Like most recent Samsung LCD displays the Syncmaster 943B comes with a little feature built into the control panel called MagicBright. This tool has several preset brightness/contrast/colour temperature settings for a variety of general applications. For example, when set to "Movie" mode the screen brightness bumped all the way up. If "text" is selected, the screen switches to a warmer image that isn't as bright, and thus is easier on the eyes.

The MagicBright button is located on the control panel, and also accessible through the on screen display. MagicBright has pre-programmed modes to suit movies, text, sports, games, etc. For general desk work we preferred the custom settings which we manually configured, but in a pinch "text" is the best mix of brightness and colour temperature (~6500K).

On Screen Display menu

The OSD menu is neatly organized so it's easy to find what you're looking for. The only problem we encountered while navigating the Syncmaster 943B's OSD menu was the control panel keys. Without any tactile indicators for the up/down and menu/enter buttons we found ourselves more than once pressing the wrong key, or nothing at all. If you recall, the control panel on the 943B doesn't have physical buttons, rather it uses a sensor behind the smooth plastic bezel to register when your finger touches a 'button'.

The OSD menu's are pictured below for those who need to know.

The Gaming test

The Samsung Syncmaster 943B monitor was tested with a fast paced FPS game and the results were satisfactory. The high contrast ratio of 1000:1 resulted in velvety black backgrounds and colourfully bright graphics, just as things should be. The Syncmaster 943B's screen is rated at a quick 5ms G-to-G pixel refresh rate, so rapid screen movements was ghost free. Making broad movements with the mouse had the tendency to result in a somewhat choppy picture however.

Magicbright settings were tested in the gaming environment as well, but the results were mixed at best.

Starting off from the 'custom' brightness and contrast settings we'd previously configured, the Samsung 943B flipped through the MagicBright list with predictable results. The only oddity was 'dynamic contrast', which caused the entire screen to slowly pulse from an overbright to a completely dark image in Quake 4. The Syncmaster 943B is rated for a 1000:1 contrast ratio, but it can dynamically scale that up to 8000:1 in certain cases. Clearly the software did not know how to interpret some shadowed scenery in the game, and incorrectly compensated as a result of the naturally dark imagery. PCSTATS would recommend leaving Magicbright alone while you're gaming, it just might get you fragged if the screen goes dark. The 'custom' or 'game' display presets are perfectly suitable.