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Get Samsung's ViewFinity S9 5K Smart Monitor for $999.99 ($600 Off) During Sitewide Winter Sale

HobeSoundDarryl said:
Or the LG 5Ks glossies priced like that. Glossy? LG. Matte? This Samsung. Money to burn? ASD + stand option unless one finds a used bargain.
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I wouldn't personally get the LG. Its antireflective coating isn't as good as that on the Retina iMac and ASD. Plus they've had QC issues, and shipping back a monitor is a royal PITA. Also, LG's support doesn't have a good reputation. You're better off with a used ASD with AppleCare.
 
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azentropy said:
...the speakers are absolutely horrible. I get better sound out of my M1 MBA with the lid closed (which actually covers the speakers) than I do on this. The other features are also a bit bothersome as it always defaults to whatever Samsung calls their Smart TV features and I routinely had to then get out the remote and change it back to just the monitor. I didn’t play a lot with the Smart TV features as since the speakers are soooo bad I’d never watch anything from it anyway. The power brick is also huge, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that big. It doesn’t support native sound/brightness controls from my Mac(s). I tried a 3rd party app and it worked sometimes, but was inconsistent.
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Built-in speakers in most monitors are far from great. I have an LG ultra wide monitor and it is some what acceptable for system sounds, basic youtube or tele-conferencing. But I normally use our HomePod mini's.

Samsung "smart" TV's are horrible in many ways. Next to the horrible factory calibration, the internal software is pure crap. Actually, I would urge all TV brands to make basic TV's again that focus on picture and sound quality only. "Smart" should be an option only, a hardware cartridge that you can slide in if you really, really want to use it.

I got AppleTV 4K in 2017 and it still outperforms any built-in "smart" TV software in speed, smoothness and user experience. (now waiting for an ATV with M3 raytracing)
 
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Powerbooky said:
Built-in speakers in most monitors are far from great. I have an LG ultra wide monitor and it is some what acceptable for system sounds, basic youtube or tele-conferencing. But I normally use our HomePod mini's.

Samsung "smart" TV's are horrible in many ways. Next to the horrible factory calibration, the internal software is pure crap. Actually, I would urge all TV brands to make basic TV's again that focus on picture and sound quality only. "Smart" should be an option only, a hardware cartridge that you can slide in if you really, really want to use it.

I got AppleTV 4K in 2017 and it still outperforms any built-in "smart" TV software in speed, smoothness and user experience. (now waiting for an ATV with M3 raytracing)
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I can't speak to the specifics about the monitors you mention, but I agree with the general sentiment.

As someone who runs three displays, I don't need a display to do anything except be a display. I don't use or need—or want to pay for— a camera, speakers, microphone, or USB hub. And I certainly don't need three of each.

There may be others, but Dell is the only company I know of that offers versions of its displays without camera/mic/speakers.
 
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The advantage of this Samsung display is it works with Mac and Windows. And it has a matte display. And there's height adjustment.

If you don't care about those features, go with the Apple Studio Display
 
With such a steep discount of $600, I wonder if this suggests anything about how well it's selling.

Is this a one-time sale or is it headed for towards a more permanent price reduction in the coming months?
 
Powerbooky said:
Built-in speakers in most monitors are far from great. I have an LG ultra wide monitor and it is some what acceptable for system sounds, basic youtube or tele-conferencing. But I normally use our HomePod mini's.
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Built-in speakers tend to be sacrificed for cost and sometimes allow for a thinner design.

I got a high-end OLED TV and I was shocked at how bad the built-in speakers are, but the whole TV is literally 1" thick and designed to be wall-mounted. This means often a sound system needs to be factored in if one wants the audio quality to match how good the video is.

Said that, Apple actually tends to have very good built-in speakers in their products, e.g. the MBP speakers are outstanding and the Studio Display has excellent speakers. The Viewfinity S9 has relatively bad speakers and the comparison with the Studio Display in that department is almost embarrassing.
 
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satchmo said:
With such a steep discount of $600, I wonder if this suggests anything about how well it's selling.

Is this a one-time sale or is it headed for towards a more permanent price reduction in the coming months?
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Samsung has a long history of rolling out MSRP and eventually getting to about 30% off... until they discontinue a screen and then it can go towards as much as nearly 50% off. I called $999 back around launch (and more specifically calling about WHEN in another thread).

After Christmas, it will probably pop back up a bit but work it's way back down here again. And when S9.1, S9B, S19 or S10 or whatever it is called gets a release to replace this one, this S9 might be had for about $799 in inventory closeouts... but then anyone interested will want the new model...

...and Apple fans will still be pushing ASD or bust: nothing else can possibly compete... practically perfect in every way. ;)

Competition is good and this is very tangible competition in an oddball 5K resolution, especially suited for us Mac people. As Samsung pinches their margin to hit much lower pricing, it pressures Apple to either do some of the same or work on ways to justify charging a lot more in ASD II than just "maximize AAPL profit." That's a win for the crowd able to buy NOT-Apple AND the crowd who can only consider Apple. The latter will either get a much improved ASD II and/or a lower-priced ASD I.

The formerly-endorsed 5K monitor from LG (sold in Apple stores prior to ASD) is also down around this price level, so Apple is most expensive and the others are competing with lower prices for select different FABs that may or may not matter to any given buyer. Consider carefully and choose wisely... whether that's ASD or one of the others. Then enjoy your great purchase- whatever it is.

ME? I considered all options for my Mac Studio and opted for a Dell 40" 5K 2K ultra wide for about the same price as ASD with stand option. I love it and would buy another to replace it immediately if anything happened to it. Its screen looks as great as my old iMac 27" AND it has much more screen RE WIDTH. The built-in hub has many commonly-used ports and 4 video inputs make "old fashioned bootcamp" using a real PC a very convenient & easy option. It can even split screen with PC on the left or right and Mac on the other side, sharing a keyboard and mouse through the hub.

There's several good fish in this sea at a variety of prices if buyers can simply "think different" and objectively compare them.
 
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blazerunner said:
That someone will probably be Samsung that will make them and Apple will try and take credit for it. Everyone on Macrumors of course will celebrate as if Apple did the work.
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Odd comment. No one thinks Apple is making all of their own panels. Also, I can't think of any situation in which Apple has tried to "take credit for" making a panel that was made by someone else.
 
5K 120hz is...
Rychiar said:
simply not possible without thunderbolt 5 which no one has yet
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That's only the case if you don't use compression. You can drive at least 6k@120Hz over TB4 with no problem using DSC. This is demonstrated by the fact that, by running a single TB cable from an M# Pro/Max/Ultra to a CalDigit TS4, you can drive two 6k@60 Hz displays (which together require the same bandwidth as a single 6k@120 Hz display)*

From https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-station-4/ :

1703457233245.png


*In practice, and depending on how the compression works, 1 x 6k@120 Hz could require less compressed bandwidth than 2 x 6k@60, since the number of pixels that change every 1/120 s could be significantly less than the number that change every 1/60 s. [I'm imagining a compression scheme in which you only transmit, to the display, the pixels that need to change with each frame.]
 
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Nice monitor, but a quick search shows that Amazon has it for only $932, where it's been below $1000 for a couple of weeks now. Same model number, LS27C900PANXZA. Am I missing something?
 
teohyc said:
The advantage of this Samsung display is it works with Mac and Windows. And it has a matte display. And there's height adjustment.

If you don't care about those features, go with the Apple Studio Display
Click to expand...

Aside from Center Stage, Siri, and a few other things, the ASD does work in Windows.
 
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jchurchill said:
Nice monitor, but a quick search shows that Amazon has it for only $932, where it's been below $1000 for a couple of weeks now. Same model number, LS27C900PANXZA. Am I missing something?
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I don't think so. The thread is discussing Samsung's manufacturer-direct pricing, but it's common for AZ to undercut that.
 
Now the s9 is 831 on Amazon. I would probably go this route instead of a Refurbished Studio display but why the heck doesn’t it have an audio port on the back of it.
 
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