Excellent if you get a good one

With my aging eyes, and doing what I do as a graphic designer, it was time to upgrade from a 17" LCD to something larger. After some research, and finding out what's available locally, I decided on the Samsung 204B. My usual haunt, Best Buy was out of stock, but had an open box 204B for $279, so I thought I'd at least try it. I don't normally buy returned items, but Best Buy sells them with full warranty at a normally good discount with the same return policy as a new item. When I opened the box, I noticed the stand was not connected to the monitor, but having never purchased one, I thought this was standard. I could quickly see that the stand bracket had two hooks at the botom that hooked into two corresponding slots in the monitor back, then held at the top with two screws. I searched the box and plastic containers, and no screws. There was also no DVI cable. Great. I called Best Buy and all they suggested was returning it, which I planned to do the next day. Out of curiosity that evening, I wanted to see the display, so laid it on its back on my desk, hooked it up using the DVI cable from my 17" LG, and it looked good. But something just told me to get a new one, so I returned it a few days later and got a new 204B that had just come in. The new one, which had 20" listed on the box had some dust or something inside the screen that showed up as a blob in anything I was working on, which will drive a graphic designer nuts. So I returned that one, got another one, and when viewing anything white, this one has uneven illumination and a blue cast to the bottom 1/3 of the screen....again, something that will drive a graphic designer crazy. Now I'll be returning this one. I'll tell you one thing... After using a 20" monitor, I'm now spoiled by the size and find myself cursing at my 17" screen!

So, the following will reflect my experiences with the three 204Bs I've had to this point. The open box item had 20.1" on the box, and the other ones I got had 20". Confusing...?....yes. Oh yes, two were made in China, and one in Mexico. More confusion.

In the Box
The monitor and accessories come well packed and protected with foam inserts. You'll get the monitor screen & stand already fastened together, analog cable, DVI cable, power cord, installation CD (includes User Guide, Install Driver, Natural Color Program, MagicTune program, MagicRotation program), warranty.

Appearance and overall Quality
The Samsung 204B is a very simple, clean design with 3/8" black bezel on all sides. The monitor is thin, appears solid, and very well constructed. Sure is heavy!

Setup
As far as getting the monitor fired up and running, for me, using Windows XP, there was no "setup". The monitor and stand come assembled, I simply plugged it in, attached the DVI cable from my LG, and was up and running. The only thing I "set up" is the Rotation program to allow working on magazine pages close up....big time! I'll cover this feature later. The base of the stand is round, and swivels for easy viewing adjustment. The screen sits quite a bit higher off the desk than my LG, which I kept low. At its lowest point, the bottom of the 204B’s screen sits about 4.25” from whatever you place it on, so it took some getting used to.

A removable pin, similar to a cotter pin located on the back of the stand's neck, locks the screen in place for transport.

One thing I will mention here is you’ll get better image quality using DVI, which I've found basically true for any monitor with DVI capability. The power cord and cable are connected to the bottom of the screen and visibly hang down, unless you use the “cable ring” provided at the back of the stand. The ring is slotted at the top to allow the cables to be run through the ring, keeping them out of sight. This feature works fine until you rotate the screen vertically, which requires more length of cable to accommodate the rotation (connections moving up from bottom to center left). So when rotating, be sure the cables aren’t bound or obstructed. And when rotating back to horizontal, you’ll have to readjust the cables. Kind of a pain, but I don’t use the rotation feature a lot anyway.

Image Quality
This is what any monitor is all about, and although the 204B’s overall image quality is quite good with regard to sharpness and color reproduction, in the two new units I've had, especially in the second unit, I've found overall screen illumination to be a bit uneven, with the most recent unit displaying a slight blue cast across the bottom 1/3 of the screen. The very top of the screen is a warm tone of white, the middle neutral, and the bottom cool. At least the original open box unit I had displayed a nice, evenly illuminated white screen when I held it upright on my deask where it would normally sit (I was thinking I should have kept it and found some screws). One would naturally consider room lighting as a possible cause, however, my 17" LG 1720P has perfectly even illumination when sitting in the same place on my desk. I also considered the fact that the screen is larger, meaning a larger overall viewing angle from my eye position to the top and bottom of the screen than with the 17", but I don't think that's the problem. Besides, as you'll read later on, I got another 204B, and it's fine.

One thing you will immediately notice is that the screen is a dark blue instead of black when displaying the screen saver, or if there's no image on the screen. At first, I was a bit concerned about this, but it doesn't seem to affect the graphic images in my work. In graphic images, page layout, etc, blacks are black with no blue tint, and colors in general appear accurate. Just something to get used to.

Controls and Adjustments
The 204B has enough controls to fine tune the image to suit most people’s taste (assuming screen illumination is ok to begin with, and there are no color casts). Located on the bottom right bezel are MENU, MagicColor/Downward scroll, Brightness/Upward scroll, Source/Select, Auto, and Power buttons. Pressing the Menu button will access Picture, consisting of Brightness and Contrast with settings from 0 to 100; Color, consisting of Color Tone, Color Control, and Gamma. Color tones are Cool, Normal, Warm, and Custom. Color Controls are RGB, and Gamma provides three modes. Next is Image, which includes Coarse (only available with analog connection), Fine (only available with analog connection), Sharpness (available with either analog or digital connections), H-Position (only available with analog connection), and V-Position (only available with analog connection) adjustments. Next is OSD, including Language, H-Positiion, V-Position, Transparency, and Display Time. Next is Setup, consisting of Auto Source, Image Reset, and Color Reset. Finally, Information gives you the current Source, Hz, and Resolution settings. Pressing the MagicColor/Downward scroll button will access the image presets: Custom, Text, Internet, Game, Sport, and Movie. Not as many as my on LG, and the presets on my LG seem more useful. Pressing the Brightness button provides quick access to adjusting Brightness. Pressing the Auto button will automatically adjust the screen positioning, but this feature only works when using the analog connection.

Screen Rotation. The 204B is capable of rotating clockwise to a vertical position, and using the included software, images can be easily rotated 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees to accommodate your needs. Rotation can be helpful in some instances. After loading the software, I found this function to work well. However, when viewing the screen straight-on, I noticed a definite darkening of the right half. Could be the position of the overhead room light in relation to the screen…I don’t know. So I have to angle the left side away from me to produce an even screen lighting. Also, when I first started grabbing the screen in both hands to rotate back to a horizontal position, my hands would naturally grab for the bottom edges…and my left hand would always hit one of the control buttons and change a setting! So I’ve had to adjust the way I grab the screen to rotate it back to its horizontal position. Be sure to raise the screen to its highest point before rotating, or the bottom left corner will hit the desk or whatever it’s sitting on.

Bottom Line
The relatively inexpensive Samsung 204B produces extremely sharp text, nice graphic images, and good, accurate color...and it's fast for gaming. However, it would seem Samsung's quality control is lacking in some areas, such as uniform screen illumination, color casting, and debris inside the screen...at least from what I've seen in these new monitors with the 20" designation on the box. It's taken me four monitors to get what I consider a good one (see update below).

UPDATE
Well, I returned the third 204B and decided to try another one (basically because there just aren't any other 20" monitors available locally with these specs), and here's the deal. I got the last two at Best Buy, so went to CompUSA, who had a couple in stock. The manager at CompUSA did some tracking, and there seems to definitely be two different monitors, both listed as 204B, but one is designated 20", and the other, 20.1". Even the CompUSA manager was extremely confused and scratching his head....because they both come in boxes labeled 20". I've had three made in China, and one made in Mexico. It seems the 20.1" monitor has only two screws holding the stand bracket to the monitor, and is made in China. The 20", the one made in Mexico, had 4 screws holding the bracket. From what I've seen, the 20.1" has the better overall image. The one I just got (20.1") is very good, with no problems (thank God)... Razor sharp with excellent color and even illumination. So there are good ones are out there. You just have to find one. When I can break free from my work load, I'm going to contact Samsung directly and find out what the deal is with two different monitors designated 204B. When or if I find something out, I'll report back.

I can recommend this monitor if you don't mind having to possibly try out a couple to get a good one. I'll have to admit, the display on the one I have now (#4) is excellent, so it was worth returning the others. I've compared the screen display to each page of the color magazine I work for, which was just printed, and it's amazing how close the color/contrast of the pages on-screen in Pagemaker are to the actual printed publication. Colors are amazingly accurate...which is what I need for my work. So I'm happy.

UPDATE 7/28/07
Approcahing a year and this monitor has been great. I've used it for laying out several magazines and other printed material in my graphic design business and the 204B provides consistent, accurate color and is sharp as a tack. I can depend on the final product to look pretty much like what I'm seeing on-screen and that's exactly what I need.

UPDATE 2/25/08
Well, unfortunately this monitor failed the other day. I made it a practice to always turn it off each evening which is generally recommended to help save the backlight, but didn't seem to help because it's the backlight that's failed. It's simply dead. Less than two years service is unacceptable and naturally, the warranty is only 1 year. It'll make a good paper weight and it's good thing I can write it off to my business. Not really wanting another Samsung, I tried a few other monitors (now all you can get is widescreen) and soon discovered Samsung has the best quality display and color for what I do, so ended up getting a 245BW 24" and it's nothing short of incredible. I was told to not only turn it off every evening, but also whenever I'm away from it for lunch, dinner, etc. So we'll see how this one fares. I'll be writing a review after using it for a while.

Specs
Size: 20.1" Diagonal (51 cm)
Display area: 408 mm (H) x 306 mm (V)
Pixel Pitch: 0.255 mm (H) x 0.255 mm (V)
Type: a-si TFT/TN
Horizontal Sync: 30 ~ 81 kHz
Vertical Sync: 56 ~ 75 Hz
Display Colors: 16.7 Mil Colors
Optimum Resolution: 1600 x 1200 @60Hz
Max Resolution: 1600 x 1200 @ 60Hz
Max Pixel Clock: 162 MHz (Analog/Digital)
Input Signal, Terminated: RGB Analog, DVI(Digital Visual Interface) Compliant Digital RGB
0.7Vp-p ± 5% positive bright 75Ù ± 10 % (terminated)
Power Supply: AC 100 ~ 240 VAC(±10%), 60/50 Hz ± 3 Hz
Signal Code: 15pin-to-15pin D-sub cable, detachable, 1.8 m
DVI-D to DVI-D connector, detachable, 2.0 m (option)
Power Consumption: Less than 50 W(Analog/Digital)
Dimensions/Weight: 444 X 200 X 427.6 mm / 17.5 X 7.9 X 16.8 inch (with Stand)/ 7.7 kg (16.9 lbs)