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If there’s one thing that Sony does well it’s design and it’s obvious that a lot of time and effort has gone into creating a visual impact with this screen. Unfortunately, the result isn’t up to Sony’s usual high standards. That’s not to say that the SDM-HS93 is an ugly screen, but with the competition realising how important good design is Sony may find itself playing catch up in an area that it used to dominate.

The bezel around the screen is quite large by modern standards. In fact the physical dimensions of the unit are identical to the ViewSonic VP211b which houses a 21.3in panel compared to the Sony’s 19in screen. The wide bezel also makes the screen appear smaller than it really is, added to which the gloss black finish makes it a magnet for greasy fingerprints.

One thing that has to be mentioned is the stand configuration, which is unusual to say the least. The swivel mechanism is located in the base rather than the screen mount. The base consists of a silver disc which has a pivot mechanism hidden underneath it. The consequent twisting of the screen is silky smooth and only requires the pressure of a single finger. There’s no vertical movement, but the screen will tilt forward and backward. Again this movement is reassuringly smooth and requires very little pressure.
However, where the stand fails to impress is in the stability stakes. The slightest vibration on the desk, even just from typing on a keyboard, causes the screen to wobble. Given, the movement is slight, but it’s enough to be annoying and doesn’t lend itself to a pleasant viewing environment.

The image controls are hidden on the underside of the bezel and contain the usual up and down arrows complemented by menu and OK buttons. There’s also a button that will vary the intensity of the screen backlight, which is a neat idea. Unfortunately, no matter how you set the backlight the screen looks either dull or washed out.
Bizarrely the SDM-HS93 performed very well in the DisplayMate colour purity and colour scale tests, but in use the colours lacked a degree of vividness exhibited by other TFT screens.

The native resolution of the screen is 1,280 x 1,024 which is the same as you’d achieve with a far cheaper 17in flat panel. That said 19in displays are aimed at the user that wants a physically larger screen rather than just a specific resolution. Judging by the amount of people I’ve encountered running 800 x 600 on a 17in CRT this market is quite significant.

At the rear of the screen is a laminated plastic Sony branded cover that hides all the connections, or at least it appears that way. When you actually remove the cover you find that the only ports lurking behind there are the power connector and a single D-SUB. This is quite a poor connector array for a screen of this size. At the very least there should be a DVI connector instead of D-SUB, but to be honest I’d expect there to be two inputs. Add to this the absence of a USB hub and the feature set on the SDM-HS93 starts to look very meagre indeed.

Looked at in isolation the Sony SDM-HS93 is a perfectly competent and vaguely stylish flat panel monitor. Unfortunately it can’t be judged in a vacuum, and when compared to what the competition has to offer, the poor feature set and average image quality make the Sony look less attractive. The 19in Samsung SyncMaster 192T for example gives you smaller physical dimensions, brighter and more vivid image quality and better connectivity all for less money. It’s true that there’s a certain kudos factor attached to Sony products, but in this instance that just isn’t enough to make the SDM-HS93 desirable

Verdict

Sony can usually produce ultra desirable products that just make you want to buy them regardless of their ability, but in this case the SDM-HS93 just can’t make a good enough case for itself quality wise.