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Unfortunately i recently found 2 dead bright pixels in my 940B so i called up Samsung to ask about their policy. To my delight they were ready to replace it with a brand new 940B. Out of curiosity i asked if there was any way to upgrade to a 20" LCD and pay the difference. I was put on hold and to my surprise they said sure! I told them the model i wanted and said to fax them my reciept for the 940B. Now it did take some phone tag to finally get the deal finalized but after a week and a half i was told it was a $113 difference out of pocket for me to upgrade, SWEET! The price differenc of the LCD's on Newegg is considerably higher! So anyway, the 204B has now been here 2 days and i sent my 940B back today and now its time for my review.
Here it is on Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226
Here are the specs:
Panel a-si TFT/TN LCD
Screen Size 20.1"
Display Type UXGA
Maximum Resolution 1600x1200
Recommended Resolution 1600x1200
Viewing Angle 160°(H) / 160°(V)
Pixel Pitch 0.255mm
Display Colours 16.7 Million
Brightness 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio 800:1
Response Time 5ms
SIZE / LOOKS
Good LCD gawd this thing is a beast to look at! In appearance it looks very similar to the 940B. In fact it is almost the exact same height, just considerably wider. For me this panel is the perfect medium between the square of 1280X1024 and the ultra WS 2007FPW and the like. The buttons at the bottom are identical to the 940B, small, and slightly raised, and the power button glows a cool blue when powered on. An interesting feature is the vertical rotation the panel supports. With the turn of the screen and a click on the Magic Rotate software the screen goes from wide screen to a tall profile great for viewing entire websites on one screen or word processing that requires alot of scrolling. One thing i noticed was the cable management had to be sacrificed for the vertical rotation feature of this panel as it has to have the ability to let the cables swing over to the side with the panel. No biggie though as the loop on the back serves as a replacement that works great for me. Also you'll notice in the pictures that this stand is full adjustable unlike the smaller 940B brother. A simple pull of the silver pin in the back and the screen slides up and down. Indeed they could have made something a little sturdier than a metal pin for adjustment, but it works! It was perfect for me as i can now put my Z5300e center channel speaker right below the screen for my gaming enjoyment.
I give it a 9.5/10 as the only deduction being the height adjustment method and the cable management isnt the best.
INSTALLATION
This LCD did fine as a plug and chug device, HOWEVER, there was an issue with gaming at first slimpse. Ill discuss that further in the gaming section. The only thing im really bummed about is the 60Hz refresh rate limit at 1600X1200. I do realize that no 1600X1200 panels offer 75Hz, but it sure would be nice if they did.
CALIBRATION / COLOR
So far for me the color on the panel has been downright amazing with no calibration necessary for me. The colors do seem a little richer than the 940B did, and i assume it is due to the 16.7 million colors vs 16.2 million. Although Samsung specs this panel to be 8 bit, i am not personally sure if that is to be believed or not. I will assume they would not lie, but anything is possible.
10/10 for excellent color out of the box
IMAGE QUALITY
I have to say that as soon as i booted up to this screen and set it to 1600X1200 it was like night and day to the 1280X1024 panel. The high resolution and smaller pixel pitch makes the panel much sharper for everyday word processing, surfing, etc. The real estate alone is a blessing to those with cluttered desktops as the higher res really makes 20.1" feel even larger. Upon turning the desktop to a white background i did however find a single dark pixel, however with the smaller pixel size of the higher resolution panel i cant even see it unless im right up against the screen looking for it on a bright background. With the higher resolution, everything is noticably sharper including pictures, movies, and web surfing. Backlight bleeding is minimal and i only notice it a little during BIOS post, otherwise it doesnt bother me during normal use.
The largest complaint i have heard about on this panel is viewing angles being horrid. I have tried and tried to find how people are bothered by this panels viewing angles. Yes if you stand up and look down at the screen it doesnt look quite as good, but who uses their computer from up there? The vertical angles are not much worse if any than the 940B is. The only time that i found viewing angles to be a factor is when you turn the screen vertically because then it is so tall that your viewing angle is much steeper and that causes you to have to adjust the panel so that you make sure you are looking straight on or else it looses image quality. But for normal use, and for those of us who dont use our computers while bouncing up and down in our chair, this panel has no viewing angle problems.
9/10 for image quality due to the dead pixel although it is very minor
GAMES
This LCD is simply stunning for the gamer community! 1600X1200 is truly amazing if you have a video card that can handle it (overclocked X1900XTX for me). However, i told you earlier that there is something to watch out for. When i first swapped out the 940B for the 204B everything seemed fine (i didnt have the driver for the 940B installed). Then i went to test Battlefield 2 to find that the gameplay was very jerky and i was seeing a considerate amount of motion blurring and it was making my eyes strain. I was rather unhappy at that time as i hoped that 5ms would be enough to have some decent gaming. I turned on Vsync and that seemed to help but i was still unhappy. I was not accepting that this panel would perform so poorly so i decided to start over from scratch. REFORMAT TIME! After a clean copy of XP Pro was loaded back up i noticed that the text on the desktop looked less clear and crisp and that everything was kinda hazy. To my surprise unlike the 940B, the video card driver is like night and day with this panel. No vid driver and everything looked like hell, but as soon as i loaded up the 6.3's everything was back to crystal clear. I then installed the 204B driver from the Samsung CD. I proceeded to load up Battlefield 2 and to my delight it was butter, pure creamy smooth gameplay. Now im a happy camper! So just a word of advice, this panel may give you grief if your drivers are not up to par or not cleaned out before installing. The only other game i have played on this LCD is Oblivion and lets just say "gorgeous" and leave it at that. 1600X1200 greatly reduces the need for high AA and everything looks sharp and radiant. A+
10/10 for gaming, especially when comparing to other 20" panels. Ghosting is a non-issue. I dont have any gameplay movies made yet and i will do them upon request cuz if nobody wants em im not gonna take the time.
MOVIES
First thing i did was load up my favorite pron, just kidding
I loaded up Full Metal Jacket to use as a testbed. The dark scenes with bright explosions and fast movement gave me a great test for color banding, ghosting, or motion blur. I watched almost the entire movie just cuz it looked so damn good! I rewound and rewatched the firefights and explosion scenes looking for color banding and came up with nothin. If this panel does exhibit color banding, i cant see it. Colors were rich and pleasant and seemed very accurate when comparing to my Sony Trinitron. Just as with gaming, there was no ghosting or motion blur. I also recognized that since the 1600X1200 is closer to WS than 1280X1024, the wide screen movies fit the screen alot better therefore you end up with a bigger viewing area.
10/10 for movies, i cant ask for better
FINAL WORDS
Overall i am very pleased with this panel. The high resolution is something that i now realise i will never be able to live without again. Its kinda like dual core CPU's, once you experience it you dont wanna go back to a single core. This panel although only 20.1" feels like a monster during use compared to my 940B. The extra inch and the added resolution is simply gravy. The viewing angles may be a problem for you if you like to bounce up and down in your chair or like to work while moving all over the place, if not they are not an issue. The colors and image quality are top notch in my opinion. The smaller pixel pitch makes everything a bit sharper and easier on the eyes. For gaming and movies i couldnt ask for more. Overall, its the performance of a 19" low response time LCD in a 20.1" higher resoluion package and that is exactly what i was looking for. 60Hz surprisingly has not been a problem for me even though i was a bit worried after my first gaming attempt. If you are looking for fast response time like a 19" panel but in a higher resolution 20" panel? Then i would not hesitate to recommend the 204B. I also have to give Samsung rather large props for their service as i know of no other company that would go the extra mile like they did for me.
The only other reivew of this panel i have found is here:
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/reviews/article.php/3597426
Thanks for reading another one of my reviews! If you have any questions feel free to post it up!
UPDATE: 4/20/2006 8:15pm Central Time
I noticed while playing BF2 and visiting some sites like this one that the colors were very close but not quite perfect. So i installed Natural Color, rebooted, and NC seemed to tweak it to just right. Color is spot on now. I didnt even have to adjust anything. When you install NC just as with the 940B the colors change a little just from installing it. To me the 940B with NC seemed off so i never installed NC but with this 204B NC really seemed to set it perfect after the install.
Here it is on Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001226
Here are the specs:
Panel a-si TFT/TN LCD
Screen Size 20.1"
Display Type UXGA
Maximum Resolution 1600x1200
Recommended Resolution 1600x1200
Viewing Angle 160°(H) / 160°(V)
Pixel Pitch 0.255mm
Display Colours 16.7 Million
Brightness 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio 800:1
Response Time 5ms
SIZE / LOOKS
Good LCD gawd this thing is a beast to look at! In appearance it looks very similar to the 940B. In fact it is almost the exact same height, just considerably wider. For me this panel is the perfect medium between the square of 1280X1024 and the ultra WS 2007FPW and the like. The buttons at the bottom are identical to the 940B, small, and slightly raised, and the power button glows a cool blue when powered on. An interesting feature is the vertical rotation the panel supports. With the turn of the screen and a click on the Magic Rotate software the screen goes from wide screen to a tall profile great for viewing entire websites on one screen or word processing that requires alot of scrolling. One thing i noticed was the cable management had to be sacrificed for the vertical rotation feature of this panel as it has to have the ability to let the cables swing over to the side with the panel. No biggie though as the loop on the back serves as a replacement that works great for me. Also you'll notice in the pictures that this stand is full adjustable unlike the smaller 940B brother. A simple pull of the silver pin in the back and the screen slides up and down. Indeed they could have made something a little sturdier than a metal pin for adjustment, but it works! It was perfect for me as i can now put my Z5300e center channel speaker right below the screen for my gaming enjoyment.
I give it a 9.5/10 as the only deduction being the height adjustment method and the cable management isnt the best.
INSTALLATION
This LCD did fine as a plug and chug device, HOWEVER, there was an issue with gaming at first slimpse. Ill discuss that further in the gaming section. The only thing im really bummed about is the 60Hz refresh rate limit at 1600X1200. I do realize that no 1600X1200 panels offer 75Hz, but it sure would be nice if they did.
CALIBRATION / COLOR
So far for me the color on the panel has been downright amazing with no calibration necessary for me. The colors do seem a little richer than the 940B did, and i assume it is due to the 16.7 million colors vs 16.2 million. Although Samsung specs this panel to be 8 bit, i am not personally sure if that is to be believed or not. I will assume they would not lie, but anything is possible.
10/10 for excellent color out of the box
IMAGE QUALITY
I have to say that as soon as i booted up to this screen and set it to 1600X1200 it was like night and day to the 1280X1024 panel. The high resolution and smaller pixel pitch makes the panel much sharper for everyday word processing, surfing, etc. The real estate alone is a blessing to those with cluttered desktops as the higher res really makes 20.1" feel even larger. Upon turning the desktop to a white background i did however find a single dark pixel, however with the smaller pixel size of the higher resolution panel i cant even see it unless im right up against the screen looking for it on a bright background. With the higher resolution, everything is noticably sharper including pictures, movies, and web surfing. Backlight bleeding is minimal and i only notice it a little during BIOS post, otherwise it doesnt bother me during normal use.
The largest complaint i have heard about on this panel is viewing angles being horrid. I have tried and tried to find how people are bothered by this panels viewing angles. Yes if you stand up and look down at the screen it doesnt look quite as good, but who uses their computer from up there? The vertical angles are not much worse if any than the 940B is. The only time that i found viewing angles to be a factor is when you turn the screen vertically because then it is so tall that your viewing angle is much steeper and that causes you to have to adjust the panel so that you make sure you are looking straight on or else it looses image quality. But for normal use, and for those of us who dont use our computers while bouncing up and down in our chair, this panel has no viewing angle problems.
9/10 for image quality due to the dead pixel although it is very minor
GAMES
This LCD is simply stunning for the gamer community! 1600X1200 is truly amazing if you have a video card that can handle it (overclocked X1900XTX for me). However, i told you earlier that there is something to watch out for. When i first swapped out the 940B for the 204B everything seemed fine (i didnt have the driver for the 940B installed). Then i went to test Battlefield 2 to find that the gameplay was very jerky and i was seeing a considerate amount of motion blurring and it was making my eyes strain. I was rather unhappy at that time as i hoped that 5ms would be enough to have some decent gaming. I turned on Vsync and that seemed to help but i was still unhappy. I was not accepting that this panel would perform so poorly so i decided to start over from scratch. REFORMAT TIME! After a clean copy of XP Pro was loaded back up i noticed that the text on the desktop looked less clear and crisp and that everything was kinda hazy. To my surprise unlike the 940B, the video card driver is like night and day with this panel. No vid driver and everything looked like hell, but as soon as i loaded up the 6.3's everything was back to crystal clear. I then installed the 204B driver from the Samsung CD. I proceeded to load up Battlefield 2 and to my delight it was butter, pure creamy smooth gameplay. Now im a happy camper! So just a word of advice, this panel may give you grief if your drivers are not up to par or not cleaned out before installing. The only other game i have played on this LCD is Oblivion and lets just say "gorgeous" and leave it at that. 1600X1200 greatly reduces the need for high AA and everything looks sharp and radiant. A+
10/10 for gaming, especially when comparing to other 20" panels. Ghosting is a non-issue. I dont have any gameplay movies made yet and i will do them upon request cuz if nobody wants em im not gonna take the time.
MOVIES
First thing i did was load up my favorite pron, just kidding
I loaded up Full Metal Jacket to use as a testbed. The dark scenes with bright explosions and fast movement gave me a great test for color banding, ghosting, or motion blur. I watched almost the entire movie just cuz it looked so damn good! I rewound and rewatched the firefights and explosion scenes looking for color banding and came up with nothin. If this panel does exhibit color banding, i cant see it. Colors were rich and pleasant and seemed very accurate when comparing to my Sony Trinitron. Just as with gaming, there was no ghosting or motion blur. I also recognized that since the 1600X1200 is closer to WS than 1280X1024, the wide screen movies fit the screen alot better therefore you end up with a bigger viewing area.10/10 for movies, i cant ask for better
FINAL WORDS
Overall i am very pleased with this panel. The high resolution is something that i now realise i will never be able to live without again. Its kinda like dual core CPU's, once you experience it you dont wanna go back to a single core. This panel although only 20.1" feels like a monster during use compared to my 940B. The extra inch and the added resolution is simply gravy. The viewing angles may be a problem for you if you like to bounce up and down in your chair or like to work while moving all over the place, if not they are not an issue. The colors and image quality are top notch in my opinion. The smaller pixel pitch makes everything a bit sharper and easier on the eyes. For gaming and movies i couldnt ask for more. Overall, its the performance of a 19" low response time LCD in a 20.1" higher resoluion package and that is exactly what i was looking for. 60Hz surprisingly has not been a problem for me even though i was a bit worried after my first gaming attempt. If you are looking for fast response time like a 19" panel but in a higher resolution 20" panel? Then i would not hesitate to recommend the 204B. I also have to give Samsung rather large props for their service as i know of no other company that would go the extra mile like they did for me.
The only other reivew of this panel i have found is here:
http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/reviews/article.php/3597426
Thanks for reading another one of my reviews! If you have any questions feel free to post it up!
UPDATE: 4/20/2006 8:15pm Central Time
I noticed while playing BF2 and visiting some sites like this one that the colors were very close but not quite perfect. So i installed Natural Color, rebooted, and NC seemed to tweak it to just right. Color is spot on now. I didnt even have to adjust anything. When you install NC just as with the 940B the colors change a little just from installing it. To me the 940B with NC seemed off so i never installed NC but with this 204B NC really seemed to set it perfect after the install.
