I have a few retailers here having a sale on these 2 brands, and I want to find out what people think of them. Are they any good, do they last long?

Samsung are generally considered one of the best there is (along with LG). The only possible point of contention bit be refresh rate. If you want a high refresh rate then make sure you find out what it is before buying.
Philips tend to be very hit and miss on build quality. I'd avoid them, personally. I don't know what their monitors are like, but it's too much of a gamble in my opinion.

Well, you'd get a very good image quality out of the Samsung anyway. Longevity is not flat panels' main selling point, to be honest. None of them will last forever. Especially plasma screens. But then it's not like it took forever for CRTs to degrade.
But again, the Samsung would be a better bet out of the two. See if there's a manufacturer's extended warranty offered.

They're both pretty good. I'm very pleased with my current monitor though, a Xerox. Had it for almost 4 years. Has great colour and has a glass panel over the screen which protects it as well as making it nice and easy to clean, without fear of damaging the LCD.

I use a 1080p Samsung monitor and its stunning, worth every penny.

I have a 3 year old Samsung 226BW, and the picture is awesome. Only problem is that the DVI port blew out in it, so I have to use VGA cables now.

I've heard Samsung is overpriced. LG is my personal favourite...

I had a 4:3 Phillips monitor once, a 17 inch thing. Great stuff, very sharp image, the colors were quite accurate (didn't need any of that color calibration malarky).
Samsung, I don't know about their monitors but their TVs are good. Probably the same LCD panels and they're the best I've had. Overall I'd say go Samsung.
RIght now, I use a Dell 20-inch monitor. Love that stuff.

I have the Samsung 2233rz, and while it's crippled compared to Samsung's other monitors, the image quality is far better than any monitor I've used before. It's great. But really, you have to compare monitors yourself to see what you like best, and a calibrated monitor will walk all over an un-calibrated monitor of the same brand.

Cool thanks for the information guys.
Thanks for the information guys. I think I'll get the Samsung.

Samsung good for sure. I had a blue line cutting vertically down the screen when I bought a new Samsung monitor a year+ back. They came down and replaced the whole monitor screen, no questions asked, 2 days later. Working beautifully now without problems despite my heavy usage.
I like Philips CRT monitors, not sure about their LCD ones.

My Philips was the best CRT I ever used and their LCDs from the little Ive seen seem to be good. Slamslung displays are truly excellent though so I'm sure you'll be happy with that

I have Samsung 225BW and it's ok. They did a fuzz earlier using many different panels in same product, so with 226BW for an example, you could get 3-4 different versions of it depending on your luck and that varies the quality of the monitor itself. That lead to some special Samsung models with 100% "Samsung panel" warranty. They removed all traces to ID which panel actually is inside there except opening the whole monitor up, which would ofc void warranty anyway and it's not advisable... There were slight differences with backlight bleeding and some panels had problems with Samsungs 5ms -> 2ms overclock circuit it seems... Some discussion about it, there are many more out there.
Ofc, having one panel or another, they still are quite good products. I've had no dead pixels to notice and backlight bleeding is moderate. It's there and I can notice it but it's not that annoying (or maybe I don't know about better ones). That "monitor on" light with bright blue led is quite annoying though. Not sure if they included option with new models to turn it off. I have with every device from my tv to computer to monitor to a headphone amp has the same BLUE led light to tell it's on. Like I wouldn't tell it's on without that light... GRR!

Sounds annoying, although I've never heard of this problem. I have a 226BW, both my brother and my brother-in-law have one, and we have a lot of them at work. They're all identical as far as I can tell, and are all equally good. I've been extremely happy with it, and am going to buy Samsung the next time I need a new monitor as well.