Decent Low Price Monitor

I bought this monitor to replace my 5 year old 15 inch Samsung LCD (570v). The price was very attractive, especially with the $40 Samsung rebate.

Probably, one of the biggest decisions you'll have to make when selecting a monitor is whether to get a standard screen or widescreen. I decided to look for a widescreen, since they seem to be the new trend, and my notebook computer also has a widescreen display, which has worked out pretty good. I've found though that there are several big advantages and disadvantages to a widescreen monitor (some that I didn't expect).

For general internet browsing, office work, etc. the widescreen is great. Windows automatically detected the monitor and added the monitor's native resolution (1440x900) to the display properties tab; with this resolution, the desktop is clear and undistorted. The widescreen is great for websites with frames and programs like Microsoft Word, etc. that have help and other windows which open on the side of your document. With a standard 4:3 screen, these extra windows always cause the main window to be too narrow; the widescreen works out much better. The Windows taskbar along the bottom of the screen is also much longer on the widescreen monitor, so it is much easier to keep track of and switch between open programs.

The downside is trying to use this monitor to watch DVD's, television and other video clips. I thought that since everything is switching to widescreen, one would see fewer 'black bars' when watching video on this monitor. This is definitely not the case; if anything, you will end up seeing more black bars and/or distorted video on this monitor than on a standard 4:3 monitor. Like most, if not all of the other widescreen computer monitors I looked at, the 941bw has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which differs a bit from the 16:9 that most widescreen televisions and dvd movies use. One of the video players that I had installed was able to stretch the video to fit the screen, but the others apparently were not able to handle the wide screen, and I ended up with black bars on all four sides.

The picture quality is pretty good for the most part. There is more than enough brightness and contrast for my needs, and the response time (4ms) is noticeably better than my old monitor. I did read in some other reviews that there is some backlight bleed through on the top and bottom of the screen; I didn't think that I would notice this, but it is actually quite noticeable under certain conditions, such as a dark picture on the screen with the room lights turned down. This problem seems to be fairly common though, and I would guess that you would have to spend a lot more to get a monitor that doesn't have it. In a well-lit room, I don't see any bleed through, but it does appear that the very top and bottom of the screen isn't quite as clear as the center, the difference is fairly minor though.

The 941bw comes with a thin bezel case and a basic stand that allows for forward tilt angle adjustment only. Some other models have horizontal to vertical swivel adjustment, but I doubt I would have ever used this. It would be nice to have height adjustment, but I can live without it for the price (models with height adjustment were significantly more expensive).

The monitor comes complete with power cord, and it is great that both DVI and D-sub cables are included. Samsung provides a 3 year standard warranty, and you can get a free three month extension by registering online. It is probably fairly unlikely that there will be any problems with this monitor, but it is good to know that Samsung stands behind their products for a few years. I've seen other major brands with 90 day warranties.

This monitor isn't perfect, but overall I'm pretty satisfied. When you consider the price it is really a great value.