Smile Monitors - Any advice before I buy ?

[MartinS]

I'm looking for a second monitor. I want FST and at least 1280x1024 at a lowish price. I came accross 'Smile' monitors. They appear to have excelent resolution/refresh capabilities for the price.
The 17" FST 0.26 costs £176 (GB Pounds)INC VAT and supports

640x480@60/72/75/85/120/150Hz,
800x600@56/60/72/75/85/100/120Hz,
1024x768@60/70/72/75/85/100Hz,
1280x1024@60/75Hz,
1600x1200@60/65 Hz,

Ok, 1600x1200 refresh is a little low, but I wouldn't run a 17 at that res.

I picked up somewhere that they're based on NEC CRT's but I'm not sure. Have a look
http://www.smilekfc.com/Products/2F_profe.htm
Has anyone seen or heard of these monitors ?

[Lucid]

Smile aka KFC (aka Scott?) simply suck. I have two (15" and 17")..

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Pentium® II 300 MHz, Intel® AL440LX, 128 MB SDRAM, Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead, SB Live! Platinum, Toshiba SD-M1212, Seagate Medalist 6,5 GB, etc.


[This message has been edited by Lucid (edited 08 December 1999).]

[Lucid]

Oh yeah, and the ones I have can't be used with Dual-Head, because they interfere with each other in a very ugly kind of way..



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Pentium® II 300 MHz, Intel® AL440LX, 128 MB SDRAM, Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead, SB Live! Platinum, Toshiba SD-M1212, Seagate Medalist 6,5 GB, etc.

[SteveC]

Smile a cheap n cheerful - if you don't expect a lot from a monitor, then that's what you get. No where near on par with higher end makes.
But, as with ALL monitors, use one for 15 mins at least at the res you will use before buying!!

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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[merchant2112]

advice (dont get a smile, becuase you won't when your try to use it) get a ctx they are cheap but very good monitor's.

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its here, it's together and all the bugs are worked out.
msi 6167 mobo k7 500 wk41 now at 650.(not overclocked its a real 650 they underclcoked.) 256 meg ram ,addtronics case w 250watt sp power supply, matrox g400, maxtor diammax 2500+ 10gig hd,10x aopen slot dvd, 3com 10/100 nic and 56k ext modem, xitel p storm sound card. lots of controlers joystick throttle rudder raceing wheel, and 19in monitor,microsoft inteli mouse explorer(5 buttons). klip promedia v2-400 speakers.

[This message has been edited by merchant2112 (edited 08 December 1999).]

[MartinS]

Thanks, Most helpful. I'll check out CTX. I know what I really want (sony - which I have now or iiyama - which I use at work) so anything else is going to be a compromise on price/performance unless I can find anyone offering reconditioned units within the £200 ish price range.

[Brian R.]

Check out some on-line auctions. Here there are alot of reconditioned monitors being sold. (Onsale.com, ebay etc)

[Sammie]

CTX has a new one out (PR711F), 17" with a SONY aperture grill tube (yes, it's true, no jokes here), but the suggested retail price of 235 pounds ex vat might be a bit too pricey for you yet. Dunno what they will do in the shops, you might wanna check that out. Still, it does combine that wish for a SONY with the price of a CTX

And yes, do go and look at the screen you want to buy in the resolution you want to use it with for a while before buying - all credit to SteveC for that.

[TnT]

I absolutely hate Smile monitors. My high school has a bunch of them in the PC lab. Most of them have pretty bad color quality, broken control buttons, and crappy computers to go with them :P

[Zwisch]

The viewsonic E731 (or something like that... 17 inch monitor) is an excellent value for it's low price.

[Muad'Dib]

If they really are KFC, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM!!! I had one for 7 years before it finally burned out on me. Thank god. Nasty s**t man, trust me. Look into CyberVision monitors. They are very good for the price.