Samsung MD230X3 Eyefinity 3x1 Display - Technical Testing the MD230X3

A Word About Testing:

In everything we try to be fair, accurate and as objective as possible when it comes to testing hardware.  In the past, LCD reviews were done completely subjectively, but we have purchased some equipment that takes some of this out of the equation.  Take a look at our LCD Testing methodology over here to get a better idea of how we test LCDs.

 
Desktop

Color Accuracy: 

We started things off by breaking out the LCD Spyder and finding out how well this unit is set up and how well it produces accurate color.  As all of these displays are supposed to match and be at the same specifications, we only tested a single LCD in this review.  The color accuracy is pretty decent as you can see below.

Target

Uncalibrated

Calibrated

As you can see above, the color accuracy of the MD230 display is pretty darn close to perfect and although the software created a new color profile for this display, I could hardly tell the difference between the calibrated and uncalibrated settings.  Once the test is done, you can choose before and after comparisons, and there is a very slight difference.

Contrast Ratio & Uniformity: 

With the display now showing "perfect", we proceeded to take our contrast readings.  With the display calibrated we set out to find the "real" contrast ratio of the MD230. 

I know we may take some flak for the above results, but this contrast ratio is exactly what the consumer will see when the display is set up properly.  It doesn't come close to being 3000:1 and even when we maximize the contrast and brightness, we don't get much above 600:1.  Keep in mind that this display is still very nice, clear and doesn't burn your eyes with too much brightness.  Companies pad their specs, much like gamers pad their stats in their favorite online game.  It doesn't mean the product is bad, merely that specs are over-rated.  A real contrast ratio of 586:1 is actually very decent and is much better than many other screens on the market today.

We use our luminance meter in a dark environment to measure brightness uniformity.  To measure brightness, we use a bright white screen and measure across the screen in a grid to get our readings.  The brightest spot is considered to be 100% and the blackest point (with a black screen) is considered to be reference 0%.  The other values are obtained by calculating the difference between the two.  The screen is often brightest near the center.

3D Lighting Uniformity

2D Lighting Uniformity

As you can see the backlight drops off in certain areas of the display, and actually drops almost 23% off the brightest point.  While that may sound like a lot, often other "premium" displays from other companies can vary as much as 30%.  The Samsung MD230 comes in with a maximum 23% variation - which isn't great, but isn't too bad for a 23"+ display.

On the last page we'll cover some real-world applications and see how it holds up before we wrap things up.