When it comes to being a technophile, my enthusiasm and excitement often come with regard to mobile phones, computers, gaming technology and other such gadgets. Home entertainment devices, more specifically, monitors, aren’t usually the kind of technology that gets me hyped up. I’m not entirely sure why.
That changed, however, when I first turned on the Samsung CF791 34 Inch Curved Gaming Monitor, that the team at Samsung New Zealand so very kindly let me try out for two weeks. Right out of the box, my first impression of the huge screen was that it was a beast. My typical gaming monitor is actually a 32” LED TV, which is thick, heavy and takes up significant room on my desk. Looking at the Samsung 34” and how light and thin it was, I knew instantly that I was going to be wowed.
The set-up was as simple as plugging all the right cables in and turning it on. Since Tom, my partner, was the PC gamer in our household, I encouraged him to use the monitor to game on and test out. The size was the first thing we both took notice of. It was as wide as having two different monitors sitting on his desk, but was so thin that it fit easily on his small desk and still offered him plenty of desk space, which to someone with a bit of OCD like me, felt like a godsend! He finally had space on his desk to keep all his little bits and bobs tidy!
In terms of usage, the monitor utilises Picture-in-Picture (“PIP”) 2.0 technology, which allows for seamless multitasking, a highly useful feature for those who require multiple windows open simultaneously, without losing any of the original resolution. On a normal PC monitor, having multiple windows open can feel quite crowded. This certainly wasn’t the case on the Samsung monitor. For Tom, the ability to have several windows open at once was a welcome bonus as it made productivity for his web development work so much easier.
The Samsung monitor possess an Ultra WQHD SE790C display thanks to its 3440 x 1440 resolution, which is 2.5 times the resolution of Full HD. This made everything appear crystal clear on screen, whether it was an image, a video, or even a game. The 3000:1 static contrast ratio brings out the vibrant, life-like colors, deeper blacks and brighter whites of everything that we witnessed on screen, mesmerising us and overloading our optical senses with immense visual aesthetics.
Gaming with the Samsung monitor was a treat! The curved screen and 21:9 aspect ratio truly made for an immersive viewing experience, especially on games that included wide, open worlds, such as Sea of Thieves. The curvature easily mimicked that of the human eye, which made the experience comfortable and without any eye strain. When it came to viewing the open ocean in Sea of Thieves, I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. In fact, the ocean looked so realistic that, combined with the immersion, I just felt as if I could literally go for a swim.
In addition, the curved screen made for some very immersive first person gaming experience, feeling the environment all around you as if you were there inside the game’s world experiencing it all first hand. That’s something that blows my mind, as it was the same when watching a film. You become part of what you’re watching with such a monitor.
Not only that, but together with Game Mode, the gaming experience both Tom and I experienced on the Samsung monitor was next level amazing. The screen automatically adjusted to different scenes and colours to allow for crystal clear viewing. In addition, the monitor comes with dual stereo speakers built right into the curve, which delivered rich, realistic sound to enhance our gaming and entertainment experience. It really did feel quite cool being completely surrounded by gameplay, which made Battle Royale games all the more exciting and thrilling.
After two weeks with the Samsung 34” Gaming Monitor, we were spoilt and couldn’t really deal with going back to our old regular monitors. In fact, Tom complained when I informed him that the monitor needed to be returned. He even went so far to say that life wouldn’t be the same again and that going back to his old setup would be like going back to the dark ages. I second his sentiment. The Samsung monitor was nothing short of an entertainment masterpiece.