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Sylvania SF150 15" LCD Flat Panel Display

Sylvania SF150 15" LCD Flat Panel Display

List Price: $399.99
Your Price: $339.88
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent color at an equally attractive price
Review: As a professional web designer, I'm very concerned with how color translates on my monitor. I compared this model to several others in its class, as well as a higher-priced, 17", 0.26 dot pitch model from Princeton Graphics. Upon arriving at the store, my initial impulse was to go with the Princeton Graphics, but the Sylvania was tempting as a discounted floor model. On a whim I had the salesperson hook up both of the monitors up for a side-by-side comparison. I was surprised by how well the Sylvania matched up to the Princeton Graphics and for such a tempting price. I took it home and so far, I've found this monitor to work well with software and tasks ranging from Web surfing to video and high-end gaming. In addition, I'm very satisfied with the Sylvania's build quality. As I mentioned earlier, this unit was a floor model (at a high-traffic retailer) and it looks brand new.

It's important to point out to all potential purchasers of LCD monitors that each one will need to be calibrated in order to yield the most vivid and realistic resolution. You can learn plenty about calibration on the Internet. There are also some handy sites that will walk you through calibration wizards.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Ford Taurus of LCD's
Review: Don't worry about this monitor being blurry Ceaser (Technical Support Engineer). ANY LCD in non-native mode (in this case anything other than 1024x768) will be fuzzy. You see, all LCD's have a set resolution and have to fake everything else. I can't believe their customer support doesn't know this?! It's the no.1 complaint by users of LCD's who don't understand what native resolution is.

So, for example, when you set this monitor in 1024x768, it is crystal clear because it has exactly 1024 horizontal pixels and 768 vertical pixels. But, when you put it in say 800x600, it is not evenly divisible because there are now 1.25 pixels for every one interpolated which results in a slightly blurry image. Depending upon the monitor, results and clarity vary.

Some monitors have the option of just using only the 800x600 pixels and leaving the rest of the screen black. But this kind of defeats the purpose of having a 15" monitor! It's not really that big of a deal in games, but on the desktop, you'll definitely want to run at 1024x768 or the text is just to annoying. By the way, you can't run the monitor in a higher resolution either simply because there just aren't enough pixels!

So, take this into consideration when buying a LCD. Make sure you want to run it in its native resolution, perferably both games and desktop.

I own 3 LCD's and this one definitely scores the lowest in terms of quality and construction. My other two being a Sony M81 (18.1" - awesome!) and a Samsung 570s (almost as good as the Sony!). It's not bad though for the price. My kid's use this one, so that was greatly factored in.

Consider it practical. It's kind of like a Ford Taurus. It has style, but it's no Audi TT. It performs well, but it's no Porsche. You get my point. If you are a basic user who browses the Internet and plays games occasionally, then go for it. ... The whole Samsung and Viewsonic lines are much better.

So what's the difference? Well it seems to be a little less bright, although very clear. Its viewing angle isn't as good meaning it really starts to dim when you are off center. And it blurs a little more then my others in fast moving images such as games or DVD's. Also it's build construction looks a little cheap. But like the old adage, "You get what you pay for!"

Sorry so long, but I hope this helps!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love this monitor!
Review: I adore this monitor. I have had mine for almost 2 years? Sharp, clarity, and quality are the first three words that come to mind when I think of this monitor. I have ZERO complaints. :)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not Worth the Money
Review: I also bought this monitor because of the attractive price.

The monitor no longer works after only 1.5 years of use. Completely dead. Sylvania no longer wanted anything to do with it because it was out of its 1 year warranty. I was willing to pay for servicing, but the most their tech support could offer was "find a local guy to fix it."

Flat panels are expected to last twice as long as CRTs, not half as long and certainly not only 1.5 years. My advice is to buy a flat panel with a 3 year warranty, stay away from the 1 year warranties and stay away from Sylvania.

Certainly not worth the money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sylvania SF150 user Review
Review: I purchased this monitor as a replaced for an old regular
17' generic "GEM monitor. To my surprise when I set it with
the resolution set as default at 800x600 the image quality
was so poor that I had to switch to 1024x768 immediately
just to get a decent picture out of this monitor. Mind you
that my video card is a Radeon 7200 with 64MB, and can
support up to 2048x1536. I contacted their customer
support, and the final word is not out yet. Depending on
their ability to restore my faith I might have to return
this monitor. I expected much better performance
for a LCD monitor than what I am getting. This product
makes my old 17' regular monitor look good, that should
not have been the case.

Cesar
Technical Support Engineer

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: The Ford Taurus of LCD's
Review: We bought the display at a local store (Costco) for a good price, and had it set up in just a few minutes -- a truly very easy "plug & play" process! It replaces a 17-inch CRT, and we -- myself, my wife, and our adult daughter -- are very happy in every respect. The controls over the display are quite easy to use, and we find the picture quality -- colors, contrast, clarity, etc. -- to be very good for both graphics and text.

The savings on desktop space are outstanding!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sylvania L151 Flat panel Display
Review: We bought the display at a local store (Costco) for a good price, and had it set up in just a few minutes -- a truly very easy "plug & play" process! It replaces a 17-inch CRT, and we -- myself, my wife, and our adult daughter -- are very happy in every respect. The controls over the display are quite easy to use, and we find the picture quality -- colors, contrast, clarity, etc. -- to be very good for both graphics and text.

The savings on desktop space are outstanding!


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