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Samsung 173P Flat Panel DisplayReview Date: February 19, 2004 Reviewed by: Cory Zerkee Sponsored by: Samsung Samsung has long been known for supplying countless PC peripherals, from optical drives to displays. Not only are they big in the PC market but also in home electronics, producing microwave ovens and other gadgets used to make our lives easier. I am only going to focus on one of their offerings today, the PC display. Samsung has been designing and producing both CRT and LCD displays for a while now and they produce a wide range of both size and level of quality; from high end prosumer to ‘entry level’ if you will. I have both owned and reviewed numerous Samsung displays in my lifetime and today I am going to look at their latest 17” LCD, the 173P. The 173P offers a mind blowing 178deg viewing angle as well as a 700:1 contrast ratio, all this and a sexy new look. So, without further ado, let’s get on with the show. First of all, let’s get the technical goods out of the way. Here are the specs of the 173P as stated on the Samsung site. At the time of this review, only the Chinese Samsung site had the 173P listed, so I had to translate everything into a language I could actually navigate. Specifications:
Features:
The goods: The 173P is the latest 17” offering from Samsung. It boasts the same 700:1 contrast that most of their new higher end LCD’s have, as well as some updated models like the 191T Plus, for example. 700:1 is above average, as most LCD’s hover around the 500:1 mark. The rated brightness of 270cd/m2 is also excellent, as the approx average – at least of the LCD’s I have reviewed in the past – is 250cd/m2. The Pixel Pitch of 0.264mm remains on par with Samsungs other 17” LCD’s. The 173P is capable of displaying over 16 million colors at its native resolution of 1280x1024. The thing I would like to mention that really stands out is the insane viewing angle of 178°. That is the highest I have seen on any LCD I have used to date. Samsungs website claims the pixel response time of the 173P is 25ms, but as I will explain later, it fares better than the previous 25ms I have tested. Well, enough of the dry techno babble™, it’s time to take a look at Samsung’s new beauty. The 173P arrived in the normal manner, packed in a blue suitcase style box with a carrying handle. As usual, the box looked as if the courier (who shall remain nameless) used it to block the wheels of his truck to keep it from rolling away. The box comes adorned with pictures of the display, as well as some VERY basic specs and other pertinent info. 
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 Click for larger view. Cracking it open reveals all the goodies that come packed with the display. Samsung has included the LCD itself, the power cable and transformer, DVI and VGA cables, a VESA type wall mount, and a baggie containing the software CD and warranty card(s). As you can see in the picture, the LCD comes packaged looking like some cool sort of UFO. You think it looks cool packed though, it looks even cooler unpacked. 
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 Click for larger view. Pulling the LCD out of the protective wrap caused me to say, well, damn. It is without a doubt the sexiest LCD I have ever laid eyes on. The front bezel is metallic silver with the Samsung logo on the bottom in black and the TCO’03 logo on the top right. It is devoid of any buttons save the thermally sensitive power button on the bottom right. To the left of the power button is the power LED which is lit blue when the display is on. You might be thinking to yourself “um, how do you change the settings if there are no buttons? ” Well, if you give me a few, I will get to that. As I already stated, the surround bezel is silver and is approx 20mm wide on the sides and top, and 25mm wide on the bottom. 
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 Click for larger view. Looking at it from the side, we can see that it is approximately 3cm thick, or thin, however you look at it. The reason that Samsung was able to keep the thickness of the display down is the fact that they went the route of the external power supply. This has the upside of allowing for a thinner panel, but the downside of adding the external power brick that we all know and love. I would like to note however, that the power brick include with the 173P doesn’t take up much room; unlike the behemoth I had with the power hungry 241MP I recently finished reviewing. 
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Click for larger view. The rear of the 173P is dressed in white, devoid of anything save the Samsung logo on the top of the stand where it mounts to the display and a “dual hinge” designation stamped on the bottom left. The base of the stand is round and weighty, to allow for display stability. It is adorned with the SyncMaster 173P designation, as well as “Slim and simple style color TFT LCD Display” written beneath it. The underside of the base is fitted with rollers to allow for turning of the display. The rear of the base contains the power, DVI, and VGA inputs. 
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Click for larger view. The stand allows for approximately 6cm’s of height adjustment as well as approximately 135° of upward tilt and no downward tilt. The insane amount of upward tilt allows you to flip the display almost totally backwards. The dual hinge designation refers to the bonus of being able to rotate the display 90° to portrait mode. This is great for working in Word (I would know) as well as viewing web pages, as it cuts down the amount of downward scrolling dramatically. The stand can also accommodate a VESA type wall mount which Samsung has included. This is a bonus as the mounting brackets are not normally included, at least with Samsung displays. 
Click for larger view. As I mentioned earlier, the 173P has only one button. All the color and geometry settings are done through the MagicTune™ software which is included with the display. Once you fire up the display, just insert the software CD and install the monitor driver and the MagicTune software. The software enumerates your video display every time you start up and restores your settings and allows you to change them. The changes can be done easily through the included wizard, or individually as needed. 
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