Samsung CJ791 34" Thunderbolt 3 Curved QLED Widescreen Monitor

Honestly I was excited to see the CJ79 curved Thunderbolt 3 monitor as an option for my new MacBook Pro. Im a long time Mac user and currently have two of the Thunderbolt 2 monitors on my desk. The option for a 1.5x wide monitor roughly the same height appealed to me despite less screen real estate as there would not be a bezel dividing the screens. I thought the curve would be fine as well. I got my new MBP and realized using my old monitors would require dongles to connect and would not offer charging so this seemed like the best option. I ordered it and it arrived in a larger box somewhat well packed. No visible damage. Opened it up and it was indeed glorious at first sight. Very light weight as well. The problems started when I unpacked it and carefully removed the plastic protective film from the bezel - the film grabbed so well it removed some of the paint on the bezel. That sucks for a nearly $900 monitor and quite frankly its unacceptable to have missing bezel paint on day one. I could have lived with the missing paint perhaps but once connected to the MBP I realized that the image was a bit inferior. The font is pixelated and jagged. Seriously. Im sure its a Mac thing but the amount of adjustment and controls is very limited. I do image editing and CAD drawing and it was so noticeable I ended up buying a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 dongle for $49 just to make sure it wasnt the output on my new MBP. It wasnt and honestly my old Mac Thunderbolt 2 monitors look much better than this Samsung. Be warned this is all plastic and a little bit cheap looking. If you are a Mac user and do graphics or drawings please go see one in person before buying as it more than likely is a step backward as far as image quality especially compared to a Retina laptop screen. I boxed it up for a return and started that process with Amazon. I will be using my old monitors and will need to purchase a dock with Thunderbolt 2 to 3 ports to make this work well. That sucks.

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The monitor is beautiful and I get compliments all the time on its appearance and picture quality.. but I do have some complaints. The USB-C cord supplied is black, which is annoying with a white monitor. There are only two available USB-C and two available USB ports available. They are also smack in the middle of the back of the monitor, so if you plug anything in, they stick out and aren’t pretty. Absolute biggest flaw? NO MICROPHONE. So no remote meetings. What monitor in 2019 doesn’t have a microphone? I guess it is my own fault for not specifically looking at the details for one to be included. **UPDATE** just shy of 2 months after purchasing, the speakers no longer seem to work and the I am having troubles connecting to my laptop. I will be replacing the provided USB-C cord to see if it helps... but Im pretty disappointed.

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*Update 3* My replacement screen now has several dead pixels, and several pixels which wont unstick attempting several different methods. Not too pleased with the overall quality control on these. Potential in this screen, but quality control issues would prevent a recommendation. Finally if you have two TB3 devices connected, you can switch between the two by powering one down fully while the other remains on, this will switch input and then you can power back on your other device. Not the most convenient process, but I find it easier than removing cables. *** UPDATE 2 *** Some very important items if you are considering this monitor: #1 Bad item: YOU CANNOT SWITCH SOURCES BETWEEN THE 2 TB3 INPUTS. If you have 2 TB3 devices plugged into the monitor. You have to fully SHUT THE MONITOR DOWN as well as both devices, then power on the device you want to use and the monitor will pick up the correct TB3 input...repeat you cannot switch input sources between the two TB3 inputs...this stinks. #2 Bad item: You cant just press the power button to turn it off. You have to go through the OSD to turn off the monitor which makes it 3 clicks for a function that should be 1 click. Really annoying and really terrible IMHO. #3 Bad Item: The monitor will regularly fail to power your peripherals in which case you may have to power cycle the monitor, unplug the devices from this screen itself. This is a real annoyance. I still stand by the picture quality but this monitor has so many other flaws it may be best to wait until the next gen or a different brand has something similar (if your needing 2 TB3 inputs) ***** UPDATE ***** So after having the monitor for only 4 days, the joystick that operates the On Screen Display stopped working when being pressed a certain direction. Calling amazon to hopefully get this exchanged right now. Having been used to laptop screens primarily for the last decade, I had been wanting an ultrawide and it was a tough choice deciding which screen to go with. I was between this monitor, the new LG 34gk950f which was eliminated because it is on backorder everywhere, and the old Alienware AW3418DW. The Alienware I had seen in person several times and while gameplay is fantastic on the screen, the colors were not very vibrant and it seemed a little dull. Since I will be using this for work, media and gaming I saw the samsung and the contrast compared to the Alienware is a good bit better. So my choice was made, and I hoped for the best for gaming. Now here are my thoughts after one brief day with it; Ill update this review down the road. ********NOTE******** In windows with 100% scaling the text is clean and crisp looks great on websites and documents etc. On Mojave 10.14.3 the scaling is not perfect. Pictures images still look great but the text is a little jagged. You can mess with the settings and make it a little better but oddly it does look better in Windows 10. Build Quality/VESA MOUNTING - So let me get the red herring out of the way and put it out there; I dont like the VESA Mount setup for this monitor at all. Sure its actually pretty easy to remove the pre-attached stand and install the mount, only 2 phillips screws, but the way it is designed it adds about 2" of depth to the monitor when depth is the area that I am already lacking. This could have easily been solved by having a flat portion on the back of the monitor or having the vesa mount point on the monitor itself be vertically positioned against the rear of the monitor and having the adapter plate attach the same way. Either way just know if you do plan on mounting this that the screen will end up 2" deeper than it should be. Build Quality of the frame and stand itself is fantastic. Its all plastic all around, but it doesnt reek of low quality, it definitely feels sturdy. A joystick on the rear of the display controls the OSD easily and when it is pushed it powers the screen on/off. If you plan on using the stand, it has a removable panel for cable management but it doesnt look like it will fit more than 3-4 cables max. Last thing to note about the cables; they are NICE! Samsung stepped up and gave use some very high quality HDMI, and power cabling here make sure you account for the HUGE power brick. They also included a 2m Thunderbolt 3 cable in which is high quality as well. Screen Quality- So I dont have any professional tools but there are calibration results saved from the factory you can look at in the OSD and there is ability to do fine tuning. Beside my 2018 Macbook Pro the colors have a little bit of a red tint to them but they are very very close, the blacks on this Samsung VA panel are far superior to the macbooks though. Its not perfect, the blue/green colors arent as well defined on here, but again overall this is a fantastic picture on this panel and the 100hz refresh rate makes web browsing and videos playback very smoothly. Features- Part of the reason the 21:9 34+ monitor decision is so difficult is because seeming no one monitor has everything, KVM, 1440p+ resolution, 120+ refresh rate, Speakers (i know they suck but I want them), gsync/freesync, Thunderbolt 3 connectionS. This Samsung does not have everything indeed, but the TWO TB3 connections (1 85w 1 15w), KVM functionality, and decent 100hz refresh rate sold me on the screen. I use KVM lightly because this isnt a true KVM, BUT if you are using two machines with TB3 it works fine and you can simply select which machine will have control in the OSD...super easy and a great feature for me as I have the screen connected to my 2018 mac and 2019 Razer Blade 15 and I can switch which gets the KB/Mouse functionality, have the screen split or PIP. Sound Quality- Not too much to say here. It gets loud enough to fill a small room, no real base or clean treble but its not the worst things Ive ever heard and its significantly better than 99.99999% of laptop speakers out there. Its acceptable for what it is no more no less. Gaming - So being 100hz and coming from my 2019 15" Razer blades 144hz screen I thought the step down would be very noticeable. I can definitely tell its not quite as smooth, but its still a very smooth gameplay experience. There is no Free/GSync so that can be a concern, but as a casual gamer while I noticed a difference it wasnt significant and I am happy to sacrifice that by upping the resolution and having a wider FOV (in most games). Besides the refresh rate, input lag was pretty good and shouldnt affect anyone outside of top pro gamer types. This kind of brings me to the next topic which isnt so much about the quality of the monitor but an idea of what you might need to run it..... Horsepower- So gaming rig wise my Razer Blade 15" has a 2060RTX, i7 8750h hexacore, 16GB DDR4 and a 512GB Samsung NVME. Two games Ive been playing lately are Path of Exiles and Apex Legends heres a very brief breakdown of the frames: Apex Legends @ 1080p w/RTX 2060----------@3440x1440p ------------------avg ~105-------------------------avg ~80 In apex settings are mostly maxed (no AA), still very playable at this resolution with a 2060 RTX and doesnt dip below 70fps (on mobile 2060 even mind you!) Path of Exiles @ 1080p w/RTX 2060 -------------------- @ 3440x1440p ------------------avg ~120fps --------------------------------avg ~90fps ------- windows Not sure why but PoE took a much bigger frame hit going to the higher resolution but still averaged 90fps at native resolution with maxed settings. So as far as horsepower and todays current games I would say a 1070/2060 would probably be the minimum you would want to have if you plan on gaming at the native res and getting framerates in the 60-100 range on MOST current AAA games. So other than the design of the VESA mounting bracket I really enjoy this monitor. Its bright, vibrant and contrasty and plays games smoothly with little to no motion blur. The speakers are decent and with 2 TB3 ports KVM functionality its a great value @ $800 and below!

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