Samsung SyncMaster FX2490HD review

Still, we were happy to note that settings are saved for each input. Also, we quickly realised we’d need them as none of the three colour presets were any good. Dynamic produces overblown colours and sharpness; Standard is too saturated and yellow-looking, and Movie is too washed out. Unfortunately, even after an hour’s worth of tweaking, we were unable to obtain accurate colours. Skin tones were always too yellow, and contrast wasn’t up to scratch. Moreover, we couldn’t remove the over-processed appearance due to a combination of sharpening, colour processing and noise reduction.

When watching our test Blu-ray movies, we immediately noticed a lack of detail compared to a good-quality LCD TV, and test scenes also looked grainier than usual. The colour problem remained; the only time we didn’t notice it was in cartoons where the vibrant colours were appropriate.

We had to tweak colours and contrast when connecting a PC via VGA, but no matter what we tried, we couldn’t achieve a sharp, properly scaled image when using a DVI to HDMI convertor. Overall, the FX2940HD isn’t great as a PC monitor.

Regardless of our gripes so far, there’s a bigger problem: price. The FX2490HD may have a TV tuner, media player, and a variety of inputs, but it’s around twice the price of a standard 24in display. Considering you can buy a better-quality 32in HD TV for similar money, the FX2490HD is poor value.