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Porsche. Does that attract your attention? Well, to many, just the name will perk heads. Samsung’s new 171P 17” TFT LCD monitor designed by F.A. Porsche Designs will definitely appeal to many people. So, you may be asking whether it really makes a difference to have a product designed by a professional design team that incorporates style, fashion, and usability. Well, that decision will ultimately be up to the user to decide, but one thing is for sure, this is one of the best-looking LCDs that I have seen and reviewed. Samsung’s other product, the 151MP and 171MP are other very stylish LCDs but what the 171P offers is a much better combination of style and function. In many ways, this display rivals the Apple Cinema Displays in style, but wins head on when you combine the features and functions that the Samsung 171P can do that the Cinema Displays are incapable of. However, Apple’s products are not direct competitors to the 171P, there are many very good competing products from Sony, Philips, LG, NEC, and Viewsonic, among others. Therefore, style alone does not merit a good product but is definitely a major factor in purchasing a product nowadays.

Fashion vs. Function

Back in the day when all computer cases and monitors came in beige or dull gray, there wasn’t much to choose from in terms of style, but then again function and performance were the main issues at hand. Today, with stylish designs and a plethora of features, the decision making process is much more complicated and often extremely confusing. Often times the features and the quality are so similar that it just comes down to which brand the consumer prefers. Now to many people today, because so many products are very similar, the design and the style of the unit becomes a very important factor in purchasing. Quite simply, you would like to have a good-looking unit rather than some ugly one.

The Samsung 171P doesn’t disappoint those who are looking for something that will appeal to their senses. In many ways, it’s actually just a simple design, with a metallic gray color encasing accented with a black button and status bar. It sports a square design, thin profile with minimal but clean lines. The button and status bar are very nicely designed. The power button is concave in shape with the outer rim of the button lighted from behind giving a nice effect when it’s powered on and blinking during standby. The status or functional bar is completely black when the LCD is not turned on and when it is lighted it has a nice backlit effect as well. Furthermore, the status bar is touch-sensitive and brings up the onscreen menu and other standard controls. These touch sensitive controls are similar to Samsung’s MP line, except with the 171P, there are no buttons to press on so it can be deceiving at first. So, after raving about the design of the Samsung 171P, we must consider whether all the money was spent on the design or does its functionality and quality match its style.

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