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The good: The Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 is low-priced, beautifully designed, and offers great overall performance. Also, it's one of the lightest and thinnest monitors we've tested of any size.

The bad: The Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 lacks ergonomic features and its base is quite wobbly.


The bottom line: The Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 looks great, performs well, and hits the right price point.
Design and features
As we mentioned before, the 23-inch Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 looks like a thinner, sleeker version of Samsung's P2370. The display measures just larger than half an inch in depth--a considerably thin measurement since most monitors of this size, such as the SP2309W, measure thicker than 2 inches. The XL's depth is about half the depth of the P2370, which we already considered very thin. The bezel measures 1.1 inches on the sides and 1.75 inches on the bottom where a light-gray Samsung logo resides. On the edge of the bezel is a plastic transparent overlay. According to Samsung, this overlay changes color based on the color of the light in the room, yet, this isn't entirely accurate. As different colored light passes through the overlay, it only gives the impression that the display is changing color
Manufacturer's specifications:
Resolution: 1,920x1,080
Pixel-response rate: 2ms
Contrast ratio: 1,000:1
Connectivity: HDMI, DVI-D
HDCP compliant? Yes
Included video cables? DVI, DVI to VGA
Backlight: LED
Panel Type: TN

Performance
We tested the Samsung SyncMaster XL2370 with its DVI connection. The display posted a composite score of 96 on CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests, besting the P2370, the SP2309's 90, but coming in just under the Dell G2410's 97. The P2370 got nearly perfect scores in our color test and the color tracking error that hampered the P2370's score failed to rear its head here. In our Dark Screen test, clouding or backlight bleed through was noticeable on the top and especially the bottom middle edge of the screen.

The XL2370 achieved a brightness score of 344 candelas per square meter (cd/m2)--much higher than the P2370's 239 cd/m2, the SP2309W's 297 cd/m2, and the Dell G2410's 234 cd/m2. The XL2370 just has a bright screen. When we set the brightness of the P2370 and XL2370 to 100 and 75 respectively, we found that when looking at the same image, the XL's whites were noticeably brighter without compromising the dark detail and deep blacks of the image. This made for a higher contrast between the blacks and whites and for a much more natural-looking image. Hmmm, maybe this is what Samsung means by the "Mega" contrast sticker included on the display's bezel.