Installation:
Installation of this monitor is just as simple as all the other Samsung monitors we have reviewed in the past. I'll give you a quick walk through of what needs to be done.
The first step would be to screw the base onto the tilting monitor arm. The base has a "thumbscrew" type head so you don't require a screwdriver to mount the base as you do with some types of monitors. I really enjoy the type of mounting screw that Samsung uses, no fussing around having to go and find a screwdriver. You can see the head of this screw above, in the photo under the heading Features.
The next thing is to uninstall any drivers from your previous monitor if you have one, then completely shut down and remove that monitor. The next step is to chose either the DVI or analog VGA cable and plug the one you chose into your video card. Being as the monitor has a built in power supply you simply plug the included power cable right into the monitor. The last step is to install all the included drivers and software on the installation CD and browse through the monitor's menu to get it set up to your viewing preference.

(Click to enlarge)

Testing:
For the testing of this monitor I ran the usual tests I do with displays, that being several games, several movies and just regular all around use.
I'd like to touch briefly on a feature I found in the menu of this monitor called "MagicColour". This is a colour enhancement feature built right into the monitor, and when I turned it on the difference was quite noticeable. The colour of the image that was on my monitor was suddenly much more brilliant and "lively" looking. There are five options of this MagicColour feature, Off, Demo which makes half the screen enhanced and half not, full enhancement, intelligent enhancement and MagicZone.

Onto my actual testing now, with a blazing fast 4ms response time and the very large screen size I was unable to find any test in which I wasn't pleased with the results. Everything from games to movies to just regular use looked superb. There was no ghosting that I could find at all. When the MagicColour feature is enabled, as I mentioned above, the overall monitor colour was much more vibrant.

In terms of the contrast ratio of this monitor which is 700:1, I would have liked to have seen something slightly higher than that as the previous Samsung monitor we looked at had a 1500:1 contrast ratio. Contrast ratio is something that I personally find doesn't have to be an ultra-high number. It is probably much nicer mind you, but my current monitor is of course a Samsung with a 600:1 contrast ratio and I find that it still beats out a CRT display any day!

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