Hardware Review: Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW

I use a 22” monitor at work every day and I feel that it’s the perfect size for light multi-tasking and general use before having to cross over into a dual screen setup. I had dual monitors at home for the longest time, up until just recently I had a really nice 19” Samsung 940BW and a standard 17” Dell E176FP as a secondary. The problem with having dual monitors is even if they are compact LCDs they can still take up a considerable amount of desk space. In my case, I don’t use my desktop PC at home enough to warrant the space used by two monitors when I could just as easily get by with one larger screen. So this month I decided to ditch the two smaller monitors for one Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW.

The 2232BW has arguably high-end specs for gaming and multimedia with it’s with 2 ms response, 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1680×1050 native resolution, and HDCP support. The monitor also sports a nice glossy black casing and anti-glare screen. The 2232BW features Samsung’s exclusive MagicBright3 technology that automatically adjusts the monitor’s brightness according to the content it’s displaying making for a smoother viewing experience, otherwise the monitor has an impressive maximum brightness of 300 cdm2.

It’s hard to find flaws with this award winning monitor but there are some things that could use improvement. The first little issue I noticed is the odd construction of the stand and how it’s attached to the monitor. The plastic stand doesn’t actually ‘attach’ to anything, instead you have to force this round plastic knob into a rubber cup. While the stand looks nice when it’s put together I think it could have been thought out better as the whole forcing process could potentially damage the screen. Another problem deals with the screen itself, while the colors are amazing if you are a professional designer looking for an affordable screen with decent calibration this isn’t the monitor for you. The 2232BW has a tendency to wash out light colors with its brightness, which is strange because I use a much cheaper LCD at work and its calibration is far more accurate out of the box.

With that in mind, from an overall performance standpoint the Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW is an exceptional product. The screen lives up to Samsung quality and for under $300 you get an excellent monitor for a good price.