Actually, it's in stock at Circuit City. It wasn't available in my state (MI), so I entered a nearby zip code (60001) which is in Illinois. It was found at 2 different locations. I called the order number to be sure that the Samsung 226BW is in stock (not back-ordered), and the rep confirmed that my suspicions were correct. I went with the 2 day delivery and should have it sometime Friday.
You can find it at the following link: Samsung 226BW 22” Widescreen Monitor I entered the same zip code that I used, but you can enter something closer to you. I checked California and New York as well, and both states showed multiple cities/locations with the item in stock.
I feel awesome about this purchase being that the inferior Samsung 225BW costs just as much & more at several locations.
The most amazing thing happened to me this morning. I checked the status of my order only to see that it hadn't been processed yet. I browsed to the product page of the 226BW and, incredibly, it showed the item as being in stock at my local store. I called to verify and they told me 2 were available. I left right out the door. Picked it up and just returned home. I sold an old 3MP digital camera to a friend quite some time ago, so I'm on my way out to pick up a new one.
I'll share more information (pics+conclusion) about the 226BW as soon as I get everything situated.
Here are a few pics. I'll summarize my thoughts on this unit asap. Gotta get up for work in the morning. I will say one thing now though, it doesn't have Component or S-Video inputs as indicated on Samsung's website.
i bought the 226bw at CC last week. been playing with it all weekend. some thoughts...
according to the guy at CC, you can return the monitor and exchange for another one for any reason within the first 14 days. you can exchange for a higher priced one without paying the 15% restocking fee.
i love the monitor. have never used and LCD before, but i was amazed when i set my old 19" CRT next to this. much better colors. games look great. everything looks great so far. except...
does anyone with the 226bw notice the banding in gradiants? i was trying different backgrounds images and a few had really noticabe banding in them caused by color gradiants in the images. some of the images appeared to have banding also when viewed on the CRT monitor (i am running both monitors side-by-side). so i fired up photoshop and created a large image with a gradiant. sure enough, the LCD has banding. ugh.
there is no 1:1 mapping that i can find anywhere. when you set the resolution to something other than 1680x1050, it gets stretched to fill the display. so if your video drivers dont support it, then you are out of luck. which is too bad b/c i wanted to hook up my XBOX 360 to it via the VGA port when i finally get one to play GTA 4. but oh well.
i have the brightness set at 50-60% and notice no backlight bleed. even in the dark with a totally black screen. maybe if i REALLY look for it, i could spot it. but then if i do that, it would probably bother me on some subconcious level. so my concious mind hasn't noticed any and i will leave it at that
i played some BF2142 and Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade over the weekend and both looked fantastic. i didn't notice any ghosting or problems with the images.
one other note to those buying the monitor, it does come with a DVI cable in case you wanted to know. the samsung website says it does not. but, on the box is a label that has the serial number, etc. and also on the label it says something like "Option: DVI Cable". so i guess they decided to throw one in at the last second.
please keep in mind this is my first LCD and so i really have nothing to compare it to except for my old 19" CRT which was on its last breath. but i am very happy with the purchase. if i were to return it, the major reasons would be the gradiant banding issue (i am a web developer, so have to deal with that often) and the lack of 1:1 mapping. but i am planning to keep it for right now. glad i found this thread too, now i have to head back up to CC to get my price match (i paid 380, right now it is 357).
if anyone else has any questions i can try to answer them.
Okay. Here are my findings with the Samsung 226BW. It's pretty remarkable. I just would have preferred to have additional input options (Component, HDMI, or S-Video). The stand doesn't have height adjustment either. Despite those small let downs, this is a well designed LCD monitor.
Pixel 1:1 Mapping = Supported. Running any game at 1440x900 will center the resolution and give you black bars all around (top, bottom, left, right). I don't know if that is considered true 1:1 Pixel Mapping as I couldn't get the same results with any other resolution.
Back-light Bleeding = Minimum. With the brightness set to 100, you can see faint bleeding at the bottom of the screen only. Setting the brightness to 60 proved to be the cure for that issue.
Ghosting = Non-Existent. This LCD does the job in high fashion. Fast paced action is great and right on point. No blurriness, or ghosting is noticeable. You won't be disappointed.
Image Quality = Awesome. Everything displays beautifully. Whether it be a high res photograph, 1680x1050 gaming, HD video, or surfing the web, the 226BW produces very crisp image quality.
Color(s) = Colors are accurate & vibrant. Nothing seems to be over exposed at all. Tweaking the controls can prove to be very different however. For instance, customizing the Magic Color option between Custom, Demo, Full, or Intelligent can lead to some colors being to bright/colorful, which will require you to do unnecessary tweaking. I leave Magic Color set to Off, Color Tone set to Custom and just prefer to fine tune the brightness/contrast as the colors are already perfect.
Overall Score: 9/10
Well, that's all I have for now. If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them.
However, I would like to pose a question to you guys. I'd really like a response to this. While this monitor is great, I'm thinking about returning it for a different model.
My question is would it be a smart decision?
The monitor I'm debating over is the ViewSonic VX2245WM ViewDock™ 22" Widescreen Monitor. It is currently on sale for $399.99. The contrast ratio & response time are not as good, but it has way more to offer than the 226BW. Read the specs and view better pictures at: NewEgg
hi everyone
at first i have to say i am from belgium, it s only my third year learning english, so i don t speak english really good yet!!!
i read the topic and i have 3 questions:
-in game can you feel a difference between this monitor and a crt?
and second one:
-aren t there problems beacause of the resolution 1680*1050 to displays HD videos?
and last one ^^
are its colors good enough for photoshop, and the like?
thanks in advance
ps: just to laugh a bit : do you know my country? do you speak french?
bye guys, it becomes late in belgium, i ll soon go to bed.
hi everyone
at first i have to say i am from belgium, it s only my third year learning english, so i don t speak english really good yet!!!
i read the topic and i have 3 questions:
-in game can you feel a difference between this monitor and a crt?
and second one:
-aren t there problems beacause of the resolution 1680*1050 to displays HD videos?
and last one ^^
are its colors good enough for photoshop, and the like?
thanks in advance
ps: just to laugh a bit : do you know my country? do you speak french?
bye guys, it becomes late in belgium, i ll soon go to bed.
i live in your country, and i do speak french however, dutch is my primary language 8)
Quote :
-in game can you feel a difference between this monitor and a crt?
i would say yes, because the screen is much brighter than crt. and probably also much bigger
Quote :
-aren t there problems beacause of the resolution 1680*1050 to displays HD videos?
don't know what you mean exactly, because it's the standard nowadays for 22'
Quote :
are its colors good enough for photoshop, and the like?
-aren t there problems beacause of the resolution 1680*1050 to displays HD videos?
don't know what you mean exactly, because it's the standard nowadays for 22'
ik vroeg me af of er geen probleem is omdat de FULL HD resolutie 1920*1080 is... en geen 1680*1050...
i asked myself if there isn t any problem because of the resolution wich is 1920*1080 for Full HD... and not 1680*1050...
ik woon in Waals Brabant, zo spreek ik Nederlands niet zo goed...
maar ik moet toch het nederlands leren, eerst op school, maar ook omdat de meerderheid van de computerwinkelen in Vlanderen zijn... tot ziens kerel.
but we are a bit beside the subject (sorry for syntax and grammar )
ik woon in Waals Brabant, zo spreek ik Nederlands niet zo goed...
maar ik moet toch het nederlands leren, eerst op school, maar ook omdat de meerderheid van de computerwinkelen in Vlanderen zijn... tot ziens kerel.
but we are a bit beside the subject (sorry for syntax and grammar )
Here are two more reviews. Both say "very good". Really only bad points I can find on this monitor is the stand is no longer height adjustable. And one mentions again to find an "S" (samsung) and not an "A" (other) stamped monitor. I think I might just get one from FS this weekend. On sale for $450 CDN.
You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months. If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.