Samsung C27F591FD
Less wide than the LG, but still offers plenty of curve.
While this 27-inch monitor is, like the behemoth LG screen opposite, also a big, curvy beauty, it doesn’t take it to quite the same extremes. This is a more sedate screen with an office-friendly while and silver colour scheme, standard 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1080p pixel count, on one of Samsung Super Vertical Alignment panels — a screen tech which delivers most of the benefits of IPS on top of some of its own.
This is one of Samsung’s curvier displays — if you mentally extended that curve to form a complete circle, it’d have a radius of 1,800mm; thus, Samsung’s ‘1800R’ specification. By comparison, the Korean tech company also offers 3,000R and 4,000R displays — basically, the way to read these specs is that the bigger the number, the gentler the curve. Still, sit directly in front of the C27F591FD and it takes up enough of your field of view that it doesn’t look overly curvy at all — it’s just pretty comfortable. The main benefit of curved screens is that they mean your eyes don’t have to refocus when scanning across the display, and along those ‘eye-friendly’ lines Samsung’s also included flicker-free tech and a nighttime mode to reduce blue hues... although the latter needs to be enabled manually, meaning it’s a bit of a pain to use — it’s much more convenient to just install a set-and-forget automatic app like f.lux (justgetflux.com) instead.
The screen has a matte finish — always our preference for PC monitors — and a mild anti-glare coating which is, thankfully, largely free of the ‘sparkle’ effect that some of these coatings can have. (We’re looking at you, Dell.) There’s a little bit of gaming DNA in here too, with AMD FreeSync support — although this isn’t a high refresh-rate display, which here tops out at the standard 60Hz — if you’re after a monitor for lag-free highframerate gaming, there are much better options, albeit more costly ones.
In terms of colours, Samsung’s tuned this one to be quite vibrant, but not so much so that it’s oversaturated. Like the Korean tech giant’s AMOLED phones, there’s a fluorescence and richness here that look especially great with both movies and games.
We do have some gripes, though. That 1080p resolution at a 27-inch panel size means that, at close viewing distances (under about 40cm), pixels can be slightly visible. At a more moderate distance, say 50cm plus, that’s less problematic — although ideally, at this size, you really want a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 to eliminate any visible pixellation.
Moreover, while it might seem cheap compared to the 34-inch LG, this screen does sells for a premium over other 27-inch curved monitors, which, in Australia, can be had starting from around $380. (That even includes Samsung’s own S27E510C, released mid last year.) And there’s certainly some of the Australia tax at work here — in the States, the C27F591FD is only US$280; a little over half what us Aussies are expected to pay. Even factoring in exchange rates and GST, that’s still an AU$90 premium.
Still, the price will undoubtedly drop on this one over the next few months, and when it gets down closer to the $425 mark, there’s be a lot to love here.