Gaming: and the winner is…the Iiyama E2201W
If first and foremost you are a gamer, reactivity is your first concern. Comfort in this area on good 2 ms monitors is significantly superior to a 5 ms model as any test in clone mode will show. This is even more important if your previous screen was a CRT. In terms of afterglow, 2 ms LCDs are the only monitors on which the transition to this type of technology will be the least felt if at all. On the other hand, what could be bothersome is the limit on the image rate. CRTs are free in this domain when LCDs are at 60 Hz or 60 images per second. Some monitors lead us to believe they function at 75 Hz. All that we have tested maintain this speed for 5/6 images and then skip the following one. In the end, we have an irregular rate and remain at speed of around 60 images per second.
Another issue that could arise, particularly on this Iiyama and (we’ve heard from some users) the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, is related to Samsung 2 ms panels. It’s imperfect color homogeneity and is a recent problem only noticeable on some monitors. More specifically, viewing angles are smaller than usual and the slightest move can play on perceived brightness and colors. In our opinion, this isn’t related to a backlighting problem or the Mura effect. We more think it’s a defect related to the quality of the filter applied to the panel. There is already an entire article devoted to this on our site:
Panels that are produced too economically? . Games can be affected, however, it’s more critical when touching up images.
As for this screen’s colors, as we said previously, there could have been better pre-settings. But with a few manual adjustments : brightness of 79, contrast at 30, red at 94, green 91, and blue at 98 ; the average difference is reduced to 3.6 with a noticeable visual improvement.
Ergonomics : they are basic with a fixed base, no card reader or USB hub. On the other hand, we have the choice between analog or digital connectivity with HDCP support on the DVI input.
This brings us to the question: for gaming what should we choose, the Samsung SyncMaster 226BW S series (if you can find one) or this Iiyama? Already from the number of messages posted on our forum, the 226BW S seems also to be affected by narrow viewing angles resembling a homogeneity problem. This wasn’t picked up by our sensor ; however, it would only seem logical that Samsung screens are affected by the same problem because they have identical panels. The only difference we found were in preset colors for which Samsung’s are better.
So on the one side we have:
the Iiyama with a Samsung panel, whose colors have to be manually adjusted.
and the Samsung on the other, which has several panel versions, of which some should be abandoned. We did prefer its design.
But in the end, we have to pick the Iiyama because it’s just too much trouble to have to verify panel version on the Samsung !
