Samsung's SyncMaster TA950 aspires to being the upmarket screen for all users and we have to admit it does pretty well. A hybrid TV/monitor, this distinctive 27in display comes with a long list of additional features, including an inbuilt digital TV tuner, media streaming from a variety of devices, 3D conversion and some additional web functionality like social networking, YouTube playback and a variety of downloadable apps.
All of these work pretty well, too. As a TV, the TA950 isn’t as full-featured as dedicated units, but we found channel scanning fast and picture quality generally good; likewise media streaming. This isn’t a full-on media centre, in so far as recording is out of the question, but we were impressed that the TA950 seamlessly played back high bit rate 1080p videos from both local USB storage and network sources.
3D was also good, with better-than-average brightness and the novelty of 2D-to-3D conversion thrown in as well. There’s no getting around the TA950’s other intended use, though, which is as a desktop monitor and there it’s not quite perfect.
$650 is a bit of an ask for a TN panel, despite generally good colour balance and picture quality (you’ll want to dial down Samsung’s characteristically over-enthusiastic sharpening), and the fact that this screen is almost certain to be hooked up to a PC makes its built-in Facebook or Twitter functionality a little redundant. As an all-in-one package for smaller homes, though, this luxury screen is actually decent value.
