SM Review: Samsung SyncMaster 225BW LCD

LincLinc OwnerDetroit Icrontian
edited January 2010 in Hardware
Check out lemonlime's latest review, the Samsung SyncMaster 225BW LCD Monitor, just published on Short-Media's front page.
The Samsung 225BW is a bit of an odd-ball at twenty two inches. Twenty and twenty four inches have traditionally been the widescreen choices available so it is great to see an offering right in the middle. The 225BW is part of Samsung's 'B' series of monitors, which seem to target the every-day consumer and home user. The models in this family are priced accordingly.
Please feel free to leave feedback. Thanks!
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Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Thanks for the review. It was to-the-point and very easy to digest.
  • WingsterWingster
    edited September 2006
    I just went last week to get the Samsung 240 there top rated 19''. When I got in the store they where setting up this 22''. For the price I could not pass it up. So far it is a great monitor. I was very pleased to see your review. I think you hit it right on the button.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    Awesome Review once again I so want to upgrade my monitors... seems to be the last thing on my list :)
  • GnomeWizarddGnomeWizardd Member 4 Life Akron, PA Icrontian
    edited September 2006
    haha my old man went and got one last week!
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited September 2006
    Glad you guys liked the review :)

    I'd love to hear some feedback regarding the backlight bleed on your 225BWs. Please let us know how your monitor does!

    Definitely a great bang for the buck.
  • vincitvincit
    edited October 2006
    Hey guys, I'd love to hear any opinions on the samsung 225bw, and the backlighting issue (which, according to the updated review, should mostly be a start-up-glitch)

    GnomeWizardd and Wingster, you both have the screens within range, have you seen any backlighting issues?

    Thanks in advance!
  • SailrYodaSailrYoda
    edited October 2006
    I recently bought this monitor not too long ago. Great review, pretty much hit all the marks on this monitor. I did not know the backlight is fixed on some of the newer batches of these monitors. I have some pretty bad backlight problems, especially front and bottom. I have contrast and brightness down and still did not help. Wondering if I should call Samsung to return to get one of their newly made ones. Backlight is definately noticeable when black background or when watching movies. Not a huge deal, but still could have been better. Would like to see backlight control button like on my previous monitor (which was a sony). A good feature, this way you can get the backlight where its not so overwhelming and you get some decent black level out of it. Overall a great monitor for the money, bigger than I thought it was going to be. Its huge..:thumbup
  • HerpiiliHerpiili
    edited October 2006
    This monitor uses CMO panel, check these screenshots out:

    http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=623893
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited October 2006
    Thank you very much for the information Herpiili.

    Looks like it does indeed use a CMO panel after all. There has been a lot of confusion surrounding the panel used in the 225BW. It was originally speculated that it was a CMO S-MVA panel (which turned out to be false). The viewing angles of the 225BW are much better than your average TN, so it seemed very possible. Samsung then updated the specs online to indicate it is a TN panel, and at around the same time, a samsung 22" TN panel module was listed in their lineup with identical specs to the 225BW. I wonder if Samsung intends to transition the 225BW to the Samsung TN panel eventually. At any rate, I am glad that the mystery is solved for now. I really should have opened up the monitor, but since I have to send them back to Samsung, I am a little hesitant to start dismantling them :)

    My apologies for the confusion.

    I have submitted a revision to our Managing Editor to reflect this information in the review.
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited October 2006
    The article has been revised in light of new panel information. Sorry for the confusion everyone.
  • JohnPJohnP
    edited October 2006
    Picked up this monitor last sunday, and I think I'm going to bring it back.
    I have it connected to a Nvidia Quadro FX with an HP 19" TFT on the second port and no matter what I do to the Samsung I cannot get the color to match between them.

    The samsung was way too bright out of the box, the colors are off, and the bleeding is present all around. (Not on the right side, but everywhere listed in the review.)

    A call to Samsung told me the monitor was made in August 06, which isn't that far off, but I just can't understand why I have that much bleeding with a black screen.

    Game playing was nice. I cranked Far Cry up to full resolution and it was very pretty.

    I'm just frustrated with having to tweak the colors so much in windows to get it to look right. My significant other also comments about the poor color, and wants to know what I'm going to do about it.

    I hate to return it, because I don't want to spend more $$ for another 2" if I go higher, or lose 2" if I go lower.

    Right now though, I'm leaning towards returning it....
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited October 2006
    JohnP wrote:
    Picked up this monitor last sunday, and I think I'm going to bring it back.
    I have it connected to a Nvidia Quadro FX with an HP 19" TFT on the second port and no matter what I do to the Samsung I cannot get the color to match between them.

    The samsung was way too bright out of the box, the colors are off, and the bleeding is present all around. (Not on the right side, but everywhere listed in the review.)

    A call to Samsung told me the monitor was made in August 06, which isn't that far off, but I just can't understand why I have that much bleeding with a black screen.

    Game playing was nice. I cranked Far Cry up to full resolution and it was very pretty.

    I'm just frustrated with having to tweak the colors so much in windows to get it to look right. My significant other also comments about the poor color, and wants to know what I'm going to do about it.

    I hate to return it, because I don't want to spend more $$ for another 2" if I go higher, or lose 2" if I go lower.

    Right now though, I'm leaning towards returning it....

    Hi JohnP, Welcome to Short-Media!

    Thank you very much for contributing feedback on the 225BW. The color is definitely off by default. I found it to be much to 'cool'. I noticed that you had a Quadro FX card, are you into graphics design/photo work? If so, I don't think the 225BW will be a monitor you will be happy with. It was never really intended towards graphics professionals. With some tuning, it should be fine for the every day home consumer.

    As far as the backlight bleed, I'm hoping this issue will be corrected. Unlike some color inaccuracy, it is much more difficult to live with.

    If you don't want to go all the way down to a 20" widescreen panel, check out the SyncMaster 215TW. It is a much higher quality panel and only an inch smaller than the 225BW. I'm reviewing it now and I can tell you that the color reproduction is top-notch and the backlight uniformity and black reproduction is way better than the 225BW. It costs a little more, but you also get a lot of other features (tons of AV inputs, better ergonomics etc). Definitely worth a look.
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    Very awesome lemonlime ...I've been waiting for come out with a monitor just like this one for the price. I'll take two once the bleed issue is resolved!
    I'll wait on the 215 review thanks!:wow2:
  • MajorPain51MajorPain51
    edited October 2006
    MajorPain51 wrote:
    I too thought about Samsung, but found only negitive reviews, other than here. It seems backlight bleed and poor presets for color are the norm. I called Samsung tech and was told there are about 80 techs. maning phones, my tech sited no calls to him on backlight but calls on dead pixels have come in. Thier dead pixel policy turned me off. There must be a group or line of them to be considered for exchange! I found a Viewsonic at Office
    Depot, $399.99 with $20.00 rebate. Picture was great, colors perfect and no dead pixels, on display unit or the one one I took home. Has same specs as Samsung, Acer and Chi Mei 22' units. Stand does not adjust and buttons are small, but performance is great and that;s what it's all about. Go to "behardware.com",". "techtree.com" and "bcchardware" for tests of 22s. Good luck!
    "Once you go 22 nothing less will do!".
  • JohnPJohnP
    edited October 2006
    lemonlime wrote:
    Hi JohnP, Welcome to Short-Media!

    Thank you very much for contributing feedback on the 225BW. The color is definitely off by default. I found it to be much to 'cool'. I noticed that you had a Quadro FX card, are you into graphics design/photo work? If so, I don't think the 225BW will be a monitor you will be happy with. It was never really intended towards graphics professionals. With some tuning, it should be fine for the every day home consumer.

    The card is an 'on load' card for a while. I don't do that much graphic/design work at all at home. Mostly email, a few games, some db work for my comic collection, but that's it. I had an ATI -- I want to say 9700, don't quote me on that -- but it continually over heated on me. Once i got this Quadro -- I'll never go to anything except nvidia.
    lemonlime wrote:
    As far as the backlight bleed, I'm hoping this issue will be corrected. Unlike some color inaccuracy, it is much more difficult to live with.

    I can't for the life of me figure out how something like this got past QA there.

    I can say that I used a program I found on the net and managed to get the color scheme to a much better .... level? display?

    It looks better, and the Significant Other was much happier with the picture.

    I have until next Sunday to decide. I haven't gamed with it yet with the new settings, so I need to do that before making the ultimate decision.
    Once I find the program again, I'll post the name here...
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    I split off posts related to the 215TW for clarity's sake :)
  • astromanastroman
    edited October 2006
    I am about 1 hour into using this monitor. This is my first LCD, and I am replacing a Samsung 955DF (19"). To start with, my eyes are pretty sensitive, and eyesight itself is a bit poor (glasses). The native resolution pushes me to my limit (even with all "largest text" options I can find turned on). However, by biggest issue is the sunburn it seems to be giving me. This is the brightest thing that I have ever sat in front of. Literally, it is comparable to looking at a full moon through my telescope. I turn away and can's see detail on my girlfriend's face for about 2 minutes. I have the brightness turned down to 4% and the contrast down to about 30% (lower on either, and things turn gray). I haven't even started with color/bleeding issues, as the brightness is my first priority. I am just wondering if I have any other options, besides those basic controls. Any and all advice will be welcome. Thank you.

    -Kris

    PS I hope to get this issue resolved, because with the crappy customer service policies at CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc., they now charge a restocking fee for returns. Gone are the days of customer satisfaction.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2006
    A characteristic of LCDs is brightness. That's the way it goes for all of them, frankly. There is no fix because it's not really a flaw.. I hate to put it so bluntly, but that's really the case on almost all quality LCDs. They're bright and clear.
  • LazyGunLazyGun
    edited November 2006
    Well I have just recently received my 225BW LCD. And I have to admit I love the monitor but also have problems with light Bleeding from the top and bottom of the monitor.

    I found my monitor color was slightly too RED for my taste but once I backed off the red it seems fine now. The Blues are sometimes too Vibrant but when I lower the color they seem too washed. I'm hoping there is something I can do with a gamma adjustment, but I am no expert at adjusting monitors.

    I love the Adjustable stand and the range it gives me, but one complaint I have is that it stretches all the 4:3 settings. Maybe I'm missing a setting somewhere.

    As far as quality control overlooking the back light bleed, I think it may be they want as much screen as possible. But since I don't watch many movies and mostly surf or game that light bleed is a negligible issue for me. I've read on another forum that the Silver one seems to be better about controlling the light bleed, but there is no confirmation.

    I love it. Except for the 4:3 stretching and slight bleed during dark games. :cool:

    JohnP wrote:
    I can say that I used a program I found on the net and managed to get the color scheme to a much better .... level? display?

    It looks better, and the Significant Other was much happier with the picture.

    I have until next Sunday to decide. I haven't gamed with it yet with the new settings, so I need to do that before making the ultimate decision.
    Once I find the program again, I'll post the name here...

    I was hoping you'd found the program name again and let us all know what you used. I know I spent hours adjusting mine and I'm pretty happy. I may see if I can borrow a monitor calibration tool from our art department.
  • palmfernpalmfern
    edited November 2006
    Hello,

    I just bought one 225BW from Circuit City. I hooked it up and just like eveyone, it's just too bright. Also the back light bleeding is obvious. I did the exchange and the new one has similar problem. Even though the I was using a Dell 1801FP for 4 years, compared with this samsung, 1801FP is a much better one. I played with the setting a little bit, seems the low brightness and low contrast is better. The color on 225BW is also quite different from 1801FP, overall I like 1801FP better.
  • jeffthompsonjeffthompson
    edited December 2006
    vincit wrote:
    Hey guys, I'd love to hear any opinions on the samsung 225bw, and the backlighting issue (which, according to the updated review, should mostly be a start-up-glitch)

    Hi.
    Got the monitor yesterday, only noticed the backlight "problem " when I put the system in standby. It's definitely there, but it's not a problem for me. I use the screen for text mostly and some Photoshop.
    Incidentally, the Samsung website doesn't list the 225bw as being supported by MagicTune. Is it?

    jeff
  • Atar3onAtar3on
    edited December 2006
    Hey everyone, new guy here with some questions for you. :)

    I purchased the Samsung 225BW about a month ago and while I've been quite happy with my purchase, there is one thing I'd like to know about. The 225BW has a DVI port which is HDCP compliant. That means it should work fine with just about any HDCP compliant cable box with either a DVI port or an HDMI as long as you have a DVI to HDMI converter, right? Well I went out and bought a DVI to HDMI converter cable and have connected both. I turned on the cable box and the monitor, but get this message -

    Not Optimum Mode
    Recommended Mode:
    1680x1050 60Hz

    Since my cable box is currently set to 1080i I'm assuming that's why I'm seeing that message and would probably just need to change the box settings to 720p for it to get a signal (something I'll have to figure out how to do).

    However, I also have my Xbox 360 connected as well and it can force a 1080 image to appear, but with the image obviously extending way off screen on all sides because it's not the native res of the monitor. If that can happen then why doesn't the monitor display a 1080i image the same way when connected to the cable box instead of giving me the above message? Not that I want it to work that way, but I'm just curious.

    Lastly, has anyone else here successfully used the 225BW with a cable box yet? If so, please post pics and your impressions. :)


    Any help would be appreciated.
  • FirenzaFirenza
    edited December 2006
    Just bought the Samsung Syncmaster 225BW and am connected up to Mac G-4, OSX10.1.5. The problem I have is that the objects on the screen are streched horizontally. The icon of a CD is oval shaped, wider from side-to-side than top-to-bottom. My display otions in System Preferences-Monitor-SncMaster are 1280 x 1024. (Other available settings oprions are 1024 x 768 and smaller)
    Is a driver the answer? Are drivers available somewhere for a wide screen monitor?
  • FirenzaFirenza
    edited December 2006
    Just bought the Samsung Syncmaster 225BW and am connected up to Mac G-4, OSX10.1.5. The problem I have is that the objects on the screen are streched horizontally. The icon of a CD is oval shaped, wider from side-to-side than top-to-bottom. My display otions in System Preferences-Monitor-SncMaster are 1280 x 1024. (Other available settings oprions are 1024 x 768 and smaller)
    Is a driver the answer? Are drivers available somewhere for a wide screen monitor?
  • Atar3onAtar3on
    edited December 2006
    Since the native resolution of your monitor is 1680x1050 with an aspect ratio of 16:10, your best bet would normally be to set your resolution to 1680x1050 which is what I have mine set to. However, since your video card apparently doesn't support anything higher than 1280x1024, you need to find a resolution which would scale appropriately to the 16:10 aspect. Your closest one would probably be 1280x720 (which would scale perfectly for a 16:9 monitor) if you have that resolution available.

    Granted, even with that setting it's not going to be perfect though as you will get some vertical stretching because the monitor is 16:10, but it probably wont be as noticable as the horizontal stretching is. In the end though, if you want everything to look perfect then you'll need to upgrade the video card in your Mac (if it's possible) so you can get 1680x1050. Hope that helps.
  • DrevenDreven
    edited December 2006
    Santa just dropped one of these off for Christmas.

    I've been using a 19" Samsung Dynaflat D955 CRT for the last couple of years (wfie gets the hand-me-down now..). This was an amazing upgrade.

    My wife got this for me a week ago at Best Buy. The Manufacture Date is November 2006. I assume the popularity of this monitor is causing a good turnover and keeping store stock production dates very close to the current date.

    I don't have a clue about anything but I set my screensaver to "blank" to get a totally black output. There is ambient daylight in this room but when the monitor went to full blank/black from the screensaver I could see no backlight bleed through at all. Was that good enough for a backlight test?? Maybe they fixed it and I got lucky with a model made after the fix!
    :celebrate



    So far gaming is freaking sweet on this thing. I've tried about 20 games and they all rock. The monitor adusts well when there's no widescreen support in game. A couple of games I've tried with that support the native widescreen resolution of this monitor are (1680x1050 @ 60hz): Medival II Total War, Call Of Duty 2. The only thing negative I could say about gaming with this monitor is that you really need some good hardware to pump through that high default resolution of this monitor. I think an 8800 GPU is overkill for most people but the 7000 series of NVIDIA cards is probably good enough.

    I hope that whole MS "Games for Windows" logo thing with the required Widescreen support kicks in and all new games by default support the native rez of this monitor.



    I'm so very happy. Gaming just got a lot more fun! :rockon:
    (omg Medival II Total War on this monitor paired with an 8800GTS is liquid butter-sauce with chocolate on top!)


    -E6600
    -EVGA 680i
    -EVGA 8800 GTS
    -PCP&C 750W Silencer


    Merry Christmas!



    EDITS: Yes, this monitor was freaking blinding out of the box. I've got it set up pretty well so far though.

    OPPS! I almost forgot one of my favorite things about the monitor! : I downloaded "Magic Tune" off Samsungs website. If it came on the driver CD I missed it. It is really super sweet to change the settings of this monitor with the mouse and an OS app, rather thank screwing round with the buttons. If you don't have it get it.

    Ahh... new forum account - I can't stick in the image of magic tune - here's a pic though:
    img411.imageshack.us/img411/1800/magic1dl1.jpg
  • Atar3onAtar3on
    edited December 2006
    Dreven,

    Glad you like it. I've been totally enjoying mine for the past month and a half. PC gaming rocks on these bad boys, so I'm in total agreement with you there. :) Half Life 2 and it's Eps, Oblivion, Prey, and the list goes on.

    As for backlight bleeding, a test during normal daylight is probably not the best time of day to do it. If you really want to test it properly, do it with the lights off at night and then you'll see how much bleed is coming through. Mine has virtually none, with only faint traces at the top and bottom, but you really have to look closely to even tell that it's there.

    My only real complaint about this monitor is that the OSD settings don't offer all the same stuff that the MagicTune software does. I'd really like to adjust the settings for the VGA side where I have my 360 connected because the black levels for some games aren't the best and tend to look a bit washed out. But that's a minor gripe so besides that I couldn't be happier.

    Anyway, glad you like it and welcome to the 225BW club. :cheers:
  • OtisBFOtisBF
    edited December 2006
    Just got the 225 today from Futureshop for $400CDN. so far things look great except for the bleeding.. got about 1/2 inch on the top and bottom, dont really notice it on the sides at all. going to wait till nighttime to get a better idea of how bad it is and decide if I want to exchange it for another in the hopes of getting a lucky one with no bleeding. I ran Pixel buddy and saw no dead pixels. the colors seem a bit washed out but i read somewhere(can't remember if it was this forum or another) that the cables that come with the monitor are terrible and buying new cables can improve the colors of the monitor greatly, anyone here have experience with that?

    anyways for the price i think its a great monitor.. its the first LCD i've had and im not sure how much the backlight bleeding will bother me but Futureshop will do a full refund up to 14 days after purchase if its opened, so i've got some time to decide.

    - Otis
  • ServersphereServersphere
    edited December 2006
    I just picked up this monitor at Circuit City - they have it on their website at $364 USD with free shipping. I elected to pick it up at the local store. Nice and big, very bright. No dead pix - alas, I do have the bleeding problem as well. Very light at the top and bottom, none to the right, but the left is a little bigger. Playing dark games thus far has not been disappointing, though I do find myself checking it out more because I read about the issue here. :)

    Overall, a nice deal - can't beat it with a stick at $364.99!
  • davexnetdavexnet
    edited December 2006
    Hello all, picked mine up at CC the day after thanksgiving.

    I set up the screen with a black background to check the bleed, and
    it's very little. Not enough to bother me.
    I'm more interested in getting the best color from it, and for now, I've
    set the color temp to "warm" and reduced the brightness and contrast.

    I may try one of their applications later - MagicTune. Anybody tried it?

    One thing I noticed, I'm not sure if it's a property of LCD's in general
    (this is my first LCD) - it seems related to viewing angel.

    The monitor is straight, it's in front of me with center of the monitor
    roughly at, or slightly below eye level. If I lower my head, the top few inches
    of the monitor get darker.
    On the otherhand, if I raise my head past the center point, the bottom of the
    screen remains uniform. What's happening?
    Cheers,
    Dave
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