Samsung 226BW 22": 3000:1 Contrast, 2ms response time

Adding to my article in response to Kast, I also need mention that I am 5' 6" and need to know whether any of you, of similar height have had problems with lack of the 226BW's adjustability. My desk is of the standard 29" height, so I NEED to know about unpleasant dimming of the upper side of the monitor in a similar setting. Then, this business of bait and switch, S vs. A panel. It's totally unethical and not only practiced by Samsung, but by Dell as well.

And another thing: in Europe and the Far East Samsung have released the 226BA which has HDMI, don't know whether it's 720p only or 1080p capable either. No word about a possible US release. Anyone know more about this?
 
First of all, I would like to thank the majority of people who bought this early or who have provided their own reviews and insights over this product which lead me to purchase it yesterday.

I'm coming from the Samsung 990DF (19" CRT) which I ran at 1600x1200. I like it thus far. Trying to get used to it. Some of the fonts on certain backgrounds seem a bit strange to me. They seem to have a white border around them when it's on a color background. I'll snap a picture when I get home.

Gaming on this thing is nice. Especially when the game supports 16:10. Great monitor for general gaming use! But it's a drag for photo editing so I'm keeping my bulky CRT monitor.

What I wish it had more of, inputs. A whole lot more inputs. As much as the Westinghouse 22".
 
Love to see pics and hear your impression of the "A" 226BW panel, as that's what my CC stocks as well. Frankly, while the "bait and switch" is offensive, if this panel is still the best 22 inch'er at its price point with an ":A" panel I'll go for it.

Can you review your panel for us?
Thanks!
 
Ooops...my bad, just noticed DuckyBoy's is a 206, not 226BW.
Can anyone provide a review of the 226BW "A" panel so we can separate our emotional distaste for "bait and switch" from true quality loss?

Thanks again.
 
Can anyone out there plz confirm that they have a 206BW that has an S panel... i dont know if they exist plz let me know! thanks.
 
Mysticode said:
What do you mean "S" panel?
Click to expand...

Uhhh the last 5 pages of this thread have been about Samsung switching to an AOC panel on this monitor... just read back like 4 posts and its still being talked about...

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread....post1030645943

but all the talk has been about the 226BW changing with many people confirming both "A" and "S" type panles being purchased... and I want to know if the 206BW ever even came out with an "S" version because nobody has mentioned this up to now...

you can tell by looking at the sticker on the back of your monitor apparently.
 
On Sunday I drove to San Jose (CA) to pick up a 226BW. Got it home and saw it was the "A" model. I hooked it up and started messing around. Colors seemed a little odd. Flesh tones were very muddy. On a dark part of a sunset photo, if you looked very closely you could see oddly colored pixels (red/green) where it should be very dark gray/black.

I messed around in photoshop. Text looked fine. Gradients had pretty bad banding. The backlighting was the worst part. Bleed came through on all sides. On the left and right it was very cloudy but HUGE. Similar to the photo earlier in this thread.

I returned it to my local Circuit City here in Santa Cruz 2 days later. I decided I'd exchange it on the off chance that I might get a better one. Their display model was the "A" model. But I was in LUCK! I got home to open my new one, and it was indeed the "S" model.

After messing around in Photoshop and looking at photos, I'm not sure there's a lot of difference in those departments. I mentioned an graphic oddity in a very dark part of a photo, and cant seem to reproduce that at least.

Gradients still band. The banding areas arent as huge, though.. It's just getting dark here, so I'll update with thoughts on the backlighting problem. I also plan to hook my CRT back up and compare image quality. I can take some photos if anyones interested..

Edit:
Here's a photo of my A panel.. I couldnt really photograph the S panel, as it barely bleeds at all! Maybe some VERY slight upper and lower bleed. But it won't accurately show up in a photo.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/6600/crw3541wu1.jpg
 
how do you know whether it's an A or S panel? also, does anyone have a good idea for adjusting the display settings ? One of my 226bws tend to change its brightness/contrast level after every restart. am i doing something wrong here? :rolleyes:
 
Ok i took some pic of my 206BW (this is an "A" panel btw)... I am still interested in seeing ANYONE has an S panel that is a 206BW. These pics were to show backlight bleed only (if you want some other types of pictures let me know)...

The first 3 are taken in total darkness, the second 3 with some lighting (a single 60w bulb above and behind the camera) and all of them with NO FLASH (thats why the focus is kinda crappy)

First picture is 100% brightness and 75 contrast taken in total darkness (100% brightness is unbearable for normal use with this monitor):
DR_100bright75cont.jpg


Second picture is 40% brightness and 75 contrast taken in total darkness (this is my normal use setting):
DR_40bright75cont.jpg


Third picture is dyanmic contrast taken in total darkness (seems to control the bleed the best but has a tendancy to be overly bright for normal usage):
DR_dynamicContrast.jpg


Fourth picture is 100% brightness and 75 contrast taken in "normal light":
LR_100bright75cont.jpg


Fifth picture is 40% brightness and 75 contrast taken in "normal light":
LR_40bright75cont.jpg


Sixth picture is dyanmic contrast taken in "normal light":
LR_dynamicContrast.jpg


hope the helps... I think i will be keeping this montior since it looks so nice, is priced so right, and the bleeding and the colors dont bother me too much to matter (i do games, programming, and web).

but people with the 206BW please check for me and see if you have an S panel plz!

thanks.
 
FALCONSEYE said:
how do you know whether it's an A or S panel? also, does anyone have a good idea for adjusting the display settings ? One of my 226bws tend to change its brightness/contrast level after every restart. am i doing something wrong here? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
This post here has photos. Its the last letter in the model number:

http://www.hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1030645276&postcount=18

I find this very stupid for Samsung to do. The ONLYreason I even looked into buying one of their monitors was due to their name and reputation. I wanted a quality name brand monitor for once. I guess now its all luck, and if I open my box I'll be stuck with a restocking fee if I have to return it.
 
YES!
Just purchased one from circuit city for 359.09. Used a 10% code. This is replacing my Samsung 215TW which has horrible input lag. Hardly do any photo editing so the input lag really got on nerves and started affecting my game play! Movies looked real nice on the 215TW but then again this is an inch bigger and looks a lot nicer.

Hopefully they let me check to see if I have the S panel instead of the A. If I get the A I'm don't know what I'll do! I'll post some pictures of both the 215TW and the Samsung 226BW.
 
sylva said:
Adding to my article in response to Kast, I also need mention that I am 5' 6" and need to know whether any of you, of similar height have had problems with lack of the 226BW's adjustability. My desk is of the standard 29" height, so I NEED to know about unpleasant dimming of the upper side of the monitor in a similar setting. Then, this business of bait and switch, S vs. A panel. It's totally unethical and not only practiced by Samsung, but by Dell as well.

And another thing: in Europe and the Far East Samsung have released the 226BA which has HDMI, don't know whether it's 720p only or 1080p capable either. No word about a possible US release. Anyone know more about this?
Click to expand...


How did you pick up on the 226BA? Google does't list anything against this model.
 
thejez said:
Uhhh the last 5 pages of this thread have been about Samsung switching to an AOC panel on this monitor... just read back like 4 posts and its still being talked about...
Click to expand...

Everything else you said is correct, but please everybody remember that the panel Samsung is switching to is not "AOC" but made by "AU Optronics" also known as "AUO". Proof for this was posted when someone posted the images of "A" and "S" model OSD's which show the panel models. AOC is an Chinese/Japanese/Korean/whatever manufacturer of TFT-displays, like Viewsonic for example. AUO is the biggest Korean manufacturer of TFT-panels.

S-model has this panel: http://www.samsung.com/Products/TFTLCD/Monitor/LTM220M1/LTM220M1.htm
A-model has this panel: http://www.auo.com/auoDEV/products.php?sec=monitor&func=info&product_id=72&items_id=1That

Basically AUO is a good panel manufacturer and most people consider their panels better than ChiMei's panels (those are used in LG L226WT for instance), but it is starting to seem that this thime AUO's panel is not very good.

Even though I'd like to see some side-by-side photos before saying my final thoughts because it is impossible to compare two separate pictures taken about backlight bleeding because the way the picture looks like depends too much on camera, on ambient lightning, etc.
 
sylva said:
Then, this business of bait and switch, S vs. A panel. It's totally unethical and not only practiced by Samsung, but by Dell as well.
Click to expand...

I totally agree, but only wanted to add that also LG has done this at least once. Not exactly the same thing, but still... they sold L203WT with TN-panel in Europe and US, while same model was sold with S-IPS -panel in Asia. In this global Internet-era when information moves fast that was really annoying too, especially in the beginning when people didn't know why the monitor got so great reviews in Asia but not so great on some fields in USA and Europe. Of course this is a bit different with Dell and Samsung but however one kind of a panel lottery.
 
OK so I started out with LG 226 WT_BF, Bad Pixels start growin after 2 days.
remove base, take it back to Best Buy, Got Refund.

Bought the 226BW-S Feb. 6th. Satisfied my curiosoty.

Backlight bleed on LG was negligable, but compared to the Samsung 226BW the difference was like night and day.

HD OTA TV

LG response time I noticed Swarming and the dynamic color was camelion like, blotchy on faces ever changing.

Samsung colors are correct even when using magic color feature.

I really like the Samsung compared to the LG. The Samsung Feels comfortable to look at.
Smooth.

Grandson of 11yrs plays Warbirds And Flyboys at full throttle with out lag.
Magic color really makes the game shine.

Took the Samsung back to circuit city Yesterday, the vga connector I think had a malseated pinsocket, digital connector was fine. I use the VGA to watch DVD and HDTV.
I softens the picture. The source switch is nice feature.

The exchange unit was a S, Absolutly No Backlight Bleed. Perfect So Far.
I am really happy with the Price of this unit Its What I can afford.

Thanks to this Forum I got Lucky, I guess



JMO

Squish
 
another thing though, is what samsung is doing a lottewry even? or are they just totally switching over to "A" once the S stock is out? cause no one seemed to act like they would even continue making the S ones.
 
Since him on vacation this week, i did some searching in Montreal,
"phone calls", to a couple of people, that work in Audio/Video stores,
and here's what they know, keep it mind this is not "official".

1. samsung can't keep up with demand for LCD panel's made by them,
so they subcontracted manufacturing of the panel "A".

2. Samsung, never intended to use there panel in the 226bw,
what happened is LG caught samsung by surprise, when they started
to ship the LG 226..., earlier then what samsung anticipated,
so, in order not to loose that segment of the market, Samsung decided
to used there panel, until the manufacturer of the other panel,
could start to supply them in mass starting Q2/2007.

I will try to find more info some time later this week.

What ever the reason, for switch in panel's, i have a serious feeling,
that samsung will go the cheaper way, they even replaced the stand from the 225bw
with a cheaper one, on the 226bw, those stands cost less then $2.00 CDN to manufacture in china,
the LCD panel in 10K quantity, cost about $3.00 each, the whole monitor cost perhaps
$30.00 - $40.00 US, the rest of the price we pay is simply profits, from manufacturing to
retail sale.
Same goes for an HDTV that cost $3000.00 retail, only cost about $300.00 to manufacture, rule of thumbs, there's a 1000% profit marging in computer hardware, audio systems, and televisions.

:mad:
 
Just got one of these from my local Circuit City using the 10% off coupon. I was a complete wreck as I purchased it online to use the coupon I got on eBay and did the in store pick up option. After they brought me out a 19" Samsung LCD, then a 22" Acer LCD, I figured I was doomed to the "A" panel. When they finally brought me the 226BW, I patiently opened it up and was thrilled to see the "S" panel. I got it home and was also thrilled when I found no dead or stuck pixels.

My opinion on the monitor very good. I am not a photoshop artist but I do appreciate a quality image for my gaming and web browsing. Coming from a Sony 19" CRT, I am thrilled with the image. I do notice a tiny bit of backlight bleed from the bottom of the screen when using the VGA that connects my Xbox 360, but the backlight bleed is almost non existent when using the DVI to hook up my PC.

The 360 looks amazing on this thing. There is a 16:10 ratio setting available through the 360 at 1280x768, and that is the best resolution I have found. I mean with a decent audio system hooked up its like playing on a high def. TV when you are only sitting a few feet from the screen. It just looks amazing. To the poster that said the 360 wouldn't look good because there was no 1:1 pixel mapping, I couldn't disagree more.

Overall it is in my opinion the best TN based 22" on the market. Definately worth the extra $50 over the Sceptre gaming LCD and the over LCD's that are prone to backlight bleeding. Only if you can't live with only a DVI and VGA adapter would I reccomend you look elsewhere.

I am very dissapointed in Samsung for putting different panels in after release. I don't know how I would have handled getting an "A" screen.
 
How did you pick up on the 226BA? Google does't list anything against this model.
Click to expand...

I don't remember, it could have been at a different thread of this forum, just in my desperate search for the new kid on the block, the 226BW, I came across this one. There is precious little anywhere on the Internet about the 226BA, but on Chinese sites, some of which can tentatively be translated via Google's engine. I went on Samsung's site and found some very limited references. But the question of S vs. A remains, as some of you already uncovered the A panel's shortcomings. Lory calls this "emotional distaste". As far as I (computer builder and network administrator with roots in electrical engineering) you bet I am concerned. Being technically aware is hardly an emotional thing, as we can now see. Thanks for everybody's input and let us keep up the flow of helpful information.

John
 
Alright, just got home with the 226BW from CC. The monitor is NICE. It looks lovely. It resembles the Samsung 46" 1080p TVs in the looks department. Very nice silver bar on the bottom and obviously the glossy sides.

While I was at CC I noticed they had quite a few VX2025WM Viewsonic monitors. I had one of these like a year back which I sold to pick up the Samsung 215TW. I can get the vx2025wm for $250 + tax but it's 'only' 20.1 inches. I really loved that monitor but thought the 215TW was an upgrade for gaming. Well I was obviously wrong as the input lag is to severe to actually enjoy online games.

So here is the question...

Keep the 215TW and get Samsung to replace it w/one that has no input lag.
Sell the 215TW on ebay and replace it with the Samsung 226BW (which is a lovely monitor).
Or sell the 215TW on ebay and purchase the viewsonic vx2025wm (mva panel?).

I really like the 215TW but I'm not sure if I'll receive a monitor w/out input lag. Also they said they'll send me a refurbished one so that kind of annoys me even more. IF i want to sell it down the road I'm sure I won't get equal value considering it's refurbished.

The panel in the 215TW is lovely. S-PVA, full 16.7. Viewing angles are great. Color reproduction is fantastic but stupid input lag. It sucks. It's very severe. Go to youtube and type in 215tw and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Damn...I'm confused now :(
 
My initial thoughts on my 226BW S panel..

Gaming: Very good. NO LAG at all. Same as my CRT. Looks great.

Browsing/Text: Fine. Text looks good. Easy on the eyes.

Graphics/Photoediting, etc: I'm a graphic designer/photo editor/web designer etc so colors are HUGE to me. As it stands, I have NOT calibrated this monitor yet.. so I cant say for sure. It seems a bit too saturated so far. Most gradients don't look very good(banding).. It's definitely nowhere near a CRT.. but it's probably the best LCD i've used so far. Still not sure if I'll keep it. I'm gona go to a Apple store and try their LCD's as everyone says theirs are the best for colors.
 
I love my 226BW. I don't notice any backlight bleed, it's sharp, fast, and very colorful.
I'm running it on a ATI 9700 Pro with the supplied DVI cable.
The only thing I did was lower the brightness to a comfortable level.
I'll mess with it more after my upgrade parts arrive from newegg tomorrow (C2D, new mobo, memory, and a 8800GTX :D ).
Best monitor I've ever had and I can't wait to see how FEAR and BF2142 look after the upgrade!
I got mine at CC a few weeks ago when it was on sale. I used a 10% off coupon and walked out paying just $340.57

edit - mine is an "S" panel. I just looked.
 
I went to Samsung's German and Chinese Group site. Samsung seems to have withdrawn every info about the 226BA. I assure you, my finding was no aberation. There were quite a few German and Austrian sites which published a Preisvergleich (price range) but the monitor completely vanished. It will probably reappear later, maybe in Q2 or so. It's just supposition, but in any case, 22 inch HDMIs will be thrown on the market because * IMHO * it is the next logical step. What features the manufacturer will subtract from the 226BW remains to be seen. My only hope is that they will maintain the quality of the panel and add a nice adjustable stand :)
 
For those of you who purchased the 226bw. Is it packaged well?

I ask because I made a foolish mistake choosing free ground shipping from Circuit City (at the time no local stores had it).

Apparently Circuit City uses some stupid service called "SmartPost" that uses multiple couriers to ship your package. I never would have ordered from them had I known they use that.... they don't tell you that until it ships.

I'm beginning to think maybe I shouldn't even open it by the time I get it. Considering how many couriers it goes through. It also travels around the country before it ever gets to you (from what I have read others posting).

Although it may even be 14 days past my return policy, by the time I receive it.
 
well i dunno how long it will be before the S ones are permanently gone but it would be nice to see if the A ones are any different, especially if samsung was going to use that one all along, in which case it must be an improvement at least over the 225bw (who made THAT panel btw?).
 
theres no guarentee that there is any difference specification-wise between the A and S panels. Samsung may have manufactured a batch of panels themselves just to hold themselves over until their subcontractor got the samsung designed but non-samsung built panels to market.
 
psuvette said:
theres no guarentee that there is any difference specification-wise between the A and S panels. Samsung may have manufactured a batch of panels themselves just to hold themselves over until their subcontractor got the samsung designed but non-samsung built panels to market.
Click to expand...

well someone else noted that may be the case (and not a 1st release review model syndrom) and if they are cool then the ones they built themselves likely were just built to spec of the ones that were originally supposed to be placed in there.

hopefully soon someone will get a non-s panel to make sure of this.

and unlike lotterys, if the the A panels are going to fully replace the S panels i'd figure that there likely wouldnt be a difference and that explanation is correct, since at least with lotterys they kee psupplying both panels, in this case it seems to make more sense that they just made the same TN themsleves just until the other same one was ready.
 
tc17 said:
For those of you who purchased the 226bw. Is it packaged well?

I ask because I made a foolish mistake choosing free ground shipping from Circuit City (at the time no local stores had it).

Apparently Circuit City uses some stupid service called "SmartPost" that uses multiple couriers to ship your package. I never would have ordered from them had I known they use that.... they don't tell you that until it ships.

I'm beginning to think maybe I shouldn't even open it by the time I get it. Considering how many couriers it goes through. It also travels around the country before it ever gets to you (from what I have read others posting).

Although it may even be 14 days past my return policy, by the time I receive it.
Click to expand...


I did the same thing you mention :( By the time it gets here, it will have been around 10-12 days since I ordered it. I don't plan on returning it; I'll at least fire it up and see how it is. I'll tell you if it was damaged at all during shipping when I finally get it (today or tomorrow).
 
So the plastic stand costs 2$, and the lcd screen 3$... are you sure about this? :D

Maybe you have some data that you could share with us that support that?
 
Ok, so what are the odds of getting an "A" panel rather than a "S" panel? I'm ready to pull the trigger on ordering from Circuit City, don''t have one near me have to order.
 
I ordered mine today and I'm picking it up from CC on Friday. I'll post my impressions this weekend though it's my first LCD so I'm not sure how in depth I'll be.
 
Mine came in today; its an S with no apparent dead pixels upon first check.

My one problem, however, is this: it is stuck on one resolution! Whenever I change resolutions, I'll get a brief flicker of the screen at the new resolution and then the screen just goes blank. I have to then turn it off and wait for Windows to kick in and turn it back to my old resolution. This happens when I increase or decrease the resolution, which is a bit strange. The only one it works at is 1280x1024. I installed the monitor drivers, so I'm not really sure what the problem is... maybe a restart wouldn't hurt...


Edit: Found the problem :) I had just swapped out my old monitor with the new; but, by changing the power cord and DVI cable to the one that came with this bad boy, it works fine! Just something to try if anyone (stupidly) runs into the same problem I had!
 
I also ordered mine with free shipping from cc last sat.I have
been following tracking and here are the results so far!

Date Time Description Location
February 21, 2007 8:01 AM Electronic Shipping Info Received SPRINGFIELD, MA *
February 21, 2007 7:41 AM Sortation Center Departure MARTINSBURG, WV
February 20, 2007 11:01 PM Sortation Center Arrival MARTINSBURG, WV
February 20, 2007 4:18 PM Sortation Center Departure EARTH CITY, MO
February 19, 2007 9:15 PM Sortation Center Arrival EARTH CITY, MO
February 19, 2007 5:30 PM Pickup MARION, IL

The time on the newest entry is suspect!! How can you get from west vaginia to springfield Mass in 15 min.Im located in Connecticut!so it shouldnt be long now!and the * after MA means its in usps hands now.I really hope they have my correct address!ussually when i do tracking!it shows the address its going to.This dosnt seem to be so with this smartpost tracking. PS Im guessing that this shippment that started in Marion IL is loaded with sammy 226BW's since every cc store in Ct is currently sold out of 226bw's.
 
Update on my situation: Well, the problem still occurs for me; what a pain, essentially I can't go into any games without the monitor bugging out and making me wait 10 minutes and then powering it back on. Called the Samsung guys and they said its broken. Must have been the 10 days in transit, I blame CC!

What are my chances that it will just fix itself? I suppose I should take it back? :(

What a shame, very beautiful display!
 
Does it say what panel it is on the box? Or am I going to have to open it up to see if it has an A or S at the end of model number?
 
I also realized that Circiut City has the worst return policy ever, no wonder they are closing stores. 15% restocking fee HA, Best Buy only has that on certain things like laptops. I probably would have bought a moniter by now if I knew I could return it without any fuss. I really wish that some other retailers in the area Best Buy or CompUSA would carry this model moniter, or the Acer I have been looking at it. Its kind of annoying....
 
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