Samsung’s monitor range has been hugely successful over the last couple of years, combining excellent image quality with living room design, and after seeing the 2009 additions today I can safely say that winning formula looks set to continue.

The majority of the displays on show were impressive refreshes, such as the polished and angular ‘Lavender’ line and the ‘Ecofit’ low-power models – all of which we’ll be reviewing over the coming months. But in amongst them a few interesting additions caught my eye.

The first was the so-called ‘lapfit’ display (LD220 and LD190N), which is essentially a widescreen monitor without the traditional stand. Instead it rests on an arm in the same way as a picture frame.

Intended for use as a second screen for a laptop, it connects via USB, consumes a claimed 33% less power than a traditional TFT and comes in 22in (1080p) and 19in (1,360 x 768) variants. In use we can verify it’s up to the usual image quality standards, even if it does seem a little gimmicky, almost like a consumer-style docking station.

I’ve looked at Samsung’s 120Hz 2233RZ 3D monitor in this month’s 3D: Coming to a Screen Near You magazine feature, and I’ll be giving it a full online review with Nvidia’s GeForce 3D Vision glasses very soon. So instead I’ll skip onto the latest entry in the burgeoning pico-projector market – and potentially the first to present a genuinely useable experience.

It’s called the P410M and, despite being as petite as every other pico model we’ve seen, it betters most with an 800 x 600, 170-lumen image up to 80in. Contrast is 1,000:1, there’s a set of 1W stereo speakers inside that produce a far louder sound than seems possible, and even though the little 900g projector had been running for hours when we played with it it was barely even warm. We’ll be getting one in as soon as samples are available.

The last new offering to really catch my eye was a late addition to the launch; I’ll try to get hold of some images from Samsung but they won’t do these monitors justice. They were 20in and 23in TFTs with thin aluminium stands and what I believe the rep told me were C-PVA panels – apparently sitting between TN and S-PVA in quality terms, they looked hugely impressive in my brief hands-on. Enthusiastic home photographers may finally have the perfect monitor, as this display technology means more accurate colours but without the price hike that usually comes with S-PVA. I’ll get full details from Samsung and update this post, and they won’t be out until June but, again, we’ll be getting one in as soon as we can.

So it looks like Samsung has more than enough in store over the coming months to retain its strong position in the display market. I’ll leave you with the new Lavender and super-thin Ecofit designs, including a remarkable new glass stand on the latter. Eye-catching indeed.