Mudita Journal

Samsung 191T 19″ LCD

June 18, 2003 · Filed under: Personal, Reviews
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Today I ordered a 19-inch Samsung 191T LCD monitor to replace the 14-inch MultiSync LCD I’ve been using for the past five years. Yay!

Samsung began producing the 191T last year, and it quickly established a new standard in LCD monitor performance. See the glowing reviews at PC World and AnandTech, if you’re curious. Samsung has recently come out with a new version, the 192T (recently reviewed at AnandTech as well), which is causing online prices to drop on the previously pricey 191T.

As of this afternoon, the best price was at GoogleGear.com, who set me up with my dream screen at a cool $672, with free two-day shipping. I placed the order after confirming with the friendly lady on the phones that I could swap out the monitor for another of the same model at no charge if there were any annoying dead pixels. Sweet.

I’ll post my impressions after I receive the monitor on Monday.

UPDATE 6/23/03 – It arrived today. Wow, I’m impressed with just how big a 19-inch LCD screen is (about the size of a 21-inch CRT screen). I did a three-color test, as described in the AnandTech article, and there don’t appear to be any bad pixels or sub-pixels. …I’m thrilled!

UPDATE 6/24/03 – Bummer. This morning I noticed that the monitor is making a slight buzzing sound, when it should be completely silent. My home office is quiet enough that it’s a bit annoying, and Samsung confirms that the monitor should be silent, so I’m sending it back to GoogleGear for a replacement. So far, GoogleGear’s customer service has been excellent. I’m going to be out of town on retreat for ten days starting this Thursday, so I’ll post a (hopefully) final report after my return on July 6th.

UPDATE 8/6/03 – It’s been a while since I’ve written on this topic, but I see that five to ten people are coming here each day via Google to get information about the 191t, so I suppose I may as well finish my story….

It turns out that GoogleGear was great about replacing my buzzing monitor. Problem is, though, that the new monitor makes the same low-grade buzzing sound as the old one. After some fiddling, I discovered that the buzz goes away as long as the brightness control is set to higher than 61 (on a 100 point scale). However, I prefer to use my computer at a brightness setting of 40, so this is an inconvenience. The new monitor also has a medium-sized cluster of dark, dead pixels on the far right side of the screen, which I notice infrequently.

But returning a second monitor is more hassle than it’s worth, and overall I’m thrilled with the monitor. However, I wouldn’t object if some Samsung executive came across my comments here and offered to send me a replacement at no charge. …That is, a replacement that doesn’t buzz.

UPDATE 11/6/03 – The buzzing sound was getting to me, so two weeks ago I finally called Samsung and requested a refurbished replacement. I received the replacement today, and it’s perfect. They sent it via UPS 2-day air, and paid for both the shipping of the replacement monitor and the return shipping of my defective monitor. I just did a three-color RGB test, and there are no dead pixels to be found anywhere. And the monitor is completely silent. Three cheers for Samsung! I’m delighted.

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  • http://myweb.cableone.net/luciuszedaker/may1.htm#clear Kenneth Neil

    I have this monitor and I am an Objectivist, how odd. I wrote about it in my blog awhile back. Zero dead pixels which was absolutely amazing, however you need to update the Pivot Pro software if it doesn’t come with the newer version 7.0. I like to surf the web in portrait view as it is more like the page as it was written. With the large screen size it still provides a width that I’m used to seeing. I have already got my sights on the newest 21″ model, which I’ll get when I build the next computer for someone. On the link provided I have the comments on this monitor. Feel free to wander around a bit at the “Intergalactic Capitalist.”

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