Ok, I've got a friend who has Samsung display on his i7 13" 2011. It was at his house though sadly I didn't bring my 2010 13" along for direct comparison, so take note the following observation is pretty much memory recall.
The first thing I check was the brightness of the screen. Contrary to many had described, I actually find the Samsung panel to be slightly brighter than my LG. I can get comfortable with only 5 bars from left, while similar brightness I need to crank 1 extra bars make it 6 on my LG. Maybe the room lighting is playing some trick but even then, they're pretty similar at the very least.
So next, the contrast and colors. Fired up the original link to the test image, all the high end colors on red/green clipped just like my LG 2010 13". Then, upon opening the "fixed" image, yes now everything is visible, just like my 2010 LG 13".
One thing I noticed is that, the lower end of the color blocks seems to be a little hard to see the difference, 1 bar below the 16 to be exact (value of 8). So I opened some greyscale comic scans that I read online recently, as well as loaded a video file that I always use as benchmark test for display. As a result, greyscale scans appeared to have more contrast, but I'd describe it as more "burned". I gotta admit, black on the Samsung indeed blacker, it's obvious albeit not a direct side by side comparison. You probably won't notice it if you don't have 2 to compare side by side or through experiences.
On the video benchmark test, the color seems a little more vibrant on the Samsung too, while on my LG the video appeared to be a little warm in color tone. Samsung, however, while remained vibrant on color, doesn't have the blue'ish tint like when I calibrated my LG display (no matter how many times I do it). If I turn the brightness all the way up, the darker part of the video (shadow etc) remained darker, while on the LG the darker part of the video will appear washed out.
I fired up the iTunes test as suggested by other MR members, yes, those bars with alternate colors indeed more consistent. But I went through the test a little deeper by tilting the screen to check the viewing angle. I discovered that the Samsung has more even backlight, and yes, it has better viewing angle than what I've experienced on my LG, sad but true. In comparison, LG has different backlight on the display, in a way that it exaggerate the light at the middle of the screen, about 40% area. So you'll see the top and bottom section of the screen is indeed different from the middle part of the screen, although not dramatically so, but the Samsung did better for sure in a way that the backlight seems to have a wider coverage maybe about 80% before the color/brightness change, so the backlight indeed appeared to be more even.
That's all of what I gathered. So all in all, Samsung panel on the 2011 is indeed better in almost every way. Sad but true. And he's got Samsung drive too! Lucky devil.
If you want my opinion, yes, the LG is perfectly fine for what I want. I'm not photo/video editor, so I'm happy with it. If you want to exchange your unit for Samsung display, I suggest you not to, everything stated above are only relative differences, I can tell you they're only marginal. Maybe they're critical for professionals, but for average people LG is still a fine display.
PS: There're various threads about the SM vs LG debate, I'm lazy to post my results on all threads, neither I'm opening a new one just for my findings.
