Samsung 172W

[Cue]

Hello guys,

I'm in the urge of purchasing a TFT monitor and I have my eyes set on this baby.

Although I've read a couple of reviews here and there, I wasn't able to find an actual user to comment on it!

I would greatly appreciate any feedback from any of you who has some experience with this monitor.

I'm not a heavy gamer, I mainly need it to watch lots of movies and office use.

My main points of concern are the widescreen format and the viewing angle.

A guy coming from a SONY 15' CRT.

Thanks!

[MuFu]

I've got one, as does Captain Amazing. There are some comments/comparisons in this thread:

http://discussions.hardwarecentral.c...highlight=172w

A very nice monitor! Probably not worth getting instead of the standard model unless you watch a lot of DVDs though. For desktop use the lack of vertical resolution can be frustrating sometimes. If you do buy one, get a DVI lead and perhaps invest in PowerDVD 5. It has a nifty feature called "SmartStretch" that can scale 4:3 vids to 16:9 non-linearly.

MuFu.

[Captain Amazing]

I love DVDs so that one of the reasons I got it. Plus I have limited desk space. As for games, bear in mind if a game doesn't support 1280 x768 you will have to run it in 1024 x 768 mode (i.e. with bars either side or stretched).

[Cue]

Yeah, I've read that thread MuFu

Well, as I said i watch lots of movies and do a lot of coding/surfing.

For desktop use the lack of vertical resolution can be frustrating sometimes.

That's what I'm worried about, the question is how frustarting?

Captain Amazing, yeah, i'm aware of that "feature"...not really troubled though!

In the end, do you regret having purchased this monitor?

I just imagine it mounted on the wall, with its unique widescreen aspect looking top notch! I just don't want to suddenly wake up realising that it's just the looks and not its performance/quality.

[MuFu]

I wouldn't worry about quality. It's about as good as you're going to get out of any LCD currently on the market. A really great picture and fantastic build quality. The brightness is particularly good as well - brighter than most CRTs I've used. I have mine on the wall at home and it saves an unbelievable amount of desk space.

Originally posted by Cue
That's what I'm worried about, the question is how frustarting?

Well no more so than using a 15" LCD. Plus the width is useful for things like mp3 playlists, MSN Messenger etc. I think I only found it a bit restricting at times because I had previously owned 20" and 17" CRTs and then the Samsung 172T.

MuFu.

[Captain Amazing]

Don't misunderstand my e-mail. I really happy with the monitor! It rocks.



I was just pointing out the basics in case you weren't aware. IMHO the performance matches the looks. Of its generation, it is one of the best TFT of its screen size and cost.

[Cue]

Thank you both!

We shall know by the coming of new year