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After LG’s 34-inch Thunderbolt 3 monitor, Samsung announces the first curved one

It’s a couple of weeks since LG announced its upcoming 34-inch ultrawide Thunderbolt 3 monitor, and now Samsung has done the same.

While LG has the higher resolution – effectively between 4K and 5K – Samsung is hoping that its curved design will win fans …

The Samsung CJ791 QLED Monitor offers a resolution of 3440×1440 pixels, in contrast with LG’s 5120×2880. But while the LG 34WK95U is a flat design, Samsung’s offering is curved. It has a 1,500R curvature – meaning that if you put a bunch of them end-to-end to form a complete circle, the radius would be 1500mm.

Samsung claims that the QLED monitor offers deeper blacks and brighter whites than OLED, but the color space is just 125% of sRGB, so lagging significantly behind monitors like LG’s UltraFine range. It does, though, deliver 85w of power via the single USB-C connection, making it a solid one-cable solution for 15-inch MacBook Pro owners.

The monitor is primarily pitched at gamers, offering a 4ms response time and a special ‘game mode.’

A host of integrated gamer-friendly features also gives users an extra edge on their adversaries with Game Mode, which contains a dynamic gamma setting that intuitively adjusts color and contrast of each individual scene to produce a true-to-life environment. The CJ791’s four milliseconds (ms) response time also ensures smooth transitions between scenes, making it ideal for racing, flight simulation and first-person battle games.

As with LG, Samsung hasn’t yet announced either pricing or availability, but we should learn more at CES shortly.

What’s exciting to me about these developments is not that either company has yet hit my desired sweet-spot, but rather that we’re finally seeing USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 monitors in larger sizes. My perfect monitor may not be here yet, but with LG’s resolution and Samsung’s curve and design, we’re getting close to putting all of the elements together.

Does either monitor appeal to you, or are you holding out for a hybrid of the two? Or something else altogether? Let us know in the comments.


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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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