I only bought my first 226BW a few days ago, and I was impressed with it but I thought it would be a bit nicer to have dual 22 inch screens, so I went and bought another.
The picture output of the large TFT monitor is wonderful, and even though I've never really been keen on the 16:10 (wide) aspect ratio, I do rather enjoy the image on these monitors, as I am doing now (at the amazing 1680x1050 resolution I may add).
Now, I got them for £250 each from PC World, which is quite pricey. BUT the quality of picture and general niceness justifies this. A report from a friend however, mocking me about this, told me he saw one in Planet Micro for £220, so maybe you can get them cheaper - take a look around before you buy is my advice.
I gave the customer services a call to find out some things that I probably could have found in the manual. I asked what the maximum brightness was, and the woman on the other end told me 300cd/m2 (and knew what it meant!). I also found out it has a 1000:1 contrast ratio, but could achieve 3000:1 with it's Dynamic Contrast feature, and also a 2ms response time (very good).
The Dynamic Contrast thing that is shouted about on the box and in the manual is actually fairly impressive. What it does is change the image contrast depending on the colours on screen. The only downside is that if you're watching a movie or something, the contrast changes far too much and irritates you a little.
Before I finish, there's another impressive feature that I haven't mentioned yet that the 225BW didn't have: physical buttons under the screen to change things like brightness and contrast. Software control of monitors offers lots of control, but if you're in the middle of a game or something you can't adjust the picture. Well with this monitor you can!
There was one little problem that I encounter every time I use these monitors, and although it isn't a biggie it seems worse because it is the only real downside of the screen. When you turn them on, it takes a few seconds to adjust to the settings you defined, and generally starts dark and brightens up a bit - but like I said its nothing huge since this is normally while your computer is starting up anyway, and this SHOULD NOT stop you buying this monitor.
Everything considered, it is a great model and I recommend it to any computer user, but especially gamers and it looks brilliant next to another!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
That is a good review - I have been considering upgrading to this model, and it is nice to hear positive feedback.
Chial 14.08.2007 02:02
Really great review. I'm in the process of choosing a screen at the moment and this one was on my narrowed down list. Your review has been very helpful.
very helpful by (43%):
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somewhat helpful by (7%):
