Samsung 305T Black 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor

Samsung 305T – Good & Big, Big & Good, Whatever...

Strengths: Huge screen real estate for video editing, photo editing and other graphics work , excellent picture quality, especially after calibration

Weakness: Just one Dual Link DVI port, no on screen menus, base not as stable as competing 30" models

The Samsung 305T joins the slowly growing lineup of huge monitors currently available. I’m a little surprised how long it’s taken for another LCD panel manufacturer to start making a 30” device. Until now, Philips had the market cornered, since all other 30” monitors on the market (as of Oct 2007) use either the original Philips 30” panel (Apple & Dell), or the enhanced CRI backlight...
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The Samsung 305T joins the slowly growing lineup of huge monitors currently available. I’m a little surprised how long it’s taken for another LCD panel manufacturer to start making a 30” device. Until now, Philips had the market cornered, since all other 30” monitors on the market (as of Oct 2007) use either the original Philips 30” panel (Apple & Dell), or the enhanced CRI backlight Philips panel (HP).

I currently use a HP3065 on one of my systems, so I’ll compare & contrast the Samsung 305T to the HP screen.

The first thing that surprises a lot of people about 30” monitors (other than the size) is the minimalist controls. There are absolutely NO on-screen menus on any 30” monitor. The manufacturers claim this is because they have not yet developed the ultra high resolution circuitry required to place the onscreen menu “onscreen” while the monitor is in use. The manufacturers also claim that this will be rectified in “Second Generation” 30” monitors. This leaves you with a power button, and a backlight brightness control.

Because of the lack of onboard control with these 30” monitors, I highly recommend that people who buy them for the purpose of photo and video editing also invest in a good monitor calibration device such as the Eye One Display. Without calibration, you have no real hope of accurate color editing.

Like all LCD panels these days, the 305T is way too bright straight out of the box. Should you choose not use a calibration tool on your 305T, you might find it helpful to know that after setting the monitor to minimum brightness, 25 to 30 clicks on the brightness up button puts you in the ballpark for proper exposure levels when editing photo and video materials. Like most Samsung panels, the 305T has pretty good color tracking straight out of the box, so with that one tip, you may find that you can live with an uncalibrated monitor.

This is in stark contrast to the HP 3065. The HP monitor is close to unusable without calibration, and even after calibration, it still produces oversaturated reds. One of the selling points of the HP monitor was that Phillips was using a new type of backlight that allowed the monitor to display a greater range of colors. While this may be true, I’ve not been able to use the monitor for critical photographic work. Unfortunate, considering the price!

The 305T matches color pretty well with other Samsung monitors, should you decide that you want to go gonzo, and add a secondary monitor for your editing program’s menus, thus keeping the primary screen – the 305T – free of clutter. The 305T seems to be slightly more contrasty than the 24” and 21” Samsung products (despite what the specs say), so pushing windows from one monitor to another, they do look a tiny bit washed out on the secondary screen under Windows XP, which can not support different calibrations for the secondary monitor. This would not be an issue for Mac users who can calibrate both monitors. The jury is still out on whether separate calibrations for the primary and secondary monitor work under Vista – but there’s a pretty strong chance your editing program won’t work (well), so at this stage it’s a moot point.

Overall, I’m very happy with the visual quality of this monitor. Photos and video look sharp, clear and accurate. Video does not show any signs of ghosting or lagging that was so common on LCD monitors a few years back.
The nits that I have to pick with the 305T are mostly cosmetic. The monitor’s base is small and round, and it is not terribly steady / solid when compared to the huge rectangular loop that holds up the HP 3065, or the graceful aluminum L that keeps the Apple 30” upright. The 305T use a removable pin to keep the monitor stand at it’s lowest position, so you’re almost certain to lose it. Dell and HP have a button to lock the stand, which is more convenient.

The 305T has but a SINGLE dual link DVI port, which some people might find a little limiting, however it does have a 4 port USB hub built in. Neither the DVI nor USB ports are particularly easy to access.

I’ve included a screen cap that shows how much extra space you have when working on a 30” monitor – In the cap, Photoshop is opened to the maximum size it can be opened on a 24” 1920x1200 monitor. All the extra blue space is what you gain by moving up to 2560x1600!

Overall, this is a really nice monitor. Just make sure you have (or get) a graphics card that supports resolutions of 2560x1600 and you’ll be all set.

By TechnoGuru - Oct 17, 2007

Samsung 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor (305T)

Strengths: Size and picture quality

Weakness: Inputs (only 1 dual link DVI input)

This is the first large LCD monitor that I've purchased. The extra screen real estate is exactly what I needed. What has really impressed me, though, is the quality of the picture. The most significant drawback is the lack of video inputs (1 dual link DVI). It provides a sufficient number of USB ports though.

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