Samsung 225BW Monitor

This monitor is a real disappointment for me, especially from Samsung. The backlighting is the one flaw of this monitor, but it's a fatal one in my case. This monitor exhibits vertical banding I do not like due to a poor backlighting design that is quite noticeable in almost all conditions. Warranty replacement does not solve the issue for me, therefore I do not recommend the Samsung 225BW Monitor.

I got a Samsung 225BW Monitor from Ebuyer for 220 pounds (next day delivery, couldn't wait).

With a three year warranty, a good price and 22 inches of widescreen display, how could I go wrong?

The unit is supplied with everything you need to get started (and so it should) with analogue and digital cables for connection to the PC and two power leads (one with a funny foreign plug that I can't use).

There is a driver disk that is needed too, unless you decide to get the more up to date driver from the Samsung website which I opted for.

Having installed the driver, the correct resolution was not available in the screen settings menu. I needed to restart my machine to see these changes. The driver did not tell me I needed to restart - though it is pretty obvious.

As you would expect:

It's a flat panel monitor and so does not take up much in the way of desk space.

In anything other than it's native resolution of 1680x1050, the rendering is not so good as with all flat panels I have seen. You tend to get away with it more on CRTs as CRT pixels and more rounded and blurred. With a TFT/LCD panel, the pixels are square (or, more accurately, rectangular) and very sharply defined and so emulating other resolutions is more obvious.

Straight from the box, the display was more than adequate but if I were to be picky I would say that the screen was backlit unevenly (most noticeably at the top edge).

The auto-setup button makes the screen fit onto the display but that's about it. It won't automatically adjust brightness or contrast (and if it does, I couldn't tell).

Playing with brightness, contrast and colour settings for a few minutes gives a good deal of improvement and photos taken on my digital camera looked good - colour banding is not an issue and the colours are well represented. This is the first screen I have used where I have not had to scale down my pictures to see a detailed, full screen view.

Okay, photos look good but I use my machine for browsing and working too.

It's big (wide) enough to have two screens side by side and edit on one side while seeing the results on the other. Thumbs up for work mode.

Having moved from a "more square" screen to this one has meant a change in screen layout. For example my Outlook is arranged sideways now and is much better.

What of games?

The refresh cycle is certainly up to the job on my mid-to-high end gaming machine and I haven't suffered from blurring or skipping or tearing during intense gaming. This is a big plus point.

UT2004 runs quite happily at the screens native resolution (just!) and is an immersing experience.

Command and Conquer 3 however will not "run" as such. I don't have the required computing grunt for this. However, at approximately half the resolution (800x500) it runs very smoothly without too much in the way of visual blockiness. Lack of text probably helps on this score.

It has received a big grin and a "wow" from everyone who has ventured into my office.

Movement is nice and smooth with regards to tilt and swivel.

Niggles?

It's almost too big. Almost.

In their rush to get this screen out, Samsung neglected to fit a cable tidy to the screen and so the cables dangle behind the unit which WILL get on your nerves until you sort it out yourself. And believe me, you will sort it out to get the correct look, the screen deserves it.

I like it. I like it a lot.

As for longevity, I can't say but it has a three year warranty with it and it was cheap.

For about 200 pounds (if you can wait for slower delivery), how can you go wrong?

A+