Samsung 215TW 21" LCD Monitor

Samsung 215TW 21

Samsung 215TW 21" LCD Monitor
Manufacturer: Samsung
Product Type: CE

Editorial Review:
Product Description
MagicTune / MagicBright2 / MagicRotation (Auto Pivot) / Built in Speaker / Widescreen / 1000:1 Contrast / 1680x1050 Res / 8ms Response / 300cdm2

Average customer rating:

Can Calibrate for Photo Proofing
If you have Sony VAIO, read this...
Excellent after 1 year
Living with the 215TW
Great Monitor brought down by DEFECTS

Samsung 215TW 21" LCD Monitor

Manufacturer: Samsung
ProductGroup: CE
Binding: Electronics

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Flat Panel (LCD) | Monitors | Computing | Products |
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Product Features:

Ergonomic four-way adjustable stand
1680 x 1050 resolution, wide 9:5 aspect ratio
Fast MagicSpeed 8 ms (G to G) response time
Currently six different viewing environment modes are available: Custom, Text, Internet, Game,
Built-in speakers Picture-in-Picture, Picture-by-Picture functionality

ASIN: B000EZP1QE

Product Description

MagicTune / MagicBright2 / MagicRotation (Auto Pivot) / Built in Speaker / Widescreen / 1000:1 Contrast / 1680x1050 Res / 8ms Response / 300cdm2

Customer Reviews:

Can Calibrate for Photo Proofing.......2007-06-27

Got this monitor because I am a photographer and color correct/process all my files. It was important that this monitor could be calibrated down to 100-110cd/m2 to be able to show shadow detail. I can certainly do this as I have had it as low as 101.2cd/m2. It can be easily calibrated with my EyeOne Display, Match software and the buttons located on the front panel. I am happy with the images displayed. If you want a good monitor for photo editing for under $500, this is the one.

If you have Sony VAIO, read this..........2007-06-08

I have bought this baby about 3 days ago and I was facing a strange problem. On my Sony VAIO (VGN-S5HP/B) with Windows XP SP2, I was getting only a black screen. After a countless various attempts with various drivers (nVidia geForce go 6400) and others, I have decided to switch off all unnecessary services, which are being loaded during the system startup and guess what? It has started to work. I have found out later on, that the problem was caused by the service called 'VAIO Event Service', which is mainly responsible for special hotkeys and shortcuts (such as Fn+F2 which turns on/off the sound).
If you are facing the same problem, then turn this service off by going to the Start menu -> Control Panels -> Administrative Tools -> Services - the window containing the list of all services available in your system should popup. Find the 'VAIO Event Service', right-click on it, select Properties. In the popup, set 'Startup type' dropdown to 'Disabled'. This will stop the service and it will never start again during the system startup.
Of couse, disabled hotkeys and shortcuts drive me nuts, so I already had a look for some patch, have downloaded one, but it didn't help. We will see.
Another thing is something they call 'input lag'. I have to say, that during the work in the system, I havn't experienced any.
Summary: I am really satisfied - the picture is great - colors, sharpness, everything. DVD movies are great as well, without any blurs or something. I give just 4 stars, because of the VAIO problem, which has cost me quite a lot of time to solve...

Excellent after 1 year.......2007-05-27

This was my first LCD monitor and it was purchased to be used in a photo editing rig specifically. After much research, this one seemed to be a nice compromise of monitors just below the high end graphics LCD monitors. At $650, it was a deal having paid $1,000+ for CRT based monitors in the past...but would it live up to CRT as far as image detail and accuracy?

Out of the box, everything about the monitor seemed nice, conservative case, basic access controls and the height/tilt adjustments were key points. The first images needless to say were way over driven...too bright, overly saturated and typical of how the manufacturers set these up to "wow" potential buyers in stores. After calibrating using Monaco Optix Pro, things settled well but I felt the reds were a bit more than "real" and highlights a bit bright still.

After adjusting some images, they were burned on CD and taken to a pro lab for a direct drag-drop 8x10" print. The resulting images were quite close and acceptable for what I required. Having used this monitor now for one year, I can say that after a bit of tweaking, it has been excellent. It still is a bit high as far as red and some highlights go but most gear takes some getting accustomed to. Now that I'm building up a second photo machine, I wanted to use the same monitor and sadly, the distribution is limited.

I still check images on a CRT just for variances which the LCD may not cover. For the most part, it isn't necessary. I would conclude that, this is a capable monitor even if I still have some likes for CRT based work.

Final comments: Backlighting is even with no hot spots, no dead pixels or at least in my real world work not obvious. Monitor drift has been consistent and easily adjusted for in calibration. (Calibration is done prior to a work session and every 2-3 hours of up-time. Typical work day it is on about 5-6 hours per session.) By my projections, this monitor should be good easily for another 2-3 years of critical use before it will be replaced. Then it will be used it on the casual machine for on-line and basic office computing. YMMV.

Living with the 215TW.......2007-04-04

After living with this product for over 3 months I have no problem highly recommending it. This 21" widescreen display has a height adjustable stand, offers 1000:1 contrast ratio, rca and s-video inputs, as well as a headphone jack which can be surprisingly convenient. It also has built in speakers but they are quite weak and I highly recommend hooking up a regular set of computer speakers instead, or your 5.1 system if you are so equipped.

The RCA jacks on the 215TW come in very handy for hooking up a DVD player, VCR or video game console. I would however recommend that you opt for S-Video connections if possible because the upgrade in image quality is huge.

Where to start? This product is an all-around excellent monitor for uses that range from internet browsing, word processing, emails, movies, and video games. I did not notice any input lag myself although some users have mentioned this.

The colors are wonderful, bright, and deep, and brings graphics to life. I enjoy using 2 page mode when I want to preview documents before printing and yes the monitor features a pivot mode that works although I rarely, read never, use it in the vertical alignment though I imagine it could be useful for certain tasks. As far as color accuracy, moire patterns, banding, etc. I ran all the initial tests and this monitor scores excellently. No dead pixels on my monitor either. It turned out it came with one "stuck" pixel but I ran a little pixel program and then pressed the area lightly, and it became unstuck.

Also as far as value for the money goes this monitor is excellent. When you get to 24" and up monitors you'll be spending 600 to 1000 and upwards at the very least. So for under $500 this monitor offers very good bang for the buck.

The only reason I cannot give this monitor a perfect 5 star rating however is that when playing movies or video games with lots of dark areas, it becomes very difficult to distinguish things in the dark environments. I'm sure this is probably a weakness in general for LCD's because LCD's don't render perfect black levels, but I noted this as the one disappointing area of performance for me. Everything else looks beautiful on this display.

I would gladly recommend this monitor highly to friends and would buy from Samsung again. I'm a satisfied customer and I think this monitor will easily hold up for me a few years until I look for my next upgrade.

Great Monitor brought down by DEFECTS.......2007-03-15

This monitor performed wonderfully for about 5 months, then developed the same problem that my other Samsung 204B monitor has been plagued with -- the screen randomly flashes to black for a second or more. It started out less occasionally than not, but has become increasingly a problem. After having 3 replacements for my Samsung 204B LCD, I have little hope for Samsung's long-term quality assurance of their products. I now get to play the call-for-multiple-replacements game until i get one that works for awhile....

My recommendation: expect your Samsung monitor to eventually have problems.

Average customer rating:

21" SyncMaster

Manufacturer: Samsung Monitors and Printers
ProductGroup: CE

All Samsung | Samsung | Brands | Electronics Features | Electronics
Product Features:

Samsung Monitors & Printers
21 SyncMaster

ASIN: B000H5DCVM

Product Description

21" SyncMaster

Average customer rating:

215TW Wide-Screen 21" LCD Monitor

Manufacturer: Samsung
ProductGroup: CE

Samsung Monitors & Printers

ASIN: B000JMBZOO

Product Description

SyncMaster 215TW is a 21 Analog/Digital 0.270mm; 300 cd/m2; 1000:1 contrast ratio, viewing angle: 178/178; Response Time: 8 ms (G to G), Resolution: 1680 x 1050; Bezel Color: Black; Special Feature: MagicColor, MagicTune, MagicBright II, MagicSpeed, MagicRotation, PIP/PBP (only with video), built-in speakers, narrow bezel, mechanical main power switch, 4-way stand: Height, Pivot, Swivel and Tilt

Average customer rating:

215TW Wide-Screen 21" LCD Monitor

Manufacturer: Samsung
ProductGroup: CE

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