Samsung S27B971D Monitor Review
by Chris Heinonen on October 31, 2013 12:00 PM ESTThe maximum light output of the S27B971D is only rated for 250 cd/m^2 in the Standard mode, which is lower than we expect to see. For all these pre-calibration measurements I use the sRGB mode of the display. It is the most accurate out of the box and what I would use if I couldn’t calibrate the display.
With the brightness set to maximum we get 261 cd/m^2 of brightness on a white screen. This is slightly more than the specs say, which is nice to see, but 10 nits is a pretty small difference. Set down to the minimum we get 62 cd/m^2 which is a good range of brightness. Many displays stop well before 100 cd/m^2 which can be too bright for nighttime or light controlled environments. If you do use the high brightness mode you can get 321 cd/m^2 from the S27B971D, but you give up accuracy. I’d skip it, unless there was a specific instance where it was helpful.
As PLS is similar to IPS I expect to see black level results that more closely mirror it than a VA style panel. The black levels on the Samsung are a bit underwhelming. With the backlight at maximum the black level is 0.3737 cd/m^2; at minimum it is 0.0904 cd/m^2. With values like this I’d like to see a higher white level as the contrast levels are going to be only fair.
As I suspected the contrast levels on the Samsung are only 700:1 and 690:1. These are OK for an IPS/PLS panel but not amazing. Samsung rates the display at 1,000:1 for static contrast but I didn’t find a way to achieve those numbers unless you use the dynamic contrast system (which I don’t). So it's a fair result but not great.
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Death666Angel - Friday, November 1, 2013 - link
You realize the monitor here has 240 vertical pixels more than the 1200 you speak of?NicoleJNavarro - Monday, November 4, 2013 - link
hii
EJS1980 - Monday, November 4, 2013 - link
For that price I got 2 Overlord Tempest OC's, and overclocked them to 120Hz. Nothing beats 1440p at 120Hz....NOTHING!!!djscrew - Friday, November 1, 2013 - link
here here!NicoleJNavarro - Monday, November 4, 2013 - link
my best frends mum just got a year 2012 Mitsubishi i-MiEV by working from a home pc... browse this site
twizzlebizzle22 - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
Tl;Dr average monitor... High priceSamus - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
Seriously, you can get the Dell or HP 27" IPS or PLS models on sale for half the price, or in other words, you could have TWO excellent 2560x1440 monitors for the price of the Samsung.JarredWalton - Thursday, October 31, 2013 - link
Except for the uniformity aspect, which Samsung does very well. But yes, it's priced too high for what you get in our opinion.Spoelie - Friday, November 1, 2013 - link
What I don't get is why you didn't measure or use the "Calibrated" preset. Everything is done in sRGB.cheinonen - Sunday, November 3, 2013 - link
Before I chose a preset I measured the grayscale and color saturations on all preset modes. sRGB and Calibrated were practically identical. However, sRGB allows for a brightness setting while it is preset on Calibrated. Because dE2000 will factor in a target brightness (200 cd/m^2 in our case), this would then cause Calibrated to have higher error levels overall. If we didn't have a target light level it might have been slightly better but you also only could use the monitor at 260 cd/m^2 or so of brightness.