Samsung SyncMaster 215TW

Using the MagicBright2 pre-sets:

When using the 'text' pre-set mode, the whites turn a mild grey colour, meaning that everything is easy-to-read. Personally, I didn't find this mode all that useful, because I prefer to use a reasonably bright screen - I found the internet mode was more to my personal tastes. That is not to say that others will not find the text mode useful though - text was easy to read, but colours were not very vivid.

When using a TFT monitor, I tend to focus on finding a good all-round display mode and then having a separate configuration for gaming. The internet mode brightens the whites somewhat and I found myself using this mode more than the text mode, even when working in Microsoft Word. This was a pretty good all-round mode, since most of my time is spent browsing the web, using Microsoft Word and PhotoShop CS2.

The gaming and movie modes were good, but I found myself tweaking the pre-sets slightly, depending on the environment I was in. When playing games during the day, the pre-sets were fairly good, but when I fired up F.E.A.R. for a bit of late night gaming in darkness, I found that the screen was a little too bright at times. Of course, this is down to your own personal preference, but I found myself having to lower the brightness and contrast a little in the gaming mode.

On the whole though, the range of pre-sets were good, and should be enough to satisfy most users. If none of the pre-sets fit your personal needs, there is always the option to manually configure the colour saturation, brightness and contrast settings using the custom display mode.

Final Thoughts...

During my time with this monitor, I've grown to love it. Using the screen everyday is a pleasure and despite its size, it is incredibly flexible, thanks to Samsung's excellent array of adjustment and configuration options. Height adjustment, pivot and swivel are functions that are often overlooked by many monitor manufacturers, leaving end users with nothing but a tilt option.

Controlling the MagicBright2 pre-sets is easy and intuitive - there's no need to go into the OSD if you're just wanting to change the screen mode. Of course, there are fine-tune options available in the on-screen display, but there shouldn't be much of a need to use them once you've got the display set up. If I was looking for a widescreen flat panel with a 1680x1050 resolution, I think I'd jump over the pile of 20" monitors and plump for the SyncMaster 215TW.

NEC's MultiSync 20WGX sells for around £410 including VAT, while the SyncMaster 215TW is around £30-50 more, depending on where you purchase from. Having used both screens, I would have to say that the higher price that the 215TW comes with is money well spent. The image quality is slightly better, and the connectivity options are in another league altogether. Probably the only downside to the 215TW is the lack of USB 2.0 connections and if you can live without those, there is no reason to look beyond the SyncMaster 215TW at the moment.