Samsung 172T Reviewed + The Future of Samsung

Introduction

Samsung only continues to impress us.  We first got a look at their monitors back in April, and then we got a look at their 191T LCD in July. Most recently we saw the 763MB CDT in November.  Each time we were impressed.  From a production standpoint, they are doing everything right.  They are the largest retail and OEM manufacturer of LCD's in the world and their product lines are all considered the best available.  So what did we expect when Samsung sent us the 172T LCD we saw at COMDEX?  Nothing but the best.

Saying that we saw the 172T at COMDEX is really an understatement.  Samsung literally packed COMDEX with 172Ts.  Samsung went as far as to even construct a two story helix display out of these monitors for their own booth.  Since Samsung was a major sponsor of the show, we saw a lot of their monitors in terminals, demonstration booths, and just about anywhere else.  Needless to say, we had some idea of what the 172T was going to look like before we received the unit for review.

When we took at look at the 191T in July, the second '1' in the model number denoted that the monitor was under the first revision.  As we begin to analyze the 172T, we have to keep in mind that the '2' denotes the second revision.  The new design on the 17” LCD series has been stirring much attention both in engineering and design circles, and not just in the fields of computer hardware.  We will be taking a good look at this design, as well as performance of the 172T in this review.  Furthermore, Samsung was kind enough to provide us with a little bit of inside information about future products and releases on questions we polled from our forums.  Read on to see what we thought about the 172T.