Maxit Mag

You like the lottery? Try Samsung! At the end of last year they launched a new family of screens that had very fast TN 2 ms panels. Not only that, they were also pre-calibrated. For a moderate price, that's more than you can usually expect.

Perhaps because everyone wanted one, they ran out of stock and started selling monitors with the same name but with a panel not their own. Soon afterwards, another one entered the scene, and another...

To sum it up, this is what you can get if you go buying one right now (maybe tomorrow there will be more panels on "display"):

- a 226BW with an S panel (the real deal, if you find one you won the prize)
- a 226BW with an A panel (from AU Optronics, close but not cigar)
- a 226BW with a C panel (from CMO, you should try your luck again)
- a 226BW with a C panel (from CPT, you Casanova)

If you're curious about how much difference there is among them, go to BeHardware and take a look. Our recommendation? Either wait for Samsung to replenish their stock or start some monitor hunting. Some customers are already unpacking them to see the label, but more distrustful ones (and why shouldn't they be?) turn them on to check hidden menus.

Thanks to Samsung for making the process of buying a monitor as interesting as the search for a CPU intended for overcloking (now that Core 2 took all the fun out of that).