Product Specification

With a price tag of £74.99, the Samsung SyncMaster 900IFT is not expensive. These monitors are designed for PC desktop baseunits and Apple Macintosh Computers. They work with G4 macs, but need an adapter to work with G5 and intel Core Duo Apple Mac computers The adapters usually come with brand new macs and you don't need specific drivers to calibrate the screen through your mac computer.

The first thing I noticed about the monitor was the size, with dimensions of 468x492x483.2 mm, the 900IFT isn't a small monitor and I had to rearrange the test bench a bit so the 900IFT would fit. Built using Samsung's DynaFlat technology, the actual dot mask is curved both on the horizontal and vertical axis. On the IFT series of monitors this curvature is very slight and almost unnoticeable but it is there, however it's not as obvious as with Samsung's Syncmaster DF's series of monitors.

It was very nice to see that Samsung kept the bezel of the monitor clean and free of gimmicks unlike some of it's competitors. The controls were easily accessible from the bezel just under the screen and the menu's are easy to use and pretty much self explanatory. The maximum resolution of the 900IFT is 1600x1200 with a refresh rate of 75 Hz which is very respectable for a 19" monitor.

Since the 900IFT is a crt computer monitor, it uses the 15-pin analog VGA connector only. It was interesting to see a USB B port on the back of the monitor, we're not really sure what it's for since there is no USB hub anywhere on the monitor. There is a slot in the back of the based that allows you to install a proprietary USB hub.One thing taken for granted by most users is the ability for a monitor to swivel. It was nice to see that the 900IFT could be easily adjusted be it to face left, right, up or down. The 900IFT also has 205 MHz of bandwidth available.

Display Resolutions:
Recommended Mode 1280 x 1024 / 85Hz
Supportable Refresh Rate Max 1600x1200 / 64Hz
VESA 1600 x 1200 / 65, 70, 75Hz (76Hz max)
1280 x 1024 / 60, 75, 85Hz (89Hz max)
1024 x 768 / 87i, 60, 70, 75, 85Hz (119Hz max)
800 x 600 / 56, 60, 72, 75, 85Hz (152Hz max)
640 x 480 / 72, 75, 85Hz (160Hz max)
IBM VGA3 Mode
Macintosh 1280 x 1024 / 75Hz
1152 x 870 / 75Hz
1024 x 768 / 60, 75Hz
640 x 480 / 60, 67Hz

With an 18" viewable size, the SyncMaster 900IFT gives its user lots of real estate and the ability to do 75 Hz at 1600x1200, it shouldn't give you headaches when starring at it for prolong periods of time. The text on the 900IFT is very good up to 1280x1024, at 1600x1200 the words seem a little blurry anywhere on the monitor. The OSD and controls on the monitor are easy to use, unlike some of the other monitors we have had here in the labs.