Samsung 226Bw Review - Opinions

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parish

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Well, I bit the bullet and picked one of these up @ my local Circuit City over the weekend. I had been reading a ton of speculation as to the performance of the monitor, but I am here to say that for the price point it is a solid purchase. Be warned I ramble a bit in this post but I really wanted to get across the overall feel I got for this.

To give some background, I am an avid FPS gamer. I have been devout CRT for quite a long time and just last year bought my first LCD which was also a Samsung. It was a 940BF and I still use it on another PC as it is a solid LCD. When considering my next move, bigger was better. I began to look at the Dell 24" and Samsung 24" LCD's but chose not to go that route as they really do not have a good response time for gaming.

I bought the Dell E228FP last month because on paper, it looked better than the Samsung 225BW which was to be my first choice. The monitor arrived and I was struck by the size of it. I must admit was really impressed. Then I plugged it in and that quickly turned into disgust. I noticed banding on my desktop background right off the bat. The color separation was horrible and the backlight bleed at the top and bottom was greater than I was willing to bear. To verify I was not insane, I made the mistake of hooking my Samsung 19" back up to compare image quality side by side. Within 30 minutes and some more LCD testing with the help of some software, the Dell was in the box again and the phone call had been made to send it back.

The next afternoon I took a long drive to a buddy’s house because he had the Samsung 225BW and was raving about it. I took my 19" with me to compare image quality. I was impressed. He had a few minor issues with display lag which I contributed to his video card and not the monitor. The overall image quality was good and the build quality seemed solid as well. Had the 226BW not been coming out, I would have bought the 225BW for sure.

So I make the drive to Circuit City. They had not even taken one of the monitors out for display yet and both were hiding in the back. I had to convince the sales guy had them in stock and it took me about 5 minutes to see them hiding on the top shelf. He got one down and hooked it up via VGA (ugly ugly ugly) and the screen did not blow me away, but the color looked good as did the brightness and I could detect minimal if any backlight bleed. Needless to say on the hope of better performance via DVI I bought it and took it home.

******** REVIEW *******
( I will try to post some pics soon)

The box it ships in is nothing much but a brown bag. It is packed well and comes with the power cord, DVI and VGA cables as well as the driver CD. The bag around the screen itself is really nice and much better than what I have seen LCD's wrapped in before.

BUILD QUALITY - 7.5 out of 10

The ONYLY thing about this monitor that detracts from it is the stand. I really wish Samsung would get with the game and offer something that has better adjustments. You cannot rotate the screen. It does not have vertical adjustments at all so if you have a center channel speaker do not plan on putting it under the monitor as unless it was very tiny, it would not fit. The angle adjustments are minimal at best as the stand only allows for a slight tilting upward. if you have the monitor on your desk at or just above your line of sight, you might find yourself straining to lift your head as the monitor wont turn down to meet you. Being that I use an aftermarket LCD arm to mount this to my desk these issues with the stand don't really affect me, but I thought they needed mentioning.

I was not sure how I would like the silver trim at the bottom of the bezel or the way they changed the blue LED around the power button. I prefer the thinner bezels myself. Once it was on the desk the gloss black and silver really came together and with my Ergotron stand, looks really clean and sharp.

The buttons are similar to those found on other Samsung models and soft to the touch. The OSD Menus are intuitive and cover all the bases so no complaints there.

I ran all the usual LCD check screen software and I am glad to say it passed with flying colors. I could not notice any color banding or any input lag whatsoever. I am using a Radeon X1900XTX 512MB video card in case you were wondering.

GAMING - 8.5 out of 10

I play Battlefield 2142 quite a bit and let me say that this LCD does Samsung proud! I noticed no lag, no banding and if there was any ghosting I could not see it. I was really happy this LCD lived up to my expectations as the Dell 22" fell flat on its face in this area.

I ran around outdoors in Oblivion for a bit to check color separation and it look very nice in this as well.

VIDEO – 7.5 out of 10

Watched Pirates Of The Caribbean in HD on it and WOW ! What can I say other than I was impressed. I also ran some other HD stuff and it performed without a hitch.

IMAGE QUALITY – 8.0 out of 10

I am very pleased with color reproduction on this screen. It *could* be better, but using Photoshop and such regularly, I saw no immediate problems with it. Depending on your taste for color temperature, you may make some minor adjustments (I did) but on the whole it did very well for images and editing.

FINAL THOUGHTS – 8.5 out of 10 OVERALL

I am VERY pleased with this purchase. I wanted a bigger screen but did not feel comfortable with the performance of the 24” LCD’s for gaming. I have seen a ton of people looking for something to play games on and this monitor holds it’s own in everything I have thrown at it. This is not the “be all end all” of 22” LCD’s monitors, but it certainly hits its mark. On the whole, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a screen this size. It is HDCP compliant and has a good response time. I cannot speak to the 3000:1 virtual contrast ratio as I think it’s bunk anyway. The real contrast ratio is 1000:1 and that’s plenty good.
 
Excellent review! Thanks for taking the time and effort.

I've been ho-humming about getting a 22" LCD for quite some time now, and the Samsung 225/226BW at the top of my short list so far. Love the fact it's a true 8-bit panel, as well.
 
No one has really posted any good pics, so I will tonight when I get home.
 
parish said:
Being that I use an aftermarket LCD arm to mount this to my desk these issues with the stand don't really affect me, but I thought they needed mentioning.
Click to expand...

Was it easy to remove the LCD from the stand and mount it on the arm or did it take some reverse engineering?
 
Parish, thank-you for taking the time to give us your thoughts on your new screen.
I am wondering if you could look at something for me. If you have a pretty much all white, or light colored screen up, is there any hint of discoloration, kind of light brown along the right vertical edge of the screen, or does the screen maintain a uniform color all the way across?
As you indicated, I hate going onto CC, or most any other store, to look at monitors. I am suprised they sell any the way they are hooked up.
One think I you will find is that it does rotate around on it's base. There is a ring around the outer edge of the bottom that does turn, although it seems it could be smoother.
I was not sure if I would like the silver across the bottom either, but it does look pretty good.
One other question I have is for DejaWiz. Where have you read or hear that this screen uses a "true 8-bit panel". I have not seen this.
I do not own this yet. but am seriously looking at it. Am also interested in the new LG model.

Thanks again.
Lon
 
lrtrees said:
Parish, thank-you for taking the time to give us your thoughts on your new screen.
I am wondering if you could look at something for me. If you have a pretty much all white, or light colored screen up, is there any hint of discoloration, kind of light brown along the right vertical edge of the screen, or does the screen maintain a uniform color all the way across?
As you indicated, I hate going onto CC, or most any other store, to look at monitors. I am suprised they sell any the way they are hooked up.
One think I you will find is that it does rotate around on it's base. There is a ring around the outer edge of the bottom that does turn, although it seems it could be smoother.
I was not sure if I would like the silver across the bottom either, but it does look pretty good.
One other question I have is for DejaWiz. Where have you read or hear that this screen uses a "true 8-bit panel". I have not seen this.
I do not own this yet. but am seriously looking at it. Am also interested in the new LG model.

Thanks again.
Lon
Click to expand...

The white is uniform. When using solid colors all of them are uniform as well. Red, Green, Blue and WHite all look great. I was picky about the white as the 22" Dell I had for 30 minutes had a pinkish hue to it when viewing all white. From what I am now reading it would appear this LCD uses a differnet panel then the 225BW.

On the stand issue, yes it does turn left and right because the stand has a swivel built into it. However this does not allow for rotating the screen of monitor 90 degrees, just turning it at the base.
 
I did a little digging and found someone else who posted some good pics of the monitor. I would be posting the same thing from home, so this may be enough. If anyone wants a specific shot let me know, but aside from these, I will post a few of it hooked up with some images on the screen later.

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Some Specs on it as well:
SyncMaster 226BW
Panel Viewable area 22" Wide
Pixel Pitch(mm) 0.282 x 0.282mm
Contrast Ratio (typ) 3000:1 Dynamic
Brightness(cd/¡×©ø)(typ.) 300 nits
Viewing Angle(H/V) 160¢ª/160¢ª (CR>5)
Response Time(ms)(typ.) 2ms (GTG)
Frequency Horizontal Frequency(kHz) 30-81kHz
Vertical Frequency(Hz) 56-75Hz
Maximum Resolution 1680x1050
Color Supported 16.7 Mil.
Signal Input Input Video Signal Analog RGB,DVI
Sync. Type Separate H/V,Composite ,SOG
Input Connectors 15pin D-sub, DVI-D
Plug & Play DDC 2B
Mac compatibility Yes
Power On Mode 55W
DPMS Mode 2W
Type Built-in
Wall-Mount VESA 100mm
Cabinet Color Glossy Black
Dimension Set(W*H*D)(in) (with stand) 20.3x16.6x8.6
Set(W*H*D)(in) (w/o stand) 20.3x2.5x13.9
Packing(W*H*D)(in) 23.9x6.2x19.2
Weight Set(lb) 4.9kg
Packing(lb) 7.4kg
Special Features DVI (HDCP). MagicTune. MagicBright2. Windows Vista Premium Logo
Stand Type Simple
Function Swivel, Tilt
 
lrtrees said:
One other question I have is for DejaWiz. Where have you read or hear that this screen uses a "true 8-bit panel". I have not seen this.
Click to expand...

Shoot, it's a 6 bit TN panel. I was thinking of the Samsung 215 panel. My bad!
 
I was considering buying this panel, but after going to Best Buy and checking out the gateway 24", I ended up getting that one!

but i got it from Circuit City for $601 after taxes.
 
Parish, my bad. I misunderstood what you were referring to. You mean it cannot be rotated to a portrait orientation vs landscape. Got ya.
I asked about the white because I am looking for something to do digital photo work with. And I have read that TN based screens are not the best type of screens for this type of work. But the panel used in this monitor is supposed to have been made by Samsung vs. the other manufacture and therefor could easily be an improvement.

Thanks again,
Lon
 
I guess I could have just said Portrait or Landscape as well to avoid the confusion...lol.
 
Parish, thanks for the great review, one question, any buzzing noise at low or medium brightness??? (was another problem of the 225BW)

Thanks
 
I picked up teh 226BW from CC Saturday. No dead pixels and after some adjustments a very nice display. Played some BF 2142...sweet. ran some FEAR and it looked even better.
Noticed some back light bleed, but its slight and evenly distributed around the edges.
No buzzing at any settings.
I plan on using my Digital Video Essentials disk and the ATI control panel to set the colors and gray scale as best I can.
DVD's look awsome too. Very pleased so far.
 
solaq57 said:
Parish, thanks for the great review, one question, any buzzing noise at low or medium brightness??? (was another problem of the 225BW)

Thanks
Click to expand...
I did not notice anything in 2 nights sitting in front of it. My buddy did not mention he had an issue with his 225BW making noise either, but he's not the type to notice that stuff like I am.
 
sweet review. now you're making me seriously think about a new monitor to replace my L90D+. :p this would probably be the one.

 
Thanks, what brightness do you use??

parish said:
I did not notice anything in 2 nights sitting in front of it. My buddy did not mention he had an issue with his 225BW making noise either, but he's not the type to notice that stuff like I am.
Click to expand...
 
parish, What settings are you using. My contrast and brightness are set in the low to mid 30's and I'm not sure on the gamma, I'm at work now so I can't check. I'm new to this lcd thing and am not sure how to optimize the monitor. And how much is "to much" on the back light bleed?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
 
BBPorter said:
And how much is "to much" on the back light bleed?
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Click to expand...

The answer to this is entirely subjective, as some people find a small amount of backlight bleed utterly annoying and others don't seem to mind it that much. However, if you find yourself noticing it when watching movies or viewing relatively dark images, then you probably have "too much". If turning down the brightness doesn't solve the problem, or results in an unacceptably dim screen, then it is time to exchange your LCD.
 
actgually from reading around i think the 225BW input lag is the monitor and not the gfx card.

also, alot of people are saying to go to CC and get the 206BW since "it's the same resolution but smaller", but wouldnt that make the 22" a great idea? since you get the a bigger picture but with the same resolution performance hit as the smaller picture.
 
The idea behind that comment is that since both screens have the same resolution, at the same distance the smaller one will have better sharpness and the larger one will suffer a bit. And this is probably true, at least theoretically. But in practice it hardly makes a difference since the simple solution is simply to sit slightly farther away from the larger panel, which will entirely solve the problem. And incidentally, is better for your eyes, since they don't need to work as hard when focusing farther away.
 
Sorry about not posting picks gents, I haven't had time.

To speak to backlight bleed, my 19" Samsung 940BF had more noticable bleed than the 22" does. In normal conditions (surfing web, watching stuff in normal lighting) it looks incredible.

I have set the brightness to 90 and the contrast to 70 now and like it this way.

One funny thing about Samsung's "RTA" feature. I find that I get better response in a game if I turn this off with the OSD. I don't know why, but it was the same with my 940BF. The only time I EVER noticed any ghosting on the 940 was with RTA enabled and in foggy conditions in 2142. I wish they had a way to disable the feature totally. As it stands it becomes re-enabled when the montior comes back on from standby.
 
If nothing better comes out for my scheduled build in April....I'm definitely getting this monitor.
 
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