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A quick look around the Samsung website reveals that the company has an impressive range of TFT models which alone is an indicator of how the flat panel market has grown over the last few years. With an assortment of LCDs that range from simple, clean designs to those with integrated speakers and stands with dual hinges and pivots, Samsung is definitely trying to cover all the bases. Indeed, if the massive displays on show at CES are anything to go by, then its rivals are certainly going to sit up and take notice. Sadly, we can’t bring you a review of the 57in LCD monster quite just yet, but we do have one that clearly comes under the simple and clean category.

The 172v comprises of a 17in panel bordered by a narrow silver bezel that measures approximately two centimetres along the sides and top, and two and half centimetres along the bottom. This gives the 172v a sleek appearance that will look good on any user’s desk. The basic design is carried through to the clean facia where the buttons for the OSD controls are vertically mounted on the underside of the chassis. The buttons feel positive when pressed compared to the flimsy designs I’ve come across elsewhere.

Around the back, the chassis is black and curves attractively outward. There’s no mistaking who the manufacturer is either, as the name is boldly pressed into the plastic. Moving down to the stand, I was a little disappointed that it only tilts, with no turntable for easy swivelling or a pivot function, but Samsung can be forgiven for this when you take into account the sub £300 price. The stand also incorporates a tidy solution for housing the two cables that run from the D-SUB port and the integrated power supply. This comprises a removable cover that hides a couple of ties for routing the cables out through two apertures in the base.

Of course if you’re after a DVI connection then this is not the display for you, as it only features the single D-SUB interface. In this case, the 172v had difficulty locking on to the analogue signal from our Matrox Millennium G550 graphics card, giving rise to wavy lines in the DisplayMate pixel tracking and phase lock tests. Granted, this can be corrected by pressing the auto adjust button, but over the course of the day I found myself frequently readjusting the tracking and phase to counteract timing drift and jitter in order to maintain a sharp picture.

That said, when corrected this 1,280 x 1,024 display is sharp and clear, even though it doesn’t produce the most vivid picture I’ve come across with a brightness of 250cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 350:1. Our test DVD movie was a testament to this as the picture was a little on the dark side, even when the contrast and brightness were at their highest levels. However, for general text work the 172V is more than adequate.

With the rest of the test screens I found the colour scales to be particularly well rendered, with evenly graduated steps from low to high intensities with each colour horizontally fading to black both uniformly and together. Having said that, there are two issues I came across. The first was some noticeable banding towards the darker regions of the 256-intensity level greyscale ramp, and the second was a limited vertical viewing angle. While the first may not be noticeable during everyday use, the second definitely is. In fact, as I view this display now I can clearly make out a drop in illumination as I scan my eyes from the bottom of the picture to the top. This becomes irritating when you’re performing a job like mine where maintaining the tonal range of pictures and graphs for our website is important. As for the horizontal viewing angle this is not the widest I’ve seen but is nonetheless sufficient for a small group of people to gather round.

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