Need Advice: Samsung 226BW vs. Gateway FPD2185W

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NinjaB

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Feb 21, 2007
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I've been research lcds for the last week or so and I have come down to these 2 monitors (if anyone thinks they have a better candidate let me know). I will be using this monitor with my T60p through the DVI in the dock. Main use is for web browsing, pdf viewing, word, ect. However I will be doing some gaming on it, mainly source and some old school starcraft. I also plan on using this as my tv/all other media when I move into my apartment in a couple months.

Price is a factor as the sammy is around 380 and the Gateway is 500ish. However I like the extra inputs on the gateway, and the s-pva panel. I assume the s-pva panel will have better color and viewing angles than the TN panel on the samsung. From the TN panels I have seen, I don't care for their colors, they look really washed out, but how much better will the s-pva panel be?

Anyone have any input on these two monitors? I've read some of the large threads on these, but haven't come across an good comparative information.

Thanks for any help you can give me.
Brandon
 
I own the 2185W. I don't care for the S-PVA and its awful color shifting, but I'd take it over my girlfriends Gateway 1975W, which is a TN with poor colors.

Some people, including me, have been having issues with the 2185 taking a long time to power on, or not powering on at all until unplugging and replugging. It seems that this monitor may have a poor quality DVI port.

I find myself wishing that I'd just spent a little more and gotten a 24" monitor. This 21" is the same vertical height as my 19" (18" viewable) CRT. Unfortunately, the 24" monitors are S-PVA as well, but you just can't win with LCD unless you're willing to spend big.
 
I am running a 2185 since Sept 2006 and so far I have had no problems with it.

I came from a CRT to this and I think its money well spent.

I am not too picky about the colors they look fine to me.
Backlight bleed is minimal, at least on my monitor.
Gaming is just fine with this monitor.

Only minor niggle, 1 stuck red sub pixel right center of the screen only visible on white background.
 
I'm also wonder how the backlight bleeding compares between these 2 models. I'm going to use it for watching dvds a fair amount, so this is a pretty important factor.
 
I like it but i notice on the left side of the screen it's much brighter, even moving the head so it's dead centered doesn't help.

Not sure what to do with it because i did get a good deal at $200.00.
Clearance at an office store.
 
Well they are really not in the same class. Have you looked at the Gateways FPD2275? Both use a TN screen. I’ve had mine for a little over a week now and have had no problems. Really like the color saturation. When shopping I saw then at CC being run via VGA, not a good test, and the Gateway just look better. This after I adjusted several brands to my liking I came over from a NEC 19 DiamondTron CRT and now I’m wondering why I waited.

My son has had the Samsung 19 inch wide LCD for around 5 months and it is a fine unit. I don’t think that you can go wrong with either brand. Not saying that an individual unit can’t be bad but on the whole they are fine.

Just a few observations. Samsung comes with a DVI cable and Gateway does not. As far as my unit it had less than ¼ inch bleed at the top and bottom, but not all of the way across, when set to the factory default brightness on a black screen. Because my monitor sits in an alcove on my desk it does not get direct lighting so the factory preset brightness, 80%, was way to much. I’m now around 68% and see no bleed on black. Never did see any when there was anything on the screen.
 
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