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Sony SDM-HS73/B Flat Panel 17" LCD Monitor (Black)

Sony SDM-HS73/B Flat Panel 17" LCD Monitor (Black)

List Price: $499.99
Your Price: Too Low To Display
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good but not great LCD that should be given the price
Review: Firstly I must say that I have had no dead pixel problem as yet, but I have had it only a few days so far.

Now that is put aside. This is a very nice monitor to use, it has very good color balance and depth that is better than the average LCDs I've looked at and used. The backlighting creates a smoothing effect on the pixilation that is apparent with LCDs and a strong contrast which most people look for in monitors (possibly too strong. In a not too well lit room, it can become a bit hard on the eyes).

Overall this is no doubt a very good LCD monitor, but it is still a LCD monitor and along with all the pluses it still suffers the usual foibles of LCDs. Namely lack of true color representation (only noticeable to the pro type multimedia worker or anybody dealing with ‘real-life’ imagery generally), viewing angle restrictions etc.

In addition to this there are two other down sides that stop me caling this a great product. Firstly the glass like paneling (that I assume works with the back lighting to create a nicer image) is good for general image quality, but does create a reflective effect i.e if there is a strong light source over your shoulder and you are looking at darkish images it is REALY annoying. I had to keep moving my big fat head to get a clear view of the opening scene of the Matrix. This shouldn’t be a problem in most cases (anybody?) but the way I’ve got things set up at home office it’s a pain – so much so that if I may be taking mine back in a day or two before it’s too late.

The second things is a little harder to pin down as to why, but text just doesn’t seem as easy to read as on an average LCD (I had one sitting in the same spot as the HS73 only a day or two ago). I don’t know if it’s the backlighting working nastiest on my hard contact lenses or what (hard contacts refract a lot more light into the eye than those who have normal vision or even soft lenses I’m told – just to explain what I’m on about.) I can’t say much more than that except that typing this document is not as easy on the eyes as it was using a run of the mill mid priced LCD (it was a BenQ comparable to the Sony, but half the price, I don’t remember the exact model number). This could just be a matter of fiddling with the settings. In every other department though this monitor is FAR superior which is why I might just put up with the cons.

To surmise:

Pros: Very nice image for general computer use, strikes a good balance between general readability and graphic rendition. Most LCDs seem to do one or the other well. Very strong contrast and good color rendering, the best I’ve seen on an LCD.

Cons: Usual LCD limitation, plus doesn’t react well to strong ambient light which creates reflections on the screen that can be annoying. Oh yea and the price, if I had the ability to take a 1/2 star off I would for that reason.




Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent LCD monitor, Best Deal from Amazon
Review: I did not know why the previous two reviewers gave this monitor so low score. I bought it form amazon.com 10 days ago. I could not find any dead pixel. Before I put my order, I went to a Best Buy store to look it and to compare it with a couple of models from Samsung and HP. For Quality of picture and text, HS73 is an apparent winner. It is just a little bit pricy. But from Amazon, I paid $484 for it. Plus SONY now offers $50 mail-in rebate(expire 9/25/2004). This is the best deal.
By the way, to eliminate the bleeding text, you need to set the screen resolution to 1280X1024 pixels.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: LOOKS GOOD BUT DEAD PIXELS ARE FREQUENT~!
Review: Looks good but poor manufacturing quality. Jesus I had to return four because of dead pixels. I had like 3 the first time, 2 the second return and the 1 the next. If you buy this lcd go to the stores like bestbuys so you can return em once a dead pixel shows up. Its quite annoying. Finally I got one w/ no dead pixels but about 2 days later I got a dead pixel. My friends dell/samsung made lcd was working for like the whole year and doesnt have one dead pixel.

I think I'll go Samsung. Sony products are going down the drain. They still got the looks but jesus once samsung gets a better look say buh bye sony.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: LOOKS GOOD BUT DEAD PIXELS ARE FREQUENT~!
Review: Looks good but poor manufacturing quality. Jesus I had to return four because of dead pixels. I had like 3 the first time, 2 the second return and the 1 the next. If you buy this lcd go to the stores like bestbuys so you can return em once a dead pixel shows up. Its quite annoying. Finally I got one w/ no dead pixels but about 2 days later I got a dead pixel. My friends dell/samsung made lcd was working for like the whole year and doesnt have one dead pixel.

I think I'll go Samsung. Sony products are going down the drain. They still got the looks but jesus once samsung gets a better look say buh bye sony.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but it has one disadvantage like all other LCDs
Review: Pros: light-weight, space-saving, no reflection

Cons: texts look bleeding

Everything about this monitor is good except for text bleeding. I thought it had something to do with graphics and can be fixed. When I did that, no results. I asked the saleperson, he said it's normal for texts look like bleeding at low resolutions in all LCDs and it has something to do with difference of pixels that CRTs have that LCDs don't. Have to go for 15" LCD or higher resolutions to take care of this problem, but texts look small and strain on your eyes after long period of time. So, I will take it back to the store and exchange it for one of the 17" or 19" CRTs that have crystal clear texts at any resolutions better than LCDs.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good, but it has one disadvantage like all other LCDs
Review: Pros: light-weight, space-saving, no reflection

Cons: texts look bleeding

Everything about this monitor is good except for text bleeding. I thought it had something to do with graphics and can be fixed. When I did that, no results. I asked the saleperson, he said it's normal for texts look like bleeding at low resolutions in all LCDs and it has something to do with difference of pixels that CRTs have that LCDs don't. Have to go for 15" LCD or higher resolutions to take care of this problem, but texts look small and strain on your eyes after long period of time. So, I will take it back to the store and exchange it for one of the 17" or 19" CRTs that have crystal clear texts at any resolutions better than LCDs.


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