^^ Kia-ora - good to see another kiwi randomly about the interwebs!
I actually signed up to give a bit of info on the ($NZ 540) Samsung 2443BW, which doesn't appear to have been covered here - specifically with regard to input lag given that I can't find a single resource, English or otherwise that has lag specs for this monitor (been following this forum for a while viz input lag). But I'll also copypaste a basic overview I did of it for you as the 2443 is one of the cheaper 16:10, 24" monitors out there. Alternatives in NZ are the LG L246WH (lower quality panel, likely reasonable input lag), or the Samsung T240 (more expensive with a slightly better panel but rather epic lag). If you're in Auckland or just ordering online I'd recommend Computerlounge or Playtech as suppliers.
The Samsung 2443BW:
This is the standard, 20'000-1 dynamic contrast 2443 not the 50'000-1, Samsung 2443BW+ model. As a side note, to anyone considering the '+' model - I'd check that it has the fully adjustable stand like my 2443 as there have been suggestions this is not the case - if not I'd get one of those otherwise identical 'non plus' models as 'dynamic contrast' is frankly just BS - it's essentially unusable as it makes the backlight go, for lack of a better term, crazy. This unusability of dynamic contrast is common for all LCD's BTW; ignore those specs and look for the normal contrast ratio, which is 1000-1. Dynamic ratios appear to be solely there for marketing!
Picture quality
This is actually pretty good - colours are vibrant, text is well defined and the whole image looks naturally sharp and vivid without appearing artificially so, once calibrated the colours look great. The only weakeness I can find is the backlight which is
very slightly (not noticable unless you're looking for it) brighter towards the top of the monitor and that blacks have a slight 'glow' to them (Atomic found the same with their review of the 2433). Overall, subjectively speaking the 2443 gives a very good image IMO.
Viewing angles
Horizontally you have about a 90 degree range without any distortion, vertically you have a roughly 60 degree range. However you literally have to go to about 170 degrees in either case for to see the colours distort - which is great for a TN panel.
Gaming
The 5ms response time gives no visible ghosting; I also ran a quick comparison for input lag to the 226BW (as there are literally
no damnned review I can find that list the 2443's lag) and was very very pleasantly surprised to find that the 2443 actually averaged 12 ms ahead of the 226 - whilst the 226 has variable lag, this suggests the 2443 is likely a pretty low lag monitor as even the worst examples of the 226 are fairly low lag - I'll hook up my old CRT to get a definitive result and edit this post over the next few days. Subjectively (I play BF2 competitively) it's a brilliant panel for gaming.
Lag Testing vs 226
Build Quality
The bezel is possibly the 2443's strongest point - it's just incredibly well made and weighted and has quite nifty (if hard to see sometimes) touch-sensitive buttons. The bezel is is also fully height adjustable, is tiltable and can also be rotated 90 degrees for document viewing. Visually, I personally love the clean lines of this monitor.
Overall, this is a monitor with good image quality, brightness and colours, with the blacks however being merely acceptable. The 2443BW also has minimal input lag and ah heck all ghosting from an end user point of view, making it pretty close to ideal ideal for gaming. Finally, one tip if you do get one: the image is optimal when the screen is tilted very slightly upwards (maybe 10 degrees).