I’ve been dragging my feet on upgrading my monitor at work. My Samsung 181T TFT was doing its job, and I’ve always thought of it as a good and solid monitor. At home, I’ve been using a variety of Samsung and HP TFT monitors, but they’ve been a bit more modern than the 181T, and apart from Alexander’s 17″ TFT, they’ve been at least 19″.
So it was with some anticipation I unpacked my new monitor, the Samsung Syncmaster 215TW. It’s a wide-style TFT, with a resolution of 1680×1050; which reminds me of a laptop. Although the available screen space, or “real-estate” as some prefer to call it, is upped quite a bit compared to the 181T, the new 215TW doesn’t feel very big. The two major differences I noticed immediately were the improved (lower) response time, and the amazing colors. For they are truly amazing. They are border-line “vivid”, and I’m not too keen on “vivid” when it comes to something I spend at least eight hours in front of almost every day. But Samsung manages the balance, and they do it well.
For anyone looking for a new TFT, I’d recommend giving the 215TW some serious thought. It features the things you need, at an affordable price. It’s by no means the least expensive piece of 21″ TFT you can buy, but it’s worth the money.
The only thing I haven’t tested is the sound. But connecting two small monitor-based speakers to my computer, instead of a real subwoofer and real speakers, isn’t my idea of improving musical listening experiences 🙂