First post to anandtech forums. Hey all.
I purchased a Samsung 2232BW from a local brick-and-mortar after hearing all the raving comments from various sources about the 226BW.
Got the thing home, plugged it in .. text was difficult to read, and after about 10 minutes I had a blaring headache. Other than that, I noticed something didn't seem quite right about the contrast and gamma - some colors really shone while others were held back. At default settings, all of my "lighter" themes (I use Linux/Gnome, so that would be just about all of them) appeared white and white background around black text would bleed into the black text, lending to it a washed-out appearance. No amount of adjusting brightness and contrast would remedy it. Overall my impression is that the display was too bright, and would leave it at zero on the brightness adjustment. Brightness below a setting of 80 would make the monitor give out a whine...
The gamma somehow seemed to be way all over the map. It was different for different colors, and I could move slightly and the gamma would change all over the screen. The changes were non-linear, and were different for different colors.
I did finally settle on a pretty hefty gamma correction. Things "seemed" better and less washed-out, but I still couldn't look at the screen for very long without headache and color reproduction was limited. I returned it.
I ordered an HP LP2065 online, forgoing the ability to see it in person. Opened the thing up, plugged it in..
Way different impression than the 2232BW. I received the IPS panel. Default settings were spot on. The text is very readable. White appears almost perfect. Gamma and contrast is right on the money. From what I have read about IPS I was expecting soft black .. it's not the best black, but the black level is just about as bright as the 2232BW. Since the gamma and overall contrast is good, the black levels don't bother me at all (I never notice it).
I like the color rendition on the HP better than my old Dell CRT. The CRT has that nice black and good contrast, but there a swath of mid-bright colors that it doesn't distinguish well between. The HP really distinguishes well in that area. Well scanned photographic film and digital art displayed on this monitor is a treat. I have no headaches. Sharpness is also good (not aliased, not soft).
The anti-glare is aggressive. It doesn't normally bother me, but it's present.
Anyway, that is my experience. I'll definately keep my eye out for IPS panels in the future.