Samsung Samsung SyncMaster 206BW

Samsung SyncMaster 206BW 20-Inch Wide-Screen LCD Monitor

Samsung SyncMaster 206BW Review, by Roy Santos December 30, 2007

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• Reviewed by: Mr Gerry

  Strengths: Outstanding brightness/contrast, no ghosting, affordable, great build quality

  Weaknesses: No height adjustment (there is on the next model up)

  Overall: I bought this LCD for a gaming system back in April, and have been thoroughly satisfied since. The 1680 x 1050 resolution looks crystal clear, and the monitor's specs speak for itself. I juggle my time between photoshop and COD4 and the monitor excels in both areas. I'm sure there are LCDs now with better color for graphics pros, and maybe someday there will be 1 ms latency monitors but I can safely say this LCD does the trick for either side of the field. I've had it shipped all the way around the world to Korea, and back from Korea to the US and its managed to hold up to some abuse (the box was pretty much destroyed on the trip back. No stuck pixels or any bs.

• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: Great picture. Very clear screen. High resolution. Super for playing Games or watching DVD's

  Weaknesses: Would be nice if the arm stand would adjust for hight.

  Overall: I run my monitor at the full 1680X1050 with a high end video card and the picture is awesome. Playing games with high resolution and watching dvd's just blows me away still and I have had this monitor for over a year now. I would definatly recommend this widscreen monitor to anyone.

• Reviewed by: pr0tect0r7

  Strengths: Blazingly Fast, great quality, a lot larger than I thought a 20" wide screen would be

  Weaknesses: Couldn't find any

  Overall: It's a top of the line item and I expect to not have to replace it for a long time, crystal clear and one of if not the best of it's kind

• Reviewed by: treefrog07

  Strengths: Clarity, color, ease of setup, small desktop footprint

  Weaknesses: none

  Overall: This thing is great! It's my first home LCD monitor, I use a NEC 1855NX at work. It replaced a 19" Philips 109B CRT, which is a really good CRT. Most of my use is office-related apps, including large spreadsheets; other major use is multimedia editing and playback. Games are on another computer. Had already read the manual from Samsung's website before I ordered this. Made sure my video card could adequately display 1680x1050. It took me about 15 mins to install, from opening box, unpacking, attaching DVI and power cables, and loading monitor driver into WinXP. Factory color settings were bright. Find the "magic" button before you start adjusting contrast, brightness, and colors with other buttons - the presets for the various functions worked quite well. I like the "Text" setting. While the stand does not allow raising or lowering the monitor, I was able to get very good results in just a couple of minutes by rotating and tilting the monitor to get the best view. I've seen colors and shapes that I never noticed before, especially on icons and other small display objects. No distortion across the screen. The "black" is blacker than on my CRT. I use reading glasses so I worried that this monitor might not meet my needs, but it does, and quite well. If I had the extra money I would have gotten its big brother, the 226BW.

• Reviewed by: pr75

  Strengths: Great design, VGA and DVI-D cables supplied, 2ms response, 3000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio, HDCP support, Vista Certified, 3 Year Warranty.

  Weaknesses: Picture control buttons could be better placed for easier access. High Price.

  Overall: This is my first LCD screen ever. I was holding up on buying a LCD screen because of problems with the ability of reproducing blacks and response times which causes picture blur in high movement video playback. I came across the Samsung BW line by researching what I should look for when buying a LCD monitor. Samsung has 3 models on this line: 19", 20" and 22". I picked the 19" model last Friday because I was told it had the same exact specifications of its bigger siblings and being $100 cheaper I thought I had a great buy in my hands. Hooked it up realized that the 19" version had 1440x900 maximum resolution versus 1680X1050 on the 20" and 22" models which comes handy when you work with graphics. Also the 19" model had a lower contrast ratio, 2000:1 DCR against 3000:1 DCR on the bigger models and it didn't come with the DVI-D cable. So I debated the whole weekend if I should just keep it or not and if paying $100 more for an extra inch and better contrast ratio would be a good idea. Since I couldn't make mends with the idea of just having an "OK" monitor I went back to the store and cashed out the extra $100. Just hooked it up and I sure see a big difference. Even though it's just an inch bigger I think there's quite a difference in size, the 19" seemed tiny. I'd dare to compare a 19" widescreen monitor to a 17" monitor and a 20" widescreen monitor to a 19" monitor. Contrast wise, 3000:1 DCR is a lot better when compared to the smaller model which had a 2000:1 DCR. I must confess that I'm very picky with black color reproduction and when it comes to reproducing blacks CRT is still the winner but I am very pleased with this model. Color reproduction is great and you have multiple picture modes and manual controls to suit your needs. With the 2ms response time I can't notice any pixel ghosting in fast moving action video playback. DVI-D and VGA cables are included with this one so you can assure the best picture quality with the digital input given your video card has DVI-D outputs. Overall this is a great monitor and I would recommend cashing out the extra money for the bigger models in this line. I got the 20" model because it fits perfectly with my furniture space and has the exact same specs of the 22" version. Hope this review helps you in someway.