I have this one, but the 24" version: Samsung T240HD It's a monitor that doubles as a TV (has a built in tuner). Not ideal for one or the other, but it's great to have if you need products that pull double duty due to small apartment size. Both the 24 and 26" models are 1920 x 1200 resolution. When playing 1080p content with 1:1 scan (which you can have via component) you'll get slim black bars on the top and bottom, but it's better than non-1080p HD. There's newer models, but, for some odd reason, Samsung, along with everyone else, seems to have gone 1920x1080p crazy. It's great if you're anal about the black bar issue, but it's a smaller price to pay than losing that additional resolution for applications running on your PC or laptop.
Alright, thanks for posting. That was also a monitor that I was looking at getting and I certainly did like having a monitor that is all but a TV. How do websites like this work if you are viewing them? Is the text fine? Since you like it I will certainly look into getting it. Oh, and what games do you play on it?
Oh ok, so all the HD's that I am looking at are fine, that's nice to know, do you know if this serves for TV's too?
Yeah, the specs are in order. If spiffyone is using it (him being the technology whore that he is, jk ), then it's good to go.
Well, CNET cited the monitor having: Drab colors in games; low brightness; bad OSD button placement. Do you notice the lack of brightness and clarity of colors to be any issue? Or are they just being picky?
Well, it's a TN panel monitor, so that's an issue (as far as viewing angle is concerned, and colors aren't as "popping" as SPVA or IPS panels). Like I stated, it's neither the best for games nor the best for movies nor the best for surfing the web/text/photo editing nor the best for watching TV. However, it's pretty good for all four, and it's all in one unit, which, again, was a big deal for me as I have a really tiny NYC apartment so I don't have room for more than one monitor or HDTV. And that's the thing about this unit: it's not really an HDTV. It's a computer monitor with a built in HDTV tuner. So you get that extra bit of resolution that doesn't matter with HD movies and such, but is a friggin' godsend when using it as a PC monitor. And there's usually a rule for monitors (at least at the time I bought this one): Monitors that are best for games are usually really sucky at other things. Monitors that are best for movies are sucky at games, etc. Monitors that are best for web surfing are usually sucky at the other things too. This one isn't sucky at any of them, but isn't the best at any of them either. It's straight middle of the road. But it does all of them in a very satisfactory manner, IMHO. As for the CNET review...it depends on the settings. Colors are sort of drab in games compared to other monitors that aren't TN panels, but non-TN panels are quite a good deal more expensive. Mess around with the settings and you'll find a good view. As for brightness, I disagree totally. I've turned DOWN the brightness on this thing, but then again I have issues with brightness hurting my eyes (yes, ol' spiffy is a vampire ). In my view when I bought it, for how much it costs (you can get one for less than $250 nowadays), the size, what it does (monitor w/internal TV tuner), and it's satisfactory performance across the range of uses, it was a pretty easy decision. Your needs may differ however. I don't know if it's even in stores anymore, so you may want to go the safe route and buy another set that you can check out first hand with your gaming system of choice and/or laptop.
Thanks for the great reply. That really does seem to be all that I need since I do not need world-class anything. Also, I am really glad to see that you disagree with CNET which is not too surprising since they seem to expect perfection, but still.. Anyways, thanks again for the advice.
