send it back for a refund and just stick with my old Samsung 2233RZ as 4 years later it's still working, the quality I've come to expect from the 950D as Samsung's flagship. monitor for now.