11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Good Monitor For The Price
Date of Review: May 4, 2008
The Bottom Line: If your looking for an inexpensive display for casual use this monitor might be what your looking for. For photo editing look elsewhere.
I admit I really like Samsung displays. I own a Samsung 50" DLP television and a 37" LCD television. Both have given me great service and an excellent quality picture. So when it came time to purchase a new computer monitor, I looked no further than Samsung. Out of the box this monitor is ready to use. Just plug in your power and connect to your computer and then install the driver from the software disk included with your monitor and you are ready to go. Now I have owned this monitor for over six months so I have had plenty of time to really test it out on a daily basis and overall I am quite happy with the display. One negative point I have to admit is the viewing angle. You have to be straight in from of this monitor to get the best results. Move off axis and you will notice changes in brightness and color. For users planning to use for video or photo editing this could be a problem. For casual users surfing the internet and for word processing I would not see a problem here.
The display housing is shiny black. It is a beautiful design but will attract dust. I don't really mind it since most of my other components are black and it fits right in. The controls are located on the front lower right hand side of the screen making adjustments easy. I always hated it when companies would put the controls on the side of the screen and have to commend Samsung in their placement on the 245BW. The menu system is easy to navigate and use. Monitor height and angle can be adjusted easily to suit your needs.
Overall the screen is very sharp and clear. There is a slight loss of brightness at the edges in the corners but nothing that would be a cause for concern. Colors on the Samsung are good however some tweaking will be necessary to get the best results. As I said, for internet and word processing use the 245BW is a good display, however if you are going to be using your monitor for photo or video editing it would probably be best to look at something else.
As for problems. In the last few months I have noticed that every once in a while I will turn on the computer and the display will have lines running horizontal across the display. At first I suspected I may have a problem with a cable or my video card until I realized if I would cut the display off and back on it would correct itself. It does not do this every time and I have yet to figure out the cause. Since I have not had issues with other Samsung displays I really can't see it as a quality control problem but I figured I would mention it just in case others have seem a problem with theirs.
For the money, the 245BW is a good monitor. Sure there are much better monitors on the market but for $399 you really can't go wrong.
