Samsung Series 7 S27C750P

Pros Good color and viewing angle performance. Flexible stand with auto-rotate. Two HDMI ports.

Cons Lacks USB ports. Crushed blacks. No speakers or webcam. Bottom Line The Samsung Series 7 S27C750P is an attractive 27-inch monitor that uses MVA panel technology to deliver rich colors and sharp viewing angles. It is equipped with a flexible stand and two HDMI ports but lacks a few features and has trouble displaying the darkest shades of gray.

By John R. Delaney

Samsung's latest addition to its desktop monitor line, the Series 7 S27C750P, offers style and comfort in a streamlined 27-inch cabinet. It uses an MVA (Multi-domain Vertical Alignment) panel that delivers robust colors, dark blacks, and wide viewing angles, but its grayscale performance could be better and it's not exactly feature-rich. However, it does have a stand that lets you pivot the panel to portrait mode and its two HDMI ports make it easy to stay connected to multiple sources without having to swap out cables.

Design and Features
The S27C750P is a sharp-looking monitor. The 1,920-by-1,080 MVA panel sits inside a slender 1.3-inch black cabinet and is framed by thin glossy black bezels. The metallic silver stand has a square base and a 13.5-inch mounting arm that has a hinge that pivots the panel 90 degrees and provides tilt adjustability. You can't swivel the cabinet or adjust its height but if you install the MagicRotation utility the image with automatically rotate when you pivot the screen, which means you don't have to go into the graphics control panel to change the image orientation every time you switch back and forth.

You don't get a lot of I/O connectivity with the S27C750P other than two HDMI ports, a VGA port, and an audio output, all of which are positioned towards the top of the rear of cabinet. Speakers, a webcam, and USB ports are not included on this model. There are six buttons, including the power switch, located beneath the lower bezel on the right side. Pressing any button brings up on-screen labels so there's no fumbling around trying to figure out which button to press while making adjustments.

Settings include five MagicBright picture modes (custom, standard, game, cinema, dynamic contrast) as well as brightness, contrast, sharpness, black level, and response time. You can also adjust RGB tint, gamma, and color tone (temperature) and use the MagicUpscale option to enhance low-res images.

The C750P ships with an HDMI cable and a resource CD containing a user manual, drivers, MagicRotation, and MagicTune, which allows you to make adjustments using a keyboard and mouse instead of the function buttons. It also comes with a three year parts, labor, and backlight warranty.

Performance
MVA panels are known for their deep black levels and lush colors, which is exactly what we saw with the S27C750P. Although the inky blacks make colors stand out and appear more vibrant, the downside is that shadow detail takes a hit as the panel has trouble producing the darkest shades of gray (they appear black instead of transitioning through the grayscale).

Color accuracy was good but not perfect. The chromaticity chart below shows where each color (represented by a dot) is in relation to the CIE standard (represented by a box). Reds are spot-on but greens and blues are slightly out of alignment. However, they are still within an acceptable range that doesn't cause tinting or oversaturation. Image quality was very good while watching scenes from the Blu-ray version of 2012; skin tones were natural looking and the picture was crisp and well illuminated.

Viewing angle performance was also quite good. There was no obvious color shifting and the screen remained bright when viewed from the top, bottom, and extreme side angles. Game play was relatively smooth with no noticeable lag thanks to the panel's five-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response.

The S27C750P used 20 watts of power during testing while operating in standard mode (Eco disabled). Switching over to 50-percent Eco mode reduced power consumption to 13 watts but made the picture a bit too dim. Even with Eco mode disabled, the C750P is more energy efficient than most other 27-inch monitors, such as the HP Envy 27 (30 watts) and the Viewsonic VG2732m-LED (26 watts).

The Samsung S27C750P is a good choice for consumers who care more about aesthetics and bold color reproduction than grayscale accuracy and connectivity features. Its 27-inch MVA panel is bright, energy efficient, and looks great from any angle. The inclusion of a pivoting hinge and auto-rotation capabilities are a nice touch, as are the dual HDMI ports, but a few more features such as a USB hub, speakers, or a webcam would help justify the $380 price. If you need a 27-inch monitor that delivers solid performance and better-than-average audio output, the HP Envy 27 is a better choice, but it'll set you back an extra $100 or so. For now, the AOC i2757fh remains our Editors' Choice for big-screen mainstream monitors.

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Type A Machines Series 1

Pros Large print area. Clear, detailed user guide. Easy to set up and operate. Generally good print quality. Multiple choices in resolution. Very few misprints.

Cons Tricky to remove objects with print bed in place without damaging them. Only a starter filament supply included. May extrude extra filament before a print job starts. Bottom Line The Type A Machines Series 1 3D Printer has many strengths--including ease of setup and use, large print area, a range of print resolutions, and good print quality--but relatively few drawbacks.

By Tony Hoffman

The Type A Machines Series 1 is priced somewhat above the other 3D printers we have tested, but it is money well spent. It has a relatively large print area, enabling you to print larger objects. It is relatively easy to set up and to use, and consistently prints good-quality objects. It's geared for use by hobbyists and professionals (product designers, architects, and engineers, for example) and in that role it's worthy of an Editors' Choice.

The Series 1 can be bought directly from San Francisco-based Type A Machines or from several distributors; we procured our review unit from Dynamism. In addition to Type A Machines' support resources, Dynamism provides unlimited tech support, and can perform any warranty-covered repairs.

While the Series 1's design lacks the simple elegance of the 3D Systems Cube 3D Printer or the UP! Mini, it has a tasteful wood frame. Unlike the UP! mini, which has an enclosed print area with a door and a hood, the Series 1 has an open frame. A spacious print bed provides a maximum build area of 10 by 9 by 9 inches. (Previous 3D printers we've looked at have had print beds 6 by 6 by 6 inches or smaller, a more typical size.) It has a relatively low price for its build area; 3D printers with large print beds tend to sell for upwards of $2,000.

Software
The Series 1 is compatible with Windows, Mac, or Linux. For Windows, you can download a bundle of software from the Type A Machines website. It includes a printer driver, an Arduino driver (the printer uses an Arduino Mega controller board), a slicing program (KISSlicer) for "slicing" the 3D object file into layers for printing while setting parameters such as resolution, and a control program (Pronterface), which controls the motion of the extruder as it prints out the object's layers. The Quick Start sheet that came with our test unit is seemingly outdated, as it describes downloading each program separately from the Series 1 site, something that you don't need to do.

Each program is installed separately. The two programs you regularly use when printing are KISSlicer and Pronterface. While it's not as easy to use as the Cube 3D Printer's Cubify—a single program is used for the entire workflow—the Series 1's software's basics are not hard to master. When preparing an object for printing, you first use KISSlicer to open the STL file (a 3D representation of the object to be printed will appear on screen), set the resolution and other parameters, and slice the file, and save the file to a printable format (GCode). While the Cube's Cubify software took several minutes to slice a typical object, the System 1 generally took less than 10 seconds.

KISSlicer identifies problems with the object file through color coding and showing the location of the defects on a 3D representation of the object. The Cubify software takes it a step further and automatically fixes structural problems in a "healing" step. Although you can repair some file problems with KISSlicer by changing the settings, it's not something a beginner could do; you're better off running the file through a utility like netfabb, which will fix common flaws in STL files, before opening it in KISSlicer.

Continue Reading: Setting the Extruder Height

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Corsair Obsidian Series 900D

Pros Well-built. Stylish. Highly capable.

Cons More suited to a niche market. Pricey. No fan controllers. Bottom Line If you genuinely need a case this high-end, the well-built, stylish Corsair Obsidian Series 900D is worth considering. Virtually everyone will be happier with a cheaper enclosure.

By Joel Hruska

Corsair is a relative newcomer to the computer case market, but the company has won accolades for itself with a line of popular mainstream enthusiast cases at a variety of price points. On the high-end of its offerings is the Corsair Obsidian Series 900D. With a premium $349 price tag and a feature set that's meant to appeal primarily to the liquid cooling crowd, this case is definitely not a mainstream product.

The 900D is enormous, even compared to other cases of its type. The next step down in Corsair's product line, the roomy and well-designed Corsair 800D, measures 24 by 9 inches by 24 (HWD) for a total internal volume of 5,184 cubic inches. The 900D is 25.6 by 9 by 27.2 inches (HWD) for an internal volume of 6,893 cubic inches, or about 33% more than the 800D. Anyone who intends to put this case under a desk or in a crowded area will need to measure first. With the size comes weight—the 900D is 41 pounds when empty. Once built, this chassis could easily hit 50 to 60lbs depending on just how many components you put into it.

The 900D's styling is all done in brushed aluminum with minimal accents; it has a conservative, distinguished appeal that mimics the finish on the Corsair 700D and 800D. Internally, there are four 5.25-inch drive bays, nine 3.5-inch drive bays, and three front-mounted 120mm intake fans, and a rear exhaust fan. The rest of the case, including the copious amounts of space up top, is designed for radiator installation. Alternately, you can certainly mount standard fans— 4x120mm or 3x140mm are both supported.

The front panel is hidden behind a shield but contains the usual suspects—four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, and a pair of audio jacks. There's plenty of 5.25" drive bays—four total—but the front-mounted hard drives that defined the Corsair 800D are gone in favor of smooth aluminum siding.

Given that the case is marketed as being for water cooling, you might think at first that the second door about two-thirds down the body of the chassis is meant for the water reservoir. That's not the case (badump-ching). The two-panel system is a nod to the idea that the 900D implements two zones of cooling, with one zone for the power supply and lower drives and the other for the motherboard, CPU, and primary components.

The side panels are held on by easily removed latches, while the bottom panel doesn't detach—it opens on a hinge to allow access to the bottom components. Power supplies are installed on edge, to allow for up to two supplies in the same case. That's a relatively rare configuration option, which gives an idea of just how specialized the case design is. The side panels are more than just an aesthetic option, they're also mount areas for their own fans. While they look like contiguous pieces of metal, there's a removable plate on each side. Pop it off, and the formerly solid panel becomes a vent to which fans can be attached. There's room for up to 4x120mm fans on each side, but the practical limit is four fans on one side, two on the other—installing one PSU will block two of the fans on that side.

The 900D does a lot of things right as far as supporting a full range of motherboards (you can drop anything up to an HPTX motherboard into the chassis), well positioned board cut-outs for optimum cable routing, and drive trays that are sturdy. As an added bonus, a number of cases aren't really designed for SATA cables that come off the side of the board, but the 900D nails this nicely. Cable routing in a case this large can sometimes be a nightmare, but not here—there are routing channels in the back and plenty of room. Corsair includes the cable extenders that are often necessary when working in huge towers and one of the drive cages comes pre-fitted with three SATA cables and SATA power.

This is precisely the type of perk we want to see in a $349 case, and it's clear that Corsair has sunk in the time to build something that appeals to a luxury buyer. The case is easy to build in and virtually without downsides, though you'll need an L-shaped screwdriver to tighten thumbscrews or swap rear components. Still, there are a few things missing, including an integrated fan controller or fan hub. When multiple cases at half the 900D's cost include such features, it's hard to justify their absence here.

Still, there's another more basic issue with the 900D, which is "Do you need a $349 case to start with?" For the vast majority of buyers, the advantages of the 900D—copious space for two power supplies, easy liquid cooler mounting, and HPTX motherboard support—simply aren't going to be important. Even if you're a Corsair fan, the excellent Corsair 800D, at more than $100 cheaper, is probably going to suit your needs.

If you're in the market for something truly enormous, with multiple power supplies, liquid coolers, huge radiators, or you've got a burning need to smuggle midgets, the Corsair 900D is absolutely worth consideration. Most everyone else will find better, more cost-effective options elsewhere.

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Samsung Series 9 S27B971D

Pros Rich, accurate colors. Wide viewing angles. Stylish design. Lots of ports.

Cons Expensive. Weak dark grayscale performance. No USB 3.0 ports. Bottom Line The Samsung Series 9 S27B971D is an attractive 27-inch PLS monitor that delivers bold and accurate color reproduction and very dark blacks. It is well equipped and offers wide viewing angles but it has trouble at the dark end of the grayscale and is very expensive.

By John R. Delaney

The Samsung Series 9 S27B971D, Samsung's latest addition to its Series 9 family of desktop monitors, bears a striking resemblance to its predecessor, the Samsung Series 9 S27B970D. Both use a 27-inch PLS (Plane-Line Switching) panel to deliver bold, vibrant colors, both use the same circular base and adjustable stand to support the cabinet, and both carry exorbitant price tags. However, this time around the folks at Samsung switched out the glossy panel treatment for a non-reflective matte treatment and dropped the edge-to-edge glass design. Calibrated at the factory, the S27B971D's color accuracy is outstanding, as is its off-axis viewing performance, but its grayscale performance could use some work.

Design and Features
Like its predecessor, the S27B971D is a sharp-looking monitor. For this model, Samsung did away with the one piece shiny glass surface used on the Samsung S27B970D and went with a matte anti-glare coating that is non-reflective. The 27-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 panel is framed by textured black bezels capped off with a band of silver trim. Two moderately loud 7-watt down-firing speakers are embedded in bottom edge of the cabinet, but as with the Samsung S27B970D, a dedicated audio input is missing, which means there's no way to bring audio to the monitor when using a DVI signal.

There are no buttons, ports, or LED indicators on the cabinet itself; everything is contained in the base. As a result you can't mount this model on a wall. The base is round with a silver metal over black plastic finish. A thin silver mounting arm connects the cabinet to the base and provides 4-inches of height and 17-degrees of tilt adjustability but does not allow you to swivel or pivot the panel.

At the point where the mounting arm meets the base is a smallish control panel with four touch sensitive buttons including a power button, a menu key, a color mode key, a brightness key, and an input select key. At the rear of the base are HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort video inputs, an upstream USB port, and the power jack. The HDMI port supports MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) technology so you can connect the monitor to compatible smartphones and tablets and other MHL peripherals. There are two downstream USB ports on the right side of the base, but as with the earlier model, they support the older and slower USB 2.0 technology rather than the faster and more current USB 3.0 technology.

The OSD menus consist of Picture, Color, Size and Position, and Setup sub-menus. Picture settings include brightness, sharpness, contrast, dynamic contrast, and HDMI black level. There are also three response time settings that aid in reducing motion blur. The Color menu offers five modes including Standard, Cinema, sRGB, High bright, and Calibration. The Calibration mode, when used with the included Natural Color Expert software, allows you to save a custom color profile. Unlike the NEC MultiSync PA271W, there is no Adobe RGB mode. Other settings include individual Red, Green, and Blue intensity levels, a range of Color Temperature modes from 4,000K to 10,000K, and Gamma presets ranging from 1.6 to 2.7.

Samsung covers the S27B971D with a one-year warranty and includes DVI, DisplayPort, HDMI- MHL, and USB cables in the box. It also comes with resource CD containing drivers, a user guide, Natural Color Expert software, and a multi-screen utility that allows you to create multiple screen partitions.

Performance
The S27B971D is pre-calibrated at the factory, which explains it's excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy. As illustrated by the CIE (International Commission On Illumination) chromaticity chart below, reds, greens, and blues are all inside their respective boxes (each box represents the ideal CIE coordinates for color accuracy).

Grayscale performance was similar to what I saw with the Samsung S27B970D; the panel did a good job of displaying swatches of light gray from the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test but the transition from gray to black was sudden at the dark end of the scale (the swatches should gradate evenly from gray to black). Colors appeared sharp and accurate and the picture remained bright when viewed from an extreme angle.

The PLS panel did a good job of displaying small fonts from the Scaled Fonts test. Text set to 5.3 points (the smallest on the test) was legible and well defined. The panel's 5-millisecond (g-g) pixel response did an admirable job of handling fast gaming action without much blur, and while some motion artifacts were apparent from time to time, you have to be actively looking for them to really notice them.

The S27B971D used 43 watts of power during testing while operating in regular mode. With the Eco Saving option set to 75-percent of full power it used 32 watts, and the 50-percent setting reduced power usage to 21 watts. However, the 50 percent setting is way too dim. By way of comparison, the NEC PA271W used 82 watts in regular mode, 77 watts in Eco mode 1, and 50 watts in Eco mode 2.

Rich, accurate colors and a striking design make the Samsung Series 9 S27B971D a good choice for users seeking a PLS monitor that looks as good as it performs. Its three digital inputs and built-in USB hub offer a variety of connectivity options, and the addition of a matte anti-glare screen means you won't feel like you're staring into a mirror when the screen goes dark. However, at just under a grand this is one pricey monitor; for that kind of money I'd expect better grayscale performance and newer USB technology. Our Editors' Choice, the NEC MultiSync PA271W, offers outstanding grayscale reproduction and is packed with features for the same money, and it has a panel that pivots 90 degrees.

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