- Aug 25, 2006
- 572
- 0
- 18,980
Got the 226bw. I got the S varient made my samsung. I'll start with the pros. Magicbright is part of the OSD now, my sammy 193+ uses the software varient. Note, if you want to dual moniter the 226 and the 193+ you will not be able to make changes to the 193+ settings, the software magicbright will not load and error out.
Impressions:
My first impression of the 226bw is just how big it is! I've always liked samsung's style and liked the quality even better. First off, the stand is not height adjustable, but it swivels and bends. Using the calibration tool provided with my sammy 193+ called Natural Color I had to do very little changes, really, the only setting to change would be the contrast about 3 points lower. Optimal color resulted by turning off Magicolor as it seemed to wash out deep reds and provided an unrealistic hue to it.
Gaming:
However, like i mentioned earlier, gaming with magicolor can make things look prettier, my preference is color accuracy. I played a quick match of DOTA, the game is highly texture based and very colorful, so I felt it was a good game to test the quality of the monitor. The results impressed me, keep in mind I've used the 193p+ for gaming up till now so I am comparing it to a superior panel type as the 193p+ is not TN. The game was undeniably ghosting free, Dota can have alot of fast action going at at one time, which means it is sensitive to ghosting affects. I could tell the response time was faster than my 8ms 193p+ which exceeds my expectations. It probably isnt 2ms GtG but ghosting still was nonexistant. RTA didnt stutter the frames, and i didnt notice the black and white frames inserted, surely playing a game with higher requirements would show some jitter, but I have not heard any reports of such (therefore it must be minimal). RTA is enabled by default, it can be turned off, however, it enables itself again once the moniter is power cycled.
Movies:
I watched "The Return" using the "movie" mode offered by the OSD. This softens whites and as far as i could tell, was pretty much the optimal 6500 warmth for watching movies in. There was no sparkling to speak of, none. Colors were accurate, there were no jitters, no motion blurs, and very even blacks (the backlight bleeding was the only area of uneven blacks). Whites were perfect, this is an area backlight bleeding means nothing in, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
I want to go over the weaknesses of this moniter because that is likely more useful than my subjective impressions of the moniter. First off, there is bleeding, blacks are not as deep as my 193+ and as such, I give it an average rating. I have a benq that has much worse backlight bleeding, but that monitor is 3ish years old. The good thing is that the backlight bleeding is limited to the top and bottom regions, and quite frankly, it only shows up when watching movies due to the black bars cropping the picture. The uniformity is very good; only the areas with bleeding didn’t match the area's surrounding it, thus, the "meat" of the display is very uniform making it suitable for Photoshop, gaming, and even word processing. Viewing angle once again doesn't even come close to matching the 193p+, horizontal angles are good, and hold true to the specs, however, the vertical limited, especially when viewing at a downward angle. Just be sure to use the tilt function to ensure you hit the sweet spot. I'm not saying it’s bad by any means; it is just more limited than the 193p+.
In case you want to know if you have an "a" or an "s" variety, the sticker located on the rear of the display. You have to pop off the cable cover to see it. It will show as "Samsung 226bw S", if you have an "A" variety, your results may differ from mine. It is likely made by AUOptronics which isn’t necessarily bad as every brand has monitor models made by them AFAIK.
Overall I highly recommend this monitor, the style, OSD, and performance is top notch, and arguably second to none. Aside from some backlight bleeding (the norm for TN panels), the performance is excellent in every area I tested it in. The monitor is well suited for dual or single monitor use, and excels in gaming especially. The increased contract ratio really shows its muscle when viewing dark pictures. Based on my experience with monitors and my sensitive eyes, I can state definitively that this is the best 22" monitor I have ever used. Out of the box it performs very well, and achieves near perfect status once it’s calibrated. This is a monitor that will not disappoint and will continue to impress you for a very long time.
I hope this has helped you with your next monitor purchase. 😛 [/b]
Please ask as many questions as you'd like and I will answer them the best I can.
Regards,
Eric
Impressions:
My first impression of the 226bw is just how big it is! I've always liked samsung's style and liked the quality even better. First off, the stand is not height adjustable, but it swivels and bends. Using the calibration tool provided with my sammy 193+ called Natural Color I had to do very little changes, really, the only setting to change would be the contrast about 3 points lower. Optimal color resulted by turning off Magicolor as it seemed to wash out deep reds and provided an unrealistic hue to it.
Gaming:
However, like i mentioned earlier, gaming with magicolor can make things look prettier, my preference is color accuracy. I played a quick match of DOTA, the game is highly texture based and very colorful, so I felt it was a good game to test the quality of the monitor. The results impressed me, keep in mind I've used the 193p+ for gaming up till now so I am comparing it to a superior panel type as the 193p+ is not TN. The game was undeniably ghosting free, Dota can have alot of fast action going at at one time, which means it is sensitive to ghosting affects. I could tell the response time was faster than my 8ms 193p+ which exceeds my expectations. It probably isnt 2ms GtG but ghosting still was nonexistant. RTA didnt stutter the frames, and i didnt notice the black and white frames inserted, surely playing a game with higher requirements would show some jitter, but I have not heard any reports of such (therefore it must be minimal). RTA is enabled by default, it can be turned off, however, it enables itself again once the moniter is power cycled.
Movies:
I watched "The Return" using the "movie" mode offered by the OSD. This softens whites and as far as i could tell, was pretty much the optimal 6500 warmth for watching movies in. There was no sparkling to speak of, none. Colors were accurate, there were no jitters, no motion blurs, and very even blacks (the backlight bleeding was the only area of uneven blacks). Whites were perfect, this is an area backlight bleeding means nothing in, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
I want to go over the weaknesses of this moniter because that is likely more useful than my subjective impressions of the moniter. First off, there is bleeding, blacks are not as deep as my 193+ and as such, I give it an average rating. I have a benq that has much worse backlight bleeding, but that monitor is 3ish years old. The good thing is that the backlight bleeding is limited to the top and bottom regions, and quite frankly, it only shows up when watching movies due to the black bars cropping the picture. The uniformity is very good; only the areas with bleeding didn’t match the area's surrounding it, thus, the "meat" of the display is very uniform making it suitable for Photoshop, gaming, and even word processing. Viewing angle once again doesn't even come close to matching the 193p+, horizontal angles are good, and hold true to the specs, however, the vertical limited, especially when viewing at a downward angle. Just be sure to use the tilt function to ensure you hit the sweet spot. I'm not saying it’s bad by any means; it is just more limited than the 193p+.
In case you want to know if you have an "a" or an "s" variety, the sticker located on the rear of the display. You have to pop off the cable cover to see it. It will show as "Samsung 226bw S", if you have an "A" variety, your results may differ from mine. It is likely made by AUOptronics which isn’t necessarily bad as every brand has monitor models made by them AFAIK.
Overall I highly recommend this monitor, the style, OSD, and performance is top notch, and arguably second to none. Aside from some backlight bleeding (the norm for TN panels), the performance is excellent in every area I tested it in. The monitor is well suited for dual or single monitor use, and excels in gaming especially. The increased contract ratio really shows its muscle when viewing dark pictures. Based on my experience with monitors and my sensitive eyes, I can state definitively that this is the best 22" monitor I have ever used. Out of the box it performs very well, and achieves near perfect status once it’s calibrated. This is a monitor that will not disappoint and will continue to impress you for a very long time.
I hope this has helped you with your next monitor purchase. 😛 [/b]
Please ask as many questions as you'd like and I will answer them the best I can.
Regards,
Eric
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