The BX2431 is a premium-priced monitor with the looks to match. It isn’t quite as flashy as the PX2370 (seep90), but the slim profile, textured rear and dainty stand all look great.
The amazingly slim figure means Samsung has resorted to an external power supply, but it’s compact enough to hide out of the way. Otherwise, there’s nothing at the rear apart from two HDMI inputs plus one D-SUB, and a 3.5mm audio out for passing HDMI audio signals to speakers or headphones. The stand is slightly wobbly, and only tilts back and forth.
More disappointing is the BX2431′s panel, which is TN rather than IPS. In isolation it doesn’t look bad. There’s enough brightness thanks to the LED backlighting and subjectively there’s very little wrong with the image quality. Colors are vibrant, with only a very slight yellow tinge to whites and skin tones. It’s also very efficient, with a power draw of only 16W.
But there are weaknesses. Mild backlight leakage spills from the panel’s edges, and in dark scenes it had a tendency to crush the darkest greys into black. X-Rite’s colorimeter also showed the BX2431 to be a little offs the pace. Both gamma and colour temperature were within a whisker of ideal, but the fine average Delta E of 3.6 was undermined by a considerable peak of 9.3 in the green region.
Were the Samsung BX2431 cheaper, we may have been a little more forgiving of its performance. However, when superior IPS-based monitors such as the ViewSonic VP2365wb can be bought for similar money, it’s impossible to recommend.
