I bought an S9 in February. While the picture is definitely nice, the monitor has been nothing but trouble... and Samsung is horrible about "service."
I can only confirm. The internal firmware is horrible, both the GUI and control. It does work with Samsung phones, but other devices from other brands not so much. Turning a Samsung TV off and on via the HDMI port often fails, milage does vary per model/brand device though.
And service... in case of any Samsung device it is usually better to do business with a real store instead and let them handle the replacing/repairing.
heard they are collecting data, they don't want to make dumb monitor.
don't like fancy features in display (including Apple display), i want dumb TV & monitor.
still using 2 thunderbolt displays @ work and home.
That is 100% correct. They do collect (your) data. That's why "Smart" TV's are cheaper than the "dumb" models, because there's more money to milk from data collecting and app makers. The data mining is mainly used for more advertising that it shoved on your screen. App makers that want their app on the Samsung platform have to pay a serious fee too, especially for "the front row". LG and others do the same thing btw. And these contracts are horrible - you'd think you have control over your own app or TV, nope.
That Samsung is a way way better value than Apple's offering.
Yes... its cheaper, but less value.
If it is functional. My personal experience with both this screen and Samsung has been absolutely terrible.
As it is with almost all screens. A buddy of mine replaced his Samsung HD TV with a newer 4K model. Again... the picture quality is horrible. With factory defaults the colour accuracy is so way off and not every model can be calibrated to get it right.
I have two Samsung Smart Monitors, one in basement and one in first floor. I switch between the rooms, depending on the temperatures and my mood and just take my notebook with me.
My wife used to take her iPad for exercises to the basement. Now she just uses the smart monitor without any additional device for her excercises. The same goes for my kids with their Samsung phones.
And whenever we have guests, they sleep in basement and use the smart monitor as YouTube, TV, Netflix, Prime Video and other apps.,
It really depends on your specific use-case. We use the Smart monitor features almost on a daily basis.
In my experience the software updates will quickly run dry and every online app will start to have issues or even stop working. Our AppleTV's from 2017 are still working perfectly whereas the 2022 "smart" TV my relatives use was showing problems with several apps after barely two years. So they've moved to the set-top box from the cable company.
I have to say, we do have one "smart" 4K TV from Panasonic in our house, but I turned off the smart stuff very quickly. I found out with the smart stuff on the TV consumed 20 Watts(!!!) of power when the TV was turned off (standby mode). Our AppleTV 4K doesn't even burn that much power when in active mode - it consumes around 3 Watts when its playing a 4K movie. So I turned everything "smart" off in the Panasonic and that reduced the standby power consumption to less than 1 Watt (as it should).
Thought about getting one of these Samsung 5K displays to use as a 2nd monitor but I’ll pass after reading these reviews. No wonder they’re always $600 off. I paid an arm and a leg for my nano etched Apple Studio Display, but its been rock solid. I use it for my business so I can’t afford downtime and its never failed me in nearly two years of use. Just waking up instantly from sleep without issues is so worth paying the heavy price lol.
A "dumb" screen is always better. And indeed, when running a business any downtime due to stupid issues or failing equipment can cost more money. Besides... Samsung is "low budget" for basic consumers who don't mind to replace stuff more often.
