- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 15 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Fits The Bill As Second Monitor & HDTV In One!"
Pros: As advertised: monitor + HDTV. Setup was straight forward. Price wasn't out of budget thanks to Best Buy's price matching. Picture quality is great & viewing angles aren't bad. Speaker quality is fine for TV. Headphone jack for desktop speakers.
Cons: No composite input. Included stand tilts up not down (what's the sense in that?) - this causes "double vision" text in monitor mode when elevated. Trouble finding remote code for Dish Network's ViP622 DVR, but tech support was able to help with that.
Summary: I'm not normally an early adopter (my budget can't handle that!) so I was nervous about buying this monitor/HDTV so soon after it's release without a CNET review. I was desperate for a second monitor, though, and was able to justify this purchase because it would function as an HDTV as well. After hunting around for reviews of the T240HD and reading what others had to say on other sites, it seemed to meet my needs. The biggest complaint I found from reviewers was about the built-in speakers' sound quality (which I really don't find that bad), but as a second monitor the sound comes from my laptop and it has a headphone jack where I can plug in my desktop speakers when it's in TV mode if I want to - so sound quality is fine for me. The picture from HDTV is absolutely wonderful and the picture from the monitor is great too. I have it perched on a stand a few inches off my desk and have noticed "double vision" on text because I'm not looking straight on at it. If Samsung had included a tilt down stand this wouldn't be a problem. Honestly though, the second monitor function is so I can watch downloaded video on it while keeping my main screen free for other work, so the "double vision" isn't an issue for me. I did have to buy component cables for my DVD player as that was previously connected via composite and the one connection type this monitor doesn't have is composite - so mild annoyance there. As I said in the Cons, I did have to contact Dish Network about the remote codes, but they were able to help me with that and now it really does function as a TV. I was also pleased to find out that it has a sleep timer so I can drift off to Sirius' Coffee House channel without leaving the TV on all night! I didn't get the best price for it because I wanted to pick it up in person rather than worry about shipping, but Best Buy was able to price match Circuit City so I don't feel too bad. Overall, I would definitely recommend this TV/monitor if it's in your budget. It really does function well for me and after 3 weeks I can't image how I did without it!
Where to buy
Samsung SyncMaster T240HD:
$249.00 - $498.84
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$289.95 | Yes |
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$269.99 | Yes |
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$269.99 | Yes |
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$299.95 | Yes |
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$269.99 | Yes |
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