Samsung Viewfinity S9 — First sign of it in the wild

[matt-io]

First time seeing this in the hands of a consumer. He's a little harsh on it at times, so doesn't come off as a paid promotion.

What do people think about this?

 

[DennisdeWit]

He had all the right to be harsh on it. This must be one of the worst displays I have seen in a while. The colors look extremely washed out, especially at the beginning with the pink macOS wallpaper.

Then, compared to the Apple Studio Display, it seems the Viewfinity S9 is lacking a lot of detail. With the green forest it seems the colors are oversaturated. I expected much more from this monitor. I would choose for an ASD if I’d have to make the choice.

 

[MacGizmo]

He had all the right to be harsh on it. This must be one of the worst displays I have seen in a while. The colors look extremely washed out, especially at the beginning with the pink macOS wallpaper.

Then, compared to the Apple Studio Display, it seems the Viewfinity S9 is lacking a lot of detail. With the green forest it seems the colors are oversaturated. I expected much more from this monitor. I would choose for an ASD if I’d have to make the choice.

Are you saying you actually HAVE the Viewfinity S9? I don't see how you can form a valid opinion if you don't. Watching a video of it in no way shows the picture quality, so the only thing this video shows beyond the specs on the website is an unboxing.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have high hopes for any monitor from Samsung when compared to the Apple displays, but saying it's "one of the worst displays" is a bit of a stretch at this point, particularly if you aren't actually using one.

 

[azentropy]

I gave up waiting and purchased the ASD when it was on sale a few months ago. I had/have a Dell U2720Q 4K that was pretty good, but it wasn't 5K good.

I really like the ASD , but there are some things I really wish it had like

1) Adjustable height (even if you purchase the adjustable stand it only goes HIGHER than the standard base and not lower)
2) Multiple inputs and switching between inputs.
3) Apple should have made it also work as a stand-alone AppleTV
4) Higher refresh rate
5) Less reflective

Looks like Samsung hits on some of these, but I probably made the right choice. However might consider one for my secondary system depending what it comes priced in at in the US.

 

[EugW]

Those display anomalies on his Intel Macs are so strange. Good to know it works fine on his Apple Silicon Mac though.

I also asked him if macOS supports the scaled 2304x1296 resolution on this 27" 5K monitor. I'm guessing no since Apple doesn't offer it on the Apple Studio Display either, which is a shame since Apple already offers it on numerous 27" 4K monitors.

What I really want though is a 5K 29.5" monitor, which I'd run at native "looks-like" 2560x1440, at ~200 ppi.

Are you saying you actually HAVE the Viewfinity S9? I don't see how you can form a valid opinion if you don't. Watching a video of it in no way shows the picture quality, so the only thing this video shows beyond the specs on the website is an unboxing.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have high hopes for any monitor from Samsung when compared to the Apple displays, but saying it's "one of the worst displays" is a bit of a stretch at this point, particularly if you aren't actually using one.

Furthermore, it will probably need to be properly colour calibrated. Apple isn't perfect out of the box for colour calibration but on average is better than most other computer companies for colour calibration.

My 28.2" Huawei MateView (which is mentioned as an alternative in that video review) looked all washed out and had incorrect colours when first plugged into the Mac, despite Huawei's claim it is properly colour calibrated out of the box. So I ran a Spyder colour calibrator and now the colours look great. No light bleed either. Also, there are no sleep issues with this monitor on my M1 Mac mini even though a Thunderbolt 4 hub. Its main issue is there is a gradual light falloff towards the edges.

 

[dazzer21-2]

45% cheaper?

 

[EugW]

45% cheaper?

< US$1000 pre-order in Korea according to one of the commenters. 45,990 Baht / US$1350 in Thailand.

List price is KRW 1.9 million though which is like US$1460.