Opinions of SAMSUNG 225BW Black 22" 5 ms Widescreen LCD Monitor?

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littlejim68

Junior Member
Mar 28, 2004
24
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I am thinking of buying a new monitor. What I am looking to use it for is mostly serfing the web, but I do game and use PS some (both of which I am poor at but love dearly).

Samsung 225BW at Newegg

I know it has some backlight problems near the top and bottom. Not sure how much that will annoy me. The LCD is so new I can not find any good reviews on it.

What I am thinking is 22inches of real-estate, 16.7mil colors and 5ms response all at $379.00. Sounds to good to be true so probably is. Anyone here know if this is worth getting?
 
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HexiumVII

Senior member
Dec 11, 2005
661
7
81
I got one a few weeks back. Its pretty nice for games, its only 16.7mil colors so it isn't so accurate, firing up photoshop gradients and you will see. Overall its very similar to the other widescreen Samsungs. If you can find them in stores and like them, the 22" is pretty much just the bigger version. Costco has a Sceptre 22" for $300 right now, i'm probably going to get one and see which to keep.
 
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littlejim68

Junior Member
Mar 28, 2004
24
0
0
Thanks for the advice on the Chimei LCD being the same panel, significant price savings.

I think I will have to pass on the Chimei after I looked at their webpage. The LCD is not even listed, no drivers and no warranty in the US. Where Samsung has a reputation, from what I read, for good service.

Anyone have an idea about the quality of this panel that is in this LCD, am I going to be surprised at some aspect of it?
 
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littlejim68

Junior Member
Mar 28, 2004
24
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0
xtknight: I was jsut following your "Test your black level" link. I can start seeing slight differences at RGB(4,4,4). Is this good/fair/poor?

Can see diferences up to RGB(2,2,2) if I look at the LCD from the side.
 
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hardwareking

Senior member
May 19, 2006
618
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0
I was planning on getting a new LCD too.
So should i get this or the samsung 215TW?The 215 has HDCP support through DVI.But no details regarding the 225BW though?Any reason why the 225BW is cheaper than the 215TW?
 
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oseven

Junior Member
Oct 9, 2006
19
0
0
Hey guys.. I'm in europe, and was suggested this monitor (Samsung 225bw), as the 22" acer widescreen does not have DVI in European versions - I'd also love to hear some opinions of it..

My needs are gaming primarily, (as I only use for it text-editing otherwise).

As to the price (we're talking us dollars right?), the cheapest price I could find for the Samsung 225bw in denmark is around 580$ - which is cheap... I don't really understand the price differences, compared to the price already mentioned in this thread - has it got something to do with the (infamous) european taxes on DVI monitors?

***EDIT***
From a review sep. 19 (with an update oct. 5), it is stated that Samsung are aware of the backlight issues, and that this should be corrected shortly? Is this reliable information?

Review at http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=336&p=2

(the mentioned info is at the bottom of page just above the last pic - see also page 3 of the review)
 
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xtknight

Elite Member
Oct 15, 2004
12,974
0
71
Originally posted by: littlejim68
xtknight: I was jsut following your "Test your black level" link. I can start seeing slight differences at RGB(4,4,4). Is this good/fair/poor?

Can see diferences up to RGB(2,2,2) if I look at the LCD from the side.
Click to expand...

That's great, actually, if your gradients (from the gradlin-mix program on my site) are also even. What LCD did you view that link on?

Originally posted by: hardwareking
I was planning on getting a new LCD too.
So should i get this or the samsung 215TW?The 215 has HDCP support through DVI.But no details regarding the 225BW though?Any reason why the 225BW is cheaper than the 215TW?
Click to expand...

Lots of reasons. The 225BW is one of Samsung's "value" LCDs, hence the B in the model name (yeah I know, value doesn't start with a B). That's just how they label 'em. The 'B' models will consistently have more backlight bleeding, narrower vertical viewing angles, lower contrast, and dithering. Even the response time on (most of) them isn't that great and doesn't match their high-end models, which is really surprising since the 'B's use TNs.

I would say the horizontal viewing angles are less washed-out on the 'B' models though actually.

The 225BW supports HDCP through DVI as well. I believe all of Samsung's *5*W* LCDs do.
 
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willymakit

Junior Member
Jun 23, 2004
1
0
0
Hmm.. thanks for comments.. All in all, I think that for my usage (and budget), I'm fine with a value LCD... I've come to accept the fact, that I'm not actually as descerning customer as I would have, well, hoped. (On that note, I think I failed your black test miserably, xtknight - I'm currently on the first Xerox 19" (don't laugh, I bought it before I found this forum, and others like it) )

At the moment I'm positive about the 225bw, especially with rumours that the backlighting issue was mostly a start-up-glitch (see my former post) - if any of you buy the screen, I'd love to hear about it ! The only serious contender (right now) for me, being the acer 22" widescreen, that is untill I found out that it's non-DVI (thank you EU tax system)



 
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oseven

Junior Member
Oct 9, 2006
19
0
0
NOTICE!!!!!

THE ABOVE POST IS FROM ME, OSEVEN (from willymakit)

I don't know what happened, I have my browser set up to automatically log in, and it apparently did so as this willymakit character - I still have my regular profile, so what happened? Is that name just a sort of "guest" name?
 
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Madellga

Senior member
Sep 9, 2004
713
0
0
Originally posted by: oseven
NOTICE!!!!!

THE ABOVE POST IS FROM ME, OSEVEN (from willymakit)

I don't know what happened, I have my browser set up to automatically log in, and it apparently did so as this willymakit character - I still have my regular profile, so what happened? Is that name just a sort of "guest" name?
Click to expand...

This happened to more people yesterday. There is one case I saw at the mobo forums.

 
C

CCityInstaller

Banned
Jan 9, 2001
704
0
0
Originally posted by: xtknight
Originally posted by: littlejim68
xtknight: I was jsut following your "Test your black level" link. I can start seeing slight differences at RGB(4,4,4). Is this good/fair/poor?

Can see diferences up to RGB(2,2,2) if I look at the LCD from the side.
Click to expand...

That's great, actually, if your gradients (from the gradlin-mix program on my site) are also even. What LCD did you view that link on?

Originally posted by: hardwareking
I was planning on getting a new LCD too.
So should i get this or the samsung 215TW?The 215 has HDCP support through DVI.But no details regarding the 225BW though?Any reason why the 225BW is cheaper than the 215TW?
Click to expand...

Lots of reasons. The 225BW is one of Samsung's "value" LCDs, hence the B in the model name (yeah I know, value doesn't start with a B). That's just how they label 'em. The 'B' models will consistently have more backlight bleeding, narrower vertical viewing angles, lower contrast, and dithering. Even the response time on (most of) them isn't that great and doesn't match their high-end models, which is really surprising since the 'B's use TNs.

I would say the horizontal viewing angles are less washed-out on the 'B' models though actually.

The 225BW supports HDCP through DVI as well. I believe all of Samsung's *5*W* LCDs do.
Click to expand...

I can see differences at RGB (444) with my Gateway FP2185W. If I use my Acer 2032WA, I can see differences at RGB (333).
 
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littlejim68

Junior Member
Mar 28, 2004
24
0
0
Originally posted by: xtknight
Originally posted by: littlejim68
xtknight: I was jsut following your "Test your black level" link. I can start seeing slight differences at RGB(4,4,4). Is this good/fair/poor?

Can see diferences up to RGB(2,2,2) if I look at the LCD from the side.
Click to expand...

That's great, actually, if your gradients (from the gradlin-mix program on my site) are also even. What LCD did you view that link on?
Click to expand...
[/quote]

That was on a Samsung 931BF I got from BestBuy LINKLINK, with an analog cable. DVI cable did not come in the box which kind of irritated me. Going to take it back today for:

One. No DVI cable in the box. Not going to spend extra to get a cable. Huge pet peeve of mine, but my fault as I never figured Samsung to pull this so never even looked at the description on the box for it.

Two. I can see differences to RGB(0,0,0) on my Sony G520 CRT

Three. The corner color bleed problem I was having with my CRT can be fixed with adjustment of the Landing something I just discovered. Not sure why I am getting the corner color bleed problem but glad I found a way to fix it in the CRT menu.

Four. I like 1024x768 resolution on my 21inch monitor. Having to set the LCD to 1280 x 1024 made things to small for comfortable reading.

So my first jump into LCD land was not a good one for me. Discovering the landing fix for my CRT gives me time to wait until the 30+ inch LCDs are affordable (huge grin).

Xtknight: Thanks for your link to your black level test to show me the difference in color quality.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
0
Originally posted by: oseven
Hey guys.. I'm in europe, and was suggested this monitor (Samsung 225bw), as the 22" acer widescreen does not have DVI in European versions
Click to expand...

What? Acer have the 2216W and 2216WD here in Germany - and guess what the D suffix is ... yes, DVI.


 
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oseven

Junior Member
Oct 9, 2006
19
0
0
Originally posted by: Peter
Originally posted by: oseven
Hey guys.. I'm in europe, and was suggested this monitor (Samsung 225bw), as the 22" acer widescreen does not have DVI in European versions
Click to expand...

What? Acer have the 2216W and 2216WD here in Germany - and guess what the D suffix is ... yes, DVI.
Click to expand...


Hey Peter, that's very interesting, have you got any links to shops selling the DVI Acer in Germany? Maybe buying it here is a possibility...

EDIT: Weird, I checked the german Acer site, and according to that Acer has no 22" in their german line?? Maybe the one you saw was bought somewhere else?
 
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hans007

Lifer
Feb 1, 2000
20,212
18
81
i had a samsung 204b for a few days. and after seeing their "value" line, i could not keep it. that monitor was in my opionion awful, washed out colors , backlight bleed, poor viewing angles etc. tehn again it was a TN panel like this.

I would check it out in a store first before buying this. the acer or viewsonic 22" are more or less the same for $80 less at costco (i think its the viewsonic that is 299 actually).
 
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