Samsung CJ791 34" Thunderbolt 3 Curved QLED Widescreen Monitor

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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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*** 2nd Update *** This second monitor is now showing 8 dead pixels and counting. Something is obviously wrong with this second panel as well. And, judging by some of the other reviews, it would appear that Samsung has some serious QA issues with this model! Definitely will be returning this but now Im doubting I will request a replacement but instead just ask for a refund and look elsewhere. Really disappointed as I love the design/aesthetics of this monitor along with many of its features. *** Update *** The second monitor I received is now showing 5 dead pixels which were not there originally. As I have done with any new monitor I have purchased in the past, upon first setting it up, I test it for dead pixels using software that checks for that sort of thing. Unlike the first monitor I received, I was not able to find a single dead pixel with this second one. Unfortunately, a day or so later while coding a website, I noticed a dead pixel. That dead pixel wasnt obvious so I figured I could probably live with it; however, a few days since noticing the first dead pixel, I now keep seeing more dead pixels popping up that were not there just days before. This has me questioning whether or not I have received another defective monitor and/or if I will continue to experience more dead pixels over time. And because I am a web/mobile developer, I stare at lines of code on my monitor for hours each day, so dead pixels are perhaps more obvious and irritating to me than most users, who are not analyzing different areas of the screen they are looking at. Looks like I am going to have to once again exchange another of these monitors which is a real pain as they are not easy to pack up and haul over to UPS. Ill once again exchange it for another of this same Samsung model and keep my fingers crossed that the third time is the charm. If I dont get lucky with the third one, then Ill sadly have to get a refund and move on to another brand other than Samsung, which is too bad as I really like the features, aesthetics, and picture quality of this model. Not to mention, I am a fan of Samsung as several other devices I own are Samsung including two other monitors, my mobile phone, and a 65-inch TV. If I can simply receive one of these monitors that works the way it is supposed to with zero dead pixels, then Ill be a happy customer. I dont believe thats too much to ask for when paying this much for a monitor. Never before have I had such poor luck with purchasing a new monitor. I have never had two monitors in a row both turn out to be lemons like this. Hopefully, the third time will be different. Im curious to know if any others out there that have purchased this model have noticed pixels failing over time? Please comment on this review if you have. Thanks. --- *** Initial Review *** The first monitor I received was a Christmas gift and unfortunately is definitely defective; however, there appears to be a panel lottery with these monitors as well. The first monitor I received had 1 dead pixel and appeared ever so slightly darker on the right edge of the panel -- although most people less OCD than me might not have noticed. More importantly and worst of all, this monitor made a loud, annoying popping noise every so often that would literally scare the $#!% out of me! I was well within my 30-day return window, so I put in for a replacement via the Amazon website. I was then told Id receive an e-mail once my replacement monitor had been sent out. Unfortunately, later that night, I received an email telling me that Amazon could not send me a replacement, only give me a refund. Immediately, I questioned why as I had purchased the monitor directly from Amazon (rather than a 3rd party seller) and as I stated before, was well within my 30-day return window. Furthermore, I did not want to have to re-purchase the monitor as the monitor was originally purchased on Black Friday at a significant savings of more than $100 off the current price. So, the next day I called Amazon customer service and spoke with a rep regarding this. She was definitely from an office located overseas as English was clearly not her native language and I had difficulty understanding her. Im not sure she clearly understood what I was requesting as she seemed confused and then put me on hold without even telling me. After patiently waiting on hold for a few minutes, not sure if she was coming back, I decided to end the call. I then immediately called back and this time was connected to another rep who, once again, seemed to be from an office located in another country as her English was hard to understand. As in the email that I received, this rep told me that she could not exchange the monitor for me but did offer me a refund. She explained that if I wanted the same monitor, shed have to fill out a return for the current monitor and then Id have to place another, new, separate order. I then explained to the rep that I did not want to do this as the original monitor was purchased during Black Friday at significant savings and if I re-purchased, would have to pay an additional $100 plus dollars. She then told me that she would be willing to give me an Amazon gift card to make up the difference. Which I quickly replied that this was not acceptable and then asked to speak to a manager. She apologized but agreed to my request and re-directed my call. A few minutes later, thankfully, a manager named Valerie that was either American or Canadian (and Im assuming located in the states or Canada) took my call. She spoke perfect English and we could understand each other...hooray! I explained the situation to her and she replied that she did not understand why the previous person I spoke with could not simply send out a replacement as I was still within my 30-day return window and had purchased directly from Amazon rather than a 3rd party (which was why I was confused, to begin with). Within a matter of a few minutes, Valerie had a replacement ready to go and even offered to 1-day ship it for my inconvenience. One day later, I have my replacement monitor, there are no dead pixels, the screen seems equally bright throughout and thankfully, there are no loud annoying popping noises! Now, onto the lottery panel comment... 1. The second monitor seems far crisper looking than the first monitor I received. I noticed right out of the box and even after fidgeting with the Sharpness control and bringing both monitors to a Sharpness setting of 0. Not sure why this is. 2. The first monitor I received may have a slightly thicker anti-reflective coating on it than the second monitor. I noticed this in the graininess of the image as the first monitor had a "screen door" effect to it that this second monitor does not have. While the second monitor does appear to also have an anti-reflective coating, it has next to no screen door effect. This may also be what is contributing to the second monitor appearing to have a much clearer image. 3. Finally, what youve all been waiting for, the Calibration Report! Each of these monitors includes a short calibration report inside the monitors menu settings, showing you what the monitor measured at as far as Gamma Response and Grayscale calibration (color accuracy). Based on each report, the first monitor I received scored a 2.21 for gamma, while the second scored a 2.18 (acceptable standard is listed at 2.2 +- 10%. For grayscale, the second monitor scored a max of 1.7 while the first monitor was close to 3 (lower is better)! Acceptable max is listed at a rating of 5. As you can see, while both monitors passed each test, the second monitor is clearly the more accurate out of the box, before any calibration on the consumer end. --- TL;DR --- If you receive a defective monitor that was purchased directly from Amazon and customer service tells you that you cant exchange it even though you are within your 30-day return window, ask to speak to a manager. The first monitor I received is defective, which may play a slight role in things; however, based on the two examples I received, there appears to be a noticeable difference in the quality of these panels from 1 monitor to the next. The second monitor I received has an image that is noticeably crisper than the first monitor. In addition, the calibration report found in the monitors menu settings (for this model) shows how each monitor scores in both Gamma Response and Grayscale Rating. So have a look to see how the monitor you receive scored. Finally, if you receive a monitor with a picture that looks less than satisfactory, you could have received a lesser panel. The first monitor I received had a picture quality that was "meh" while the second monitor looks great! Perhaps there is a "panel lottery" with this model, but need more consumers to confirm this. Pros: - Ultrawide...duh! - Fantastic VA panel contrast level, far better than IPS displays - 100 Hz refresh rate - Freesync - 1440p resolution rather than 1080p - Thunderbolt 3 - QLED - Fantastic color range with sRGBcoverage of 125% - VA panel has deep inky blacks - Zero light bleed! - No flashlighting or blooming that I can see - The curve encompasses you and helps immersion when playing games Cons: - Not 4K - Monitor wobbles slightly if you bump your desk or have a desk that isnt very sturdy - No 144 Hz refresh rate - No G-Sync for Nvidia owners - Not a lot of media supports ultrawide resolutions (which means youll have black bars on the left and right side of most of the movie/tv show content you watch) - Possible panel lottery (but need more consumers to help confirm this)

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Just got this monitor today and its beautiful. Out of the box is impressive. I am using it with a Macbook Pro 2017, you need to use the stock USB-C cable to connect it to the laptop and it charges my mac just fine. I was looking to replace a 27 inch monitor since I needed the extra space for multiple applications but didnt want to have two monitors due to spacing in my desk. Image is great and I have no issues of letters being blurry or image quality being bad, it has a nice image quality and graphics and videos look nice too. I read other reviews from similar products complaining about the curvature. This is my first curved monitor and I love it. I have owned two 27 inch Samsung monitors and material is pretty much the same, those others have endure years without any issues, for now I assume this one will endure the same. If anything happens I will update the review, but for now I am happy customer.

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I bought this monitor for 2 very specific purposes. First, I wanted to use it as the primary monitor for my 2018 Mac Mini. The second is to use it as a monitor for my girlfriends PS4. It works great for both purposes. The fact that it has speakers is really great. One especially cool feature is PBP where you can have 2 sources next to each other on the screen, which is awesome. You can have the PS4 and the Mac Mini up at the same time, and choose which side gets to play its sound out of the speakers. As far as negatives, it sometimes take a long time to realize that the screen is not sleeping anymore. Over a minute sometimes.

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Needed a Thunderbolt 3 Monitor for a new Mac Mini that in the mail!!! - few that were a combination of nice quality and fair price with screen real estate. Im an above average user but do not use it for video income... so selective but not fussy on my needs. Settings out of the box are fine for all my needs. Video is crisp and screen real estate is plentiful. at 3444 X 1440 res. Will eventually fine tune it to my style. Only confusing this was the two thunrdebolt ports were labeled separately 15W and 85W - knowing 85W was for computer charging (guessed it would be my output port) - did not know they were watt specific.... instruction are generic and keep saying "go to Thunderbolt Site To learn something" and showed two thunderbolt cables like parallel lines from computer to monitor. Did I need a double cable??? Confusing. All said and done... Plugged a windows lap top into 15Watt USB-C/Thunderbolt connector and BAM! Instant video. Plugged a second thunderbolt cable (USB-C) into 85W port and charged my new 2018 iPad Pro no problem. Lots of other ports as well... pretty much can serve as a hub. What more can you ask for - beautiful picture, easy to use (assuming you are tech savvy on USB-C/Thunderbolt) - the on screen menu button/joystick and options are easy enough to manage. Added my 2012 Mac Pro Laptop via HDMI for PIP test. Control were easy - chose port for second source and even can assign which one controls sound. Oh yes - surprise it has speakers.... and they work via the USB-C/Thunderbolt cable - no extra audio cable. I honestly did not read that in the spec.... hurray bonus feature. Watched some iTunes and live TV - great sounding for a home office environment. No cosmetic issues and even can manage cables in the support next to keep things all nice (which I have not got there yet as I reorg my tech space.

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I purchased this monitor for a new MacMini that replaced an old MacPro tower (circa 2010) in my home office. I also have a 2017 MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3. The picture and build quality are great, and I was excited to have the ability to use two T3 cables to use picture-by-picture to use both my MBP and Mini at the same time. The T3 cables I use for each can drive the monitor fine (and the 85 watt T3 on the monitor charges the MBP) individually, but when I try to use PBP with the Mini and MBP each hooked up via T3, the monitor wont support both sources at the same time. The onscreen menu from the monitor allows you to choose inputs for PBP, and when I set both inputs to USB-C (T3), overriding the default HDMI for the second input, the accept button is dimmed, I can only click on cancel. Ive tried switching cables around, starting up the MBP first, etc. but nothing seems to work. If I use an HDMI cable it works fine, but then I lose either the charging (for the MBP) or the USB hub function of the monitor (for the Mini). None of this is crucial, and I love the monitor, but be aware that the monitor doesnt seem to be able to support TWO Thunderbolt 3 sources in picture-by-picture mode.

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So looking at most every ThunderBolt 3 option out there decided to go with the Samsung. Like another reviewer said, I had the same experience with the temp plastic pulling off paint even though I was super careful having read a problem with another review. So hope that silver touch up paint will work. Anyone ever done this let me know how it turned out. Other than that so far the monitor works as advertised. I think some of the design and ease of use out of the box is top notch. I found the screen actually quite good. It is the bezel around that looks cheap and had the paint issue. So I am going to update my review as I work with it for a while.

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When I got this, I was super excited. The screen is huge! I was able to put multiple windows on one screen, which is great for software development. The picture quality is excellent. Unfortunately, I think the stand is too flimsy to support such a wide screen, because one side of the screen was about 1/2 inch lower than the other side of the screen. I couldnt see anything that was bent, but somehow the screen was off-kilter. If you are going to VESA mount this, then it probably wont matter and youll love this display, but if you want to use the stand, try looking for a sturdier monitor.

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Lets get this out of the way now - this monitor does what you need it to do. It provides 3840 x 1440 resolution with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The picture quality is fine, I edit photos in Lightroom and Photoshop and nothing seems to be off regarding sharpness or color. My calibration tool had me send the brightness all the way down on this particular unit so there is that. Handles both my MacBook and HP Elitebook well and switches between them pretty seamlessly. But there are some disturbing things about the build quality on this item. I had to physically push a small piece of the front panel back into place near the top of the screen. On the top left there is a 2 inch area where I can see some purple light (presumably the backlight) in the rear of the monitor. Neither of these items impact the image quality so Im holding off on returning the item but it doesnt bode well that this somehow passed Samsungs QA. I will echo other reviewers here that while the display looks great it definitely needs a stronger back. That said, it lives up to its promise of being a Thunderbolt monitor with 85W charging - it currently is keeping my 2018 MacBook Pro charged along with being a mini hub for my external drives and other peripherals.

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I want to have less wires running around my desk. With this monitor I got that. One wire (USB C/ Thunderbolt 3) plugged into my macbook pro from the monitor. This one cable does the job of charging the laptop and act as a display cable. The best part is with an additional thunderbolt port in the monitor, I can connect the external harddrive to the monitor and access that external harddrive also in macbook pro without the need for any additional cable. I want more screen real estate to improve productivity. I am a full stack software developer. Obviously with ultra wide I got that real estate now. For now I am happy with this monitor. And one additional thing I like about is the cinema feel you get while watching netflix because of the wide screen.

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