Samsung 172T Reviewed + The Future of Samsung

Conclusion

The 172T was everything we expected from Samsung, and maybe a little more.  There were very few faults we could find with the 172T, which we found almost shocking.  After the last few monitors we looked at, it was a little unexpected to have so few negative points about a product.  However, we would like to see a lower response time on the monitor, but we may have to wait another revision for that to happen.  Another unfortunate disappointment in the Samsung 172T is the price.  Right now the street price on the 172T is between 650 and 700USD, which is a little high for a 17" LCD right now.  Once this monitor dips below the 600USD mark, we would recommend a stronger buy on it. 

As we mentioned earlier, gamers still may want to beware of the response time on this monitor.  We will be looking at the Hitachi CML174 very soon to give a gaming perspective on how the lower response time affects gaming and high motion video playback.  We mentioned earlier that the image quality on the 172T was very good, definitely an improvement over the 191T that had a little bit of problems with red hues.  We were very critical on examining the 172T image quality.  As monitors go, Samsung has consistently produced the cream of the crop.  However, in order to keep their position as the champions of LCD, they can't drop the ball and let image quality pull down a monitor with excellent features.  Overall, even with a more stringent rating scale, we were very impressed by this monitor.

Special thanks go out to our forum readers who provided us with questions for our Samsung interview.  We were slightly disappointed to hear that they will not be pursuing OLED technology in the future.  With a major manufacturer like Samsung not actively developing and marketing OLED, it may be several years before we start to see mainstream products.  Even then, it is no guarantee if this technology will be affordable.  We were excited to see progress an a low response time solution, but will other LCD manufacturers claim the hearts of gamers and video enthusiasts first?  Find out later this week if Hitachi has what it takes as we take a look at their CML174.