Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony PremierPro SDM-P232W/B 23" LCD Monitor

I agonized over this purchase for some time. Part of my agony was due to the lack of reviews on the internet for this product, which is probably due to how new this monitor is. Now that I've actually purchased the monitor, I don't regret it at all. This is the best monitor you can buy, or at least it's tied with the Apple Cinema Display (as they are basically the same monitor). It's perfectly clear and sharp, and the amount of screen real estate is astounding.

I wasn't so sure about this when I went into the store to compare models. First, the store didn't have the monitor set at its native 1920 x 1200 resolution, which is the resolution everything looks sharpest at. Second, they had the monitor hooked up through an analog connection instead of the DVI-D hookup. I was hoping that this was why the monitor didn't look "beyond my wildest dreams" in the store. I expected that this would improve when I got home and plugged it in to my ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 PRO card. I was right! The difference in picture quality between what I saw in the store and what I see at home is phenomenal. Nothing could have prepared me for how sharp every nook and cranny of the screen is. It's perfect. Even my wife who was hesitant about me spending this kind of money on a monitor, sat down in front of it and said, "Oh wow!".

The monitor is cake to set up, has both digital and analog connections. I recommend a good video card (like I said, I'm using the ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 PRO), and they work together beautifully. It is a joy to work on, and much, much better than any CRT I've ever worked on.

I played some Jedi Knight II on the monitor and it's fantastic. Beyond the quality I thought it would have. I also watched the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring extended edition DVD on it, and it's the best picture you can get. I wouldn't mind the monitor being a little wider for DVD's, but the picture couldn't be better. Over twice the resolution of Plasma screens! No latency, ghosting, or lag that I saw. And burn-in is not a problem with LCD screens as it is with Plasma!

I highly recommend this monitor to anyone who is struggling with whether or not to purchase it. If you hook it up with the right video card, using DVI, and set at the right resolution, it will give you the best picture you've ever seen.

(As an aside, this monitor is supposedly the exact same as the Apple Cinema Display. The employee at the store I went to told me he thought the Apple 23" display was brighter, and it definitely looked that way in the store, but I think it's because the Sony monitor was not hooked up correctly. Once I got home and hooked it up, it looks at least as bright as the Apple. For $100, you can buy a plug that will hook up the Apple display to a PC, but you will not have as much control over the Display settings as you do with the Sony. Not sure if this is worth the extra money or not, but the Sony display also tilts up and down, whereas the Apple does not.)

Also, this monitor does have a fantastic viewing angle, and looks great from the side as well.

First let me say that this is an outstanding monitor. The picture clairty is great as is the contrast and brightness. Its easy to hook up and adjust and the +- tilting stand is great. The huge 1920x1200 resolution is additive.

But here's the bad news. Sony's Q/A on this is piss-poor. I have 4 of these monitors and every single one of them has had to be returned due to between 1 and 10 stuck on pixels. Typically they are the green ones, but there have been a few red ones too. Most recently I just bought two more of these monitors and the both had stuck on pixels! One had just one, but the other had 10 or more. I took that later back and just got the replacement... Much to my dismay, it too has at least four stuck on pixels. I know that they make them without any stuck pixels because the first two I bought last year had stuck pixels, but the replacment units did not.

Its just a crying shame Sony can hire some Q/A staff without Coke-bottle glasses. These are truely awesome monitors, but this having to take them back is a huge pain. In summary, I've had my hands on seven of these monitors and 5 of them have had stuck pixels. Check your's closely by selecting an unused input in a darken room.

I highly recomment this monitor, and its definatly worth the dorking around to get one without defects. Just beware that the chances are high you're going to get one with stuck pixels. Choose your vendor carefully, as I've noted that many of the vendors are now applying disclaimers that say something like "no returns for less that 8 defective pixels". That's an unacceptable return policy, and they should be avoided, especially on a monitor that costs $2600.

I went into fry's and set up the sony sdm-p232w/b side by side with the apple cinema hd 23 inch. Ostensibly these are the same monitor, however it is my perception that the apple has more vivid colours (aussie spelling ;-)). Here's my guess at why .... Some time ago I was looking into anti-glare coatings for glass for framing pictures. There is a huge variation in quality of anti-glare coating and a comensurate range in costs. The really really good ones used for "museum" jobs render the glass invisible and cost an order of magnitude more than the next step down which are still good, but not in the same ball park. The cheaper the anti-glare coating, the more the colours wash and the more "visible" the glass itself is. Same rules apply when the coating is applied to plastic. So my take on the situation is that the apple and sony monitors probably come off the same production lines but then have different anti-glare coatings applied. In my case, I still bought the more expensive, less vivid, but more PC friendly Sony ... too many issues with DVI-I to ADC and finding a KVM switch that would deal with DVI instead of analog (I run my monitor off analog and it looks great).

I bought this monitor a few months ago, and it still amazes me. It's so bright and crisp, and even though the refresh rate is not high, I notice absolutely NO latency. Even playing games, this monitor is simply breath-taking. And DVD's are even better. At twice the resolution of the average plasma screen, this is the most crystal clear monitor I've ever laid eyes on, and nothing else I've seen even compares with it.

good: great picture quality.

bad: very noisy fan. drives my crazy.