Here's how I see it.
Pros:
Price : Quality ratio. 8ms response. SLEEK! Did I mention Price?
Cons:
Buttons hard to use. Single input. No speakers. No biggie tho.
The Bottom Line:
Nice unit. Worth the loot. Good upgrade from smaller unit or CRT. Sexy model. Vesa mount abilites!
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
I purchased the Samsung SyncMaster 915N from Newegg.com in July of 2005 for around $280 after $20 rebate and shipping.
Packaging was awesome. Small, yet well packed. Base to unit was a simple 'align, turn set screw and place upright' process installation.
Reason for purchase :
Needed another 19" LCD. I already had the NEC 17" (see my other reviews) and a Sony SDM-HX93 ($900 at circuit city in 04) 19" LCD. By the time I bought this one, the prices were just too attractive (after paying $900 for the Sony) to pass up.
Size of the unit is awesome. Minimal frame size and small footprint makes this monitor a breeze to fit almost anywhere. The unit looks sleek and clean.
Performance :
8ms response time - well, that's why I use this monitor over my $900 Sony. The Sony chimes in at 25ms response time. Tho, I've never seen ghosting effects in my FPS gaming (America's Army - based on the Unreal Engine), I notice my eyes stay focused better. Image quality is nice in my gaming and in videos, surfing, pictures, etc. Brightness / Contrast ratios look nice. My Sony gets a little brighter but for the $600 price difference, it should wash my car and cut my hair too.
There are no speakers on this model. Not a big deal for me. I've used the speakers on the Sony a couple times when I had to have a minimalistic setup of my pc, they came in handy. (Hurricanes made me move around a little.. now I have a laptop for that)
My primary complaint with the unit is :
Buttons. There are plenty of them but I don't like how difficult they are to read. Backlighting or some sort, either LED or otherwise, would have been nice. This unit is BLACK and so are the buttons. Unless you have a nice light shining on the right area of the monitor, you'll have a hard time hitting the right button the first time. I don't use the buttons often so I haven't memorized their placement. Then again, my lack of using the buttons makes this issue minimal. For someone who's always adjusting the monitor tho, this could be an issue.
It does feature auto-contrasting and auto-sizing which is nice.
Would I buy it again? Yes. I've pondered buying another for a dual monitor setup but after using my Sony along side this one for that purpose, I've learned I don't need 2 monitors running the same system.
I DO love the fact that Samsung used VESA mounting standards on this unit. I purchased a wall-mount for it and have it mounted to the wall above my desk. It's very nice. I wish they Sony had the VESA mounting abilities on the back of it.
