SAMSUNG CF791
Samsung gets a serious curve on
IT’S REMARKABLE how quickly the 34-inch, 21:9 aspect segment has become almost a staple in the higher echelons of the PC monitor market. Even with the addition of a curved panel, you’re still not talking about anything exotic. Just a few years ago, a 34inch panel with such superwide proportions would have seemed almost preposterous.
Still, even by the standards of such screens, the Samsung CF791 is special. For starters, it boasts an LED backlight enhanced with quantum dot technology. The basics of quantum dot involve materials that absorb certain frequencies of light, convert them, and re-emit. The “quantum” bit is because the semiconductor crystal on which it’s based leverages a nanoscale effect known as quantum confinement, which involves electron holes, twodimensional potential wells, and the exciton Bohr radius. But you knew that, obviously.
Basically, it takes suboptimal light output from an LED backlight, and buffs it up to enable increased color vibrancy and fidelity. The CF791 also sports a couple of gamingfriendly features: 100Hz refresh and AMD FreeSync adaptive refresh support.
Finally, it’s curved. Not just any old curved, but 1500R curved. That means the curve’s radius is a yard and a half or so—over twice as curved as the Philips Brilliance. Whether that’s a good thing or not is subjective. Let’s just say if you’re not sure about curves, steer clear of the CF791.
Curvature aside, this is a great-looking panel. It doesn’t immediately blow your socks off like an HDR UHDTV playing high dynamic range content. But it’s more vibrant than a non-quantum dot monitor.
The default calibration is a bit warm for our liking, pushing flesh tones toward pink. There’s a big gap between the color temperature presets, too, so you need to do a full calibration to dial that out. But that’s typical given the panel tech is VA, rather than IPS. Elsewhere, it’s well set up out of the box, with a good balance between detail in whites and black, and smooth gradients.
Objective concerns aside, the subjective experience rendering 4K video is stunning, even if the 3440x1440 native resolution is sub-4K fidelity. With that 100Hz refresh and adaptive sync support, plus better pixel response than just about any VA panel we’ve seen, this is one heck of a gaming panel, too. And it’s a good-looking hunk of consumer electronics, thanks to Samsung’s typically snazzy styling. With that hefty curvature and the extreme 21:9 aspect, it’s an acquired taste rather than a sure-fire hit, but if you’re looking for a 34-inch curved screen, the CF791 should be near the top of your list.