Samsung SyncMaster 173P 17" LCD Monitor (Silver) Product Description:
- 1,280 x 1,024 maximum resolution, 0.264 mm dot pitch
- Supports DVI digital and VGA analog input signals
- 178-degree horizontal and vertical viewing angles
- 270 cd/m2 of brightness, 700:1 contrast ratio, 25 ms response time
- Includes VESA wall bracket; PC/Mac; 3-year warranty
Product Description
Samsung Syncmaster 173P is a 17" color LCD monitor display that works with Windows PC and Macintosh computers. With a superlative 700:1 contrast ratio and advanced software-based customization, this monitor can be set up to meet the needs of business, home, imaging, and even rigorous gaming applications. Fast 25 millisecond response time making it suitable for many multimedia-driven applications such as gaming, animation and viewing video on the Internet Pivot software by Portrait Displays enables switching between portrait and landscape viewing. With Pivot, users have full-page viewing capabilities of 8-1/2 x 11 or A4 documents without having to scroll Includes table stand Color - Silver
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Worth the money
By Jeff Loomis
I wanted an LCD with top image quality for precise photo editing, as well as general use. The 173P was above average in price, but the image quality is outstanding. I use the DVI input at the native resolution of 1280x1024 and it looks great. In my opinion, the image quality is the best of any monitor I have seen. Contrast, color, and angle of view are all excellent.
I was worried about color and tonal accuracy when editing my images because many serious photographers recommend against LCD monitors for photo editing. These "experts" must be behind the times because my images on the 173P come the closest I have experienced to looking at my original slides on a light table. I calibrated with an eye-one display calibrator, but even before calibration I would rate the color accuracy as excellent.
I also use this monitor for text and gaming. Text looks great and is very readable, especially using ClearType on Windows XP. When gaming, I don't see any visible ghosting or other motion artifacts, so the response time must be adequate.
As you can tell, I am extremely satisfied with this purchase. I'm a picky buyer and usually have some nits to pick with almost anything I buy, but after 2 months of use I am 100% satisfied with this monitor. Not only does the image on the screen look great, the monitor itself has a very elegant design. It looks clean and simple and has a great range of position and angle adjustments. My 173P doesn't have a single bad pixel. You can get a cheaper LCD if you only want to use it for text, but if you want the best, you won't be disappointed with this one.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.BAD A$$ MONITOR!
By Dude
I just replaced a 19" Sony Trinitron CRT with this monitor and my only regret is that I didn't go Digital LCD sooner! What a difference! As sharp as the Trinitron is, this Samsung will eat it for breakfast....and here is the reasons why- Eye Strain- Goodbye eye strain! Flicker free images....no glare...nice sharp text and edges. Colors- The reds are red and the blacks are black and the whites are BRIGHT!...no bleeding or faded colors. I work extensively with Photoshop and Illustrator....The colors are true and crisp with this monitor and this is the big issue that keeps most graphics designers from going to LCD.. well, this and price. Believe me, this monitor is worth every penny and the colors are more vivid than you'll ever get from a CRT. Functionality- This baby can be tilted and turned in uncountable positions. You can actually tilt the screen 90 degrees to view the display on it's vertically longer side... the included Pivot Pro software will flip the text and images on the screen for you....this is great for MS Word, surfing the net and etc.. because you don't have to scroll as much. Adjustments- The feature that makes this LCD so user friendly is the feature that it lacks...buttons! There is a power-on button and that's it...everything is controlled with the included Magic Tune software...No More clumsy menus! The software is a breeze to use and your results come much quicker than with the typical button layout found on other monitors. One cool thing about the included software is that it has a color calibration feature so that what you see on the screen is what you get when you print to paper. This is great for anyone that uses Photoshop or similiar image editing software because "What you see is what you get"... software like this is fairly expensive if you had to purchase by itself. Digital- If you use the DVI output on this monitor all you need to do is plug it in and adjust the contrast, resolution, and brightness...color adjustment is spot-on with no adjustment necessary when you go digital. Have I mentioned brightness?....this LCD can be adjusted to be very BRIGHT! Reputation and Warranty- The 173P was voted best 17" LCD by Ziff Davis (www.zdnet.com) and CNet.com. Read the reviews and you'll soon see why this bad boy is untouchable. You get a great 3 year warranty with this monitor, and if you fill out the registration and send it in within 10 days of the purchase date you'll get an extra 3 months added to the warranty. It's packaged very nicely and comes with all the necessary cables and software to have you up and running in a few minutes time. Just be sure to go to the control panel (Windows OS) and adjust the resolution to 1280 x 1024 (native LCD resolution). I do have one gripe about the resolution. I'm used to using 1024 x 768 on a 19" CRT....going to 1280 x 1024 does make the icons and text a little smaller, but it's still well worth it! I'm slowly adjusting to this and I almost prefer this resolution over the other now. You can use this LCD in whatever resolution you want but you'll notice a big difference if it's not set to the recommended 1280 x 1024. That about sums it up. If you're weighing cost vs. quality then you're wasting your time. This monitor is worth it. You can keep my Sony Trinitron and 10 others just like it for the 173P...there's no comparison and this is the BEST 17" out there!
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.Beautiful, but beware the software-only OSD
By Nathan L. Kugland
I recently purchased two of the 173P displays for use in a dual-monitor setup. They are truly gorgeous, with respect to both image quality and exterior fit and finish.Unfortunately, Samsung's choice of the MagicTune software instead of a true hardware-based On-Screen-Display can be problematic. In my case, I wanted to calibrate the displays using my EyeOne system. Now, the first step in any good color calibration process is to accurately set the white point. I expected to use MagicTune to accomplish this, but found it sorely lacking. With a DVI-powered 173P I got no white point control--there was just nothing to click, a blank spot in the interface! Portrait Displays, the vendor that makes Display Tune (the software OSD rebranded by Samsung as MagicTune) says on their support site that "[the white point] sub menu may not function if you are using the digital connection of your graphics card and monitor".(Update: 2004-12-17)I finally got everything calibrated after using a DVI to VGA adapter to run both displays in analog mode. That enabled color controls for both monitors, so I could set the white point and calibrate as usual. Nevertheless, I was very disappointed that I was effectively unable to use my new monitors with DVI.I emailed Portrait Displays tech support, and they claimed that the reason color options are limited when running via DVI is that the 173P does not fully support DDC/CI (the VESA standard used to communicate the settings to the monitor) over DVI. Bummer!Some googling indicated that NEC/Mitsubishi may have a more robust software-only OSD solution. Their NaViSet program is advertised as working over DVI and VGA, on both Windows, OS X, and OS 9. (I have no personal experience with this product.) It might be worth considering an NEC or Mitsubishi monitor instead of the 173P if you want better compatibility with DVI or the Mac. However, the 173P gives beautiful (although untunable) images with Linux and the Mac after auto-adjustment, which is done by holding down the monitor's power on button for a few seconds.In spite of my ordeal, I really love the 173P and am satisfied. MagicTune is great when it works, but there are some significant shortcomings with the 173P that are not well documented by Samsung.(NB: my primary system runs Windows XP w/ a Radeon 9600XT)
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