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Samsung SyncMaster 172W LCD Monitor Review
Author: Jakester
Date Posted: July 13th, 2003
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Bottom Line:
LCD Monitors continue to improve picture quality, brightness and viewing angles, we got hold of the latest Samsung SyncMaster 172W LCD Monitor and put it to the test. Find out how we rated it and what makes it different from the rest in our official review...
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Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Overview:
Now that we're through the tech-talk let's focus
on what really matters- how it looks and performs.
The panel of the monitor is a sleek
silver in the front with a black plastic backing. The depth of the monitor is
only 1 inch, but the base is 216mm (almost 8.5
inches) deep. While this may sound like a lot, 8.5 inches is still a very small area
compared to the huge area a CRT takes up.
As mentioned in the features, the SyncMaster can fold to be perfectly flat
with it's base. From there the unit can be mounted onto the wall (or ceiling if
your adventurous). I'm sorry I didn't have a spare wall to screw the mounting
bracket into, but I'm sure you can visualize it in your mind.
The back of the base provides us easy access with the port for
the power adapter, the Analog RGB input, and the DVI input. The fact that the
cords aren't built into the back of the monitor, but removable instead, is a big plus
in my book. Some monitors cut corners by having the end of the cord integrated
with the rest of the monitor- definitely not a good idea. I really like the SyncMaster's setup because it is easy to remove a faulty cord without having to
lay a finger on the monitor itself.
As we rotate around the base we
come to the Audio In and headphone jacks. The headphone jack is very convenient
since it allows easy access for you to plug in your headphones, rather then
having to plug them directly into your sound card. I'm sure anyone who uses
headphones will find this to be quite handy. Along side of the jacks is the
volume control for the base speakers.
The front of the panel houses 4
menu oriented buttons, the power button and auto-adjust button. The auto-adjust button is a one-touch screen
calibration method, simply press and it does the work for you. If you aren't happy with
the auto-adjust, then you can use the Menu button to bring up the SyncMaster's
very easy to use menu system.
To navigate the menu you use the
"-" and "+" keys to move the cursor left and right. The different submenus are
as follows (in order with the icons from left to right): Brightness, Contrast,
Image Lock (Not Available in Digital), Horizontal/Vertical Position (Not
Available in Digital), Geometry and Color Reset (Not Available in Digital),
Color Temperature, Image Size, Halftone, Language, Menu Position, Menu Display
Time, Display Mode (shown above). I had no problems using the menu and found the
controls to be quite easy to use. The other options are the Source and Magic
Bright buttons. The Source button will choose between analog and DVI input. The
Magic Bright button will bring up a menu with the four different brightness
options mentioned in the features section.
One last thing to look at is the
viewing angle- that is, how well you can see the picture of the LCD when looking
from a sharp angle.
mmmm...Snapple.
As you can see the screen is still
very visible from the side and the quality and clarity the picture is only a
little degraded. Another thing to note is that the pictures were taken in the
evening so the room was darker then normal which makes the picture much easier
to see. In a well lit room the screen is slightly harder to see from the side
but still visible.
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