I recently purchased the Samsung B2230 to replace an old 19 inch Samsung monitor. I thought the older monitor looked great but this one is fantastic. The colors are more vibrant and it is a 16:9 aspect ratio compared to the older 16:10. This means that most widescreen movies no longer have the black bars on the top and bottom.
The controls are touch sensitive and took a while for me to get used to but are easy to get used to. The older model I had to reach underneath to hit the buttons and for the B2230 I have to use my finger on the labeled menu itself right below the Samsung logo. The monitor is gorgeous with its all black design with 1 blue light to show that its on. The monitor can reach full 1080p with a 1920 x 1080 native resolution. It does lack a HDMI input and only has a DVI and VGA input but for $170.00 this 21.5" monitor is a steal I am very happy with this purchase. Samsung B2230 22-Inch Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black
I bought this for my 80yo father as a gift - replacing his tiny 15" monitor. It was a radical difference and he is very thankful for the extra room. He really likes the ability to have 2 windows open side-by-side with the ability to see them both at the same time. The picture is very crisp and clear, and the setup was a snap. I have an Acer in the same size, and the Samsung actually seemed a little sharper. Definitely recommend!
This is my third Samsung PC LCD, owning both a 22" 1680x1050 226BW for over three years and a 25.5" 1920x1200 T260 for a year (had a bad 22" and got it replaced - the 226BW reviewed here January 19, 2008). Anyway, I bought the B2230 for a 3-LCD gaming rig setup. If it could be done over, I'd have bought another monitor, specifically the P2250, which I'll buy for the 3rd LCD to complete the setup.
First, the pixel pitch on this monitor is about the same as the 22" and 25.5" (.28xxx mm - the P2250 has .24xxx pixel density - more pixel density = better display quality). I was hoping for a little sharper clarity for a 1920x1080 resolution monitor in this size, especially considering the 25.5" shares nearly the same pixel density over 4" more of screen real estate. The 25.5" is as clear as the 21.5" in website text and the holy grail of display quality for me: cockpit instrument readability in Microsoft Flight Simulator X. There is of course a sharpness option on the menu, but it just doesn't help much for what I was expecting.
With that said, it's still an okay monitor for the average user. It's a few pounds lighter than the 22" and runs very cool. The touch menu options and feel are pretty standard for Samsung. People new to Samsung's PC LCDs may find the front bezel touch "buttons" awkward and hard to work with, but it sure beats trying to deal with Samsung's buttons on the side and bottom of my other two monitors blindly. Similarly, the gloss bezel may be a put-off to some and definitely is a dust and fingerprint magnet. But I like the gloss - it appears to be the norm these days from manufacturers and matches everything else in the house TV/monitor wise. No red "touch of color" here to match the gorgeous T260, but it still looks good on the desk. The mount does allow for tilt, but as so typical in this price range, no height adjustment.
Finally, the brightness of this monitor needs to be toned way down out of the box, to less than 60%. You will be spending some time calibrating this to your liking. All in all for those who want a run-of-the-mill 21.5" LCD that's 1080p capable, this is an acceptable monitor, but as mentioned, not recommended for those who appreciate higher pixel density output. Think of this LCD as the Enterprise rental Buick of 1080p Samsung monitors: it serves the purpose and grandpa thinks it's awesome, but not something to brag about to friends.
This monitor looks great, and is a nice size, the color is pretty good, not great. The set-up was easy, so that's a definite plus. On the downside, it creates more heat than I bargained for. My office is a decent size and if it's on for a while (several hours) the room actually gets warmer. So, I make sure to turn the monitor off if I'm leaving the room for a while. The other downside is that I get vertical shadow lines which run all the way through the screen whenever there is a pop-up box on my screen. Initially I thought it was just associated with my web browser, but then it occurred while I was using the control panel too. That's a bit disappointing, but I can live with it.
Overall, I like the monitor, it was a great price for the size and the two issues are relatively small ones.
Pros: Beautiful monitor. The exterior appearance is among the more attractive of Samsung's variants (see hideous 2233sw). Amazing picture. Deeper colors and detail than my 40" Samsung 120hz 1080p LCD TV (LN40A650). No blur or artifacts here.
Cons: Horrible touch-sensitive buttons! You can never see them, whether day or night. Also, the high gloss leads to glare from my overhead room lights, despite their low output. This thing will reflect your blackberry more than you can probably stand. Finally, the firmware for the picture adjustment is terribly designed, with non-intuitive controls and convoluted submenus. I feel the need to pull out the instruction manual every time i want to make the screen a bit brighter, and lets just say I am not the type to even keep instruction manuals after the first hour of ownership.
Overall, this screen is in line with what I have come to expect from Samsung, regardless of size - a dazzling image that cannot be duplicated, along with awful ergonomics seemingly designed for the 12-year-old, all-things-spaceage loving kid in all of us.
Based on comments in other reviews I gather that with some computers this monitor works great right out of the box. I did not have that experience. I have a 3-year-old computer (XP) with an NVIDIA graphics card. Not brand new, but not so antique that setup should be this difficult.
THE LOW POINT
I have never in my LIFE had so much trouble installing a monitor! Usually you just plug it in, connect the RGB cable and maybe fiddle with the buttons on the front to center the picture perfectly. This one took over two hours of constant frustration. It came right on when I connected it, but it looked like crap. The picture was washed out and text was almost too blurry to read. The setup instructions were useless and the menu buttons unusually difficult to use. Worst of all, the menu was full of grayed out items, cutesy entries with "Magic" in the title, and Auto settings at multiple menu levels with little indication what they would do. The install disk supposedly had the driver on it, but the driver wouldn't install. If the promised user manual was on the disk I couldn't find it. I downloaded the driver from the Samsung site, installed, rebooted. The driver did install this time, but no improvement in the picture.
I downloaded a little desktop widget called "Magic Tune Premium." (Are you tired of the "Magic" terminology yet? You will be.) Magic Tune does the same thing as the buttons on the monitor, but is way easier to use. But many of the menu items are "Not usable," including the all-important brightness setting! Instead, I had to make a choice from a menu labeled "Magic Angle" with settings like "Lean Back Mode 1" and "Standing Mode." I went with Standing Mode - just about the brightness and contrast level I like. But a ridiculous designation, since the monitor is set at a fixed downward angle that makes it impossible to view from standing position. But no matter - I was planning to sit down when I used it.
But the fuzzy text was intolerable. I tried setting after setting with no improvement. There's an Auto button on the monitor, but all it did was center the picture (something that could NOT be done using the position controls, incidentally!) Finally, hidden on a tab called "Option," I found something called MagicWizard. Bingo! I launched that and the screen went crazy for a while - shrinking and expanding, going black and popping back on, and when it was done the picture was PERFECT. So... if the firmware had the capability to do that, why didn't the Auto button on the monitor just take care of it in the first place??!! Incidentally, the settings that MagicWizard found for me are: Sharpness=60, Image Setup/Fine=32, Coarse=50. What are the odds of stumbling on that exact combination with manual tweaking?
THE HIGH POINT
Wow! The picture is now perfect! I liked my old Viewsonic, but this is slightly better. Text is the sharpest I have ever seen on a monitor, and my photos look wonderful. I just want to sit and stare at the screen.
RECOMMENDED? No. The great picture is not worth the agony of setup. Also...
This is a 21.5" monitor, not 22" as it is labeled online. It says 21.5" right on the box! Not a huge difference, but unnecessarily deceptive. Does not build confidence in the manufacturer.
There is no question that this stand is not adjustable. It's just two rather flimsy pieces of plastic that snaplock together - there is no hinge. And, as others have commented, the fixed position is at a distinct downward angle. From comments in some of the other reviews I wonder if there are two different models being sold under the same model name, one with an adjustable base and one without. - Samsung - Widescreen - Computer Monitor - Monitor'
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