LCD monitors keep on dropping in price, and the benefits of having a super-thin monitor are pretty obvious. How well does Samsung's SyncMaster 171N stack up? Read our Australian review.
The 17in SyncMaster 171N offers a decent entry into the world of LCD monitors if you're considering dumping CRT screens altogether. While at AU$1,699 it's not exactly cheap -- you could buy a complete PC with CRT monitor for that price -- it's also not the costliest LCD we've ever seen.
From a specifications standpoint, the 171N clocks in at 1280x1024 at 75Hz. Unlike a lot of newer LCDs, it doesn't support DVI input; you've got to make do with vanilla VGA connectivity.
In our testing we found the 171N to have a perfectly acceptable, but essentially unremarkable picture. As is common with most LCD screens, dark colours can be a little indistinct, although the other common complaint against LCD screens -- poor field of vision -- wasn't a perceptible problem with the review unit we tested.
The 171N's stand allows it to perform two crowd-pleasing tricks. Firstly, it's height-adjustable. While you could simply place -- or stack -- a monitor to a higher position, it's nice to have it as an inbuilt design feature. The mechanism for height adjustment is a bit fiddly, however; it's quite easy to have it fully elongated (or not at all) but balancing it in the midpoint is a little hard to do.
The other trick the 171N's stand allows the monitor to do is rotate 90 degrees clockwise. For the average user, this seems like a mere party trick, but if you're working with certain display applications, the ability to switch from landscape to portrait mode can have distinct benefits.
All of the 171N's display controls are situated at the base of the monitor, and for the most part, they're easy to use. If you're feeling brave, you can simply hit the 'auto' button and accept the settings the monitor picks. Otherwise, it's the usual OSD controlled set of tools for brightness, contrast, position and so on. As with any other LCD monitor, if you're running at under the optimal resolution (1280x1024), you won't be able to stretch the image out to the edges of the remarkably thin bezel.
Samsung pitches this particular LCD range -- which includes larger 18 and 19in models -- as having ultra-thin bezels, partly for style reasons, and also so you could, if needed run several monitors closely together. We had only the one 171N to test, but could see the potential here too. Oddly enough, for a super-thin LCD, the base is quite large. This is partly to accomodate the balance issues that come with a monitor that can telescope up as high as this one does.
Samsung certainly isn't afraid to put its money where its mouth is -- the SyncMaster 171N comes with a three year onsite warranty, which is impressive for an LCD screen. While it won't knock your socks off, the SyncMaster 171N is a solid and dependable LCD monitor at an acceptable price.
Samsung SyncMaster 171N
Company: Samsung Electronics Australia
Price: AU$1599
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 02 9763 9700
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