Customer Reviews

Samsung SyncMaster 225BW 22-Inch LCD Monitor

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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!

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.

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
Search & Info Design

I looked around for a while and was going to splurge for the dell 24" but then hit the brick and mortars for a look-see. The samsung 22 (225bw) seemed just right, and has a VERY nice screen. I didn't really need a 24", I thought in the end. I was using two 19" monitors but wanted the widescreen and more area for work (I write music for film and also for dance).

I would recommend that instead of doing the $650 for a dell 24" you do the $300 for this samsung (you can find them for about $310 delivered online) and ALSO get an ergotron neo-flex adjustable monitor arm (part number: 45-174-300) which you can find for $75 delivered online.

*Having a nice 22" monitor on a highly adjustable monitor arm is superior to having just a 24" monitor. Also for long-term use, a monitor arm seems absolutely necessary: consider your back, eyes, and neck!

note that the 20" and 22" widescreens are apparently the same resolution...so the 22" just gives a bigger image...but for my music writing + scoring this is just fine.
( btw. I am not a gamer...and apparently big screens are key for gaming....)

I spent a few weeks doing research on 22" monitors and decided on the 225BW. I mainly looked at the Acer 22" and Samsung 226BW in comparison to the 225BW. In the store, the text clarity on the Acer didn't seem as sharp/clear to me as the 225BW. The price between the 225BW and the 226BW was relatively close.

I chose the 225BW over the 226BW because the 225 is known to work well (aside from a little backlight bleeding that is hardly noticeable to me though) and have few if no problems. The 226BW is produced with one of two panels ('S' panel or 'A' panel). The S panel is made by Samsung, while the A panel is made by another manufacturer. The majority of the people that got the 'A' panel found it to be of lesser quality than the Samsung panel. Since I didn't want to play the lottery, I chose the proven 225BW with its height adjustable stand.

I replaced my 17" Samsung LCD with this monitor. Both are great, but the huge viewing area is awesome.

I bought this monitor at CompUSA. It's almost perfect, but I have three gripes about it:

1. The stand on my monitor isn't quite straight, making the monitor unlevel. That is, it's rotated slightly counter-clockwise. I couldn't see any way to adjust the stand or take it apart, so I just put some paper underneath the left side of the stand....

2. As others have mentioned, there is some backlight bleed-through at the top and bottom of the screen when the screen is very dark. I don't know if this is a common problem for all LCD monitors, or just this one. For normal usage you won't notice it at all.

3. My main complaint is that there are too many confusing and competing color controls, and little explanation in the manual about what they do, why they do it, and how the interact with each other.

Most monitors have three color controls: Brightness, Contrast, and Color Tone (Temperature). This monitor has those 3 basic controls, plus a Gamma control, 2 global and independent color "tweaks," and 1 meta-control!

The basic controls are: Brightness, Contrast, Color Tone, and Gamma. Brightness and Contrast you already know about. Color Tone sets the color temperature (Warm, Normal, Cool, or Custom). And there are three Gamma modes, none of them explained anywhere: Mode 1, Mode 2, and Mode 3. The default Gamma is Mode 1. Mode 2 is a little brighter than Mode 1. Mode 3 is almost the same as Mode 1, but blues are much richer, which is strange for a "gamma" control. So even if you set your Color Tone to Normal, using Gamma Mode 3 will still give you a slightly "cool" color temperature. Nevertheless, I typically use the Normal Color Tone along with Gamma Mode 3 because it looks nice.

The "meta-control" is called MagicBright, which automatically sets the Brightness, Contrast, Color Tone, and Gamma, depending on which MagicBright mode you choose: Text, Internet, Game, Sports, or Movie, or Custom (Off). You can switch MagicBright modes with a touch of a single button, which is nice.

The two global tweaks are MagicColor and color Calibration:

MagicColor automatically enhances the color saturation of whatever is on the screen. It doesn't affect any of the other settings.

Inside the MagicTune Windows software there is another program called "Calibration." This program apparently sets the internal color ramps, sort of like Gamma and Color Tone do, but the Calibration tweaks are totally independent of these settings. And you can only change the Calibration through the MagicTune Windows software, not through the monitor buttons. Because Calibration tweaks all the colors, but without changing any of the other settings, and because it's only accessible through a Windows program, many problems are created: (1) There's no way to go back to the default color calibration without using the MagicTune software. No matter what you do with the buttons on the monitor, there's no way to reverse the internal color tweaking that the Calibration program has set! (2) Yes you can "calibrate" your monitor, but what does this actually mean? Calibrate it to what? sRGB? A linear map? Who knows! (3) Since Calibration is independent of the other settings, it makes a big difference what those settings were BEFORE you run Calibration, and AFTER. If you Calibrate with MagicBright or MagicColor turned on, for example, and then after Calibration you turn these off, your monitor will no longer be calibrated. But worse than this, it won't even be in a well-defined state, because those global tweaks that Calibration made are still in effect! And you can't reverse them by using the standard color controls. So in effect, there is a separate, mysterious, inaccessible color tweak called Calibration that is only available through the MagicTune software, and you can never really know how it is affecting your colors unless you set it to the Default Calibration and leave it there permanently. That's what I recommend. It's stupid to have a separate and independent color tweak that is not adjustable or reflected in the other color settings. You're just asking for trouble. So I recommend staying away from the Calibration program altogether.

Also, there's yet another calibration program on the Setup CD called Natural Color. It doesn't immediately affect any settings on your monitor, but it does allow you to associate a custom color profile with your monitor in Windows. This in turn can affect the colors that are displayed when you are running an application that cares about monitor profiles (programs such as Adobe Photoshop). But I recommend staying away from Natural Color as well. It's poorly written and I don't trust it. Photoshop has its own monitor profile generator/calibration tool that's much better and easier to use. And there are professional products you can buy if you really need a very accurately calibrated monitor.

So, in summary, Samsung needs to get their act together and have a simpler, less confusing way of setting colors on the monitor. I'm a computer scientist who programs computers for a living, and I still don't quite understand what Samsung intended with all its conflicting color modes and tweaks. How is the normal user supposed to make sense out of it? But luckily the normal controls work fine. Just stay away from the calibration stuff!

I purchased a new Samsung 22" LCD monitor (model 225BW) on April 16, 2008. On July 13, 2008, my monitor failed and my first communication to Samsung about the problem was submitted through their web-based customer contact form.

On July 20, 2008, I had received no response from Samsung and after searching their website, the easiest way to resolve this issue was to start a self-service in-warranty ticket. I completed the web form, supplying Samsung with all of the requested information as well as a copy of my sales receipt and proof-of-purchase.

On July 23, 2008, I checked the status on the website and it showed "waiting for exchange process." So I called the 1-800-SAMSUNG number to determine what the status was. I was told by the representative that I was impatient. She commented "It isn't like they can put a monitor in a box and send it to you." Why not? That was the option I selected - to have a replacement monitor shipped to The UPS Store near my home to have the exchange made and the defective monitor returned. My other option was to foot the bill for shipping and send it in for repairs, or, to have a $400 hold be placed on my credit card to have a unit cross-shipped and I would still be paying for shipping the defective monitor to Samsung.

On July 25, 2008, I once again checked the status and it was still showing "waiting for exchange process." So I called again and asked exactly what was Samsung waiting on. The representative told me that the exchange process hadn't started and that it was an automated process and that I just needed to wait.

On July 28, I called again, trying to find out exactly what was holding the process up. I was told that in-warranty monitor exchanges were handled by a third party and that the time necessary to complete the process was dependent upon their speed. I asked if I could contact them and was told no. I asked for the name of the company and was told that they couldn't give me that information. I hung up.

I called back. This time, a representative told me that the delay was my fault. She said that I had not told Samsung whether I wanted "A" stock or "R" stock. I advised her that I didn't even know what that meant and said that during the self-service ticket creation process, I was never asked to make that decision. She advised that "A" stock meant a new monitor and "R" stock meant a refurbished monitor. Naturally, with my monitor just days over 3 months old, I told her I would prefer "A" stock. She then advised me that I couldn't get "A" stock and would have to settle for "R" stock. I asked why and she replied that there was no "A" stock to ship out. Upon further questioning, I determined that there was no "A" stock for this monitor because Samsung is no longer manufacturing it. OK, so if there is no "A" stock and I have to settle for "R" stock, then why would Samsung be waiting on me to make a decision? I asked her how I was supposed to know that I needed to make a decision since there was no indication of the website when I checked the status of my ticket and the "Message from Samsung" field was blank on the ticket status screen. She said that customers usually called Samsung to ask why there was a delay and that's when they would find out about the "A" stock or "R" stock issue. I told her that was unacceptable to expect the customer to know that and that Samsung should contact the customer if there was an issue. She responded that they were an in-bound call center and don't make outgoing calls to customers. She also replied that there was no way they would have the time to do that even if they could make out-bound calls. So, the net result of this phone call was that I would be getting "R" stock. She said she would "send it over" so that it could be processed immediately. My interpretation was that she would make whomever needed to be aware of my decision aware and have the replacement monitor shipped out. Bad assumption on my part.

On July 31, 2008, Samsung's Repair Self-Tracking website still shows "waiting on exchange process" as the status of my ticket. Time for another phone call. I get the same story as last time - "A" stock vs "R" stock. I explain that I have already been through this 3 days ago and that I shouldn't have to go through all of this again. For God's sake, put the monitor in a box and send it to me. This representative advised me that she would "expedite" my ticket and get it shipped out. I asked what assurance I had that this would happen and she replied "Because I said I would."

On August 4, 2008, I made another call to Samsung. The representative I spoke with this time seemed genuinely concerned about my on-going problem. He transferred me to Samsung's ECR (Executive Customer Relations) group. I spoke with agent 23. She basically gave me the same old story - no "A" stock available. What exactly do I need to do here? I thought that during the 2 prior phone calls we had established that "R" stock was my only option and I said that I would accept it. I didn't really want it but refurbished equipment is almost the universal standard for warranty requests these days. This agent did say that I could get a refund if I wanted it. I really just wanted a monitor. She said that she was going to send an email to the "monitor department" to determine if there was a new monitor (that met or exceeded the specifications of my defective monitor) that they could "expedite" to me and that she would call me back. She verified my phone number.

It's now August 6, 2008. I called the ECR again at their direct-dial number - 800-522-7341. This time I got Agent 12. She gave me the same old song and dance - you know the drill - "A" vs "R" and told me that was the problem. I asked how long a refund would take and was told 6 weeks. I asked to speak to a Supervisor. She said that she could refer my request to speak to a Supervisor to "Case Management" and that I would get a return call in about 5 days. 5 DAYS! I feel like I'm going to have a stroke. I hung up.

It's still August 6 and I have calmed down somewhat. I call ECR back and get Agent 49. She reads the notes and indicates that Agent 23 received a reply to her email that there was no "A" stock available. I asked why she didn't call me back as promised. No explanation. Then I asked if an "R" stock unit had been shipped. No, it hadn't. We went round & round. She said that she could send an email to the "monitor group" to see if this issue "can be resolved." She advised that she would call me back when she received a return email. More promises of return phone calls. Just for fun, I asked her who at Samsung America, Inc or Samsung Electronics America oversaw customer service operations. Her response "I will be happy to provide a mailing address for Samsung where you can send a letter to the President and express your concerns."

So, I spent money on a monitor with what I thought was a good, 3-year warranty. My money was good. The monitor is bad. Customer service is fictional and apparently there really is no warranty. This experience puts Samsung in a dead heat with HP for absolute worst customer service/customer support.

I am most relieved to write that this monitor is absolutely beautiful, and was strictly plug and play after I got the appropriate mini-DVI-DVI adapter. There were only a paltry two reviews by Mac people, when I was reading all of these to decide whether I should buy this monitor. The two said that they were pleased with it but didn't give any information about setting it up to 'go Mac', so I will describe this simple operation in a bit of detail.

The Apple adapter (around $19.00) is necessary for MacBooks or other Macs that may use a mini-DVI port rather than a full sized one. The whole set up was a breeze--just plug the Mini-DVI adapter into the MacBook mini-DVI port and the DVI end into the DVI cable that Samsung provides in the box. Lastly, plug the other end of the DVI monitor cable into the monitor. Turn on MacBook and Monitor, and the two sync perfectly. They can then be calibrated from 'System Preference--Display' on the MacBook.

I now have a work station--hurray!! I never dreamed that working on a widescreen monitor could be such a pleasure. Sure, at times I like to have the portability of my MacBook (like--especially in front of the TV while I lay on the floor or couch:-)) Of course, it is a necessity for traveling, too. Now I can work with my MacBook wherever I want to, and I have a super desktop without actually having to buy another desktop computer.

I would recommend this monitor for any Mac person out there!

I purchased this screen upgrading from a Diamond Pro 2070SB CRT. And yes, this was my first LCD screen. LCDs have several advantages over CRTs; color fidelity is definitely not one of them, but the Samsung225BW does have pleasing, if not totally CRT-accurate, color. The screen does suffer minor back light bleeding as has been beaten to death by the reviews, but this supposed "problem" is very minor and totally undetectable under normal circumstances. A more serious issue is that the viewing angle is very narrow, perhaps allowing one to move one's head about 2" in either direction of the sweet spot before the image starts to yellow on the far side. The screen is razor sharp and excellent in gaming as well with no ghosting at all.

I also compared this screen side-by-side to the Samsung 226BW successor model at my home for about an hour. From what I could tell the successor, despite the specification exaggerations, does not have superior quality to this model in any real sense. The newer model seemed to have a slightly darker black level, but even that was difficult to say for sure because adjustments could take that difference away given a bit more time messing with it. One thing was certain the 226BW (C model) did have back light leaking just as bad as this model on the perimeter, which is to say that it was hardly any at all. The newer model did NOT have any additional viewing angle despite the specifications to the contrary. In all other aspects the two screens are almost indistinguishable, except, of course, the stand which is much, much better in the 225BW (and the 225BW is $50 cheaper at the writing).

I'll have to add my voice to the chorus of positive reviews. After carefully scrutinizing nearly all of the twenty-two inch monitors currently available, this one became an easy choice. I do CAD work and overall, the Samsung is comparable in quality and right there in terms of specifications to the others in this class (Dell, HP, even the newer Samsung 226bw). This one, however, comes with an adjustable stand, a feature high up on my list. Viewing angles are not great with any LCD and since my chair (and neck) goes up and down, I figured my monitor should too.

To get any higher quality, you will have to look for a true, 8-bit panel such as the Samsung 215TW: But now you're talking an entirely different price point.

Something I did not know about before I made the purchase was the excellent customer/technical support Samsung has to offer. I had a few issues, which I contacted Samsung about, and the support was incredibly prompt and professional. (How refreshing is that!) I now have complete confidence that the generous three-year warranty really means something.

The only downside I can see is that this unit may be phased out in favor of the newer 226bw.

PROS:
Fully adjustable stand *****
Very good quality panel - sharp image; no dead or stuck pixels
Matt black bezel (I find the high gloss finish, which has become popular, distracting)
Colors are generally quite good for a six-bit panel (see comment on controls)
Three-year warranty
Excellent customer support
HDCP capable (the ViewSonic VG series is not)
Includes both DVI and VGA cables (most of the others only include the VGA cable)
Excellent price/value (especially since the introduction of of the newer 226bw)

CONS:
Some light bleed (as others have mentioned), but only noticeable when using a completely black screen (hardly ever).
Somewhat complicated (OSD) controls, though quite flexible once you get past the learning curve and find right settings for the work you do.

Hope this helps.