Samsung Syncmaster T220HD

...a very good day at samsung headquarters, everyone was having a good time and the wine was plentiful*. The subtle red trimmings add that little extra style to the whole design, and makes it look amazing. Pictures do not serve it justice, it must be seen to be believed.

However, that is enough of my 'ooooohhhh, pretty' tangent, and back to the business and nitty gritty of telling you whether or not this is actually a good tv. The short ...
...this tv is a very much recommended purchase if you are in the market for a monitor/dtv combo, you can't really go wrong with this, especially if you can get it for around £200 or so.

*I'm not saying that the samsung workers drink whilst working :)  ... more

The T220HD is a fantastic TV/pc monitor combo with connections to the hilt, and is teeming with quality that is usually forgotten in this end of the tv market.

Walking into any electronics store and looking at the tv section is always a daunting task, not least actually locating the smaller 22" screens behind the lumbering 50" behemoths. But when a tv can stand out without being a garish pink, you know you have a winner in terms of style. The T220HD is just that, the whole tv seems like it has been designed on a very good day at samsung headquarters, everyone was having a good time and the wine was plentiful*. The subtle red trimmings add that little extra style to the whole design, and makes it look amazing. Pictures do not serve it justice, it must be seen to be believed.

However, that is enough of my 'ooooohhhh, pretty' tangent, and back to the business and nitty gritty of telling you whether or not this is actually a good tv. The short answer is yes, it has everything you would expect and more in a tv, and at £230-£250 it pretty much sucker punches the competition (including the only other credible threat, the LG models around at the moment).

The screen is a matte finish (thankfully, since some glossy dual purpose monitors have been leaking in lately) with a resolution of 1680x1050 and provides such eye searing brightness it could probably be considered some kind of vampire torture [of course, the backlight can be turned down very easily using the menu]. The colours are great, with great defnition and picture quality, there isn't much to say other than this, except there is some very slight backlight bleed at the bottom, but it's hardly noticable unless you're watching a black screen.

the viewing angle is also very good, as with all TN screens, you do get some colour distortion as you move around, but the screen stays viewable up to around 80 degrees from being directly in front. Unfortunatley the stand is not as adjustable as i would like in a pc monitor, but serves just prefectly for a tv, with only tilt available.

The stand is very easy to construct, taking about a minute even if you blunder in manual less. following along these lines, the menu and setup for the DTV is also a complete breeze for anyone who has ever picked up a remote before. Talking of which, the rmeote is very nice, with an intuitive layout and solid feel. It actually feels like its been made for human hands for a change.

Connectivity is amazing for this price, if you can think up a connection, it's there, hdmi (2 of them), DVI, vga, components, audio jack in, sp/dif, optical cable, you name it.

the sound is the only real letdown of the set, with the tv lacking anything in terms of bass, making it sound marginally better than a big laptop. It does play a nice startup tune though to it's defence sound wise.

this tv is a very much recommended purchase if you are in the market for a monitor/dtv combo, you can't really go wrong with this, especially if you can get it for around £200 or so.

*I'm not saying that the samsung workers drink whilst working :) 

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