13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Great monitor. Software doesn't work
Date of Review: Oct 27, 2007
The Bottom Line: I don't believe there is a better 22" monitor for gaming on the market today. But the MagicTune software doesn't work on my computer.
I was looking to replace a three year old 19" Dell UltraSharp LCD monitor, which was for a very long time the best rated LCD on the market. I believe it was made for Dell by Samsung. I like to play computer games from time to time, and I came to hate the ghosting caused by Dell's very slow response rate. So I was looking to get the best 22" monitor on the market with the fastest response rate.
I found two 22" monitors with 2ns response rate: the 226BW, and the LG L226WTQ. I bought the LG because it was readily available locally for $279, but ended up returning it in a week because of the very poor quality of text display. The video was great and the calibration software that came with LG was perfect.
To replace the LG I got the Samsung 226BW from Amazon. If you're reading this review, you're probably aware of the controversy surrounding the different versions of this monitor (A vs. S vs. C). It is now impossible to tell the source of the panel, but I do not care. As far as I'm concerned, the picture on this monitor is perfect for video and text. I simply couldn't be happier with the picture.
The software and features of this monitor are a somewhat different story. First of all, the installation routine for the MagicTune software is quite bad, and full of grammatical errors in the instructions. But that's a minor annoyance. The big problem is that MagicTune doesn't work on my computer. At all! The likely reason is that I have one of the more recent nVidia video cards - the 8600 GT, which is not listed in the MagicTune's compatibility list. I did download and install the latest version of MagicTune, but it reports that it is not compatible with my computer system.
Because I can't run MagicTune, I can't use its calibration routines, so I had to manually pick what looks like the appropriate levels of brightness and contrast. Also, because I couldn't use the software to configure the monitor, I had to use the buttons on the monitor itself, that are very poorly positioned on the underside of the front edge.
Finally, unlike with the LG monitor, I have not found an option to turn off the very annoying bright blue LED light around the power button. So I think I'm going to end up putting black electrical tape to cover it up.
A few other observations:
* The monitor comes with a swivel base, but the height is not adjustable. It is not a problem for me, but could be for some people who may need their monitor raised.
* I miss having a built-in USB hub that was part of my previous Dell LCD. I don't know why this feature is absent from so many of today's LCDs.
* Unlike the LG monitor, this one came with both the analog and digital (DVI) cables.
* Most LCD monitors have a built-in cable management system on the back of the stand, but not this one. The power and DVI ports are close enough to the center of the monitor, though, so that the cables are mostly concealed by the wide vertical stand.
* The Samsung support site is pretty poorly organized, and the troubleshooting information is extremely limited.
