tongue_of_colicab
Veteran
Dont know if this is the right subsection, but it seemed best to me. If not, could a mod please move it to the right one?
Here goes...
For some time now I've been looking into buying a new screen. My old screen was a 17'' crt @ 60hz which was who knows how many years old. I bought it from a friend of mine 5 years ago for 20 euro's and it already looked a couple of years old at that time. I couldnt sit more than 20cm from the screen because of the nice sloping roof in my bedroom.
After finally deciding on spending some cash to not ruin my eyes before I turn 25 I started to look around a bit. Being only a student I dont have that much cash available (I actually do have, what I think is a nice bank acocunt, atleast for someone my age, but almost everything of that is reserverd for getting my drivers licence, motorbike licence and most off all saving money to study abroad for a while which will be expensive and my family cant afford for me). I first decided on the size. I wanted something big enough because I got tired of having to work in a small space with imaging software. I think 20'' is a half assed format so that wasnt a option and 24'' was to expensive. I initially started looking at the cheaper 22'' screens from acer that only costed around 200 euro's. But it didnt took me long to realize the image quality of those screens is real poor, they seem to lack alor of ''life'' in the colors. So that wasnt a option.
After some browsing I came across the samsung 226bw. Initially I was real positive about this screen, reviews looked positive and at 260 euro's it is affordable untill I heard samsung started using 3 different panels and only the samsung manufactured one offerd the good quality, the other 2 are poor quality. Note It appears that this issue has been solved and all screens made after june 2007 are samsung panels. I didnt want to take the gamble though.
So I went on searching. I came across the HP series which offer good quality but are fairly expensive and have a glass coating on the screen which is really annoing because it will constantly reflect. It looks awsome in the store, but its not nice to work with.
It had to be a samsung panel. I went to a store and had the option of checking out the 226bw, 226cw and 2232bw. The 2232bw is a new panel and the 226cw is a updated 226bw if im correct. I found the 226cw to look best....
And now we will get on with what really matters, the screen
Sooo where to begin? Lets start with the design. I think the monitor looks really nice. Most of the screen is painted in a nice glossy black and the bottom has a piece of plastic that has a brushed aluminum look to it. Overall the screen looks well build and its nice to look at. It looks alot more expensive than it is.
The boarders arnt that big and the overall dimensions arnt big I think for such a screen. Even with my sloping roof it fits perfect on my desk, I was worried it wouldnt fit right but it really does. The only downside for some people could be that it isnt hight adjustable.
Next up, things that matter most. I'll start out with the ghosting. To be short: there isnt. Atleast not as far as I noticed (I dont play games on my pc very often).
Viewing angles are normal I think. According to the specs its 160degrees. If you sit right on front of it ofcourse there isnt a problem and moving a bit to the sides like you might do normally when sitting behind your desk still gives a good view but you will see color variation quite fast when you move more. Personally I dont think its a big deal because 99,9% of the time you will be the only one watching the screen so you can site in the right position.
Backlight bleeding is also to a minimum. I could almost notice one with the one I tested in the store (only a bit at the bottem) but when I first unpacked my screen it seemed to be really bad with my screen. For some reason when I looked the next day it was almost perfect. I only see a little bit around the edges and only when you make your whole screen black. You wont ever notice it while using the screen which is a good thing.
Image quality, I dont know. Its defenitly not bad, I like how sharp everything looks compared to my old screen but this being a TN panel if you take a good look at it you will notice that sometimes there is a bit of lack of depth in the colors. It will defenitly do more than a good job for normal use, gaming and even some image work but if you are really uptight about having (or needing) perfect colors this isnt the screen you want I think.
Overall this is the screen I think you should have a good look at if you are looking for a screen with good performance while still being affordable. I paid 330 euro's for mine (cheapest only 290) which is a fair bit more than I wanted to spend but given the overall looks and use of the screen I think its still a good choice. The space I have is just awsome (only mousing to the sides takes soooo long ) and overall things just look nice when viewed on the screen though I do think some photo's and video's looked to bright but other than that I dont have any real complaints about the screen. The only real downside is the standby light. Its much to bright so I have to power out the screen each time I go to bed because otherwise my room will look like a disco.
Here goes...
For some time now I've been looking into buying a new screen. My old screen was a 17'' crt @ 60hz which was who knows how many years old. I bought it from a friend of mine 5 years ago for 20 euro's and it already looked a couple of years old at that time. I couldnt sit more than 20cm from the screen because of the nice sloping roof in my bedroom.
After finally deciding on spending some cash to not ruin my eyes before I turn 25 I started to look around a bit. Being only a student I dont have that much cash available (I actually do have, what I think is a nice bank acocunt, atleast for someone my age, but almost everything of that is reserverd for getting my drivers licence, motorbike licence and most off all saving money to study abroad for a while which will be expensive and my family cant afford for me). I first decided on the size. I wanted something big enough because I got tired of having to work in a small space with imaging software. I think 20'' is a half assed format so that wasnt a option and 24'' was to expensive. I initially started looking at the cheaper 22'' screens from acer that only costed around 200 euro's. But it didnt took me long to realize the image quality of those screens is real poor, they seem to lack alor of ''life'' in the colors. So that wasnt a option.
After some browsing I came across the samsung 226bw. Initially I was real positive about this screen, reviews looked positive and at 260 euro's it is affordable untill I heard samsung started using 3 different panels and only the samsung manufactured one offerd the good quality, the other 2 are poor quality. Note It appears that this issue has been solved and all screens made after june 2007 are samsung panels. I didnt want to take the gamble though.
So I went on searching. I came across the HP series which offer good quality but are fairly expensive and have a glass coating on the screen which is really annoing because it will constantly reflect. It looks awsome in the store, but its not nice to work with.
It had to be a samsung panel. I went to a store and had the option of checking out the 226bw, 226cw and 2232bw. The 2232bw is a new panel and the 226cw is a updated 226bw if im correct. I found the 226cw to look best....
And now we will get on with what really matters, the screen
Sooo where to begin? Lets start with the design. I think the monitor looks really nice. Most of the screen is painted in a nice glossy black and the bottom has a piece of plastic that has a brushed aluminum look to it. Overall the screen looks well build and its nice to look at. It looks alot more expensive than it is.
The boarders arnt that big and the overall dimensions arnt big I think for such a screen. Even with my sloping roof it fits perfect on my desk, I was worried it wouldnt fit right but it really does. The only downside for some people could be that it isnt hight adjustable.
Next up, things that matter most. I'll start out with the ghosting. To be short: there isnt. Atleast not as far as I noticed (I dont play games on my pc very often).
Viewing angles are normal I think. According to the specs its 160degrees. If you sit right on front of it ofcourse there isnt a problem and moving a bit to the sides like you might do normally when sitting behind your desk still gives a good view but you will see color variation quite fast when you move more. Personally I dont think its a big deal because 99,9% of the time you will be the only one watching the screen so you can site in the right position.
Backlight bleeding is also to a minimum. I could almost notice one with the one I tested in the store (only a bit at the bottem) but when I first unpacked my screen it seemed to be really bad with my screen. For some reason when I looked the next day it was almost perfect. I only see a little bit around the edges and only when you make your whole screen black. You wont ever notice it while using the screen which is a good thing.
Image quality, I dont know. Its defenitly not bad, I like how sharp everything looks compared to my old screen but this being a TN panel if you take a good look at it you will notice that sometimes there is a bit of lack of depth in the colors. It will defenitly do more than a good job for normal use, gaming and even some image work but if you are really uptight about having (or needing) perfect colors this isnt the screen you want I think.
Overall this is the screen I think you should have a good look at if you are looking for a screen with good performance while still being affordable. I paid 330 euro's for mine (cheapest only 290) which is a fair bit more than I wanted to spend but given the overall looks and use of the screen I think its still a good choice. The space I have is just awsome (only mousing to the sides takes soooo long
) and overall things just look nice when viewed on the screen though I do think some photo's and video's looked to bright but other than that I dont have any real complaints about the screen. The only real downside is the standby light. Its much to bright so I have to power out the screen each time I go to bed because otherwise my room will look like a disco.
