Monitor Reviews

An unfortunately case of stylish monitor is no better than its vanity looks. Seven dead pixels on arrival, unresponsive controls, washed out colors (and no black!), and an general feeling of cheapness. Definitely stay away if you make a living as a graphic artist.

I purchased a model that is very similar to this one....it's the 171v. I'm new to flat screen LCD monitors so I'm not into all of the techno-hype. I just know I love this monitor! The clarity is unreal. It replaced a "regular" 17" monitor and it's very nice how true the measurements are when you switch to this type of monitor. I can't tell you how easy it is to use while adjusting, but I can say it was easy to install. I just plugged it in.

One note...change the size of your display to make it clearer. When it's as large as it was during the "default" stage, it was blurry and I was concerned. That simple adjustment made my swimming fish a bit more clear.

I work all day in front of my PC, mainly web surfing, XL and Word to write books and reports. It is especially important when I work that I can see two pages "side by side" and "read" as if using sheet paper. I am not a games player.

I noticed with my classic CRT monitor that
1/ my eyes were itching and watering
2/ I was "hunching forward" to read and getting a stiff neck
3/ I was getting frequent headaches.

The Samsung solved all these problems. I can now work all day without discomfort or itchy eyes. It is also helpful when manipulating several windows (XL and word, or word and a photo editor). Not to mention the reclaimed real estate on my desk. Pricewise, it's the best for my needs as I don't need bells and whistles.

If you are a home office worker, this is the monitor for you!

Based on the description by Amazon.com:
-Assembly-free design with contoured wraparound frame

I thought they were selling 3M model AF250XL. But it turned out to be the cheaper version BF20XL.Basically they shipped me a lemon. I am sending it back.

If they want to be straight,why can't amazon put the manufacturers model number on the desciption. Do you smell something here?

Siva

This simple filter works as it should be. Although it doesn't look fancy, the filter is great and prevent the radiation to go directly into your eyes. At the same time, it provides even more vivid picture than before. You can feel immediately the difference using this filter.

It's a little ugly I admit and looks not like a new one - because of its color. The assembly is simple but robust. Only two bars on top of it but it stand firmly without any sticker. Good design that allow you to remove easily but you don't need to worry about it will drop.

For health and comfort reason, I think this antiradiation filter is very important for people who have prolong exposure to their computer monitor. Before I bought this filter, I used to get red eyes, but now they are all gone. ;)

I just got this monitor, and it looks great. I managed to find it for a great price, but it doesn't strike me as a low-quality item. It has digital input as well as analog, it looks great, and seems sturdy. I hesitate to give it 5 stars for 2 reasons:
1) I have no idea about reliability.
2) I am far from an LCD expert.
That said, I'm very satisfied with my purchase so far, and am looking forward to years of staring at it.
I use mine for watching movies, reading lots of text, and that's about it, so I can't speak for the monitor's value for gaming. Your mileage may vary.
Looks like it might be out of production, but if you can hunt it down I would recommend this monitor.

I've owned my KDS RAD-9 LCD monitor for about six months and am still very pleased with it. I've been very happy with the picture quality, reliability and stylish looks of this monitor. In using it to replace my 21" CRT, I've gained a ton of desk space, plus I don't feel I've lost any screen real estate.

One of the reasons I was willing to go with a KDS LCD monitor is that I had purchased the KDS RAD-7 for my boyfriend for Christmas in 2001. It was a bargain at [$$](excellent at that time), has a great screen and has been trouble-free for the year+ that he's had it.

Neither our RAD-7, nor our RAD-9 has a single blown pixel, which I also find impressive.

I have only two, relatively minor criticism for the RAD-9. One is that you cannot adjust the height that the screen rises above the base. At 5'2" I'm not very tall, and my computer desk has an unremovable monitor riser, so I had to increase my chair height in order to view the monitor from an ergonomic angle.

The other issue is the cable management "door" on the back of the monitor. While it's great that they made an effort to beautify the back of the monitor, it is rather flimsy and can be a bit of a pain to attach. Still, I consider these two issues a small price to pay for the enjoyment I get from this monitor.

As to the person who complained about the quality of the image, it is possible they weren't using the native resolution of the monitor - that would degrade the image quality to some degree on ANY LCD monitor. Based on my experiences with the RAD-9 and RAD-7 monitors, I personally would not hesitate to buy a KDS RAD series LCD monitor in the future.

I've had this monitor for several months now and am still amazed that such a good display was relatively cheap. Tons of screen space. Just tried the DisplayMate demo from PC Mag. It's clean and perfectly aligned (I'm using the digital input with Radeon VE graphics card). No dead / on pixels. Just wish the bezel was black instead of silver ...

I was quite disappointed by the picture quality on this monitor. It was better than my elderly CRT monitor, but nowhere near as crisp as the LCD display on my HP laptop. Also, one of the navigation buttons on the front display was inoperable.

The viewing angle, adjustability, and overall form factor of this monitor was very nice. It's a shame the most important part -- the screen itself -- was so unsatisfactory.

It looks like the price has gone up since I got it, so it might not be the same value that it was previously. But the quality is definitely decent.

As I've seen people recommend for other LCDs, you should run this monitor in the native 1280x1024. Otherwise, pixel interpolation will blur the text. If you are using the monitor to play video games, they will almost certainly run at a lower resolution, and thus be interpolated. But interpolation is fine for graphics and video games. It hurts the eyes to look at the interpolation for text, however.

Some people may not want to run at the full 1280x1024, since it makes window widgets and text tiny. So these people will have to settle with interpolation, which make be even worse.

Another person mentioned damage upon arrival of the monitor. I've had no such problem.

The install instructions are skimpy. I'm using this monitor under Linux and I was suprised to find a Linux section in the installation guide. But it was little help. In fact, the technical specification could not be found among the documentation, and I had to go back to Amazon to figure out, i.e., what the horizontal and vertical refresh ranges were so that X11R6 could find the optimal refresh rate of 76Hz.

Interestingly, the box claims compatibility with Macintosh and Solaris, but I definitely haven't tested this for either.

Going from a CRT, I immediately have relief from the flickering that is inherent to CRTs. But my eyes will still have to get used to this monitor.

with so low price, i can not believe that I can buy so good an LCD. it is so worth it. very clear and crisp. the viewable screen is wide.easy to set up.The Autoadjust fuction makes it very easy to set the LCD to it best performance.The only problem i can find now is that some times during screen saver, it becomes blank,just leaving some lines on the screen, without any other images.I do not know why.but if you use autoadjust fucntion, it becomes Ok instantly.

My Sony 520's have the shakes too. I've had four of them in my lab and they're terrible. Text and vertical lines appear to squirm, it is extremely unpleasant. I tried everything to cure the problem, I made sure there were no other electronics near the monitors, downloaded the latest drivers, ran on UPS, moved to another building, nothing worked.

I managed to return two of them before and Sony is working on a pro-rated buyback for me, so that's good. I don't understand how these monitors can have this problem!!! They're all used on brand new computers with four different video cards (the better the card, the worse the problem!). Including GeForce4Ti4600, GeForce4Ti4200 and Radeon9500pro.

I'm going to go to LCD's from now on, or another brand if I want the big screen for much lower price (20" LCD's are still cost prohibative).

After 3 different units, I have not been able to get one that doesn't have a slight shake. For three months I've sent units back to Sony 4 times, with no satisfaction.

I have three other monitors in the same room, a samsung, a princeton, and a smaller sony, and they are all rock-solid. What does it say about the quality of this...unit if it shakes, sometimes a lot, when these $[money] models from other manufacturers function perfectly.

Sony has told me they are "finished" with me, as it must be my problem, not their equipment. I feel that they should stand behind their stuff, as it didn't work correctly ou of the box. Some were worse than others, and the last one only shakes a little, but still, it's a $[money] piece of equipment!!!

I returned the first unit, one day after I got it, to their local [Boston] repair site, and got back a REFURBISHED unit, which was not only against their own stated policy, but illegal in Massachusetts, and probably other states.

After talking to innumerable people, Scott Lake, the supervisor, decided that Sony was not going to really stand behind their product, and informed me that they would not attempt to find the problem, replace the unit again, or refund my money, as I believe the law in Mass says they have to. I informed him that I was a totally disabled veteran, and this would be a terrible hardship for me, but I was told, basically, to buzz off.

I'm sure that many people are very satisified with SONY stuff, as I was with my GDM 2038...but when you are the unlucky one, you could end up with an eye-bender like this one, and an eye-opening service experience like this one too... almost 3 months of waiting, moving, repacking and reshipping... trying hard to solve the problem, and to be treated like this yeech.... SONY should be ashamed...

When I try to sell it, I'll take a $[money] hit off the top because it is "refurbished" rather than a new replacement.

This is just a word to the wise. The shine is off the SONY star for me.

I think that Small Claims Court is my next stop.

Great Monitor, crystal clear, for drafting / gaming / multi-tasking its a must. Dual input is usefull if you are running two machines, such as a desktop and a server, you can switch back and forth by a simple switch, on the front of the monitor, unlike some other brands.

This is a very modern LCD monitor. It works well. But one thing i dont like is that it must produce A LOT of radiation, because every time ive used it i have felt sick afterwards. Ive also felt like the skin on my face, and tops of arms and hands are slightly burnt after using the monitor. The fact that the monitor is making me sick, is causing me to look for another monitor now. Preferably one with less radiation output. Ive noticed a decrease in my health since using the monitor. This may not be the case for all people, but it is for me.

I bought this monitor about a month ago. This was to be used in a multiple station office setup. I wouldnt recommend this monitor to any one that wants a quality monitor. First, lets talk about refresh rates. At 30 m/s its slow for such an overpriced monitor. Also the setup controls make it difficult to tweak. Also image quality isnt spectacular, they tend to be blotchy and you miss much detail. I have also noticed that the reflective black trim is made out of low quality materials and tends to collect more finger prints than the local police station. The screen also tends to get warmer that it should. And finally the the power supply tends to make a humming noise (its a standard in all of them, I own 5. One for each of my office workstations). To sum it all up, its a too expensive to be worthy of buying and you are simply paying is the Sony name. There are many monitors out there that are worthy of buying at lower prices and better warranty's. Also, the warranty doesnt cover less than 8 burnt pixels. Sony says that less than eight burnt pixels is considered normal wear and tear. I hope this helps!

This display is great. Wanting a small LCD to use alongside my 18" model, I compared every monitor under 16" in several large stores (I even considered the cute and low-priced 14" Mag, but its image, color, and viewing angle are mediocre or worse). The Sony SDM-HS53 seemed clearly best (my target use is desktop applications including document and web design).

This was strongly confirmed at home. Using this Amazon page as a test image on my 18" NEC Multisync (which I quite like), I zoomed out on the HTML image so that the font size was just below a legible size. I then viewed the same image on the 15" Sony. The type was of course noticably smaller (physically, not in pixle dimensions), but it was also noticably more legible from the same distance. Impressive.

The Sony also had a warrentee period at LEAST three times longer than any other model I saw.

Though a minor issue, I'm not a great fan of the slightly silly swooping style of the support base, but unless you look at the monitor from below the middle of the screen (almost in the plane of the base plate) you scarcely notice it. It seemed more prominent in stores when displayed on a counter or shelf at standing eye level, and it's fine at desk height at home. The unenlarged image on the Amazon pages gets the home look about right. If you enlarge it you can see the sillier appearance when viewed from a low angle. Boy, this is really picky (and besides, other people may love the look).

One other reviewer here strangely complains about a warm screen. Well, as with any LCD, some FRACTION of the 25 watts max power consumption will show up as warmth, but who buys an LCD monitor as a pillow (or pokes the screen to enhance smudges)? As to the "radiation" concern of another reviewer, this seems to involve both confusion with CRT displays and a lively imagination. HARMFUL radiation is a non-issue with LCDs. VISIBLE radiation is what displaying an image is all about.

Got my VG150 last week, Worked great with windows XP out of the box. The updated driver from Viewsonics Website did not load properly so I chose to ignore it with no problems. Easy on the eyes and easy to use

I have been very happy with this Viewsonic LCD. So when upgraded to a 17" I bought a Viewsonic (VG721) again. This LCD has no dead pixel, the text and pictures look crisp, its cool on the eyes but yet sufficiently bright. I have had no problems with it. However I did not find the colorific software that came along with the LCD very useful.

One of the reason why I switched from CRT to LCD is the size. This one is a 1/4th the size of my previous monitor (thickness). So I have more room to put my keyboard and any other stuff infront of this monitor. Doesn't run hot like CRT monitors. Easy on the eyes. Plus it looks classy and refined.