"I bought this monitor at CompUSA. It's almost perfect, but I have three gripes about it:

1. The stand on my monitor isn't quite straight, making the monitor unlevel. That is, it's rotated slightly counter-clockwise. I couldn't see any way to adjust the stand or take it apart, so I just put some paper underneath the left side of the stand....

2. As others have mentioned, there is some backlight bleed-through at the top and bottom of the screen when the screen is very dark. I don't know if this is a common problem for all LCD monitors, or just this one. For normal usage you won't notice it at all.

3. My main complaint is that there are too many confusing and competing color controls, and little explanation in the manual about what they do, why they do it, and how the interact with each other.

Most monitors have three color controls: Brightness, Contrast, and Color Tone (Temperature). This monitor has those 3 basic controls, plus a Gamma control, 2 global and independent color "tweaks," and 1 meta-control!

The basic controls are: Brightness, Contrast, Color Tone, and Gamma. Brightness and Contrast you already know about. Color Tone sets the color temperature (Warm, Normal, Cool, or Custom). And there are three Gamma modes, none of them explained anywhere: Mode 1, Mode 2, and Mode 3. The default Gamma is Mode 1. Mode 2 is a little brighter than Mode 1. Mode 3 is almost the same as Mode 1, but blues are much richer, which is strange for a "gamma" control. So even if you set your Color Tone to Normal, using Gamma Mode 3 will still give you a slightly "cool" color temperature. Nevertheless, I typically use the Normal Color Tone along with Gamma Mode 3 because it looks nice.

The "meta-control" is called MagicBright, which automatically sets the Brightness, Contrast, Color Tone, and Gamma, depending on which MagicBright mode you choose: Text, Internet, Game, Sports, or Movie, or Custom (Off). You can switch MagicBright modes with a touch of a single button, which is nice.

The two global tweaks are MagicColor and color Calibration:

MagicColor automatically enhances the color saturation of whatever is on the screen. It doesn't affect any of the other settings.

Inside the MagicTune Windows software there is another program called "Calibration." This program apparently sets the internal color ramps, sort of like Gamma and Color Tone do, but the Calibration tweaks are totally independent of these settings. And you can only change the Calibration through the MagicTune Windows software, not through the monitor buttons. Because Calibration tweaks all the colors, but without changing any of the other settings, and because it's only accessible through a Windows program, many problems are created: (1) There's no way to go back to the default color calibration without using the MagicTune software. No matter what you do with the buttons on the monitor, there's no way to reverse the internal color tweaking that the Calibration program has set! (2) Yes you can "calibrate" your monitor, but what does this actually mean? Calibrate it to what? sRGB? A linear map? Who knows! (3) Since Calibration is independent of the other settings, it makes a big difference what those settings were BEFORE you run Calibration, and AFTER. If you Calibrate with MagicBright or MagicColor turned on, for example, and then after Calibration you turn these off, your monitor will no longer be calibrated. But worse than this, it won't even be in a well-defined state, because those global tweaks that Calibration made are still in effect! And you can't reverse them by using the standard color controls. So in effect, there is a separate, mysterious, inaccessible color tweak called Calibration that is only available through the MagicTune software, and you can never really know how it is affecting your colors unless you set it to the Default Calibration and leave it there permanently. That's what I recommend. It's stupid to have a separate and independent color tweak that is not adjustable or reflected in the other color settings. You're just asking for trouble. So I recommend staying away from the Calibration program altogether.

Also, there's yet another calibration program on the Setup CD called Natural Color. It doesn't immediately affect any settings on your monitor, but it does allow you to associate a custom color profile with your monitor in Windows. This in turn can affect the colors that are displayed when you are running an application that cares about monitor profiles (programs such as Adobe Photoshop). But I recommend staying away from Natural Color as well. It's poorly written and I don't trust it. Photoshop has its own monitor profile generator/calibration tool that's much better and easier to use. And there are professional products you can buy if you really need a very accurately calibrated monitor.

So, in summary, Samsung needs to get their act together and have a simpler, less confusing way of setting colors on the monitor. I'm a computer scientist who programs computers for a living, and I still don't quite understand what Samsung intended with all its conflicting color modes and tweaks. How is the normal user supposed to make sense out of it? But luckily the normal controls work fine. Just stay away from the calibration stuff!
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    "I am most relieved to write that this monitor is absolutely beautiful, and was strictly plug and play after I got the appropriate mini-DVI-DVI adapter. There were only a paltry two reviews by Mac people, when I was reading all of these to decide whether I should buy this monitor. The two said that they were pleased with it but didn't give any information about setting it up to 'go Mac', so I will describe this simple operation in a bit of detail.

The Apple adapter (around $19.00) is necessary for MacBooks or other Macs that may use a mini-DVI port rather than a full sized one. The whole set up was a breeze--just plug the Mini-DVI adapter into the MacBook mini-DVI port and the DVI end into the DVI cable that Samsung provides in the box. Lastly, plug the other end of the DVI monitor cable into the monitor. Turn on MacBook and Monitor, and the two sync perfectly. They can then be calibrated from 'System Preference--Display' on the MacBook.

I now have a work station--hurray!! I never dreamed that working on a widescreen monitor could be such a pleasure. Sure, at times I like to have the portability of my MacBook (like--especially in front of the TV while I lay on the floor or couch:-)) Of course, it is a necessity for traveling, too. Now I can work with my MacBook wherever I want to, and I have a super desktop without actually having to buy another desktop computer.

I would recommend this monitor for any Mac person out there! "

    "I spent a few weeks doing research on 22" monitors and decided on the 225BW. I mainly looked at the Acer 22" and Samsung 226BW in comparison to the 225BW. In the store, the text clarity on the Acer didn't seem as sharp/clear to me as the 225BW. The price between the 225BW and the 226BW was relatively close.

I chose the 225BW over the 226BW because the 225 is known to work well (aside from a little backlight bleeding that is hardly noticeable to me though) and have few if no problems. The 226BW is produced with one of two panels ('S' panel or 'A' panel). The S panel is made by Samsung, while the A panel is made by another manufacturer. The majority of the people that got the 'A' panel found it to be of lesser quality than the Samsung panel. Since I didn't want to play the lottery, I chose the proven 225BW with its height adjustable stand.

I replaced my 17" Samsung LCD with this monitor. Both are great, but the huge viewing area is awesome. "

    "I looked around for a while and was going to splurge for the dell 24" but then hit the brick and mortars for a look-see. The samsung 22 (225bw) seemed just right, and has a VERY nice screen. I didn't really need a 24", I thought in the end. I was using two 19" monitors but wanted the widescreen and more area for work (I write music for film and also for dance).

I would recommend that instead of doing the $650 for a dell 24" you do the $300 for this samsung (you can find them for about $310 delivered online) and ALSO get an ergotron neo-flex adjustable monitor arm (part number: 45-174-300) which you can find for $75 delivered online.

*Having a nice 22" monitor on a highly adjustable monitor arm is superior to having just a 24" monitor. Also for long-term use, a monitor arm seems absolutely necessary: consider your back, eyes, and neck!

note that the 20" and 22" widescreens are apparently the same resolution...so the 22" just gives a bigger image...but for my music writing + scoring this is just fine.
( btw. I am not a gamer...and apparently big screens are key for gaming....) "

    "I bought this monitor to replace a 11 year old high quality 17-inch Trinitron CRT that is still working great. While my 17-inch CRT can still match the 225BW for clarity after 11 years of use (and has better color than any LCD can have), I mainly wanted the bigger screen space and far lower heat emission of the 225BW. I work entirely from home in e-commerce software development, so moving from a 17-inch CRT to a 22-inch LCD widescreen gives me MUCH more room to have more windows displayed (the next best thing would be *two* 22-inch LCDs) and I am looking forward to having this LCD heat up the home office FAR LESS than the 17-inch CRT would during the summer. I also like the far more adjustable stand on the 225BW, compared with their newer 226BW. I do not understand why Samsung put an inferior non-height-adjustable stand on their newer 226BW, but that was the deciding factor in making me not purchase the 226BW because it was only slightly more expensive than the 225BW.

This is a great price for a great 22-inch LCD. I also had to upgrade my old Nvidia GeForce4 card to a Xfx GeForce 7600GS 512MB because the old graphics card did not support the monitor's native 1680x1050 resolution, which added $156 to the total purchase, but the cost was well worth it - this extends the lifespan of my 4 year old PC and I do not ogle as much the newer computers with even faster graphics cards. For best results, you need to have a graphics card and updated driver that supports the 225BW's native 1680x1050 resolution and run it using the DVI digital output. Even though the 225BW is called a "SyncMaster", it does not really have the same adaptability as the multi-sync CRT monitors for matching clarity at various resolutions.

In regards to the much-discussed backlighting, I only notice a slight bit of backlight along the bottom edge of the screen when I fully turn the brightness up to the maximum setting of '100'; no detectable backlight shows up on the top, left, or right edges of the screen, even if I adjust the brightness to the maximum '100'. And this is with a solid black background that I always use for my desktop, along with a plain black screensaver. I get the impression that how much backlight you have may depend somewhat on chance, as it seems to vary from monitor to monitor. When I first turned on the monitor, it was extremely bright. After I first tried out all of their preset brightness/contrast settings (the "Text" setting was my favorite preset, but it was still a bit too bright for my taste), I ended up setting my own custom settings to a very low Brightness of '7' (at night in a darkened room) or '10' to '15' (during the day with subdued natural lighting) with a Contrast setting of '70' - I adjusted my Brightness/Contrast mainly for text clarity and its appearance matched what I was used to on the previous CRT monitor. With these settings, the backlight along the bottom edge was only barely noticeable, and I would have to minimize all windows to just leave the solid black background of my desktop and purposely stare at the bottom edge for a few seconds before it was visible.

The viewing angle is quite narrow. It is totally sufficient for me sitting centered in front of the monitor, but anyone else sitting or standing next to me would see some degree of yellow and blue color bleeding into the far side of the screen.

And not a single bad/dead/stuck pixel to be found. Movies and DVDs play clearly, and with the upgraded graphics card, the 3D rendering on games is great and responsive without any shadowing effects. Overall, I am very impressed with the quality of the monitor. My box had a barcode sticker on it that said "Made in China". Kudos to Samsung's quality control.
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