Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor

by Samsung

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 20 x 24 x 10 inches ; 0.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 20.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000I42QO6
• Item model number: 225BW
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,027 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 20, 2006

Product Description

22 inch 1680x1050 700:1 280cd/m2 5ms VGA/DVI

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

412 of 418 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Monitor Review, January 14, 2007

By 

Darren He "in Boston" (Boston, MA UA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor (Electronics)

One of the crazes of 2006-2007 seems to be monitors, and many people seem to get specs-crazy. For good reason though - who wants to spend hundreds of dollars on a piece of bad hardware? I'll attempt to cover most of the major topics people are worried about.


Panel Technology:

Definitely a TN Panel. At the time of this review, most 22" panels are manufactured by Chimei, which I believe is a Taiwanese company. The ramped up production of the Dell 22" may change that, but until then... So, how do I know this is a TN (twisted neumatic) panel? Well, mainly by the response time - at this price point, it's going to be a TN. TN panels are the cheapest, and are the most used consumer panels. They have fast response times. However, they are 6-bit, compared to 8-bit. This means there are fewer colors, and the colors will also be less accurate than a non-TN panels. It also means some banding. If you're not doing graphic design, etc, then you won't have to worry about it. Word documents and Excel spreadsheets aren't going to present the opportunities to complain about the subtle color differences and gradient banding. If you are a graphics pro, gamer with good eyes, etc., then go for a panel with S-IPS technology. PVA panels also work, with accurate colors and great contrast ratios, but they have slower response rates. In general, S-IPS and PVA are also noticeably more expensive than TNs.


Banding

Even though there are a lot of TN panels out there, they all have different banding levels. The Samsung 225BW performs very well, with minimal banding. On VGA, there is barely noticeable banding, but the monitor works a lot better on DVI input: banding is barely noticeable. I literally have to put my face to the monitor to find it.


Backlight Bleeding

This is a general problem on the 22 inch TN panels. There is backlight bleeding on the top and bottom, but it's not too bad, and only noticeable if you make the screen entirely black. Usually, your taskbar covers the bottom, and an open application will cover the the entire screen, not to mention the top of the screen. But if it bothers you, then the bleeding IS there, and noticeable on a black screen.


Response Time

Response time on all TN panels will be lower, as that is a feature of the technology. However, the 5ms is measured grey-to-grey. The response times between black and white are unlisted. Generally, they are higher. Overall, the Samsung 225BW performs pretty well in gaming and movie tests.


Stand Construction

One of the main reasons you would buy a Samsung is 1) Better Quality Control and 2) Stand Construction. The stand looks durable, unlike many of the flimsy/cheap looking stands out there. This stand pivots, twists, and has height adjustment. All that it is lacking is portrait/landscape rotation.


Connectivity

Has VGA and DVI. Simply said, DVI looks better than VGA, and eliminates much of the banding, color image quality issues, and flickering text (on black background) that are present in VGA connection. If you don't have DVI already, that usually means getting a dock/port replicator for a laptop, and probably a new video card for a desktop.


On Board Controls + Brightness + Contrast + More

I notice that many readers complain about brightness - not just in this monitor - but in many other monitors. Contrast is also related to this. I noticed that the older population generally wants a panel that's less dim. For example, I noticed that on the HP f2105 reviews, many people said that the default was brightness was too high, though I thought it was perfect. The hard button settings work as they should; I generally don't bother going through the settings, and most people won't need to. Brightness is adequate; contrast is very good; on the contrast scale of 0 to 255, even blacks at level 1 are noticeable on a pitch black background.


Resolution:

Text is clear and crisp; no fuzzy areas. My monitor came without any dead or stuck pixels, which I partially attribute to Samsung's better quality control (though it's not perfect). Much better than lesser-known brands, for sure. Also, I recommend buying the monitor from Amazon because there's no fee to restock, as other stores have. 15% is a pretty big cut for a restocking fee. Also, other stores have dead pixel policies that generally allows for 5-8 dead pixels. Personally, one dead pixel bothers me. I couldn't imagine trying to live with 8! Amazon is great for this because they don't seem to have a dead pixel policy. The customer service representatives I've spoken to don't even know what dead pixels are! (Sorry, Amazon CSRs). Thus, monitors with even 1 stuck pixel can be exchanged as defective, as they really are.


Other Options:

A 20" LCD. They have the same 1680x1050 resolution as this 22", which means you won't be seeing any more on the bigger monitor - it'll just look bigger. The advantage of 20" monitors are that they are cheaper. Examples of good 20" LCDs are the Viewsonic VX2025wm and the Samsung 204BW/205BW. The HP f2105 is a good 21" monitor for a decent price. It has either a PVA or S-PVA screen, which looks a lot better: no backlight bleeding, full 8-bit color. Expect to spend around $250 for a 20", and $300-400 for a 22"

A 23"+ LCD. In contrast, 23" and larger LCDs have higher resolution (1920x1200), but are more expensive. They are a lot more beautiful though. =) Examples of good 1920x1200 monitors are the Dell 2407WFP, the Apple 23" Cinema Display, the Samsung 244T, and the BenQ FP241W. Expect to spend $650+ for a 23-24". There are also 26" and 27" monitors out there with this same resolution. They are a bit more expensive.

A 30" LCD! The Apple 30" Cinema Display (expensive), and the Dell 3007WFP (cheaper but still pretty good) are simply amazing. Be warned that you'll need dual-link DVI. They run at 2550x1600 resolution though, which is amazing. Price? Anywhere from $1200-$2000.

And of course, another 22" LCD. The Viewsonic VX2235wm, the Viewsonic VG2230wm, the Acer AL2216WBD, and the Acer AL2223WBD are decent 22" LCDs for around $300.

OLED panels. Displayed by Sony at CES 2007, these panels are amazingly beautiful, have contrast ratios a thousand times higher than LCD monitors, and are amazingly thin. No word on pricing or availability at the time of this review.

Feel free to comment on this review if you find incorrect information, have comments, questions, etc. By no means do I guarantee the perfect accuracy of my information. Keep in mind that panels vary in construction; your 225BW might be better or worse than mine. Also, monitor companies do change panel manufacturers; so you panel purchased a year ago or a year later may have different specs from mine. Example, the Dell 1907WFP switched to TN panels in late 2006 (unfortunately).

Good luck monitor shopping!

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this monitor! I feel like I have a new PC now :-), May 10, 2007

By 

ƒůŽźŸ ωŬ&#... (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor (Electronics)

Fuzzy Wuzzy's Summary:
***** Highly recommended with warm fuzzies!


***** Excellent 5-fuzzies feature ratings:

***** I bought this monitor to replace a 11 year old high quality 17-inch Trinitron CRT that is still working great. While my 17-inch CRT can still match the 225BW for clarity after 11 years of use (and has better color than any LCD can have), I mainly wanted the bigger screen space and far lower heat emission of the 225BW. I work entirely from home in e-commerce software development, so moving from a 17-inch CRT to a 22-inch LCD widescreen gives me MUCH more room to have more windows displayed (the next best thing would be *two* 22-inch LCDs) and I am looking forward to having this LCD heat up the home office FAR LESS than the 17-inch CRT would during the summer. I also like the far more adjustable stand on the 225BW, compared with their newer [[Samsung SyncMaster 226BW 22-inch LCD Monitor]]. I do not understand why Samsung put an inferior non-height-adjustable stand on their newer 226BW, but that was the deciding factor in making me not purchase the 226BW because it was only slightly more expensive than the 225BW.

***** This is a great price for a great 22-inch LCD. I also had to upgrade my old Nvidia GeForce4 card to a Xfx GeForce 7600GS 512MB because the old graphics card did not support the monitor's native 1680x1050 resolution, which added $156 to the total purchase, but the cost was well worth it - this extends the lifespan of my 4 year old PC and I do not ogle as much the newer computers with even faster graphics cards. For best results, you need to have a graphics card and updated driver that supports the 225BW's native 1680x1050 resolution and run it using the DVI digital output. Even though the 225BW is called a "SyncMaster", it does not really have the same adaptability as the multi-sync CRT monitors for matching clarity at various resolutions.

***** And not a single bad/dead/stuck pixel to be found. Movies and DVDs play clearly, and with the upgraded graphics card, the 3D rendering on games is great and responsive without any shadowing effects. Overall, I am very impressed with the quality of the monitor. Kudos to Samsung's quality control.


**** Good 4-fuzzies feature ratings:

**** In regards to the much-discussed backlighting, I only notice a slight bit of backlight along the bottom edge of the screen when I fully turn the brightness up to the maximum setting of '100'; no detectable backlight shows up on the top, left, or right edges of the screen, even if I adjust the brightness to the maximum '100'. And this is with a solid black background that I always use for my desktop, along with a plain black screensaver. I get the impression that how much backlight you have may depend somewhat on chance, as it seems to vary from monitor to monitor. When I first turned on the monitor, it was extremely bright. After I first tried out all of their preset brightness/contrast settings (the "Text" setting was my favorite preset, but it was still a bit too bright for my taste), I ended up setting my own custom settings to a very low Brightness of '7' (at night in a darkened room) or '10' to '15' (during the day with subdued natural lighting) with a Contrast setting of '70' - I adjusted my Brightness/Contrast mainly for text clarity and its appearance matched what I was used to on the previous CRT monitor. With these settings, the backlight along the bottom edge was only barely noticeable, and I would have to minimize all windows to just leave the solid black background of my desktop and purposely stare at the bottom edge for a few seconds before it was visible.


*** Not-so-good 3-fuzzies feature ratings:

*** The viewing angle is quite narrow. It is totally sufficient for me sitting centered in front of the monitor, but anyone else sitting or standing next to me would see some degree of yellow and blue color bleeding into the far side of the screen.

47 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Monitor with some quirks, November 25, 2006

By 

Oliver Fritsch (Boise, ID, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor (Electronics)

I just got this monitor during the Thanksgiving frenzy and purchased it on a whim (for 299$) without checking any reviews before. I have been using different Samsung 15" and 19" Monitors so far and always have been thrilled about their quality and image display.

The first thing I noticed when Windows boots up, was same backlight bleeding on the top and bottom of the display frame, i.e. it was not totally black as it should be. Nevertheless, during normal use you don't see it.
The big issue for me was finding a graphic card that is able to display the native (and still unusual) resolution of 1680 x 1050. If your card can't display this mode, the picture is all blurry. The Compusa Salespeople told me that you could just download "widescreen" drivers from Nvidia and ATI Website - but even when I did this, my Gforce 5200 went into blurry state after entering this native resolution. The card always maxed out at 1280 x 1024.
I stood 2 hours in the store and tried to figure out display modes on the cell with my wife who had access to a computer - with no luck....neiter manufacturers nor storeowners could tell, which card can display the required resolution for this monitor.

In the end I bought a ATI Radeon 9550 (60$) which DOES NOT LIST this particular mode on their packing but to my relief it worked right after installation and without tinkering - whew!

The I tried to watch a DVD Widescreen Movie, but - funny enough Realplayer and Windows Media Player don't fill the screen fully - you have to magnifiy the image and then it gets a little blocky - which again has nothing to do with the monitor.

What I enjoy most is using Photoshop without having to constantly move the tools around as there is plenty of space now. Also cool: Outlook that can now show EVERYTHING on the screen fully.

I'd give this monitor 5 Stars would it not have the backlight bleeding, but resolution and image are crisp and bright.

Oliver Fritsch
www.cendesic.com
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