The T27B750 offers a lot for the money. At $500 you get tons of connections, MHL compatibility, Smart Hub, and a beautiful design.
Samsung SyncMaster T27B750ND
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
However, even at a price nearly half of what its closest cousin, the $1,000 T27A950 is going for, I can't help but be disappointed with the TB750's performance.
Sure, it's cheaper and the performance isn't bad by any stretch, but the glossy, ultraclear panel featured on last year's Samsung's monitors is sorely missed here.
Design and features
The T27B750 looks a lot like the T27A950 I reviewed in 2011. However, instead of a mostly flat, angular, silver body, the T27B750 sports a mostly white, much more curvaceous body. Corners are smoother and the design sports an overall streamlined look. The foot stand is humped, with a Plexiglass casing over its white plastic chassis.
The panel attaches to the foot stand on the right side and can be tilted back about 25 degrees, but no other ergonomic options are included. The panel is 25 inches wide, with a 0.7-inch-wide bezel and a panel depth of 0.7 inch. The bezel is glossy piano black and extends down to the lower right where the onscreen display (OSD) array resides. The array consists of six, non-tactile buttons: source, menu, volume up and down, and channel up and down, with the power button on the far right.
On the back, in the lower left corner, is a collection of rear-facing (thank you, Samsung!) connections you can see below. What you can't see from the picture below are the two USB ports hidden around the left corner.
OSD (short for onscreen display, but I'm sure you already knew that)The OSD can be called up via the Menu button on the display or the included remote control and while using the OSD array to navigate works fine, the remote works much better. When connected via the HDMI (DVI) input, only two presets are available: Entertain and Standard. Standard is too dark by default and I much preferred using Entertain, thanks to its more vibrant and accurate colors (but that's a tale for the Performance section).
Typical picture options are included: backlight (brightness control), contrast (white level adjustment), brightness (black level), and sharpness (well, sharpness). Other standout picture options include color temperature presets and two HDMI black-level preset settings.
The built-in speakers get five different presets, each apropos to different tasks like playing music, watching a movie, or listening to a podcast or audio book. You can directly connect the monitor to a wireless (wired is included as well) network, or configure the All Share settings.
Smart Hub looks to be identical to what CNET TV editors, David Katzmaier and Ty Pendlebury have seen on Samsung TVs this year. It's shockingly still a media portal for Samsung apps, video streaming, All Share devices, as well as Facebook, Twitter, and other apps. I agree with the TV guys that the interface is a bit cluttered and could stand to be streamlined a bit. However, with the amount of useful apps available, Smart Hub makes a pretty good case for getting all your Internetting needs met without ever having to attach a PC.