Emprex brand 22" LCD any good?

[cerebusta]

I am looking to get a new LCD monitor for a new computer.
While at Fry's today I found two monitors to consider.

1. Emprex 22" LM2201 for $200
http://www.emprex.com/02_products_02.php?id=185

2. Samsung 21.6" 216BW for $250

We did an A/B test with the same computer and looked at picture quality and text readability for both and we liked them both. I have never heard of Emprex before but at $50 cheaper it would really help my budget. Does anyone have any experience with either of these two monitors? Can anyone make any recommendations?

Thanks.

 

[sirkillalot]

1. Emprex 22" LM2201
As far as i see the Resolution: 1680 x 1050 is a bit low for me but if its ok with you then why not, other specs seem fine.(not many reviews about it)
The Samsung 21.6" 216BW is more knowen but much the same specs.

 

[cerebusta]

I went ahead and got the Samsung. It had an extra two years of warranty and since it is a better known brand I am hoping it will be a little better supported. This may be important because I am going to try to calibrate it for work with Photoshop.

So far I really like it. It is a big step up in size from what I had before.

 

[AAAAANDRE]

I went for it (The Emprex LM-2201)...
I was "stalking" a new monitor all Labor Day weekend and it popped up in Fry's Mon. Ad.
$179 after rebate in Woodland Hills, it was $169 in the San Jose Ad? ;-(

They had an Envision 22" for the same price a couple months ago, so I held out.

We got the Samsung 24" (245BW) at work "NICE", and I couldn't bear to look at my old blurry Envision 19" CRT at home. I was thinking about the Samsung 22", but they've been running $325-$350. The company bought the 24", I had to buy my own, so I had to cheap out.

It took a little while to "dial in". It only comes with a VGA cable, No DVI cable (extra $20?).
I used the old video (VGA) cable to hook it up. ACK! No RED!!!? Tried another cable and it started looking better.
Finally I used the cable that came with it and started to look good.
Took a while to get the right resolution set on my ATI A.I.W. 2006. Tried a few settings, rebooted a couple times,
messed around in "Catalyst" and the proper resolution finally came up.

Used Adobe Gamma (comes with Photoshop?) to adjust it some, still had to "wing it" to get it "nice"...
Brightness 100/Contrast 20 on "Picture" pre-set. Everything looks good, but the left road shadow in the "Bliss" wallpaper pic looks purpley? Black Blacks, White whites, neutral Grays.
Good Grays - I drew some Grayscale Color Bars in Illustrator and I can see the difference in the dark darks and light lights.

Don't forget to set Clear Type smoothing in Display/Appearance/Effects, pretty much eliminates the "jaggies" on small (all?) text.

NO Dead Pixels! (a couple dust specks faked me out) A little backlight bleed (1/2" or less?) top & bottom with a screenblanker black screen. The all black screen looks sort of mottled, uneven, 2" dark band at the bottom, a dark blob at the top, but don't notice it on the regular desktop.

The case/bezel looks a little cheap compared to the Samsung, but who looks at that.
The power light is a subdued yellow/green. I hear the 22" Samsung has a bright blue beacon.

5ms vs 2ms? I don't game much, but swinging a window around the text does gray out a bit.

Viewing Angle seems pretty good, a little darkening/lightening as you move your head up/down.
Left/Right goes a little beige on the sides. Not as much as on the Samsung 24".
I guess that is "normal" for LCD screens? Just sitting a normal distance from these bigger sizes
your viewing angle varies 30-45 degrees from on center. Maybe they should build Variable Angle LCDs???

Overall, I'd say I'm pretty satisfied with it.
**** Stars? Great for general use, If you are super picky, spend a lot more.
Minus for the VGA cable only, the uneven backlight, and cheap casework;
+++ for the price, and the picture is nice.

The Ol' 19" CRT is looking pretty sad sitting next to it in a dual monitor set-up.
(Where's my Glasses!!! Oh, I have them on! ;-(

p.s. Firefox's restore previous session is Grrreat! I had a crash in Illustrator 10 while writing this and thought I'd lost it! Lucky you the text was right there in the window. ;-)))

 

[AAAAANDRE]

UPDATE...

I think I was dazzled by New Monitor Syndrome.
After a day actually looking at it, I think I'll change to "3 Stars".
The mottled backlight shows up when watching the dark parts of movies,
kind of annoying because I know it's there and see it.

Looking at the Samsung 24" now at work, and the difference is obvious.
The solid black screen IS solid black on the Samsung.

If it's On Sale and Cheap, get one for the office people, kids, second computer, etc.

 

[campincarl]

I think Fry's has the LM2201 on sale tomorrow for the after thanksgiving sale for $129.99.

 

[snakeraizer]

I bought a Emprex M#lm2203 S#B2212B82700151 monitor from frys that lasted 11.5 months.It was out of warrnty by the time i finally got responce from emprex after several emails to tech support then to there customer service (twice)I finally was nicely told they would fix it if i sent them 100.00 and shipped it back to them, I wouldn,t buy anything that has Emprex on it very low quality

 

[Dougx1317]

Emprex is Fry's brand. Like how Dynex is Best Buy's brand.

 

[Guest]

I think I may have lucked out. I bought four of these and hooked them up to dual hydra cards using HDMI cables. At first, I was disappointed because they did a lot of blinking/calibrating to signal which seemed to go on for quite a while - like a month or longer...I was ready to pitch them and start over. But now after having had them hooked up for almost 3 years, they work great, have zero dead pixels and very rarely do the calibration blink. Would like to buy four more to totally geek out with an 8-monitor station. But I do have to say, I hear ya on the quality question...you usually get what you pay for, but when I can get it for half the price of a known brand (which also occasionally have issues), then I figure I've saved enough money to completely replace them later when prices fall some more, causing the "name brand" to cost about as much as the generic .

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