Samsung Brings Back Massive $700 Discount on ViewFinity S9 5K Display, Plus More Monitor and TV Deals

60hz is pitiful for 2024. Even it had just a minimum upgrade of 75hz over 65hz it'd be a huge difference. Once you go to a higher refresh rate, you'll never want to go back.

Excellent monitor and value otherwise, much better than Apple's offering.

As a graphical designer I don't care at all about those Hz in my display, honestly, as everything is static on my screen 90% of the time. I believe this Samsung is aimed exactly at this audience.

Well, this should fill with a bunch of "ASD or bust" bashes. But for those who can look beyond one favorite brand, this:

* is 5K "Retina" at the same screen size as ASD,
* has a far superior camera that is removable,
* offers TWO video inputs instead of only 1 (very handy for hooking anything else to it, including- say- a Mac Mini-like PC for "old fashioned bootcamp" that will be 100% compatible, unlike the ARM Windows alternative),
* includes apps + remote to make it double as a little TV and
* comes with most of the $200 each "stand options" available from the exalted one.

If you want 5K and don't want to pay a LOT more for it, it's this one vs. the LG one that Apple stocked in their stores until they opted to roll out ASD. Now crank up your terrific Spotify music... er, I mean Apple Music app and use Google Maps... er, I mean Apple Maps to get you to whatever store will let you try one of these out and evaluate with your own eyes. And note: there's always Apple stickers if you can't bear to see a different brand. ;)

I picked one up during the last steep sale, overall very happy with it as a 5k display under $1k despite some flaws after using it for a few weeks.

pros:
- Very impressed with the accuracy of the out of the box P3 color mode as a graphic designer
- Resolution is crisp and have had zero issues with terms of image quality or mac / windows OS running into any scaling problems with the resolution
- The brightness is a huge step up over my 5 year old LG monitor for my home office ( I have a window directly behind me)
- I also go back and forth between being plugged into my MacBook to my gaming PC so having the dual input was a necessity for me (the monitor comes with both a thunderbolt cable and a DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort cable)
- Display is adjustable + can rotate into portrait orientation
- Matte display does a great job at eliminating reflections

Cons:
- speakers are abysmal, i personally don't care because I'm always using headphones but worth noting
- The included webcam has decent quality, but mine tends to glitch (image cuts out for less than a second) and doesn't do the best in low light situations. I haven't seen this issue talked about at all anywhere on forums so i think it might just be mine but haven't had the chance to remedy it with Samsung yet as I already had a logitech brio webcam that I preferred and have just been using anyway. The magnetic tech for how the camera comes on and off the monitor though is very cool

Middle of the road:
- I don't use the Smart TV features, wasn't interested in them, they seem functional.
- Controlling the monitor settings is tied to the TV OS which means using the included remote to navigate menus, this was weird to me at first but after a few weeks I almost prefer just using the remote to change my settings rather than fiddling with the knob on the back of the monitor.
- Its an IPS panel so you will notice some backlight bleeding in the corners if you're displaying an all black screen, but it's nothing that's ever bothered me in my day to day flow

Overall, it's not and never will be an Apple Studio Display, but for it's sale price it offers you a great display with similar features to Apple's most expensive variant of the studio display for less than $1k and that's nice. I enjoy it and recommend it to anyone who wants to check it out.

I have one - bought it so I could plug my Mac into it with thunderbolt and PC via mini DisplayPort. Works perfectly and looks great

Can't be selling well 😒 guess people realised it's not "iMac-like" after all…

60hz is pitiful for 2024. Even it had just a minimum upgrade of 75hz over 65hz it'd be a huge difference. Once you go to a higher refresh rate, you'll never want to go back.

Excellent monitor and value otherwise, much better than Apple's offering.

72Hz would be interesting because it would play 24 fps without 3:2 pulldown.

24 x 3 = 72

But 120Hz is the best because both 30fps and 24fps can play in it without 3:2 pulldown

[Note: "3:2 pulldown" is when the computer plays 3 frames, then 2 frames, then 3 frames, then 2 frames, on repeat, which is the only way it can fit 24 fps into 60Hz. Unfortunately that leads to jitter. Our brains get used to it but once you watch a movie at a multiple of 24fps you realize it feels slightly more cinematic]