Excellant value and performance | Samsung SyncMaster 216BW 21.6-inch LCD Monitor

216BW or 223BW | Samsung SyncMaster 216BW 21.6-inch LCD Monitor

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	• Samsung SyncMaster 216BW 21.6-inch LCD Monitor Samsung Samsung average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Nice

I bought this monitor basically to play on the Xbox 360. I didn't want to waste a lot of money on some flat panel TV, so i decided to go for this monitor. It's awesome.. but i got it with a dead pixel on the left side of the screen. Five stars for the monitor.. i know that the dead pixel isn't samsung's fault. Oh well..

Excellant value and performance

Well packaged and fast delivery times are hallmark's of Amazon. The monitor is fast, clear, and a perfect size for games, work, and video. It already has a DVI cable in it so don't go out and buy one.

216BW or 223BW

This 216BW seems to be the same as the 223BW; the Samsung owner's manual shows 223BW/216BW at the top of the first page.

The owner's manual specifications section also indicates that this monitor is 16.7 million (or 8/24 bit) colors. This is "better" than monitors listed as 16.2 million colors as those are 6/18 bit units. 6/18 bits results in ~262,000 colors, then the monitor uses dithering to give the impression of 16.2 million colors.

This monitor also gives the best display when it (and your computer's graphic card) is set to the "native" settings of 1680 X 1050 pixels at 60 Hz refresh.

Overall, a seemingly excellent monitor.

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Very nice monitor but with software issues

I've had this monitor for about a week having purchased it because of the positive reviews that Samsung monitors, and this one in particular, received from both pros and users.

Basically, I really like it; it's far superior to the 10-year-old 19" CRT that it replaced.

However, I found some annoyances beyond those noted by others.

1. The hardware activated menu ("OSD"), when the monitor is connected with a DVI cable, does not allow you to change the contrast setting.

2. The supplied software (MagicTune and Natural Color Pro) are of dubious value and limited usefulness for an average user like me.

The documentation on the CD touts Natural Color Pro as the solution to synchronizing colors across devices like a monitor and printer. However until installed there are no instructions for its use, only instructions for how to install and uninstall it. I installed it and learned that it is used to create color profiles (files stored on the harddrive). I found no way to use these profiles with the monitor and my printer's documentation says nothing about color profiles. I uninstalled Natural Color Pro - it's of no use to me.

MagicTune, on the other hand actually does something by allowing adjustments to the monitor that are unavailable and beyond what the OSD allows. Unfortunately, this piece of software proved problematic.

First, it runs as a Service, so it's loaded into memory at startup and remains there. If disabled from startup, it cannot be opened from the desktop, it has to be enabled and the computer restarted.

Worse is that it does not behave well on a multi-user XP system when fast user switching is done. Each time I did a switch User, MagicTune complained that the monitor had changed and the monitor's info had to be reloaded - the only response allowed is "OK". One time, after clicking OK, it crashed my PC (Blue Screen of Death). Every other time, after reloading was complete, executing MagicTune resulted in an error saying, in effect, that it was incompatible with my monitor/operating system.

From my perspective, MagicTune is only useful for initial setup after which it should be uninstalled.

The only complaint I have with the monitor itself came as a surprise. When viewed head-on the desktop colors look washed out. As you move to either side or look down at it, the washout increases. Oddly though, tilting the monitor back so you're looking up at it DRAMATICALLY increases the color saturation. So here I sit writing this review on a monitor tilted about 4 inches back from vertical.

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This thing is freakin' sweet!

I won't bore you with the technical details of this, as others before me have done an outstanding job. The monitor is HUGE!! It may be a little too large for general home use. But if you are a hardcore gamer, or business professional who has to have multiple windows/apps open at once, this is perfect. The only suggestion I can make is that it is incredibly bright right out of the box, I lowered the brightness to 10, down from 100. Extremely fast shipping, I could not be more pleased with this. ;-)

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6

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