For the evaluation of the Samsung SyncMaster F2380's display quality, PCSTATS used a standard Monitor Test application which outputs various test patterns, solid colours, and different grey scales from which to construct subjective image quality comments. These include contrast, colour luminance, brightness and Moire. Ghosting is subjectively tested in a gaming environment. The monitor test parameters are: resolution 1920x1080, 32 bit, 60Hz, 6500K, DVI connection.

Viewing Angles: Viewing angles are rated at 178° horizontal, 178° vertical for the Samsung SyncMaster F2380 LCD display. The monitor retains the brightness and colour accuracy even from extreme viewing angles thanks to its C-PVA panel.

From head on the monitor is bright and shows no signs of vignetting around the corners.

While this picture shows some chromatic moire in the upper-left quadrant, that's a result of the photography, and not present during regular viewing.

From horizontal angles dim segments of the monitor's picture actually become brighter, with certain amounts of light bleeding through the sides.

The same effect happens from opposite viewing angles, with slight changes to the brightness and hue of dark areas of the screen.

Brightness and Contrast: The Samsung SyncMaster F2380 has a high static contrast ratio (3000:1) which results in bright white test bars over a suitably black background. Be mindful of which Samsung MagicBright setting you select; some options make the screen too bright, others too dark. Under the Gaming mode the transition white test bars were distinguishable, but the 1-9 percent black test patterns not as clearly defined, for example.

Whitescreen backlight evenness.

Colour Vibrancy: The white, red, green and blue test screens were equally bright and vibrant. All test images were even across the entire screen. Colour saturation on the whole was fine. No visible dull, stuck or broken pixels were detected.

Non-native Resolution: The native resolution of the SyncMaster F2380 is 1920x1080. We tested several non-native resolutions and found the image dithering/image scaling decent, although at non-native aspect ratios (16:10 and 4:3) text tended to look blotchy.

Moire: All Moire test patterns displayed fine and without any background interference.

Gaming / Fast Moving Image / DVD playback

The Samsung SyncMaster F2380 monitor was tested with a fast paced FPS game and the results were poor, with ghosting and smearing evident during turning. The SyncMaster F2380 LCD panel is rated for 8ms Grey to Grey pixel response rates, significantly slower than most LCD displays based on TN-panels.

Activating the Dynamic Contrast option does result in what seems like a brighter, more contrasting screen, but the effect isn't perfect. In bright scenes darks can become difficult to make out, and in dark scenes light areas often look washed out. It's best to leave dynamic contrast off.