Customer Reviews

Samsung SyncMaster 191T 19" LCD Monitor (Black)

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Samsung 191T 19" LCD Monitor Review
Friday, November 22, 2002

I love my new 191T. Some history. I had previously used a 21" Mitsubishi 91TXM [aperture grill model] since 1996 till this year when it started flaking out and fluctuating in brightness.

I decided to get my feet wet in the LCD world in March 2002 with the best bang for the buck 15" monitor at the time. That was the KDS Rad-5. The KDS performed admirably; it showed me the wonders of no more eye strain when using a TFT monitor. Some niggling concerns emerged over time of course w/ an entry level monitor like this: there was no portrait swivel [though I did splurge for a stand alone stand that does it], no DVI connection, 35ms refresh rate, colors were not as saturated and vibrant as a CRT.

I had been monitoring the 19" LCD segment for some time, waiting for an appropriate price point / performance convergence. That came when I saw the multiple award winning Samsung 191T hit [money]. Monitors are about the only things I tend to buy locally, and my CompUSA had a few of these. So I carted it home, pleasantly amused that I could carry it briefcase style in one hand, remembering my battles moving around of the 21" Mitsubishi. After unpacking, I connected the cables up to my Matrox Parhelia 512. The Matrox has a DVI output which allowed me to go straight Digital to Digital w/out the need for an analogue conversion step. I hooked up my KDS to the second head of the Parhelia and the third head to my Apex 20" TV.

First thing I noticed after getting the drivers installed was w/ the DVI connection, all monitor adjustments including color temp. are 'taken care of' for you. <g> I knew this obliquely from reading all the reviews, you cannot alter geometry and other settings in DVI mode. That's fine because, damn, it looks good.

The 191T's native resolution is 1280x1024x32x60HZ. I have never run at 1280 before because on my Mitsubishi it made things too small and caused even more eye strain. I was leery about how things would look on the TFT since the KDS runs at 1024x768 natively which I also use to run the Mitsu. However, my fears were unfounded, the text looks great, it's still 96DPI in WinXP but I don't have any problem reading it on the 191T which is great.

Second thing I noticed compared to the KDS was that the colors were extremely vibrant and saturated. This was a gripe w/ the KDS. The contrast on the 191T is 500:1, on the KDS it's 350:1 so this is very noticeable in Mame32 vertical games where if you play in landscape mode, you've got the two black 'letterbox' bars on each side of the image. The Samsung is brighter than my CRT, it's really beautiful to watch a game with strong colors like the CPS2 Vampire series, or Last Blade.

Another claim to fame for the 191T is its super thin bezel, as can be seen in these images, it's extremely elegant and well laid out. The base allows for rotation so games can be played in portrait mode if desired. Sad to say, I actually find myself being too lazy to actually rotate it; so they're played in the old style in landscape. <g>

Refresh times are spec'ed at less than 25ms. The lower the refresh rate, the less likely the ghosting effect that continues to plague LCDs to some degree. I found the 191T to be little better than the KDS, the degree of betterness, heh, perhaps affected by the larger amount of pixels that need to be pushed around. All said, it's personal preference and tolerance level for the ghosting, I don't think it's that bad since I only play Mame32 and Links 2003, a golf game which is static.

I have been extremely impressed with this monitor so far, I've quickly gotten used to having more onscreen real estate in my daily work as well. The jump from 1024x768 to 1280x1024 affords a nice increase in visibility. This monitor is a current top performer in its bracket, I don't have any trouble recommending it.

*** SURGEON'S WARNING: Reading this might lead you to purchase a near-four digit display even by maxing your card so read it at your own peril ***

I have been using a 19" CRT(18" viewable Hitachi 753) for the last four years with a DELL: a couple of days ago, I had enough of the dry eyes from its constant use, so I sold it and got the 191T(under-pressure splurge?). It was sad to see it go(like selling a child...) and the purchase of such an expensive item on decisions made alone from the internet reviews was a very very tense experience(well, there aren't many stores that has the expensive LCDs displayed with all those cheaper LCDs around). HOWEVER, after a days use of the 191T, I can tell you this: get this if you can.
This is one 'huge' monitor in terms of the screen size: there has been only an inch increase from my previous monitor, but coupled with about 1/5 of the depth of the monitor, it really looks like a floating picture frame. There seems to be one dead on the top left but disregardable, and brightness(500:1) was so good that I had to turn it down: I later found out that the initial setup for the two had been at only 50%! The colors are lusciously vivid: it is not like that poking, somewhat tiresome sharpness that CRT displays. I liked the tone of the colors so much that I got some post-impressionist drawings(Monet et al) as my new screen saver. By the way, the screen's response from fast movement was negligible: sure, some hate LCDs for slow response rate, but with 25ms(that is milliseconds), the 191T has the one of the lowest to date and it shows. Skipping all the technical specifications that you readers by now will know(after scrolling through all the internet sites), the price might be somewhat hard to swallow: I was-[$$$] purchase was not an easy one to make, more so being a student. Also, the difference between saying 'a few hundred dollar monitor' and 'a thousand dollar monitor' to onlookers("WHAT?") was so great, I agonized over purchasing the 191T and the lesser sibling, the 181T(18inch). Both are technically and in shape the same, besides the 191T having a 19inch screen, an adapter(the 181T incorporated it inside) and a few things. However, the price difference between the two as low as [$$$], the 191T is hard to beat. Sure, some say that 19 inch at a fixed resolution of 1280*1024 is somewhat much, but for me, it is worth it and the 191T handles it superbly. Just to let you know that just because the LCDs has fixed resolutions does not mean that they cannot show lower ones: it is just that it cannot utilize the whole screen.
The looks of the 191T are fabulous: 19mm silver frame, and the compactness of the depth, the lightness(the 19" CRT was as heavy as a baby elephant, whereas the 191T is as light as a dame), and the joy of staring at the whole new world of colors without pains from lengthy use is just dazzling and wonderful: hey, I do have a 14" LCD on my 4-year old laptop and UC Berkeley has tons of LCDs here and there so this is not my first LCD experience, but the 191T is just it. At prices now coming below [$$$] for 191Ts compared to other 18"(yes, 18"!) LCDs that costs more(i.e. NEC-Mitsubishi), the 191T(and also 181T) are the Lexuses of the LCDs: affordable luxury. It is just flat out brilliant, literally.

Some else reviewed this monitor before me and complained that at resolutions other than 1280x1024 the text was blurry. Well, guess what? That's normal for this LCD. In fact, all LCD have the same issue, let me explain.

All LCD monitors have what's called a "native resolution". The native resolution is the resolution the monitor was built, designed, and meant to be used at. If you use it at any other resolution you get lower performance, like blurry text, ghosting and other issues. When you use the monitor correctly by running it at it's native resolution of 1280x1024 with a 60Hz refresh rate, everything will look perfect. Trying to use the monitor at any other resolution other that the native resolution for that particular LCD will not hurt the monitor, but you will notice things look a bit blurry. It's a limitation of LCD technology, not of this particular monitor, all LCDs have this limitation!

I have the Dell 1900FP, which is just a relabeled 191T. I was lucky enough to get a monitor with no stuck pixels and I love this thing. Since I run it at it's native resolution it has razor sharp text. It is much brighter than my old CRT monitor was. Geometry and other problems with the picture filling the whole screen are non-existent due to the auto-adjust button which automaticaaly adjusts the screen to fill the entire screen.

I occasionally notice some ghosting while playing games like Quake3, but it's not really that bad. Considering what I've seen on some other LCD monitors, the ghosting on the 191T is not a problem. This is another LCD technology limitation that occurs with all of the larger LCDs made today. Until the response time of LCD monitors drop on larger LCDs you will be able to notice "ghosting". Even so I didn't find it to be a problem on this monitor.

The thin bezel is a big plus and once I have the money I will be picking up a second 191T. I've seen others with three of these monitors in triple-head and is looks very nice. The thin bezel makes it possible to watch DVDs and play games in multi-monitor setups and have it look ok.

One, it's BIG on screen size. Two, the bezel is NOT BIG. Three, it pivots. Four, DVI.

Five, it is CHEAPER than than you think. Dell has a $16 billion agreement with Samsung, which includes sharing of LCD technology.

Hence, the Dell 1900FP *IS* the Samsung 191T.

...If you are considering this monitor, go down to CompUSA and watch a movie on it. See if you notice the "ghosting". Ask them to connect it to a real computer there, and test it out yourself. They'll do it if they think they're getting a sale, it's pretty easy you'll find.

First, www.AMAZON.com is great. Got my monitor in 3 days. no problem good price. Easy to deal with compared to DELL(that's another story.

THe SAMSUNG - Am running it in analog mode(while waiting for my new DELL).

PROS Picture is crisp, and fairly uniform on web browsing, PC text apps. (after having a lot of blurring at first, fiddled w/the profile settings and took care of it) Ran a DVD (WOODY ALLEN in BANANAS). Excellent picture, not "ghosting" or bluring, high color fidelity.

CONS: The Color management/profiling software included is completely bizarre. Documentation practically non-existant.
The controls on the monitor are also bizarre, you have to go through a sequence of about 4 buttons just to make one adjustment.
Am having a real hard time getting a decent calibration with Photoshop. Yes, it's inherently difficult w/LCDS but not impossible. Problem is toning down the brightness enough.

Jury is still out on this one...

I wish I could give this monitor a good review. However, after 2 defective ones in a row, I simply cannot recommend it.

My first monitor kept losing the picture. After 15 or so minutes, the screen would go blank. I would have to power the monitor down and back up to get the picture back. I thought this might be a fluke, but this kept happening after 15 to 30 minutes. I plugged my old monitor back in to make sure it wasn't my video card -- it worked perfectly. Another hookup to the LCD and the picture went out again. The cables were secure. I took it back.

My second monitor unfortunately had quite a few stuck-on pixels. A stuck-on pixel is where a pixel is always 'on' while viewing the screen even when the video source does not have instruction to be on. For example, a completely black screen had different pixels or "dots" that were always lit. It was like viewing the night sky with blue and green stars (no red ones...

For what I could see with the monitor itself, the picture was very crisp and bright. It is much brighter than my 17" Samsung 171V that I currently own on another PC. I tried several resolutions, and only the native 1280x1024 had clear text. 1024x768 and 1280x960 both had blurry text. Some DVD tests I ran on it were quite good, and the response time was good enough to keep up. The monitor is very lightweight and takes up very little space. I honestly wish I could have received one without problems.

I may still consider this monitor after getting over the bad quality of the first two. I would give quality 1 star and performance (when working) 5 stars, averaging a 3-star rating from me. I would highly recommend buying it from somewhere that had a good return and exchange policy. Some e-tailers out there do not think dead or stuck-on pixels are a problem until they run up beyond 5 (or even 8 at one place). One bright, stuck-on pixel in the center 60% of the screen is unacceptable to me. The picture was excellent and this would be a good buy except for the defects, so buy at your own risk!

This monitor has the best image I've seen on an LCD monitor. Colors are more vivid, whites are brighter, and blacks are darker than every CRT and LCD monitor I've seen. This model has a great contrast and visability from a wide viewing-angle. You don't need to look directly at the monitor to see the image, which is very nice. The tight bezel around the outside of the screen makes the monitor itself look small, altough the image size is *LARGE*. If you're not using a monitor close to this size, moving the mouse will take some getting used to as you'll need to drag further to get from one corner to the other, but it's a small sacrafice to make! You can't go wrong with this model.

I am returning with my second review for this monitor, and my rating hasn't changed. But from what I have to say, maybe some of you out there may lower my rating. First, in my first review, I said that the monitor had two dead pixels. I've since found about 3 more. They don't all show up at once though. It depends on the background color of whatever you-re looking at e.g. games, web-surfing. One is always blue when it should be black. On a white background, as I type this, there's one pixel that's stuck in red. It would have been nice if the monitor was perfect with out any defects like these pixels, but I'm an easy going guy and never felt a need to return the monitor because of this.

On my old CRT monitor, I was used to having the resolution at 1024X768. Switiching to the Samsung's native 1280X1024 made things like pictures in webpages look smaller at first, but I quickly adjusted and it's no big deal. You can see more of the web page without scrolling at this resolution anyway. Other reviewers mention rotating the monitor, and yes, it comes with special software to adjust your screen when you rotate it. Unfrotunately, I haven't taken the time to learn how to rotate my monitor. The instructions come on a d CD, not a printed booklet I i wasn't able to find out how to rotate the monitor from this CD. I'm sure the insructions are in there somewhere, but i need to look harder.

Gaming: With the native resolution at 1280X1024, I prefer to leave my monitor at this setting at all times. I don't like the fuzziness of graphics/letters when shifting to other resolutions (I.e. UI'm spoiled by the sharpness of the native resolution). So, if you want to play your computer games at the native resolutioin, you need to make sure that you have a fast computer. I notice ghosting during the cutscenes of GTA3. and if I go to www.gamespot.com and scroll down a web[age, you can notice the refresh rate isn't as fast as a CRT (the screen "blinks" as you scroll). This only happenes from gamespot's website, and it's really not a big deal to me. Overall, I think the colors/graphics of games still look very nice on this monitor. Yes, CRT is sharper, but the Sam,sung comes pretty close. Plus, you save all that desk space. SO, I don't feel like going back to my old CRT (Sony 21" GDM-F500 from ~1998).

I'm happy with my purchase of this samsung.

I'm a Mac user (graphic artist) that has a dual-monitor set-up. I had been using an ancient (1995) 15" CRT as my secondary monitor (for palettes and things like that), but it started to die on me. Determined to get an LCD monitor, I searched for a couple of weeks, read reviews, checked prices and the Samsung SyncMaster 191T always seemed to be the best choice. I finally pulled trigger and ordered one from Amazon.com. I ordered it on a Tuesday morning and it showed up the next day around noon! And I only paid for the standard 3-7 day shipping.

Anyway... I hooked this up to my ATI Radeon 7000 DVI connection. Wow! I didn't know what I was missing! My main display had been a LaCie 19" Electron Blue CRT. This Samsung is a little larger and much brighter and crisper (not to mention lighter and cooler!). I was so impressed I switched the displays and made the Samsung the primary monitor. Oh, and no dead pixels!

Another thing I like about this (and other LCDs) is the fact that they use less energy and run much cooler. In my small office with several monitors, computers, printers, etc., it tends to get very hot in the summertime. I can't wait to get another SyncMaster to replace the 19" CRT!

I have two Samsung 191Ts in dual monitor setup at work. Right now I'm hooked up in analog, not DVI, mode. The screen is very bright (I had to turn it down!) and text is very readible. Colors look great also. The price drop... has me seriously considering buying one for home. What looks great is the thin border around the screen; very sleek compared to the ViewSonics which have large borders and look CRT-like. From the reviews I've read, I don't think there is much better LCD monitor than the Samsung 191T. I'm very happy with the two screens I have at work!