LG W3000H and Samsung 305T (Plus?) Side by Side

This is my first post here, however I wanted to give back as I used this awesome forum to make a decision on the 30" panel that I wanted to buy.

I had a chance to compare the LG W3000H and Samsung 305T (I believe it was the Plus model)

I was looking for a new monitor as my 2 x 20" Viewsonic Monitors (VX2025WM) - MVA panels - the back light got quite a bit dimmer over time (about 30 months). The monitors are still on warranty (3 yrs) but not sure if Viewsonic would replace the back lights or send me some other refurbished models (which I don't really want to go through) - any ideas?

You can jump to the comparison photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukas_photos/sets/72157611287517709/

I first bought the LG W3000H because I could get my hands on it in Future Shop and it was possible to return it. And it's an IPS panel.
It's a great panel and really show off with it's colors. It needed calibration however because white was a bit on the yellow side.
Everything was great with the panel - I liked the design and the stand and loved the colors in photos. However, there was a problem that I noticed once I opened photoshop - vertical smudges only shown on gray colors. Defective. Then found a stuck blue pixel visible only on black.

Another problem is quite a bit of sparkle effect on white background. So when reading text it was a bit tiring on the eyes.

I decided to go for the Samsung 305T. I bought it from Infonec Computers (my client - infonec.com) and asked them ahead of time what was the model number on the box as I wanted the newer mode (305T Plus) because of DHCP. The model was LS30HUXCB/XAA - great I thought - then it must be the PLUS model.
However nowhere on the box did it say Plus. Once I opened it it also didn't say Plus anywhere, but the model is LS30HUXCB/XAA. So this is kind of a puzzle as the model number would suggest this to be the Plus Model. BTW, this is a Canadian version.

Comparing it to the LG W3000H, the colors on the Samsung were much more washed out, however when I went to the Nvidia control panel, and pushed the Gamma down to 32%, the colors almost matched in vividness. Both panels display colors really nice.

Here are my thoughts:
Colors:
LG seems a bit better at this out of the box, however when the Gamma is tweaked to 32%, the same level of detail can be had on the Samsung.

White:
The LG has a sparkle effect where the Samsung White is nice and Matte - Samsung wins big time for working with text (I'm a web developer and spend a lot of time writing PHP code.) The sparkle effect on the LG is tiring - mostly visible on white.

Text Contrast:
The text on the LG looks sharper.

Speed:
The Samsung input lag is about 30 - 40 ms slower. It's really not that noticeable though for my purpose. I played Crysis on it and it doesn't bother me. Honestly, not sure if a 30" panel is really a target for gamers anyway.

Stand:
The LG has a better and nicer stand that goes much higher than the Samsung. Big plus for me as I'm a tall guy and need a separate stand under my monitors. (You can see the stand that I custom-made on the flickr photos just to get the monitors higher)

Looks:
The LG looks nice as a monitor and the touch-sensitive buttons are neat - but the Samsung looks ok and is unobtrusive. The Samsung frame would work better if I later decide to add another Samsung Panel side by side.

Brightness:
The LG brightness level is much higher - I had to bring it down about 8 notches as it was burning through my eyes! The Samsung I leave at 100% brightness. This is a drawback as LCD back lamps get dimmer with time.

Black Levels:
The Samsung Blacks are deeper - mainly because of the panel coating is less reflective.

Coating:
The Samsung has a better panel coating - it is less reflective than the LG.

USB hub:
Both panels come with 4 port USB hubs. The Samsung has all 4 ports on the back - hard to reach.
The LG has 2 ports on the back and 2 ports on the left side. A better solution than the Samsung IMHO.

Heat:
Both panels seem to give off about the same amount of heat - a bit from the front and more from the top.

Packaged Items:
Both boxes supplied DVI cables - (LG's cable was quite a bit longer - a nice plus)
Both Panels came with one USB cable for their HUBs

In the end I kept the Samsung as the LG was defective, I was able to get the Samsung for about $160 less after taxes, and for my purpose the Samsung screen is less tiring on the eyes when looking at text because it doesn't have the sparkle effect. The LG was returned to Future Shop.

If you are a photographer or mostly work on pictures in Photoshop, etc. you may consider the LG - it's a very nice panel too (if you can get a non-defective one - Look at solid grays!). It wins over the Samsung in some features, however for text the Samsung is better. This is not to say that the Samsung is bad for photography purposes - it just needs the gamma adjustment. Maybe this has something to do with it probably being the PLUS model?

After working on the Samsung for about two weeks I love it. I was a bit concerned about the text being a bit too small on a 30" panel, however this has not proven to be a problem as the brightness/contrast level is much better than my old Viewsonic monitors. We'll see what happens after 2 years.

I hope that this review was helpful to someone that is looking for a 30" panel.

I forgot to add - in my search for replacement monitor(s) I tried a TN panel (Samsung 2693)
Seemed great at first, but after about a week, my eyes were very itchy and tired. Bad choice for me, however for a gamer and occasional computer user the Samsung 2693 may be fine. It's crazy how saturated the consumer market is with mostly TN panels - pushing PVA, MVA and IPS panel prices up. For me, response time is not the most important thing.

I really appreciate your post and images. It's really hard to find direct comparisons of 30" monitors and thats really whats needed to distinguish them.

As far as I know the only real difference between 305t and 305t+ is that the one with plus is wide-gamut. Wide gamut just oversaturates images and is really a bad thing (unless you have color-aware applications, which very few are) - if you have the 305t that probably explains why the LG seemed to have more vivid colors - just that it's the LG that are off and the Samsung are as they should be. Wide gamut is for people creating wide-gamut content - such as printing, but for anyone else it's just crap (although some like the look of it most doesn't seem to bother about it at all).
I was under the impression that neither the 305t or 305t+ had HDCP

I had almost settled on HP LP3065 but they just added almost 400 USD to the price on it everywhere here. Samsung seems to have the best blacks and best uniformity (both very important) of all "cheap"/entry level 30", whats holding me back from samsung is input lag and gamma shift. If it wasn't for those I'd probably choose it over any other. I'll try to investigate whether input lag bothers me but for gamma shift I'd probably need to try it myself and I have no way of doing that

I just can't understand how you like the looks of LG more though I'm thinking of boycotting the LG altogether just cause I can't stand it (from images at least).

EDIT:
The amount of gamma shift seems to be much lesser to the right than the left on the samsung, normal or just the different camera-angles?

Great post and comparison, Byk!

I never had a chance to compare my LGW3000H to anything else, as these monitors are so expensive that you will hardly ever see one in the big shops here in Portugal, much less two of different brands side by side.

I'm also not a web designer, photographer or a graphics artist, so I couldn't understand less about gamuts and color fidelity and what not.

This sad, I am extremely happy with my LG. I'm a programmer, and the extra screen space PLUS fantastic sharpness of every single pixel is heaven on earth for me and my eyes. Before purchasing the LG, my main monitor was an old Philips 201B 21" CRT monitor which I was pushing to it's maximum resolution of 1920x1440. Needless to say, going from a blurry CRT (at that resolution) to a crisp 30" LCD monitor was a real eye opener (pun intended ).

This is strange and hard to explain, but sometimes I almost feel like if I'm looking at an image printed on paper instead of a monitor, so solid and vivid are the colors. Besides the image quality, I also love the little touches of the LG: the touch sensitive buttons that play a special tone when you activate them, the cool blue light of the power button (pity you had that off in your photos), how beautiful the monitor is in general, etc...

Of course, I was lucky that this monitor didn't have a single defective pixel, and I also didn't notice any problems with gray colors. Only thing I did notice - although I'm not really bothered by it - is that the anti-glare coating (I presume) makes the screen look a little bit 'dirty' (like it needs a good wipe with a cloth, hehe) when looking at an all white image. But, if I remember correctly, this is a problem common to LCD monitors, right?

JcRabbit said:

Great post and comparison, Byk!
...
Only thing I did notice - although I'm not really bothered by it - is that the anti-glare coating (I presume) makes the screen look a little bit 'dirty' (like it needs a good wipe with a cloth, hehe) when looking at an all white image. But, if I remember correctly, this is a problem common to LCD monitors, right?

Click to expand...

Thanks JcRabbit, glad that you're happy with your LG - it is a very nice monitor. I've grown very fond of my Samsung
The 'dirty' looking screen on the LG is not common to all LCDs - I believe it's the coating LG uses or you are talking about the smudges that I noticed on my LG when I had it. That was the biggest annoyance I had and why I decided on the Samsung.

brumwald said:

I really appreciate your post and images. It's really hard to find direct comparisons of 30" monitors and thats really whats needed to distinguish them.

Click to expand...

Thanks brumwald and sorry for a late reply. That is why I took the photos as I couldn't find a anything similar comparison.

brumwald said:

As far as I know the only real difference between 305t and 305t+ is that the one with plus is wide-gamut. Wide gamut just oversaturates images and is really a bad thing (unless you have color-aware applications, which very few are) - if you have the 305t that probably explains why the LG seemed to have more vivid colors - just that it's the LG that are off and the Samsung are as they should be. Wide gamut is for people creating wide-gamut content - such as printing, but for anyone else it's just crap (although some like the look of it most doesn't seem to bother about it at all).
I was under the impression that neither the 305t or 305t+ had HDCP

Click to expand...

Personally I do like the wide Gamut - ad when I adjusted the Gamma it helped images "pop-out" more and at the same give a better contrast to text. Not sure about the DHCP part - although I did read in some post on this forum about 305t+ having DHCP so that was my impression - but don't quote me on it

brumwald said:

I had almost settled on HP LP3065 but they just added almost 400 USD to the price on it everywhere here. Samsung seems to have the best blacks and best uniformity (both very important) of all "cheap"/entry level 30", whats holding me back from samsung is input lag and gamma shift. If it wasn't for those I'd probably choose it over any other. I'll try to investigate whether input lag bothers me but for gamma shift I'd probably need to try it myself and I have no way of doing that

Click to expand...

Go for the Samsung - I really grew fond of it. I don't use it for games though - it's my workstation.

brumwald said:

I just can't understand how you like the looks of LG more though I'm thinking of boycotting the LG altogether just cause I can't stand it (from images at least).

Click to expand...

If you see the LG in person, it doesn't look bad. Honestly the Samsung looks much cheaper in quality, and the Stand is a lot worse. I'm actually gonna try for Samsung to send me a new stand as mine doesn't hold the monitor well when adjusted, and also the monitor is slanted to the left.

brumwald said:

EDIT:
The amount of gamma shift seems to be much lesser to the right than the left on the samsung, normal or just the different camera-angles?

Click to expand...

I think it's just the different camera angle.

Overall it's been two months and I'm very happy with the monitor - wish it was a bit brighter and had a better stand, but for the price it's a very nice monitor.

Thanks for the reply
In the end I went for the Dell 3008WFP. The scaler and additional inputs probably flipped me over the edge. I am somewhat intimidated by the lack of inputs on most 30" displays and the hassle and expense of a good DL KVM switch seems like an unsafe and unnecessary sacrifice.

Gamma-shift was perhaps one of the things that I could never get over with the samsung, keep in mind that I have yet to see one in real life - but since I didn't have a chance at looking at it before buying and if buying I would have had no way of returning it I felt that an IPS panel was the safer bet.

NP brumwald,
I was never able to compare it to the Dell 3008WFP (don't know a dell store around here)
IPS is a great tech though and I wish you satisfaction with your choice
Welcome to the 30" club

I too have an LG W3000H and I love it. I don't notice the "sparkle" effect you speak of and do a fair amount of web design/admin work so I sit at white screens a bunch. It seems super fast - I don't notice any lag in CS:S. The only problem I have is with Netflix not playing when at 2560x1600... but this looks like an issue w/ HDCP and not the monitor.

I love my LG!