Samsung 2494HM review

Many monitors come with fixed stands, so the fully adjustable stand that comes with the 24in full HD 2494HM is refreshing.

You can adjust its height by up to 90cm and the pivot function lets you flick the display from landscape to portrait mode to work on documents.

Our only reservation is that there's no cable management in the stand to keep your cables tidy when you move the monitor. The two-port USB hub is useful for connecting your keyboard and mouse, though.

Picture quality on the full HD 1,920x1,080 display was mostly excellent. Samsung has included several image-enhancing technologies. MagicColor is designed to improve colours, and while we found that the image was way too saturated on full setting, the Intelligent setting was more subtle and brought colours to life.

MagicBright is a series of preset brightness and contrast settings: text, film, movies and dynamic. They're a quick way to change the picture to suit the content you're viewing, but we found that custom settings worked best.

The backlight was very slightly uneven and we noticed two slightly darker patches in the middle of the screen. These are more evident when viewing very bright images, but not enough to ruin the display for everyday use.

The dynamic backlight boosts the contrast ratio to 50,000:1 and worked well, particularly when watching movies using the HDMI input. The standard settings are probably best for normal screen work, as you'll typically have a wider gamut of colour on screen, which makes it harder for the monitor to find the appropriate backlight settings.

As with other Samsung monitors and TVs we've seen recently, the onscreen menu is controlled by touch-sensitive buttons. They picked up our touches well, but we think physical buttons are quicker and easier to use.

At £209 the 2494HM is no more expensive than many other 24in screens (although you'll need to buy a DVI cable for around £10, as none is included), even with its fully adjustable stand. It's a Best Buy.

Author: Barry de la Rosa