Samsung 226BW vs Samsung 2232GW
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Red Herring
Newcomer
Could be wrong but I read elsewhere that the 226 & 2232 are the same but the 2232GW comes with a glossy screen.
The 226BW is/was a favorite but Samsung started changing the panels internally due to high demand to lower quality ones so it's a bit of a gamble as to which one you will get. There are some options available if you get one of the lower quality panels.
The 226CW is the newest panel and is supposed to be equivalent to the original Samsung panel 226BW but always with a Samsung panel present in it, I think it also comes with wide gamut as well. Of course they charge a higher price for this, not seen any decent reviews yet either though a few user reviews have been positive.
I'm waiting for BeHardware to review the 226CW before getting one myself.
Edit: TFT Central asked a Samsung rep about the 2232BW
Edit 2: BeHardware has posted a review of the 226CW on their French site, the translators don't do a very good job in explaining it but it sounds like there is something wrong with the 226CW and it's response time & they had difficulty in adjusting the colours of the display.
The 226BW is/was a favorite but Samsung started changing the panels internally due to high demand to lower quality ones so it's a bit of a gamble as to which one you will get. There are some options available if you get one of the lower quality panels.
The 226CW is the newest panel and is supposed to be equivalent to the original Samsung panel 226BW but always with a Samsung panel present in it, I think it also comes with wide gamut as well. Of course they charge a higher price for this, not seen any decent reviews yet either though a few user reviews have been positive.
I'm waiting for BeHardware to review the 226CW before getting one myself.
Edit: TFT Central asked a Samsung rep about the 2232BW
so it looks like the BW variant has the Samsung panel in it.
Edit 2: BeHardware has posted a review of the 226CW on their French site, the translators don't do a very good job in explaining it but it sounds like there is something wrong with the 226CW and it's response time & they had difficulty in adjusting the colours of the display.
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Red Herring
Newcomer
Just as an update to this I bought the Samsung SM2232BW and from what I can tell I think it does have the S panel present & is a nice display.
Positive points;
Perfect for gaming 2ms no ghosting and generally pleased with all the games I tried using the gaming preset in the OSD.
Little need to fiddle with colours out of the box everything seems fine as it is though personally I prefer the warm setting for desktop usage.
Negative points;
Brightness too bright at stock settings
TN panel has poor viewing angles things can look a little washed out when not staring straight at them
The power LED is annoying as it flashes when the display goes into standby thankfully you can lower the brightness but not actually turn it off.
MagicBright under Vista 64-bit has some stuttering issues on random occasions it would freeze the system for 3-4 seconds once MagicBright was removed it stopped doing this (the version used was latest 64-bit native from Samsung's site).
The custom presets cannot be changed so you are only left with one custom setting thankfully I think the Internet setting should be fine for most though all the others burn your eyes out with the brightness levels.
I know that seems a lot of negatives but overall it is a good screen and I was coming from a NEC 20WGX2 which is now damaged so I needed a replacement but I would recommend it to others looking for a equivalent to the Samsung 226BW S.
Positive points;
Perfect for gaming 2ms no ghosting and generally pleased with all the games I tried using the gaming preset in the OSD.
Little need to fiddle with colours out of the box everything seems fine as it is though personally I prefer the warm setting for desktop usage.
Negative points;
Brightness too bright at stock settings
TN panel has poor viewing angles things can look a little washed out when not staring straight at them
The power LED is annoying as it flashes when the display goes into standby thankfully you can lower the brightness but not actually turn it off.
MagicBright under Vista 64-bit has some stuttering issues on random occasions it would freeze the system for 3-4 seconds once MagicBright was removed it stopped doing this (the version used was latest 64-bit native from Samsung's site).
The custom presets cannot be changed so you are only left with one custom setting thankfully I think the Internet setting should be fine for most though all the others burn your eyes out with the brightness levels.
I know that seems a lot of negatives but overall it is a good screen and I was coming from a NEC 20WGX2 which is now damaged so I needed a replacement but I would recommend it to others looking for a equivalent to the Samsung 226BW S.
Red Herring
Newcomer
The 2232BW has a Samsung TN panel in it the same as the Samsung TN panel present in the 226BW S the only difference is the 2232BW is more expensive and aimed at the business sector but it will always have an S panel present.
Here's a link to a Chinese review site comparing the 2 monitors. It doesn't matter if you don't speak the language, but the pictures speak for themselves. BTW the left monitor is the 226bw, and the right is the 2232gw.
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_3.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_4.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_5.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_6.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_7.shtml
If you don't bother looking at 20 pictures, the bottom line is the 2232gw has much more accurate colors with deeper blacks than the 226bw.
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_3.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_4.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_5.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_6.shtml
http://www.pcpop.com/doc/0/206/206636_7.shtml
If you don't bother looking at 20 pictures, the bottom line is the 2232gw has much more accurate colors with deeper blacks than the 226bw.
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