Best monitor I've ever used
Written: Oct 03 '02
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Pros: Amazingly bright screen, 0 dead pixels, looks great, great response time
Cons: High price, Doesn't lock into landscape/portrait modes. Small light blinks repeatedly when powered off.
The Bottom Line: A definate buy, and best monitor I've ever owned. The competition can't compare.
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| rcummings100's Full Review: Samsung SyncMaster 171 P 17 inch LCD Monitor |
I researched LCDs for a few months before settling on the Samsung 171p. My requirements were:
- quality control (no dead pixels on arrival)
- high contrast ratio
- good brightness
- 17" or larger
- excellent response time
- dvi input
Tomshardware was very helpful in pointing me in the right direction and I eventually found this monitor. The paper specs speak for themselves. 17" viewable, 250cd/m2 brightness, 500:1 contrast, 1280x1024 res, 170/170 viewing angle, 25ms response time, both analog and digital inputs. Plus, it's designed by the FA Porsche house.
The monitor was simple to install, taking only 2 minutes. The hardest part was getting it out of the very well-packaged box. I doubt this thing will get damaged during shipment, so ordering over the internet shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure this also helped in allowing the monitor to have zero dead pixels.
The Porsche-designed exterior simply looks stunning. The 'buttons' on the front, which give access to the OSD, aren't actually hardware buttons at all. They're some sort of heat sensor that detects when your finger is there. The base itself feels quite sturdy, and swivels around quite easily. This shouldn't be confused with changing into portrait mode, which this monitor also supports. This is accomplished extremely easily, with only the push of a hand.
The screen itself is astonishing. The clarity and brightness have yet to be rivaled by any monitor I've seen. Text is crisp and easy to read. Graphics look great as well. I've heard many reviews state that LCDs don't reproduce the same colour depth and quality as CRTs, but in my opinion, this monitor successfully counters that argument. Skin tones and graphics look true to life (based on pictures taken and edited with my digital camera). As well, the response time of 25ms is excellent. It's currently the best available, as I do not know of any with lower times. "Ghosting" is evident when viewing websites with text on coloured backgrounds. However, this is the only time I have noticed any ghosting at all. It's not present anywhere else, including intense 3d gaming. So those of you who are worried about being distracted during a fragfest of quake3a by ghosting need not worry. You'll have to find something else to excuse your inability to frag your buddies :)
One thing to point out is that I haven't experienced any eye strain with the 171p, as I did with my old CRT. I suspected the old CRT was causing headaches from staring at it for long periods on end, but I never realized how much this was true. Since getting this Samsung LCD, my headaches have definitely decreased, and I've noticed my eyes are no longer tired (something I wasn't even aware of when using the old monitor).
As with any product, with the good there are always some bad. While this is certainly true of this monitor, they are all very minor points. My main complaint is that there's no "locking click" to let you know the monitor is in a true 90 degree portrait mode or regular landscape mode. This would be extremely usefull, as manually judging if the monitor is straight can get tiring if you switch between the two modes frequently.
Second, the two video inputs are hard-wired into the base of the monitor itself. This makes sense if you're going to be actually using both inputs at once, but if you're like most people you won't. This leaves a 1 extra, useless, cable to manage at the back of the monitor. Again, no big deal since you can just shove it back there with the rest of the cables sticking out of your PC.
The final two downsides to this monitor are exact opposites of each other. The first is extremely extremely minor: when in standby mode (aka the computers turned off, monitor is left on) the green light surrounding the power button blinks repeatedly. This can get annoying if you're near the monitor while it's in this mode, but can be easily solved by just pressing the button to turn it off. It's not like this is a computer that needs to boot; from the time you press the button until you can see a picture on screen is 5 seconds.
The second however is what I consider to be the only significant downside of this otherwise amazing product: the price. You can get other 17" lcd monitors for far cheaper, or 17" CRT's for even less than that. But they will not be even close to the quality of this monitor.
Overall, I'd definitely buy the Samsung 171p again.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200cdn
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
rcummings100
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