Samsung's iMac-Style 'Smart Monitor M8' With AirPlay Now Available to Pre-Order

[Kierkegaarden]

Shameless copy of the iMac and Studio Display. Samsung’s design team budget must be tiny.

The magnetic camera is a good idea though — I wouldn’t want a camera on my monitor or even laptop for that matter. Since most people carry a phone, why can’t they just use the camera on their phone? I have never used the camera on my laptop or desktop. But I still have to accept a camera module that eats into my display space.

What would happen if Apple removed the camera from their laptops? Would there be an uproar?

 

[amartinez1660]

I have gone only halfways on the comments, but already feeling the urge to jump in:

When my 2010 LED Cinema Display (27-Inch) finally gives up the ghost (I've already replaced the fan) I may go for this.

Fits the bill and doesn't break my bank account.

I wish Apple had done a similar one… I really do.

I concur with the others, the 27” Cinema and TB displays have 2560x1440 resolutions which is plenty for the size. I have two sandwiching an iMac 5K main display and all of them fit the exact same content except that the iMac is tons sharper… this M8 one at 4K 2x scaled would have the same real state content as a 1080p screen. Being 32” I’m not too sure what would be a sensible scale ratio that would make it usable and non blurry (if anybody happens to know?)

Everything is sharper. 217 ppi vs. 137 ppi is a huge deal. I have now used 5K iMac and MacBook Pros for years wich all have around 220 ppi. Last year my employer gave me a 27" 4K display and when I turned it on I was sure it was broken. After some fiddling around and talking to friends I found out that it is not broken but working perfectly fine and the bad resolution is completely normal.

No, it isn't fine, and stop telling people that. It is objectively and factually below the threshold of acceptable for a Mac display, which is why no Apple display ships with such a low pixel density. Facts. Not opinions.

There are people here who don't know any better, and they don't need to be reading your uninformed nonsense.

This M8 display reminds me of the size increase craze lots of friends where onto. They would buy a 21”, then months later a 22”, then a 24”, then a 27” or 28” at admittedly amazing cheap prices… but all of them 1080p, I didn’t ever understand this drive. Same with most very ultra wide monitors whose heights are also

I kinda understand for TVs viewed from the couch, but not a desktop/laptop screen.
Unless there’s a sensible scaling number where things look still great but would have the equivalent real state content of the 32” XDR maybe?

 

[Student of Life]

You always get what you pay for. Good luck with this one!

This is one of those instances where the Apple Tax is not worth it. Here you have a semi competitor with a bigger screen at almost half the price and you get airplay 2. Heck the Apple display cant even do HDR which apparently this screen can. Had Apple released a screen worth the money you wouldn't be having this conversation, instead they released a sub par product.

 

[Minxy]

You can get a 55” 8k display for far less than a 5k studio display.

https://www.currys.co.uk/tv-and-audio/televisions/tvs/8k-tvs

True, but that’s a moo point. 55” TV is likely too big for most desks.

 

[bluespark]

This is one of those instances where the Apple Tax is not worth it. Here you have a semi competitor with a bigger screen at almost half the price and you get airplay 2. Heck the Apple display cant even do HDR which apparently this screen can. Had Apple released a screen worth the money you wouldn't be having this conversation, instead they released a sub par product.

If you value a bigger screen over resolution, then sure -- it has a bigger screen. As to HDR, given the very large difference in brightness, I suspect the Apple Studio Display will come closer to presenting something that looks like HDR than this display will, but of course we'll see. And I doubt the build quality of this will come even close to Apple's.

Don't get me wrong -- this has its advantages, and the pricing is good. If the reviews are good, I may buy one myself. But your comparison doesn't mention several of things that the Studio Display does better, and those will matter to many people.

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

This seems like a lot to spend for a TV this small. It does have a camera though, that’s nice. ??

 

[iStorm]

Shameless copy of the iMac and Studio Display. Samsung’s design team budget must be tiny.

The magnetic camera is a good idea though — I wouldn’t want a camera on my monitor or even laptop for that matter. Since most people carry a phone, why can’t they just use the camera on their phone? I have never used the camera on my laptop or desktop. But I still have to accept a camera module that eats into my display space.

What would happen if Apple removed the camera from their laptops? Would there be an uproar?

Except it's not a copy and not meant to be a powerful computer. Samsung's M8 display was announced during CES 2022 in January. (Plus, they've had similar models in the past.) If anything, maybe Apple copied them! I mean, why does the Studio Display have an A13 chip, 64GB of storage, and iOS 15.4 installed; yet we can't do anything with it? Can you imagine how much better the Studio Display would be if it could run some apps (Apple TV), or have built-in AirPlay support? Did Apple rush and forget the WiFi card, and deliver an unfinished product? Seriously though, I'm kidding. It would be nearly impossible to design, source parts, and manufacture a display within a few months. No one copied the other.

 

[kid1230]

Hopefully the colour reproduction is decent. Not a fan of Samsung's panels, they always just seem over saturated.

we are not talking about the smartphones..

 

[Totorotarrot]

Or Apple simply didn't produce them in large quantities... give the illusion of demand via limited supplies.
Marketing 101

Except business 101 will teach u that intentionally raise price to limit demand does not maximize profit. It’s like saying an airlines will charge $50,000 for selling just one seat. Sure they can do that and sell out but will go bankrupt very quickly. Apple is a smart business and knows how to price to maximize total profit by reaching the optimal point on supply demand curve.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Except it's not a copy and not meant to be a powerful computer. Samsung's M8 display was announced during CES 2022 in January. (Plus, they've had similar models in the past.) If anything, maybe Apple copied them! I mean, why does the Studio Display have an A13 chip, 64GB of storage, and iOS 15.4 installed; yet we can't do anything with it? Can you imagine how much better the Studio Display would be if it could run some apps (Apple TV), or have built-in AirPlay support? Did Apple rush and forget the WiFi card, and deliver an unfinished product? Seriously though, I'm kidding. It would be nearly impossible to design, source parts, and manufacture a display within a few months. No one copied the other.

Look at any of the previous Samsung M monitors — do you honestly not see the change they made for the M8 to look like the iMac/Pro Display/Studio Display? Samsung has a history of copying Apple design — this is nothing new. It’s lazy and shameful.

 

[Totorotarrot]

Here I am with an Acer 24" HD monitor attached to my 2019 MBP and it does the job just fine for my work (programmer).
So no, not "completely useless to a Mac user".

I think u misunderstood his point. 24 inch 4k is more useful than 32 inch 4k cuz things look normal and sharp. 32 inch things look bigger so less sharp at that resolution. It effectively looks like a 1080p monitor.

 

[tobybrut]

Shameless copy of the iMac and Studio Display. Samsung’s design team budget must be tiny.

The magnetic camera is a good idea though — I wouldn’t want a camera on my monitor or even laptop for that matter. Since most people carry a phone, why can’t they just use the camera on their phone? I have never used the camera on my laptop or desktop. But I still have to accept a camera module that eats into my display space.

What would happen if Apple removed the camera from their laptops? Would there be an uproar?

People complain about everything. However, my daughter does the right thing. She tapes over the laptop camera. Good move.

 

[macduke]

Why won't they make a 5K or 6K version? They could come out with a 6K 32" version and charge as much as Apple does for the 5K Studio Display and still turn a healthy profit. Please why won't anybody do this? I don't get why everything just stalled out completely at 4K for displays. I run my second display, a decent 4K LG model, which is 27" on a floating arm next to my 5K iMac and I run it at 5K resolution on 4K just because it's easier when it comes to moving things back and forth between windows. I mostly have secondary windows on there such as Slack, email, and Apple Music or a YouTube video playing while I work, but it annoys me to no end that everything is slightly fuzzy on that display compared to my primary one. Not to mention that the colors, contrast and HDR aren't quite as good. And yes, I've matched them as closely as I can with a colorimeter.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

A height-adjustable Mac Studio display costs $2000 and this is 32 inches instead of 27 inches for $700. Right away I like it. This is 4K and the speakers probably not as good as Mac Studio but this is brilliant for my development needs.

​

 

[joecomo]

Not sure why people like this - you can get a cheap 32inch 4K Monitor and these make sense -
e.g. I bought cheap monitors for some places where I tend to be regularly and it sure beats the
Laptop-Experience (you need to use fractional scaling though).

but why pay extra for these „smart“ features? (What will AirPlay do anyhow on a 4K screen?)

For a Mac, Apple (and LG with the 5K screen) is providing the „right“ sizes and pixel densities.

 

[maerz001]

One more design copy.... shame.

They actually improved it perfectly to the point where the iMac should be.

No fat chin and no ugly white bezels

 

[JPMLondon]

You don’t have to wait for anything. Apple isn’t the only game in town when it comes to monitors. I have 5 Dell monitors and a nice BenQ that I bought in the interim after the Thunderbolt Display stopped being sold and before the Studio Display was introduced. This is the thing I don’t understand…Apple doesn’t owe any of us a display that we can all afford or has just the right combination of features to suit everyone, because that’s impossible. It’s not like they’re the only ones making monitors. And if people are having a fit because they can’t fathom having a non-Apple monitor for their Mac or iPad, well, that’s their problem, not Apple’s. Again there seems to be a lot of misguided entitlement on these forums as to what Apple is supposed to do for users. Not sure if this applies to you, but if your upset by what Apple is selling for monitors and you think Apple owes you something for waiting all this time, well, that’s on you.

Maybe my post wasn't meant to be taken that seriously...

The thing is, though, as many have written before this. When you're used to a screen that has the optimal balance between size and resolution, it's pretty darn difficult to choose something else as it does indeed look crap. And I mainly do spreadsheet and the like - nothing fancy graphical or anything. By the way, I could have bought another LG Ultrafine a long time ago if I had actually wanted to. Nobody - not even almighty Apple - is forcing me to wait with anything. It's just that, as I like to splash out on stuff, I also tend to wait until the right thing comes along at the time I need it and can afford it.

 

[Spectrum]

Does it also have a regular browser like Chrome built in? If so, this could largely replace our home use of a 2014 iMac (if/when it dies), which we generally now only use for browsing, webmail, GoogleDocs, and iPlayer.

 

[Grolubao]

Still prefer my Mateview 4k+ 28", it has more pixel density and it's 4:3

 

[Pilot Jones]

You always get what you pay for.

No you don't.

Because a $1600 display's screen shouldn't be worse than the screen of the laptop I'm plugging into said display.

 

[Puiz]

4K. 32".
4K. 32".
4K. 32".
This is a joke, right?
Right?

 

[TRONZA]

Apple makes premium products that has a high perceived value by the consumer. That’s why we pay for it.

The price is set to the exact point where everybody who’s thinking about buying the display complaints about its price - but still buys it.

It’s great positioning and the display sits well in an underwhelming product offering. We’ll see companies with a piggybacking business model steal western design, improve specs, and make cheaper builds. Great for the consumer as we get cheaper alternatives.

 

[Reason077]

Another 4K display. No one but Apple and a few others ever thought to make a 5k and higher display huh

Is it possible to do 5K over USB-C? Or does that require Thunderbolt 3 / HDMI 2.1?

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

we are not talking about the smartphones..

Samsung's TV offerings are just as bad for it as the smartphones.

 

[chucker23n1]

this M8 one at 4K 2x scaled would have the same real state content as a 1080p screen. Being 32” I’m not too sure what would be a sensible scale ratio that would make it usable and non blurry (if anybody happens to know?)

Assuming Apple's external displays: Apple's Pro Display XDR is 32". Ideally, you'd run it at the virtual resolution of that, 6016x3384 @ 2x, for roughly 216ppi.

That's a lot of pixels to output, so your machine may get a little slow at it. But if it can, that should lead to the best compromise of relatively high sharpness and also the right size for UI elements.

You could also try 3008x1692 @ 1x, which should also be the right size, but blurrier (but possibly faster on your machine). Given how large the screen is, you might sit far enough away that you don't notice the low ppi.