LCD monitors are wooing current consumers with their appealing looks, lower consumption of desk space, and their promise to be 'greener' by using less electricity. The 17in Samsung SyncMaster 732N does all the above mentioned and is one of the many options available in the market for the average desktop user.
The looks are pretty much similar to the wide-screen LCD we have reviewed this issue. All black with a high glossy body and thin bezels around the 17in TFT display. The round plastic base provides the same sturdy and stable feel on your desk. The blue halo round the power button and the 5 button OSD controls on the base bezels are all the same as with its wide screen counterpart, the Sync Master 732NW. In other words, it stands elegantly poised on your desk.

The navigation including the auto-adjust, power up and power down buttons, select and the menu buttons all remain the same. The interface is very friendly and custom settings are worth experimenting with. The colour tones and contrast can be tweaked as personal choices dictate, and these are all very easily done with the GUI presented herein. Again the Magic Tone and Magic Colour features stand apart. With colour tone control, gamma control and intelligent colour enhancement, colours instantly appear vividly real. Magic tune software enables you to control brightness, contrast and colour levels by the simple click of a mouse. It conveniently optimises the way you interface with your computer.

Samsungs trademarked, MagicBright 2 does the trick here as well. It allows you to decide the way you view separate images so that you can select the best mode to meet your viewing environment needs. Most of the features included herein and the looks are similar to the widescreen 732NW. So why the extra bucks in this version and what does that tag of 'PLUS' provides? Well, delve in a bit deeper and you will find out. The most important USP of this product has been its ultra fast pixel response rate. It operates at a fast response rate of 5ms as against Bms in its counterparts. The feature labeled as 'MagicSpeed' really become quite evident with higher paced graphics. The ideal tool to compliment to your gaming, image viewing, or digital dreaming.

We thought that the 732NW is very good with fast paced frames but this version pushed the definitions higher up. There is absolutely no streaking of display and a superior contrast ratio of 700:1 (600:1 in the 732NW) coupled with increased luminosity of 300 nits (250 nits in 732NW) accounts for the clear and crisp displays with vivid colours. We reduced the font size to test it for clarity and sharpness. And even at the smallest possible legible font size, the sharpness was impressive. Even the pixel pitch has been increased from 0.255 to 0.264 in the 'Plus' version. A denser pixel pitch means that a monitor can display higher-resolution images more accurately.

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Also view angles of 160 degrees in both the planes ensure colour stability for different view angles. The standard aspect ratio of 4:3 has been maintained. With its increased vertical dimensions and the aspect ratio it has, the 372N-plus supports higher native resolutions of 1280x1024 and also an increased viewing area. With all the features, display and output delivered, one cannot really complain about the lack of DVI signal compatibility on the 732N-plus; the analog does deliver a top-notch performance. Lack of pivotal and vertical height adjustments can be pin-pointed in this model, but absence of a wall mount option doesn't really matter in a regular 17in 4:3 LCD screen. Built-in speakers are given a skip here.

To summarize, there is no doubt that the 17in 732NPlus delivers quality output, but is it worth those <.:xtra bucks that it demands? The answer to this question will vary with individual perspective, and for those who vouch for the 'wide-screen' effect, the price may seem a bit too much to compromise.