Hello,
I recently purchased a Samsung Synchmaster 152T to compliment the new computer that I bought and I figured I'd post my impressions here. I've had the monitor for a few days now, and I consider myself a gamer. Not neccessarily hard core, but I've been playing games since I was a kid and I like to play first person shooters every now and then.
I know that finding info on lcds can be kinda tough, so I'll go through the process that I went through in order to find the right lcd for me, first, and then I'll give you my impressions of the 152T. If you want to skip to my impressions, scroll down to the section titled "Review".
The general idea here is to give people who are thinking about buying an lcd monitor a better idea of what to expect. So, without further ado:
The Process
--The first question is always "do I really need an lcd?"
Whether or not you need an lcd is up to you, but here are some things to consider:
Pros:
-Space Saver
-Text and pictures look great
-lower power consumption and less radiation
-looks cool
Cons:
-Can be expensive, especially if you're looking
for screen sizes of 17"+
-Games "MIGHT" not look good
I stress the might because everyones standards are different.
--After I decided that I needed an lcd (to save space), I went about reading some reviews of the most highly regarded lcd monitors (samsung 151/171mp, samsung 151/171p, samsung 152T, some viewsonics, and some NECs) and these were the main questions that I found myself asking:
-Do I really need a tv tuner?
-how much more am I willing to pay for PIP and a tv tuner?
-will I use the monitor to play my playstation 2?
-will I sacrifice game performance for extra functionality?
-do I want to hang it on the wall?
-does it support DVI?
-what feature is most important for me after space saving?
-how much does the look/style of the monitor matter?
-what screen size do I need/can afford?
-what are the dead pixel policies of these manufacturers?
-how long is the warranty for parts and backlight?
-what resolution am I most comfortable working in and
what resolution can my computer handle for games?
For the most part, those questions are straight forward and you will need to decide what's important for you. A couple things I want to touch on are the dead pixels and the native resolutions.
From the reviews that I read, some monitors seemed to be more prone to dead pixels than others. Make sure you know the manufacturers policy on how many dead pixels are acceptable, and make sure that you are able to live with the worst case scenario. For me, this was a major concern. I didn't want to pay for a monitor that had a defect that I couldn't live with. Honestly (as you will find out later) I still don't know what a dead pixel looks like and I don't know whether or not I can live with them.
Another thing that suprised me about lcds was the fact that for every monitor that I looked at, you needed to be in the native resolution or else suffer from bad text and image blurring. The extent of the blurring between models differed, but it was always there. The reason why it suprised me, was because after reading a lot of the reviews I never got the impression that being out of the native resolution made that much of a difference (a few reviews mentioned this, but I only found them after I saw it for myself). I suggest you check out some lcds at compusa or best buy to see if you can tell the difference, but my brother and I were both stunned the first time we saw them in the store when they weren't in their native resolutions. They looked flat out bad, ugly, nasty. This is why it's important to make sure that whatever resolution you are most comfortable with is the native resolution of your monitor. As far as games are concerned when I ran jedi knight 2 in 640x480 the only text that seemed blurred was in the menu but there was some flickering during the introduction. When I tried 640x480 with counterstrike there was the same blurring. As far as how bad this will be if the native resolution is 1280x960 or higher and you want to run a game at 1024x768, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing you would get similar results. To be safe, I would make sure that your computer is powerful enough to run games in your native resolution.
Taking all that into consideration, I decided that the best monitor for me was the samsung 152T. Here is a list of some of the review sites that I used:
Hardware.ArticleCentral.com: http://hardware.articlecentral.com
PC STATS:
http://www.pcstats.com/
Neoseeker:
http://www.neoseeker.com/
OnePC.net:
http://www.onepc.net/
and of course Tomshardware.
To find the cheapest price I used tom's pricegrabbing and I ended up buying it from CruxWorks for $461 with UPS ground shipping. Since the warehouse was only 1 state away, I got it in 2 days. That's it for the process, hopefully it was somewhat helpful. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
The Review
Test System:
Windows98se
directx8.1
1024x768 32 bit true color 60hz
64 mb Geforce4ti4200 running the detonator xp nvidia reference drivers
P4 2.4 ghz 533 FSB
If you didn't read through the previous section, I bought the monitor at CruxWorks for $461 including shipping. Overall the service was great. I was concerned when I first recieved the shipment, however, since the monitor wasn't double packaged. It was sent in it's normal packaging. Hopefully the UPS guys will realize that it's an lcd monitor and be careful with it, but if you ask me, that's kinda risky since the packaging didn't seem like it was very shock absorbant. In the end though, it didn't matter, because when I took it out of the box it looked fine.
The first thing that I did was hook it up to my computer and see if there were any dead pixels (in order to do this I changed the desktop background to black, white, red green and blue respectively and checked to see if any pixels were discolored or totally black). To my relief, I couldn't find a single one. What I did find though, was that the picture was stunning. The text looked crisp and the images looked crystal clear. You can definitely tell the difference between the image quality of a crt and an lcd.
The next thing that I did was to see if I could tell the difference between analog and digital input. I didn't notice a difference. Maybe this will change in the future, I'm not sure.
Next, I wanted to see how the text looked in different resolutions, just as I expected, it looked horrible in any resolution other than 1024x768. Which is fine by me, since I like that resolution.
I proceeded to test it out on the web and it performed extremely well. Fast scrolling was smooth and the image looked great. There is an extremely small difference when you directly compare the effects of fast scrolling to a crt, but nothing that effects the overall quality of the image.
I would have liked to test out the video quality, but I don't have any right now, and my internet connection is 56k at the moment. I'll download some later and update afterwards.
Finally I wanted to test out the monitor's performance with games. The first game that I tried it with was Jedi Knight 2. At 1024x768, the image looked incredible. Im not sure if it was the new geforce4 4200 or the monitor, but it never looked better. After jacking up the mouse sensitivity and starting a single player game I went about testing how it looked with extremely fast movements. This is where I got mixed results. Rotating in a circle didn't provide and noticeable degradation in picture. Neither did moving straight forwards or backwards. The only problems occur when I try to strafe left or right. When I do this (around objects with sharp corners or doors), the monitor seems to split the image up into 1inch tall horizontal bars around that object. It's not as bad as it sounds but it's noticeable. In fact, other than that the image is extremely suitable for gaming. Which makes me wonder if it's a setting or driver issue (I double checked the refresh rate just to make sure, and it was at 60hz, what it should be at). Next I tried out counterstrike at 1024x768. Once again, stunning except for the strafe issue. However this strafe issue isn't quite the same as the issue that I had with JK2. Here, the objects stayed solid, but when I strafed there was a small blurring effect. When I checked the refresh rate, it wasn't set to 60hz, but was set to 75hz. I suspect that this is the problem but Im not sure how to fix it. I set the refresh rate to 60hz under advanced display settings.
Any suggestions for what I can try to fix either of these problems?
Well, that's my review. I hope that you found it at least somewhat helpful. If you have any questions, suggestions, or want me to try anything out feel free to let me know. Happy 4th of July!
juj
I recently purchased a Samsung Synchmaster 152T to compliment the new computer that I bought and I figured I'd post my impressions here. I've had the monitor for a few days now, and I consider myself a gamer. Not neccessarily hard core, but I've been playing games since I was a kid and I like to play first person shooters every now and then.
I know that finding info on lcds can be kinda tough, so I'll go through the process that I went through in order to find the right lcd for me, first, and then I'll give you my impressions of the 152T. If you want to skip to my impressions, scroll down to the section titled "Review".
The general idea here is to give people who are thinking about buying an lcd monitor a better idea of what to expect. So, without further ado:
The Process
--The first question is always "do I really need an lcd?"
Whether or not you need an lcd is up to you, but here are some things to consider:
Pros:
-Space Saver
-Text and pictures look great
-lower power consumption and less radiation
-looks cool
Cons:
-Can be expensive, especially if you're looking
for screen sizes of 17"+
-Games "MIGHT" not look good
I stress the might because everyones standards are different.
--After I decided that I needed an lcd (to save space), I went about reading some reviews of the most highly regarded lcd monitors (samsung 151/171mp, samsung 151/171p, samsung 152T, some viewsonics, and some NECs) and these were the main questions that I found myself asking:
-Do I really need a tv tuner?
-how much more am I willing to pay for PIP and a tv tuner?
-will I use the monitor to play my playstation 2?
-will I sacrifice game performance for extra functionality?
-do I want to hang it on the wall?
-does it support DVI?
-what feature is most important for me after space saving?
-how much does the look/style of the monitor matter?
-what screen size do I need/can afford?
-what are the dead pixel policies of these manufacturers?
-how long is the warranty for parts and backlight?
-what resolution am I most comfortable working in and
what resolution can my computer handle for games?
For the most part, those questions are straight forward and you will need to decide what's important for you. A couple things I want to touch on are the dead pixels and the native resolutions.
From the reviews that I read, some monitors seemed to be more prone to dead pixels than others. Make sure you know the manufacturers policy on how many dead pixels are acceptable, and make sure that you are able to live with the worst case scenario. For me, this was a major concern. I didn't want to pay for a monitor that had a defect that I couldn't live with. Honestly (as you will find out later) I still don't know what a dead pixel looks like and I don't know whether or not I can live with them.
Another thing that suprised me about lcds was the fact that for every monitor that I looked at, you needed to be in the native resolution or else suffer from bad text and image blurring. The extent of the blurring between models differed, but it was always there. The reason why it suprised me, was because after reading a lot of the reviews I never got the impression that being out of the native resolution made that much of a difference (a few reviews mentioned this, but I only found them after I saw it for myself). I suggest you check out some lcds at compusa or best buy to see if you can tell the difference, but my brother and I were both stunned the first time we saw them in the store when they weren't in their native resolutions. They looked flat out bad, ugly, nasty. This is why it's important to make sure that whatever resolution you are most comfortable with is the native resolution of your monitor. As far as games are concerned when I ran jedi knight 2 in 640x480 the only text that seemed blurred was in the menu but there was some flickering during the introduction. When I tried 640x480 with counterstrike there was the same blurring. As far as how bad this will be if the native resolution is 1280x960 or higher and you want to run a game at 1024x768, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing you would get similar results. To be safe, I would make sure that your computer is powerful enough to run games in your native resolution.
Taking all that into consideration, I decided that the best monitor for me was the samsung 152T. Here is a list of some of the review sites that I used:
Hardware.ArticleCentral.com: http://hardware.articlecentral.com
PC STATS:
http://www.pcstats.com/
Neoseeker:
http://www.neoseeker.com/
OnePC.net:
http://www.onepc.net/
and of course Tomshardware.
To find the cheapest price I used tom's pricegrabbing and I ended up buying it from CruxWorks for $461 with UPS ground shipping. Since the warehouse was only 1 state away, I got it in 2 days. That's it for the process, hopefully it was somewhat helpful. If you have any questions feel free to ask.
The Review
Test System:
Windows98se
directx8.1
1024x768 32 bit true color 60hz
64 mb Geforce4ti4200 running the detonator xp nvidia reference drivers
P4 2.4 ghz 533 FSB
If you didn't read through the previous section, I bought the monitor at CruxWorks for $461 including shipping. Overall the service was great. I was concerned when I first recieved the shipment, however, since the monitor wasn't double packaged. It was sent in it's normal packaging. Hopefully the UPS guys will realize that it's an lcd monitor and be careful with it, but if you ask me, that's kinda risky since the packaging didn't seem like it was very shock absorbant. In the end though, it didn't matter, because when I took it out of the box it looked fine.
The first thing that I did was hook it up to my computer and see if there were any dead pixels (in order to do this I changed the desktop background to black, white, red green and blue respectively and checked to see if any pixels were discolored or totally black). To my relief, I couldn't find a single one. What I did find though, was that the picture was stunning. The text looked crisp and the images looked crystal clear. You can definitely tell the difference between the image quality of a crt and an lcd.
The next thing that I did was to see if I could tell the difference between analog and digital input. I didn't notice a difference. Maybe this will change in the future, I'm not sure.
Next, I wanted to see how the text looked in different resolutions, just as I expected, it looked horrible in any resolution other than 1024x768. Which is fine by me, since I like that resolution.
I proceeded to test it out on the web and it performed extremely well. Fast scrolling was smooth and the image looked great. There is an extremely small difference when you directly compare the effects of fast scrolling to a crt, but nothing that effects the overall quality of the image.
I would have liked to test out the video quality, but I don't have any right now, and my internet connection is 56k at the moment. I'll download some later and update afterwards.
Finally I wanted to test out the monitor's performance with games. The first game that I tried it with was Jedi Knight 2. At 1024x768, the image looked incredible. Im not sure if it was the new geforce4 4200 or the monitor, but it never looked better. After jacking up the mouse sensitivity and starting a single player game I went about testing how it looked with extremely fast movements. This is where I got mixed results. Rotating in a circle didn't provide and noticeable degradation in picture. Neither did moving straight forwards or backwards. The only problems occur when I try to strafe left or right. When I do this (around objects with sharp corners or doors), the monitor seems to split the image up into 1inch tall horizontal bars around that object. It's not as bad as it sounds but it's noticeable. In fact, other than that the image is extremely suitable for gaming. Which makes me wonder if it's a setting or driver issue (I double checked the refresh rate just to make sure, and it was at 60hz, what it should be at). Next I tried out counterstrike at 1024x768. Once again, stunning except for the strafe issue. However this strafe issue isn't quite the same as the issue that I had with JK2. Here, the objects stayed solid, but when I strafed there was a small blurring effect. When I checked the refresh rate, it wasn't set to 60hz, but was set to 75hz. I suspect that this is the problem but Im not sure how to fix it. I set the refresh rate to 60hz under advanced display settings.
Any suggestions for what I can try to fix either of these problems?
Well, that's my review. I hope that you found it at least somewhat helpful. If you have any questions, suggestions, or want me to try anything out feel free to let me know. Happy 4th of July!
juj
Try turning vsync on, and also use something to make the refresh stay at 60Hz (ie, in registry its max and min).
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