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First off, I must compliment the ability to rotate the screen 90 degrees in both directions and it’s very easy to do this and the feedback is very smooth as well, this I haven’t seen in any product thus far. You may think that this is just a rather “interesting but not useful” feature, but when you think about it, some applications you wish that the screen was in portrait view so you could see more since in landscape view you always end up with excess space on one end anyways when you don’t need to have two windows side by side. The Samsung 171P comes with software so that you can switch the screen from landscape to portrait quite easily. To graphic artists, this can be very useful as you can see more of the page without shrinking the image, and even to developers so you can see more code at once. The 171P also comes with a handle at the back to easily carry the unit but also to adjust the height of the screen and to tilt the vertical angle of the screen as well. Another very nice design feature is that the cords are all concealed by the stand. This is possible since the wires are attached to the base at the back, so you only have to plug them into your computer and not have to plug them in the awkward and hard to reach place right behind the screen like most other LCDs in the market. There are also two video output connectors, one for analog and one for digital. Now, when you compare this to a lot of other LCDs out there, you will see that most of those units will have some of these features, but not all the ones that the 171P has. Also, in terms of aesthetics alone, the Apple Studio Cinema displays are arguably better looking, but don’t even come close in the functionality that the 171P offers like portrait/landscape view and height adjustable screen.

What Does It Offer Other Than Looks?

First, lets take a look at the specifications that come with the Samsung 171P TFT LCD.

Specifications

These specifications for the 171P are quite extraordinary, but then again specifications are just what the manufacturers want you to see. You never really know how good or bad it is until you see it for yourself and use it for an extended period of time. First off, the specification that seemed most attractive was the contrast ratio of 500:1. Most LCDs do not have such a high contrast ratio and actually you can tell the difference. This is definitely an exceptional display with crisp, clear images and text. The color reproductions are very good with distinguishable lights on lights and darks on darks. There is minimal ghosting of text and images with a decent 25ms pixel-response rate. Ghosting was a problem with older LCD displays, but this has improved significantly over the years that now the response rate has improved to a point where most users would not notice the effect. Another old problem was how black the blacks were on screen. Blacks in the old days were more like dark grays, but as you can see in the Samsung 171P, blacks are finally black. Well, it should be noted that many products now have this quality as well but I found the blacks to be good on the 171P. The viewing angles on this display are adequate and can be easily viewed by several people at the same time, though I usually don’t feel this is that big of a deal most of the time. Viewing high quality images on the display resulted in very nice images with decent shading qualities, instead of some lower quality displays that are hard to distinguish similar shades so the images become somewhat blurry and less crisp. Text was very crisp even for small text sizes and when I tried light text on dark background or dark text on light backgrounds, all of these combinations resulted in very adequate results.

Final Impressions

Now that I have used the Samsung 171P for some time, I find it hard to have to return it. Of course I could go out and pay for a brand new one for myself, but the price tag is somewhat high at $900 USD. Well, that’s not to say that this LCD display is not worth the price tag because it does offer a lot of features, and a nice combination of style and function that makes this LCD so appealing. You can proudly position this display in your work area or office and may even compel you to actually clean up your workstation to match this LCD display. I must emphasize that this display is very nice to look at in several ways. First, the design and style of this LCD makes it appealing to look at as a fixture in your office or home, but secondly, and more importantly, the display quality of the Samsung 171P is exceptional. Combine that with the functional capabilities of the rotating display, adjustable height, concealed wiring, and a slot for safely locking this display to your desk, and you have a LCD display that has the best of both worlds.

Overall Score: 90%

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