22" Widescreen LCD for GAMING

M

malfeee

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I've been reading all night about the Samsung 226BW and the whole panel lottery fiasco. That, coupled with the reportedly poor color (?) and tight viewing angle (?) have me leaning away from it.

I haven't really found any other solid, mass-recommended monitors in this range, but perhaps I am not looking correctly.

As I said in the title, I game. I want a 22" Widescreen LCD for gaming. A fast response time is sweet, but colors/view range is pretty important to me as well. Is there no super-monitor that features a solid combination of these? The highest I'd like to pay is probably about $400, and I know most displays in the range I'm asking are much cheaper. I just like to give some room to be creative.

Thanks for your help.
 
You're screwed when it comes to viewing angles. If it's really important, you'll have to either step up to a 24" display, or step down to a 20" one so you can get something other then a TN panel. TN's aren't that good at color reproduction either, atleast when compared to S-IPS and P-MVA displays. After calibration the colors shouldnt be too far off though, so don't worry.

Anyway, either get an HP w2207 now, or wait a couple weeks and get a Sammy 226CW, which is the same as the 226BW, except that there's no panel lottery. All of them have the superior "S" panels.
 
R0achTheWarHero said:
wow is there like 20 of this exact same post every day
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Yeah, sorry. It seems to be the only way to get a direct answer, because I looked through at least twelve or so similar threads and couldn't find the specifics.


Hmm, I originally had been interested in the 24" Dells, but ended up call it off due the to much higher prices and the fact that my room is pretty small, a 24" IMO would be overkill.

Can anyone comment on just tight the viewing on the 226BW is? Like I said, my room is small, and my head would really only be directly in front of it, or maybe slightly to the side. The only reason I said I was worried about it is that I could see such a problem annoying me greatly. If it's really not all that bad then I might just wait for the CW then.
 
apt403 said:
You're screwed when it comes to viewing angles. If it's really important, you'll have to either step up to a 24" display, or step down to a 20" one so you can get something other then a TN panel. TN's aren't that good at color reproduction either, atleast when compared to S-IPS and P-MVA displays. After calibration the colors shouldnt be too far off though, so don't worry.

Anyway, either get an HP w2207 now, or wait a couple weeks and get a Sammy 226CW, which is the same as the 226BW, except that there's no panel lottery. All of them have the superior "S" panels.
Click to expand...

Where did you find the CW info? Damn I really want one, I'd almost pre-order, lol.

But yeah man, wait for the CW or get LG's 22" offering. Buying from NCIX is always nice too because you can get the no dead pixel insurance. :)
 
rsgunter said:
Where did you find the CW info? Damn I really want one, I'd almost pre-order, lol.

But yeah man, wait for the CW or get LG's 22" offering. Buying from NCIX is always nice too because you can get the no dead pixel insurance. :)
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I'll try to dig up a source. I've heard a bunch of people talk about this...

Here we go:

http://www.behardware.com/news/8930/first-look-at-the-samsung-sm-226cw.html

Of course, the question of the origin of panels arose. Samsung cannot guarantee a 100% Samsung supply of panels, but they did say that this panel was not a classic product. For its production, they will have to intervene to implant the advanced backlighting system. This technology is not yet mastered by the competition and according to Samsung France, this guarantees the implementation of S panels, S being for Samsung. Also, the volume for this screen should be a lot less than for the 226BW. Samsung esteems that they will therefore be able to entirely control production, while the admitted being overwhelmed by the success of the 226BW.
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So there's a 99% chance they'll be using their panels. Until alot of product gets into the channel, we won't be able to say for sure though.
 
Honestly, I find the whole viewing angle talk is blown out of proportion. The only people who will have a hard time viewing your monitor would be people that are standing beside or sitting below the monitor. If you are going to be directly in front of it (which, there really shouldn't be any other reason not to) then it shouldn't matter.

Personally, I have found that buying an aftermarket LCD stand, or a monitor that comes with a nice stand, will be highly beneficial when showcasing movies and such to a group of people since you can rotate and adjust the LCD accordingly. I have an Acer AL2223W (which uses a TN panel) that I bought for $189 at Best Buy and also purchased an Ergotron Neo-Flex LCD stand from Staples for $30 to go along with it. So far, my roommate (and anyone who has come over to watch anything on it) has not had any complaint whatsoever about it.

Hope this helps. :)
 
If you're gaming, you probably don't want a 24'' monitor. They do look amazing, yes, but keep in mind that what your video card might be able to eek out at 1920x1200, it could display at 1680x1050 beautifully. Having come from a Dell gaming laptop that ran a native resolution of 1920x1200, I can vouch for this inconvenience. (I got a 1280x1024 monitor to plug into and the number of games I could run on high settings expanded vastly.)

Also, 24'' monitors are quite expensive., and I've heard complaints of input lag issues, but I don't know how legitimate these are.

As far as a gaming 22'' goes, I think waiting for the 226CW is, without a doubt, your best option. All of the 22'' panels within your price range use TN panels (there is a tremendously expensive Eizo that doesn't, I think), and having run the monitor-purchasing gauntlet, I preferred even the 226BW A-panel's color quality over any other 22'', and the S-panel, allegedly, is even better than that. Viewing angle is something your going to have to deal with, but if you're primarily gaming, you'd probably just be looking straight at the monitor anyway, where the picture is fine. (I owned a 226BW C-panel for about a month; I took it back to try some other monitors and just get a feel for what was available, but I can safely say that looking straight at the monitor, it displayed fine. The only thing that really bugged me was the fact that the text was noticeably darker and not as crisp at the top of the screen, and I imagine this problem is not as severe or non-existent in the S panel.)
 
Is there an exact date for when the 226CW will be available to purchase? I'm looking to get a 22" LCD for gaming as well.
 
i'd think the 226CW is supposed to be soon, samsung did say early summer, we're mid summer now, best buy has it listed on their site (here in canada anyways) and their site reported that their big store in toronto actually had a few of them in stock....did is the key word. i'm hoping a week or two.
 
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