Ah! Enjoy the Wide Open Space of Your New Desktop

Author's Rating:

Pros: Excellent picture, sharp image, large desktop area. No extra features you don't need. Reasonable price.

Cons: Some backlight bleed at top and bottom.

The Bottom Line: 
Go big, but stay affordable. That fits this display perfectly. The quality is excellent, and I'm happy to have this display in my office.

Author's Review
It was finally time to upgrade my 17" Apple monitor I bought back in college in 1996. Yes, 11 years ago. So this past weekend, after much research, and thanks to a $30 coupon, I decided to go out and pick up this new flat-screen LCD display.

I didn't need a display with a bunch of inputs, or speakers, or any other "junk", I just wanted a basic, large, high-resolution, quality display. I like the Samsung brand name, and 22" of desktop was completely adequate. Plus, 22" is about the biggest you can go without going into "break the bank" territory.

Setup of the unit is straightforward. No surprises here. Take it out of the box, plug it into the wall (the power supply is internal...no AC adaptor or power brick needed), connect it to your video card (with a DVI or VGA cable, both included and supported by this display), remove the height adjustment pin, and you're ready to go.

You should make sure your current video card can support the display's native 1680x1050 resolution before you purchase this display. Otherwise, include the cost of a new video card in your purchase price.

I installed the included MagicTune software, which is supposed to let you control the features you'd normally use the buttons on the bezel to adjust, via software, but apparently this monitor doesn't support that software, as indicated by the "not supported" error message I got when trying to use it, and the exclusion of the 225BW from the list of supported models in the software documentation. So that got uninstalled right away.

Then I did some color adjustments. While everyone's perception of color is at least a little bit different, it seems that the color controls provided will allow for the adjustment of the display's colors to a satisfactory level for everyone. By default, the display seems a little "cool" (blue-tinted). And it is set very bright by default! You should probably use the included Natural Color software to help guide you to a good baseline setting.

You'll notice that some light colors appear quite washed out, and perhaps even appear as white. With some additional color setting tweaking, and tilt adjustments of the display itself, the light colors began to show up as I would expect them. If you'll be using this monitor where true color are vitally important (print or web design, perhaps) you may want to consider purchasing a color calibration tool to help adjust this display. But if you've got the budget for that, you'll probably want to step up to one of the "professional" displays, where color accuracy is given more attention.

After that, I opened all of the applications I'm used to using, and checked out how things looked. Compared to my old monitor, everything on this new display is sharp and crisp, with plenty of room to spread out windows. I was amazed at how small the windows I had been using on my old display were when they appeared on this new display at their old size. So I grabbed the edge of the Quicken window and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d it out, and my checkbook register has never looked better or easier to read.

If you'll be using this display to watch DVDs full-screen, then you will probably notice a bit of backlight bleed at the top and bottom of the screen. Be sure to test this monitor with a DVD before you buy it, if that's the case. Backlight bleed will drive some people nuts, while others won't even notice it. Best to know what kind of person you are before you take a display home. :-)

Overall, I think this was money well spent. The additional workspace is greatly welcomed, there's a ton more room on my desk where the old CRT used to be, and I'm not left feeling bankrupt or disappointed with my purchase. In my book, that's what matters most.

One comment, however. I sure wish you could see monitors running at their native resolution when you go into a store to buy one. All of the stores I went to couldn't show me the display running at 1680x1050. That makes it difficult to evaluate the quality of the display. Be sure if you're comparing displays in person, that the displays you're comparing are all set to their native resolution. You might also want to reset each display's settings to the factory default before doing your comparison, because who knows how the settings have been tweaked by other shoppers before you.