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Samsung's New 32-Inch 'M8' Display vs. Apple's Studio Display
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I like it ✅
Wasn’t sure at first, as my eyes had to get used to a big screen.
The big screen (I’m coming frim 21 inch 1080p) has been great for productivity, helped out my Moom.
Image quality is good, dark mode is great (helped by the VA panel I image).
The Smart TV function is as expected - all good. Sound is only ok.
The camera works no problem. As does using it as a hub.
For £550, it’s great value.
Wasn’t sure at first, as my eyes had to get used to a big screen.
The big screen (I’m coming frim 21 inch 1080p) has been great for productivity, helped out my Moom.
Image quality is good, dark mode is great (helped by the VA panel I image).
The Smart TV function is as expected - all good. Sound is only ok.
The camera works no problem. As does using it as a hub.
For £550, it’s great value.
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This is so arrogant. I still work on a 2012 iMac waiting for the bigger one to come but i did lots of (professional) 4K editing (which it can't display itself) on it and no it's not necessary to have a Retina display for that. It's convenient yes but not necessary, as well as reading text. Only in very specific graphic design cases. And 4K at 32" does NOT make things blurry. Blurry occurs when the hardware resolution vs software resolution: ≠ 1:1 or 2:1 or 3:1 or 4:1 but 1:1.15 or another improper conversion.
You can perfectly have 4K or 1080P HDPi on a 4K screen.
A 4K 32” screen 2X scaled to 1080p results in huge text that isn’t exactly blurry but which still may appear a bit pixelated at say a 20” seating distance.
The problem here though is the vast majority of people wouldn’t use the 1080p 2X scaled resolution at this 32” size as it is far too limiting in terms of screen real estate, as the text is too big. IMO, in terms of text size, the sweet spot for 4K scaled to 1080p is ~22”.
Just use it scaled to the UI size you like - it makes no realistic observable (during regular use) difference to clarity (not for standard office work, data analysis, and reporting, etc). I tested the difference using my MacBook Pro 16 M1 Max and 32” 4K monitor. All that stuff about blurring etc. is completely over blown
It’s not overblown. You simply can’t see it, and I can. I cannot run a 4K display in the 1440p mode. It hurts my eyes.
See my post in thread 'Samsung M8 best picture settings'
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/samsung-m8-best-picture-settings.2345269/post-31242817
It includes the attached image. Please highlight on the centre (non-integer-scaled) screen grab example where the image deformities are? I don’t see any significant image deformation, but perhaps you’re right and I can’t see them, so show me (I’m curious)?
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It’s not about the deformity. It’s about the lack of edge definition. My eyes immediately notice that the edges of fonts are not well defined when a 4K display is in the 1440p resolution. Any other resolution on the 4K display makes the font either too little or two big. A 4K display at 1080p resolution looks great - just like a 5K display does in 1440p, but there is significantly less screen real estate between 1080p and 1440p.
you must be joking. If you put the M8 32" in full 4K (no HDPI) a non tweaked UI is so small it's hardly readable.
And yes all 1.something conversions are ****** but that's not the point.
Saying 4K at 32" is necessary or hurting your eyes on 22" distance is princess behavior. I don't know a graphic designer or editor that does not scale or enhance things while matting or drawing on pixel level. Or you must zoom in with your nose on the screen.
Overall the screen is not perfect for many reasons but it's more than worth the price at the current level. Which is 25% of the studio display... and it's height adjustable and does actually DO something with the onboard processor.
For every student (even in design) or prosumer it's a bargain given the current price/quality combined with the feature set.
It's in many ways the studio display SE from a Studio Display that should have been or a cost effective wink to the bigger iMac that Apple so far did not deliver on (which is a bloody shame)
And yes all 1.something conversions are ****** but that's not the point.
Saying 4K at 32" is necessary or hurting your eyes on 22" distance is princess behavior. I don't know a graphic designer or editor that does not scale or enhance things while matting or drawing on pixel level. Or you must zoom in with your nose on the screen.
Overall the screen is not perfect for many reasons but it's more than worth the price at the current level. Which is 25% of the studio display... and it's height adjustable and does actually DO something with the onboard processor.
For every student (even in design) or prosumer it's a bargain given the current price/quality combined with the feature set.
It's in many ways the studio display SE from a Studio Display that should have been or a cost effective wink to the bigger iMac that Apple so far did not deliver on (which is a bloody shame)
That is not true. If the pixel density is high enough, non-integer scaling looks fine. Apple actually has used non-integer scaling on several Macs and iPhones by default.
No, it’s normal. 4K at 32” is too low a pixel density for clear text.
As mentioned above, it’s about text quality. It’s actually arguably less important for graphics.
Anyways the designers I know won’t touch a 32” 4K screen, because the text quality is too poor with non-integer scaling, as the pixel density is too low.
I don’t use monitors for design, so I don’t use the non-HDPI 4K resolution for displaying images. I work with text, and as you mentioned, non-HDPI 4K is impossible to use for text, and any 1.x conversions are crap. The only UI conversions that work for me are integer-based HDPI UI conversions. This makes 4K be sized like 1080P for UI elements, including text, which is a waste of the screen real estate. The 5K HDPI conversion is sized like 1440P, which is perfect on a 27” display. This is the reason I don’t buy 4K monitors.
Hi! How did you made the connection between your laptop mac to the Samsumg monitor
Hi! How did you made the connection? I have a Macbook air M1 and the Samsung M8 is arriving tomorrow. I need it for zoom meetings so i dont know if HDMI would work. Thanks
Looks like a hub that does 5 Gbps (Superspeed) USB and DisplayPort from the computer over USB-C, then a HDMI connection from that to the monitor.
It comes with a high quality USBC cable, just plug that into your MacBook and you’re done. This will also charge the MacBook, which is very handy. Don’t use the HDMI cable that comes with it, as, if you do, you won’t be able to use the webcam.
I bought the m8 and I like it. But I can not get Betterdisplay or Monitorcontrol change the settings on the display via DDC. If someone found a setting in Samsung which enables this, please let me know. thank you
I have an M1 Studio and have to use the HDMI cable that came with the M8. What am I doing wrong? I thought maybe I need a Thunderbolt cable, but the M8 doesn't support Thunderbolt. I want to free up the M8's HDMI port for a Blu-ray player. I don't need the M8's webcam.
I found this post by the developer of BetterDisplay on his Discord site -- he's saying if DDC doesn't work you may need to control brightness using software (though I'm not sure what settings you're trying to control). You might also try Lunar (which is similar in function to BetterDisplay)
Thank you, yes, it does dim via software, but because it is software-based it does not dim the backlight. I hope that Samsung will do a software update, so one can use the DDC protocol.
Have you experimented with different inputs? E.g., I found this here ( ) saying some Samsung montiors only implement DDC via HDMI:
The only other things I can think of would be to try contacting Samsung support, or posting on the Samsung forums.
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I can't remember exactly but you ARE doing something wrong:
- 1st make sure you've updated to the last firmware (there was an actual update when we got ours)
- adapt the usb-c/connection settings
In our home it's working flawless with connected apple usb keyboard, mouse and m1 macbook air. Full functionality for cam, speakers, bluetooth speakers. The older hardware connects through a USB/c hub.
As standalone device and in harmony with the MacBooks and HP laptops.