Samsung 205BW Owner's/Review thread

[kumquat]

I bought it last week from CompUSA.

300cd/m^2
700:1
6ms
160°x160°

The panel is definitely 8-bit. I can't see any banding with the color depth testing programs.

It came packaged with a DVI and VGA cable. The vertical adjustment is very slick. It's got a neato counterweighted system that makes it easy to adjust by just pushing on the bottom or the top. Easy to do with just a couple of fingers, no need to hold the base while you pull the panel up. The base of the monitor also swivels within itself, so the rubber ring touching the desk don't move when you swivel the panel.

I have no dead pixels.

The panel itself is certainly fast. I play a lot of COD2 with it and I'm very impressed that I cannot notice *any* ghosting whatsoever.

Speaking of COD2, my graphics card doesn't handle 1680x1050 all that well, but I run at 1024x768 16:10 aspect ratio and it looks fantastic. I can't even tell I'm looking at a fixed-pixel display.

There's also a very cool button on the front that brings up a list of color/brightness/contrast presets. "Internet" has a nice blend of contrast and brightness that isn't too hard on the eyes, and "Game" cranks up both for a very bright vivid image that looks awesome in Madden and COD2 (the games I play most). There's also a "Movie" mode with a warmer color temperature, a "Custom," and one or two others I can't remember. It's nice being able to use one button to quick switch between modes.

On the downside, there's no way not to stretch an image that is 4:3. Madden 07, for example, only renders in a 4:3 aspect ratio, so the image is stretched, and there's nothing I can do about it.

The vertical viewing angle also leaves some to be desired. Normally I don't notice it, but with saturated backgrounds (like the yellow background on ESPN's Tuesday Morning Quarterback) it can be noticeable.

I've taken a few pictures, as you can see. I'm not the best photographer in the world, so bear with me. They are all taken using the "Internet" mode, which is the most balanced mode for viewing text and images.

This picture is with MSPaint showing a plain black bitmap. You can see the backlight is very, very consistent. No bleeding whatsoever.

This is a crop of a macro shot.

In this one you can kinda see the yellow getting darker in the top left corner. This page, with the overly saturated yellow background, is the toughest site I've found for viewing angles.

Horizontal viewing angle is very good. The text is perfectly readable all the way to the edge.

Tilted all the way back. Again you can clearly see the vertical viewing angle problems. The text does remain readable most of the way to the edge, though.

Side view. Ignore the mess

 

[Shaman]

Great review kumquat, thanks.

I think the standard around here to show the backlight is with a completly dark background in a pitch dark room. The pic you posted has a bright border all around it that can play tricks on the eye. Can you take a shot with a completly dark background? You don't have to use a paint program, just set the screensaver to blank then click on 'Preview'.

Upon further reading I got convinced that this monitor uses a 6-bit panel with dithering, but the dithering is so good that for the most part you can't notice any banding, it is only noticeable with darker colors. But if you say there's no banding at all, I think this calls for an up-close pic of a gradient test, giving special attention to the darker end of the scale.

 

[kumquat]

I think the standard around here to show the backlight is with a completly dark background in a pitch dark room. The pic you posted has a bright border all around it that can play tricks on the eye. Can you take a shot with a completly dark background? You don't have to use a paint program, just set the screensaver to blank then click on 'Preview'.

Will do when I find the time. The room was very dark, but not completely.

Upon further reading I got convinced that this monitor uses a 6-bit panel with dithering, but the dithering is so good that for the most part you can't notice any banding, it is only noticeable with darker colors. But if you say there's no banding at all, I think this calls for an up-close pic of a gradient test, giving special attention to the darker end of the scale.

I tried to photograph it, but none of the pictures came out at all OK.

This is as good as I could get it:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y190/jonnythan/grad.jpg

 

[only1brian]

Im ordering this next paycheck.
How do you think it would hold up with a game like Quake 4?

 

[Shaman]

I checked the pdf manual of the 205BW, under specifications it says:

Display Color
16.7M Colors (8bit + RGB)

What does the '+ RGB' spec mean, anyone knows? Does it mean it's true 8-bit or just another dithering trick to make it look like 8-bit?

 

[kumquat]

Im ordering this next paycheck.
How do you think it would hold up with a game like Quake 4?

I played COD2 for about an hour last night on it.

It performs flawlessly, even in the very low light of night-time COD2 maps.

 

[only1brian]

Very awesome. Sounds like a buy in my book.
And max resolution is 1600x1050... is that the resolution you use? and if using it at max resolution will it stress the LCD to have problems later?

 

[kumquat]

Very awesome. Sounds like a buy in my book.
And max resolution is 1600x1050... is that the resolution you use? and if using it at max resolution will it stress the LCD to have problems later?

It's 1680x1050.

Using it at the "max" resolution would more accurately be described as the "native" resolution.

LCD panels have a fixed number of pixels, and running it at that resolution provides the best picture. It does not stress the LCD in any way.

Running it at a lower resolution forces the panel to take a smaller image and scale it up to take up more pixels.

 

[rrhomes]

hmm the viewing angle your mentioned now has me concerned. are you saying looking strait on, that on fairly bright screen the outer edges are darker then in the middle/center to the point where they are noticable? This is the LCD I want but if the viewing angles are lastgen I might have to spend more money.

 

[kumquat]

hmm the viewing angle your mentioned now has me concerned. are you saying looking strait on, that on fairly bright screen the outer edges are darker then in the middle/center to the point where they are noticable? This is the LCD I want but if the viewing angles are lastgen I might have to spend more money.

I think you should head to a CompUSA or wherever and take a look. That ESPN page is the only one where I've ever actually noticed it. I tried the same page on my 17" LCD at work the other day, and it was significantly worse.. but that's a cheapo Gateway LCD.

I personally think it's fine, but I don't have an awful lot besides "Cheap LCD" and "expensive CRT" to compare it to. It's there, but I think it's there with all LCD's. It's subtle.

It's only vertical. I do not see the effect across the display, only at the top of the display.

 

[rrhomes]

I have seen it at CompUSA and I couldn't see any angle issues but they never hardly have those set up right, but from my recolection it seemed pretty even edge to edge.

 

[Shaman]

Bump for 205BW owners, where y'all hiding?

 

[rrhomes]

10 days and I should be ownig this got to wait to get paid. The only other one I'm condiering is the 225BW

 

[jakuum]

So I bought one of these today from Sams. Quite an upgrade from my 930B, and I'm really enjoying the added screen real estate. So far I've only played Titan Quest and Half-Life 2 on it in widescreen and it makes me go . Only backlight bleeding I can see is along the top and it varies depending on the brightness, but It doesn't bug me that much....yet.

Only thing that kind of bugged me at first was that it seemed to hang a bit lower on the left than the right, but there was some play in the mount or whatever and leveled it out. Hopefully it wiill stay that way.

 

[kumquat]

Only thing that kind of bugged me at first was that it seemed to hang a bit lower on the left than the right, but there was some play in the mount or whatever and leveled it out. Hopefully it wiill stay that way.

I noticed there's a tiny bit of rotational play in the mount, too. I kinda like it since my desk surface is tilted ever so slightly down on the left. It stays where I put it unless a cat tries to walk on top of it. It seems intentional to me. If I grab one corner and push it up, it will rotate up about 1/4", giving a couple of degrees of rotational freedom. Hasn't been an issue.

 

[GotNoRice]

I've had this monitor for a few weeks now, and I really like it. It was really bright at first coming from my old faded trinitron, but after a few days of adjustment I couldn't be hapier.

1680x1050 seems like a huge resolution but it's also the same resolution i've had on my laptop for 3 years. At least that took away the learning curve when it comes to getting some of the more stubborn games to run in widescreen.

 

[kick]

I bought my 205BW about one month ago and it's been running well connected to a Sapphire X1600XT via DVI. The desktop is smooth/clean and it took very little tweaking to get good contrast and accurate colours out of the TN panel. The height adjustable stand is a real bonus in this price range as most of the competition uses a fixed base. I had the LG204WT on my desk at first but the fixed base would have forced me either use a stack of phone books or buy an LCD arm... which aren't cheap. I also found the Samsung to have a "cleaner" image (fewer artifacts, etc) and slightly better colours.

There's a bit of debate going on as the type of TN panel used in the Samsung 205BW (6-bit vs 8-bit) - use search for find the threads. When I first bought the display Samsung.ca clearly listed the panel as being 8-bit TN-III w/ 16.7 million colours... tho Samsung has recently changed the specs on their website. The US and some other regional sites indicate that a 6-bit panel w/ 16.2 million colours is used... but that could simply mean that Samsung limited use of the 8-bit panel to the Canadian and other select markets. Who knows. I have contacted Samsung on the issue and hope they know and are willing to clarify the issue. As mentioned by others tho, my 205BW doesn't exhibit any issues w/ gradients or banding and the backlighting is very even...

Here's some photos:

 

[Shaman]

Thanks for the review Kick, I've been going through the entire L204WT thread (currently on page 25) and I read about your experiences there and your change to the 205BW. I have some questions for you..

-In the backlight bleeding pic, the screen looks unrealisticaly bright compared to the other game/video pics. Did you edited the image or used a different camera setting to better show the bleeding or is that exactly what you see with a black background in a dark room?

-Do you notice any swirling or twinkling or whatever you call it when watching dvd's? If you know how it looks like, that is..

Thanks.

 

[rrhomes]

Samsungs website is just full of errors, I have know idea why, but just about every specification page has at least 1 thing wrong. i've decide on this monitor 90% with 10% still open to the 225BW. I really like how the bezel is the exact same size all the way around the monitor, so many of them are a tad smaller or larger on the top and bottoms. I'll be puting this arm on a LCD desk mounter arm that I love it should look killer floating on my desktop.

 

[only1brian]

Samsungs website is just full of errors, I have know idea why, but just about every specification page has at least 1 thing wrong. i've decide on this monitor 90% with 10% still open to the 225BW. I really like how the bezel is the exact same size all the way around the monitor, so many of them are a tad smaller or larger on the top and bottoms. I'll be puting this arm on a LCD desk mounter arm that I love it should look killer floating on my desktop.

Marketing teams.. might be the answer to the errors.

 

[Shaman]

I really like how the bezel is the exact same size all the way around the monitor, so many of them are a tad smaller or larger on the top and bottoms. I'll be puting this arm on a LCD desk mounter arm that I love it should look killer floating on my desktop.

Yes the bezel of the same size all around looks really beautiful. If the 215TW didn't have the speakers bar at the bottom I would buy it in 2.563 seconds. Sadly it looks like a friggin lcd tv.

So I'm currently torn between the 205BW, the 225BW and the L204WT. The L204WT has everything going for it, except for the fixed base that only tilts and apparently is impossible to remove after you assemble it, plus it doesn't come with a DVI cable.

So basically it's a choice between ergonomics and crt-like contrast and black levels. It should be an easy decision but it's not anywhere close.

 

[rrhomes]

they need to make the LG in black. The 205BW is my choice right now one becasue LEd backlite LCd will in 2 years be the big thing and decenly priced so I don't want to spend more than $300 at the most knowing I'll only have it for 12-24 months at most.

 

[t4t3r]

i love my 205bw so far. i've had it for about a month and haven't come across anything i don't like about it. mine has just a tiny bit of bleed across the top like a couple of the photos here show, but in no way affects any on-screen images, even movies with the black bars. i love the design and height-adjustment ability. i was looking for a black bezel screen to fit along with my klipsch speakers and the rest of the black audio/video equipment in my room.

i have no problems with games, gradient displays, or anything else that lcd's sometimes have issues with. gaming is a joy and normal desktop work is excellent. it's the first screen i've had where i just sit and stare at my hi-res backgrounds, CRT's included.

anyone who is looking for a 20" WS monitor and can't afford some of the well-known bests (20WGMX2 for example) should pick this up. i like it much more than the VX2025WM i had for a week, and saying it's a steal for less than $300 is an understatement.

 

[kick]

-In the backlight bleeding pic, the screen looks unrealisticaly bright compared to the other game/video pics. Did you edited the image or used a different camera setting to better show the bleeding or is that exactly what you see with a black background in a dark room?

No editing. I simply allowed the camera to meter the panel. Since there was nothing displayed on the screen the overall brightness of the scene was lower, hence a longer exposure time to capture an image. So no, that's not exactly what you see in a dark room... but it does capture the even nature of the backlight.

-Do you notice any swirling or twinkling or whatever you call it when watching dvd's? If you know how it looks like, that is..

I've personally never seen "swirling" or "twinkling" on an LCD - the problem seems to limited to certain brands/models/coatings. I really don't watch video or DVD's on my PC but from the testing I did I saw no behaviour that I would describe as "swirling" or "twinkling".

 

[rrhomes]

Everyone go to the Samsung Website at the links below and take a look at the 204BW it looks like the bezel on it is a tad smaller than the 205BW. It may just be the pics look but the Samsung printing and the On/Off and Adjustment buttons on the 204BW they look like they are fitted a little tighter than the 205BW the printing logo could just be larger on the 204BW but the buttons almost certainly would be the same size.. I have been trying to figure out the differnce betwqeen the two and I can't maybe this is it. The size deminstions are the same but we know how reliable Samsungs info is, its like they have one data enty person that just copies and paste info from simular models. Its probably not thinner but the picks on Samsungs site sure make it look a tad thinner.

Tell me what you guys think and what is the difference from the 204BW to the 205BW. If it did turn out to be 20% thinner then I'd want the 204BW for sure.

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitor/LCD_Digital/LS20HAWCB7XAA.asp

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitor/LCD_Digital/LS20HAWCBQXAA.asp

http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitor/LCD_Digital/files/204bw_ds.pdf

Even on Neweggs site it looks a tad thinner. To me this if it true the 204BW becomes my ultimate monitor because the ONLY thing that kinda made me wonder was why the 205BW bezel was a tad wider than some other Samsungs. But if the 204BW is thinner all the way around than it will be in my house in 5 days I get paid on Friday.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824001087

eeehhhhh, hard to say probably all just an illusion.

 

[rrhomes]

Well I talked to a cutomer service rep and she had an internal picture that she also felt like it looked a tad smaller than the 205BW. I get frustrated with dumb ASH people who can't get you up to the right deparment to get basic info answered. She did say that model sqence number has nothing to do with when the are released, and that lower numbers are released later all the time. Heres a contact number for anyone that wants to dig further 1-800-726-7864 menu 2..........menu 4...........menu 3.........menu 1..........menu 1...that to LCD Monitor support. Just besure they don't read from a data sheet or they'll tell you theres no difference be sure to ask if they have seen them both and that most pics make the 204BW look 20% thinner and that Samsung basic support had confirmed this with pucture they have for supoort use only.

 

[Shaman]

Sure there's differences between the 204BW and the 205BW. The 204BW appaears to be clearly marked as a 16.2 color panel, and the 205BW is rated at 16.7M colors, even though everyone one here swears that there's no such thing as 8-bit TN panels. I think the the 205BW and the 225BW use the new 8-bit panels, but until someone reviews them professionally, we'll never know really.

 

[kumquat]

If we can't tell, why does it matter?

 

[rrhomes]

Well if it was smaller, in person it'd be a tad bit more noticable, none of the 16.7 or 16.2 do I find reliable. If you look at the PDF on the 204BW it says pixel pith .285 when in fact its .258 and that PDF is more of a prepared document thatn some data entry mess ups yet it still has bogus info in it, the Samsung website has the 205BW as 16.2 under specifications. From seeing the 205BW I think its 75mm vesa compliant yet for the 205BW and the 204BW they keep saying 100mm vesa compliant. It may be that the 204BW has smaller sides than it does top and bottom because some of the pics kind of look like that and Samsung has done that alot on other monitors. If so the 205BW has the same size all the way around which some may preffer. I just noticed it and wanted others to look at the pic and give a gerneral opinion on if it looks a tad smaller because we simpley don't have the facts on it. Just asking what do you guys think, does it look slighlty smaller or not to you.


Well according to the owners manual in PDF which comes with the info for both units, they are the exact same size for what ever thats worth. It also says in the owners manual that they are both 16.7M weather thats 6bit + dither or not we still don't know i guess.

 

[smilepak]

One of the main differences between the two is the 205BW uses less power than the 204BW. I think by 20w or so.

 

[rrhomes]

I can't figure out what the difference is, all I know is i want one.

 

[Mangonz]

Had the 205BW since shortly after it came out and very pleased with it so far, although I can only compare it with the CRT I used to use and the 17" IBM LCD I use at work.

My main gripe was that out of the box the monitor was extremely bright with a very high gamma setting, so much so that it actually hurt to look at! Also gave me a headache after about 30 minutes. Turning down the brightness to 0 helped a little but it then seemed washed out and not as good as my CRT. It actually took me a week of fiddling with profiles and a myriad of other settings before I got it to what I find spot on. Now I wouldn't trade it for anything

I mainly use the screen for gaming, looking at web pages and the occasional DVD. Considering the problems I had setting it up I have put the settings I use below as a starting point for anyone else needing help.

Profile: Custom
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 70
MagicColor: Off
Color Tone: Normal
Color Control: Default - 50 for RGB
Gamma: Mode3 (Darkest)

I also had to modify the default colour settings in my video driver control panel. I have an ATI X1900XT so these are the CCC settings but I guess they could provide an indication of changes for Nvidia cards if they need them.

Gamma: 0.80 (from default of 1.00)
Brightness: 90 (from default of 100)
Contrast: 100 (default)

Changing the gamma on both the screen and drivers made a HUGE improvement over default and fixed the washed out effect and headaches. Good to know the defaults are still available however if I need to use screen during a supernova

When researching the screen before I purchased it I noticed a few sites stated the screen had poor black levels - this was true on the default settings with near black being light grey and white being a searing light. After the above adjustments however I can't fault it and games like EVE and X3 look great. I don't have a camera good enough to take photos in the dark but a blank black screen seems slightly brighter than my CRT in a completely dark room. I notice in the photo Kick posted up there is a slightly brighter area near the top centre of the screen that mine does not seem to have but that is possibly due to the camera amplifying the brightness that would otherwise be imperceptible. The screen is definitely much brighter in the photo than it seems to be to the naked eye.

I bought this in New Zealand, the NZ Samsung website and documentation both say 16.7m colours but made no mention of it being 6 or 8 bit. The IBM at work is 8 bit however and a cannot see any difference between the two and have not seen any banding.

I notice virtually no ghosting in games at all and am normally fairly sensitive to that kind of thing. If I rapidly spin in circles in a first person shooter the image seems to become slightly less crisper than my CRT but it is extremely close. I don’t get any smudging like the 8ms LCD at work (think it was a 'slow' 8ms screen not meant for gaming).

If I have a blank white screen up and rapidly move the mouse pointer side to side after turning my mouse sensitivity way up I can see several images of the pointer (mouse trails off) but think this is more to do with the refresh rate as the same thing happens on my CRT if I lower it to 60Hz. If I slow the movement down the images start to catch up and seem like slight ghosting on both so perhaps that isn't a good test. At 60Hz I guess the response time of the CRT would be 16ms.
I did however notice that the afterimage of the black pointer on the 205BW is red where on my CRT it’s black. Interesting... but not noticeable unless my eyes are about 2cm from the screen.

 

[jakuum]

Good stuff Mangonz. I didn't know you could change the gamma on the monitor. Then again I never really paid any attention to the menus, other than brightness and contrast =x.

I had an issue this morning. I turned on my computer and when I got to the Windows logon screen the monitor started flashing on and off. Now I don't think the power itself was going in and out, since when it turned black I could see the backlight. It was switching between no signal and signal it seems. I turned off the monitor, and then back on and it seemed to fix the problem. Anyone experience this? I'm wondering if it's a problem with the monitor or the graphics card.

 

[GotNoRice]

My only complaint is how it switches between inputs. I have a 4-port VGA/USB KVM switch. My main computer is hooked to port 1 with the exception that I run the DVI cable directly, bypassing the KVM, and if I want to switch to input 2, 3, or 4 I simply have to hit the input switch button on the front of the monitor at the same time I switch over to the other inputs on the KVM.

But then when I’m on one of the other inputs from the KVM via VGA, and I’m doing windows updates or something and I restart the computer, it will automatically revert back to the DVI as soon as it detects the signal from the VGA absent during the reboot. Then the other computer that the 205BW switched away from automatically will end up booting thinking it doesn’t have a monitor attached and it gives me a max res of 1280x1024 or something along those lines. I kinda wish it just stayed on whatever input I had it on until I changed it, rather than trying to be “automatic” and being a huge pain in the ass.

 

[kick]

Indeed, the specs on the Samsung 205BW are suspect... and I have a growing concern that Samsung's employees don't know any better then I (we) do. If you check Samsung.ca, the 205BW was listed as 8-bit TN-III w/ 16.7 million colours, at least when I bought it. They've sinced dropped the panel specs but still list 16.7 million colours. So, who really knows.

As for the 204BW vs 205BW - I can see no difference in the width of the bezel. Both displays look identical to my eyes. If there is a physical difference, it not significant enough to write home about.

 

[rrhomes]

Well I just talked to someone in 2nd level tech support and he said both the 204BW and 205BW where 8bit monitors and I re-asked the question 3 times referring back to the 16.2 million and 16.7 million specs that contridict each other everywhere, he assured me they where 8bit. More supriseing is he confirmed the the 204BW has a 13% smaller bezel than the 205BW so not a lot but a little smaller, I'm glad I called I just wanted correct info and no up front support could tell me till my questions got so confusing to them they gave me a CS# and sent me deeper into monitor support, its amazing how hard we have to work to get basic answers like that. Now its down to one of these or the 225BW I'm back and forth every other day, and the 225BW is 8bit according to the tech guy for anyone that is doubting it.

I posted this in the 225BW thread when I ment to post it here, anyways i'm lookinh at either the 204BW or the 225BW. Does anyone know if I get a sales person on the phone at newegg if I might get free next day ait if I ordered tomorrow.

 

[Mangonz]

Thanks jakuum, I had the same problem yesterday. Few others seem to have that issue on the 204B as well, see http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1100950

 

[qtwre]

So help me out. I'm no display guru but i've been browsing threads.

This seems like the monitor to get, am I right? Everybody in this thread seems very happy with their purchase and the price is very resonable. Is there anything else in this price range I should be considering before I just end up buying this one?

 

[Shaman]

Is there anything else in this price range I should be considering before I just end up buying this one?

The LG L204WT (2000:1 dynamic contrast, 5ms and true 8-bit(??)) is in the price range more or less, however it doesn't have an adjustable stand (only tilt) and doesn't come with a dvi cable.

 

[kick]

The LG L204WT (2000:1 dynamic contrast, 5ms and true 8-bit(??)) is in the price range more or less, however it doesn't have an adjustable stand (only tilt) and doesn't come with a dvi cable.

I had both the Samsung 205BW and LG 204WT side-by-side on my desk - the LG 204WT went back. To my eyes, the Samsung and LG produced a very similiar image - no clear winner. The LG had slightly better contrast but the Samsung had a smoother/cleaner image (the LG had a light cross-hatch pattern of artifacts on the screen... kinda visible on high resolution digital images). With the Samsung having an adjustable base, I was sold.