Hands on: Samsung's impressive new monitors from CES 2023

Comments

• Reply 1 of 16

  entropys Posts: 4,166member

  January 5, 2023 2:16AM

  That S9 looks very good and it will be quite interesting to see what price it is available at compared with the ASD.
  
  On a similar note the 6K Dell. It would be great if there is one at CES and Appleinsider can have a look at it (and it’s webcam forehead!).

  
• Reply 2 of 16

  raybo Posts: 42member

  January 5, 2023 2:34AM

  “…Samsung tries to one-up Apple…” what????
• Reply 3 of 16

  DAalseth Posts: 2,783member

  January 5, 2023 2:53AM

  When I was doing IT work we learned to stay away from Samsung products, they just weren’t reliable, were not well made. 

  A year ago I needed a 28” 4K monitor. The local store had one by Samsung at a good price. I figured that it had been a long time since I had tried a Samsung product. I figured that they must have worked out the bugs, after all they still sold well. I was willing to give Samsung another try. 

  It was trash.
  I was using it as a secondary monitor on my iMac. But when I would wake the iMac up, the Samsung would only wake about half the time. In those cases I had to unplug it, video and power, and plug it back in to get it to respond. And when it was working it had a habit of snapping to a hashed screen, random horizontal streaks with no visible picture. The only way to fix that was to do the same unplug and plug back in routine. After two days of trying to get it to work I gave up. I took it back and swapped it for an ASUS that has been solid. 
  

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  edited January 2023
• Reply 4 of 16

  dominikhoffmann Posts: 72member

  January 5, 2023 3:30AM

  DAalseth said:

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  Do they just not test them with Apple hardware?

  
• Reply 5 of 16

  dominikhoffmann Posts: 72member

  January 5, 2023 3:32AM

  AppleInsider said:

  
  Unfortunately, because of the high bandwidth needed to run the display the source needs to support DisplayPort 2.1 which the Mac currently does not. Macs aren't able to run 8K displays and this does have an 8K horizontal resolution.

  Will a soft- or firmware update fix that, or will it require entirely new communication chipsets?

  
• Reply 6 of 16

  michelb76 Posts: 618member

  January 5, 2023 9:34AM

  dominikhoffmann said:

  DAalseth said:

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  Do they just not test them with Apple hardware?

  I've got a couple of different types in the studio and they usually work fine. Non-Apple displays have a tendency to act up or give random behaviour, whether it's Dell, Samsung or any other brand. I don't know what Apple is doing (or probably not doing), and it varies per MacOS version. Apple is probably not bothering with supporting differences/variations in the communication protocols. This has always been the case. YMMV.

  
• Reply 7 of 16

  michelb76 Posts: 618member

  January 5, 2023 9:37AM

  dominikhoffmann said:

  AppleInsider said:

  
  Unfortunately, because of the high bandwidth needed to run the display the source needs to support DisplayPort 2.1 which the Mac currently does not. Macs aren't able to run 8K displays and this does have an 8K horizontal resolution.

  Will a soft- or firmware update fix that, or will it require entirely new communication chipsets?

  This will require new chips.
• Reply 8 of 16

  mattinoz Posts: 2,316member

  January 5, 2023 10:32AM

  DAalseth said:

  When I was doing IT work we learned to stay away from Samsung products, they just weren’t reliable, were not well made. 

  A year ago I needed a 28” 4K monitor. The local store had one by Samsung at a good price. I figured that it had been a long time since I had tried a Samsung product. I figured that they must have worked out the bugs, after all they still sold well. I was willing to give Samsung another try. 

  It was trash.
  I was using it as a secondary monitor on my iMac. But when I would wake the iMac up, the Samsung would only wake about half the time. In those cases I had to unplug it, video and power, and plug it back in to get it to respond. And when it was working it had a habit of snapping to a hashed screen, random horizontal streaks with no visible picture. The only way to fix that was to do the same unplug and plug back in routine. After two days of trying to get it to work I gave up. I took it back and swapped it for an ASUS that has been solid. 
  

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  I have similar handshake issues with Samsung M7 and a MacBookPro over usb c. 

  I’d find a process that would work for a couple of days then not. 

  Snap purchase for Covid work from home so had to just make it work.
• Reply 9 of 16

  dewme Posts: 5,362member

  January 5, 2023 3:24PM

  I’ve found that the interoperability issues between Macs and 3rd party monitors tend to vary based on the connection type, whether a conversion is involved (e.g., TB to HDMI), and whether the 3rd party monitor is the primary or secondary monitor. In my experience I’ve seen far fewer issues when everything is directly matched and the 3rd party monitor is the primary. I have a Dell monitor that I used as a secondary display on my iMac, TB to DP, and it started off with a few issues like requiring a one-time unplug-plug video connection trick whenever macOS was updated. It would also forget the portrait orientation at such times. Over the years it actually got somewhat better with later macOS updates. When I moved the same monitor to the primary on my Mac mini it has been perfect. I also use a Dell 4K monitor as a secondary display for my Mac Studio, connected TB3 to DP with USB-C on both ends - zero problems whatsoever. 
  
  Unlike Windows, which allows the installation of 3rd party display drivers that can sometimes address interoperability issues, if you run into an issue with a 3rd party monitor with your Mac you’re at the mercy of Apple to eventually provide a fix. The upside of course is that allowing 3rd party drivers in the OS can totally destabilize your system, so I prefer Apple’s model. 
  
  The one thing that I would like to see Apple adopt from several 3rd party monitors is to design its native stand mounting mechanism so it’s VESA compatible. Apple’s stands are lovely, but they’d be even lovelier if they were coupled to the monitor via a VESA mount, like on the higher end Dell models and the Samsung model featured in this article. This applies to both Apple’s standalone monitors and the iMacs. The slight tradeoff in aesthetics would be overshadowed by the huge improvement in mounting and viewing flexibility and ergonomics, plus being able to change the mount type post-purchase.
  
  Yes, Apple allows buyers to choose a VESA option at the time of purchase, but there’s no easy/clean way to convert a standard mount to a VESA mount post-purchase. The standard non-height-adjustable stand on the Studio Display is something that I would learn to loath almost immediately. Luckily I got the VESA model so I don’t have to prop it up on the massive Programming Windows (Petzold) hardcover book like I do my iMac. Who ever said that having Windows programming experience had no residual value in the Mac world? 

  
• Reply 10 of 16

  cpsro Posts: 3,198member

  January 5, 2023 5:03PM

  That color calibration feature will require intimate knowledge of the smartphone camera being used, if it's to be accurate. I certainly wouldn't consider it a major selling point.

  
• Reply 11 of 16

  MacPro Posts: 19,727member

  January 5, 2023 6:13PM

  DAalseth said:

  When I was doing IT work we learned to stay away from Samsung products, they just weren’t reliable, were not well made. 

  A year ago I needed a 28” 4K monitor. The local store had one by Samsung at a good price. I figured that it had been a long time since I had tried a Samsung product. I figured that they must have worked out the bugs, after all they still sold well. I was willing to give Samsung another try. 

  It was trash.
  I was using it as a secondary monitor on my iMac. But when I would wake the iMac up, the Samsung would only wake about half the time. In those cases I had to unplug it, video and power, and plug it back in to get it to respond. And when it was working it had a habit of snapping to a hashed screen, random horizontal streaks with no visible picture. The only way to fix that was to do the same unplug and plug back in routine. After two days of trying to get it to work I gave up. I took it back and swapped it for an ASUS that has been solid. 
  

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  Sounds a bit like our experience with Samsung refrigerators!
• Reply 12 of 16

  bloggerblog Posts: 2,464member

  January 5, 2023 7:19PM

  One thing that rubs me the wrong way is how Samsung keeps copying Apple designs, this looks almost identical to Apple's Studio Display

  
• Reply 13 of 16

  pulseimages Posts: 601member

  January 5, 2023 10:25PM

  DAalseth said:

  When I was doing IT work we learned to stay away from Samsung products, they just weren’t reliable, were not well made. 

  A year ago I needed a 28” 4K monitor. The local store had one by Samsung at a good price. I figured that it had been a long time since I had tried a Samsung product. I figured that they must have worked out the bugs, after all they still sold well. I was willing to give Samsung another try. 

  It was trash.
  I was using it as a secondary monitor on my iMac. But when I would wake the iMac up, the Samsung would only wake about half the time. In those cases I had to unplug it, video and power, and plug it back in to get it to respond. And when it was working it had a habit of snapping to a hashed screen, random horizontal streaks with no visible picture. The only way to fix that was to do the same unplug and plug back in routine. After two days of trying to get it to work I gave up. I took it back and swapped it for an ASUS that has been solid. 
  

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  I’ve always had good luck with Samsung TV’s. 

  
• Reply 14 of 16

  appleinsideruser Posts: 495member

  January 5, 2023 10:55PM

  AppleInsider said:

  One of the more unique features Samsung included here is smart calibration. Using the SmartThings app, we held the phone up to the display and a series of colors flashed before us. After a few moments, we got our results on the phone.

  More unique? Apart from AppleTV and iPhone that do it?

  
• Reply 15 of 16

  danox Posts: 2,853member

  January 5, 2023 11:16PM

  raybo said:

  “…Samsung tries to one-up Apple…” what????
  
  
  impossible…..

  edited January 2023
• Reply 16 of 16

  Applejacs Posts: 35member

  January 6, 2023 5:37AM

  DAalseth said:

  When I was doing IT work we learned to stay away from Samsung products, they just weren’t reliable, were not well made. 

  A year ago I needed a 28” 4K monitor. The local store had one by Samsung at a good price. I figured that it had been a long time since I had tried a Samsung product. I figured that they must have worked out the bugs, after all they still sold well. I was willing to give Samsung another try. 

  It was trash.
  I was using it as a secondary monitor on my iMac. But when I would wake the iMac up, the Samsung would only wake about half the time. In those cases I had to unplug it, video and power, and plug it back in to get it to respond. And when it was working it had a habit of snapping to a hashed screen, random horizontal streaks with no visible picture. The only way to fix that was to do the same unplug and plug back in routine. After two days of trying to get it to work I gave up. I took it back and swapped it for an ASUS that has been solid. 
  

  No matter how good these displays look under ideal conditions at a trade show, I wouldn’t get them. I don’t trust Samsung. 

  
  

  
  

  
  

  My Samsung TV has been solid, but in the back of my mind I’m just waiting, you know it’s coming. There’s lots more great monitors coming out of this years CES.