Samsung S24C650PL review

It’s billed as a business monitor, but those who arrive at work to find a new Samsung S24C650PL could be forgiven for thinking they’d won the IT department lottery. This smart-looking, 23.6in, 1,920 x 1,080 PLS display not only affords a huge amount of desktop real estate, but also produces a very decent image.

Colour accuracy falls into the “good enough” category. We measured an average Delta E of 5.8, which is unlikely to get many photographers to fish out their credit cards, but sufficient for the odd image-editing job.

In the real world, colours on the S24C650 were balanced and free from colour cast under fluorescent office lighting, with a peak brightness of 248cd/m2 and a measured contrast ratio of 1,034:1. The most significant drawback is the anti-glare coating, which gives the screen a slightly grainy finish (although it’s effective at reducing reflections); it takes a little getting used to.

The S24C650PL is outstandingly flexible. It can be adjusted upwards by 13cm, tilted three degrees forwards and 25 degrees backwards, and rotated more than 90° for a portrait view, so it hardly matters how your desk is set up: the S24C650PL will fit. A useful grab handle just below the top edge of the monitor on the rear makes precise adjustment easy.

Any self-respecting business monitor should include USB ports, and here the S24C650PL is a mixed bag. Two side-mounted USB 2 ports on the base allow for convenient peripheral swapping, but offering merely a pair of USB ports is hardly pushing the boat out. The lack of further ports on the back of the monitor also means permanently connected devices cause a messy straggle of USB cables across the desk.

The final box ticked is speakers: a pair of weedy but functional 1W outputs mean system sounds have somewhere to go, and an audio-out jack allows you to attach external speakers or headphones without trailing a wire to your PC.

Of course, it’s possible to spend less – significantly less, in some cases – on a 24in monitor. But the S24C650PL’s highly adjustable stand and terrific image quality make it worth the extra £50 versus lesser business panels.