Samsung SyncMaster 172X 17" LCD Flat Panel Display

Company: Samsung
Product: 172X Silver
Street Price: N/A
Date Reviewed: November 13, 2003
Reviewed By: Rob Parks

Samsung 172X Testing:

For our testing procedure we set the desktop color to solid black and white to see if there are any pixels that will not turn off, and therefore will show as either white or a primary color (RGB). When desktop color is set to white to see if any pixels are dead, this will show up as a black dot in the white screen. We also played a few rounds of Halo, Unreal2 and Midnight Club 2 to test the gaming performance of this display.

Excellent results here with the 172X. This is the second LCD from Samsung that we have tested, and neither had any pixels that could be picked up as dead. Very nice indeed. This is unheard of with most LCD screens. Most have at least one dead pixel that is visible in either the black or white screen tests. Every time we thought we found a dead pixel it turned out to be a spec of dust or fuzz.

Testing out the gaming performance was very impressive. Running at 1280x1024 there was little to no ghosting or tearing during Halo or Unreal2. With a native resolution of 1280x1024 it is easy to play games on. The ability to up to 75Hz at 1280x1024 helps the SyncMaster172X during the fast screen redrawing required in a gaming environment. Even after many hours of Halo CTF game play is excellent. It is very surprising that this LCD handles games so well as many do not.

With Midnight Club 2 the we found much of the same. The ghosting and tearing were pretty much non existent. In fact I would hazard to say that I did not even notice any while playing. The ghosting that appears in the picture is due to the rather slow shutter speed required to take the images without a flash. This game is much darker than Unreal2 and game play is very fluid and less jerky. The colors were exceptional and the contrast made the game look that much more real. With 4x anti-aliasing, 16x Anisotropic filtering accompanied by the SyncMaster 172X makes for a very enjoyable playing experience. You almost expect to hear sirens and see the flashing colored lights behind you.