Paul Haddad 
Samsung insanity! *
* Via app + student account
Samsung deal is dead. Was it a price mistake, guess I’ll find out soon enough
I really underestimated how terrible the OSD for a monitor could be, and I've used some terrible monitors. Samsung you've really outdone yourself!
My review of the S9, ignoring the OSD. Noticeably sharper than a 4k 27", good color, can get really bright, actual thunderbolt connectivity with fast USB downstream ports. Wake from sleep is a bit slow, but not terrible. Camera/speakers are usable, but I wouldn't use the speakers other than for emergencies.
Main display issue is the very aggressive matte coating on this display. I guess good if you have a bad office but I find it distracting and seems to really cut down on the viewing angle.
It's 100% not worth $1600, but neither is the Studio display. I'd say it’s a solid deal for a Mac productivity monitor at $500-$600. At $300 it’s a freaking steal and I'd buy another one if it ever hits that price again.
I've been running the Samsung 5k display consistently for over a week now and have been surprised at how good it has been. Wakes up when it should, goes to sleep when it should, doesn't wake up when it shouldn’t. When it wakes up it's always at the right resolution, refresh & bit rate. No black screen "flashes”. Haven't had to touch the OSD. Basically has just worked.
Doesn't sound like something to be very excited about, but Apple's 3rd party monitor support is not great…
Sam Strong@paul It took me a long time to find the network (?!) setting in Mac OS that was preventing my LG monitor from properly sleeping when running off thunderbolt. Even now it seems to power up every so often then immediately go to sleep again.
This Samsung sounds amazing.
Jonathan 
@SamStrong @paul funny enough a Samsung monitor I got had the same issue so I returned it… interestingly though the Dell i got didn’t have that problem. Both were running over thunderbolt. Maybe the issue you’re having with the LG and the network setting was just a coincidence since it still happens sometimes?
@JTostitos The problem was that when the MacBook (M3) went into standby the monitor never disconnected properly (backlight stayed on). Telling it to never wake for network access fixed it.
This random Reddit comment was the solution: https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/s/Dwgu5Qhm5P
@SamStrong interesting. I’ve never seen that before. My issue happened on Intel not sure if it would still happen now with Apple Silicon. Glad you were able to mostly fix the issue
@JTostitos Every situation seems different. This only started happening when I removed my work’s HP thunderbolt dock from the equation.
Of course this discussion now has me looking at what the 4k equivalent of my monitor is…
Mike Noe@paul I have that samsung app setup with my son's .edu email. I keep checking to see if that deal ever comes back. I’ll snap up two of these if I see anything remotely close to what you had a couple weeks ago.
@mikenoe I've been looking every day or two, hoping to score one more.
Miguel Arroz@paul How do you compare the picture quality with the LG 5K or the Apple 5K display?
@arroz I can’t, I don't have the Studio display and don't currently have access to my 5k iMac for another couple of months. I'm sure I'd prefer the Studio display because it's glossy and the Samsung has a super aggressive matte coating. That being said I'm also sure I prefer having an extra $1k in my bank account…
Rick@paul that sounds very exciting to me! I wish Apple would freeze the desktop configuration while in display sleep.
Aaron 
@paul Does the 5k resolution stop the WindowServer process from gobbling up tons of memory?
I run dual 4k’s (scaled resolution because… 4k is tiny) and WindowServer easily eats 1/3 of my mac’s RAM.
@Aaron WindowServer is showing 3.24GB in Activity Monitor.
@paul Not too bad. Mine’s at 5.71GB right now. And i’m not about to sacrifice my uptime just to flush it. I just got these dual 4k’s last year, but maybe I’ll jump on a good 5k deal if one comes around next year. You happened into an awesome price!
Steven Op de beeck@paul never had a monitor not do what you just described, connected to my Mac ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Dell, HP, LG, Samsung, Asus. All 4K or less though.
Dell, HP, LG, Samsung, Asus. All 4K or less though.
Mat Gadd@paul 1st para - great.
Apple’s third-party monitor support not great?! A monitor is a monitor. I have never in my years bought an Apple display. 😂
Joel Parker@paul Would you say it’s a $900 monitor? How does it stack against a $1300 Apple Studio Display at $900?
Luca Nalin@paul are you still running it? Any additional thoughts?
Torstein@paul do you think the Apple Studio Display should also cost 500-600$?
@torsteinv probably 7-800, with the better stand.
Mike Brogan@paul may I just say that I really appreciate these mini reviews. I’m in the market to replace an aging 32” 4K Dell that I have so it’s helpful to follow along with your journey.
Jamie Blumberg@paul Agreed. I got one of the S9’s last year in the realm of $600-$700 and don’t regret it. (Missed getting another in the deal earlier this week.)
I also got a used LG 5K ultrafine recently and it does look nicer without the aggressive matte. So whenever I work with video or photos I’ll be using that monitor.
@jamie_blumberg any issues/weirdness from long term usage?
@paul Once I set up Soundsource to control the volume and DisplayBuddy for the brightness I’vebeen good. I don’t even ever have to touch the silly little remote.
The only real “problem” I’ve had is that the “High Dynamic Range” option in System Settings makes everything look terrible. But as long as you don’t touch that and also are cool with the matte display it is a solid high-res monitor.
Diego Petrucci@paul What’s the model?
John Gruber@paul I think the Studio Display is worth its exorbitant price for the nanotexture matte option alone. I’ve never seen anything else like it.
monorail times
Gretyl 
@gruber The current iPad Pros also offer nanotexture matte… is it of comparable quality in your experience?
Samuel@gretyl @gruber The iPad nanotexture is a very different story. It’s made to cope with greasy fingers and compromises had to be done to get there, it has less deep blacks and looks more like a really good matte screen protector. I would only get it if I frequently had to use the device in environments with sharp lights.
Paul McGrane@onkologen @gretyl @gruber It is interesting Apple sort of conflates the two. There's hardly any way to use an iPad except by pawing at it. Meanwhile you essentially void your warranty if your hand gets near the nanotexture Studio Display!
Thom McGrath
Kraig@kraigschmidt I’m considering a matte film, but I’m waiting for the company to confirm that it has a cutout for the camera.
@gruber I've never seen the nano version in person, but personal preference wise I just couldn't see spending extra money for a matte coating. On the other hand I'd totally pay extra for glossy coating displays.
Jon Maddox@paul it’s pretty awful if you value retina for text. It pretty much muddies it. I took mine back immediately.
@kraigschmidt @paul I mean, I thought my display was broken when I got it. I used a retina iMac for years before it.
The non-matte version felt immediatly back to normal.
¯\(°_o)/¯
Karl Baron@paul @gruber I was totally in on the glossy hate back in the plastic MacBook days, that kind of glossy display was terrible. But since Apple went to glass displays where the LCD was bonded directly on, I can use outdoors in daylight and the glare doesn't bother me, I don't understand any love for matte these days
Ingmar Rieger@gruber @paul I can‘t understand that Apple doesn‘t offer KVM at this price. Even if I was only using Apple products, the fact alone that if you have your personal desktop connected and then for home office work want to connect the work machine and you constantly need to plug the cable out is bad.
I‘m mostly happy with the Dell 6K which offers proper things. Always loving when people call it ugly. Cause its in my office and I look at the screen, not the case normally ;-)
I‘m mostly happy with the Dell 6K which offers proper things. Always loving when people call it ugly. Cause its in my office and I look at the screen, not the case normally ;-)
Steve@paul Samsung always excels at making something worse than the assignment asked for
mima@paul lol, I used to have some audio studio monitor from this weird brand named OSD (outdoor speaker depot) and I was like: dang, Samsung with the cult aquisitions 🤣
Christof Stadler@paul Work has issued us Samsung 32 inch smart monitors (M7 I believe). Worst UX ever. Has to be turned on with little remote (plugging in the laptop doesn’t turn it on), refuses to recognize connected laptop every few times.
nSonic@paul this (updates / menu) were some bold things that had me moved to an iMac - an all-in-one device, no troubles with cables and settings …
It’s also why I won’t buy the studio display for a Mac mini as a replacement for the old iMac …
I’ll rather buy a notebook and live with 14-16“ … or I’ll get the smaller iMac with 4,5K resolution - all-in-one - not sure if i will ever go back 👀
Angus McIntyre@paul I've long suspected that many hardware companies assign their least gifted engineers to designing the accompanying software or user interfaces.
“Barry here is an idiot who can't tell one end of a soldering iron from the other, so we're putting him on software. Seriously, how hard can it be?”
Then you get a user interface where all the controls are upside-down and purple. Thanks, Barry.
jpetticrew@paul Does the monitor connect to the internet?!
Saul Sutherland@paul if I’m being fair, my Studio Display also has software updates. But they’re not so egregious that the monitor itself connects to the internet to fetch new firmware.
Even Dell monitors we deploy at work get updates these days. Makes it a bit of a pain as an IT admin, but the firmware update tool on Windows works quite well (dock monitor over USB-C)
Charlie> ...the firmware update tool on Windows...
NOPE. nope nope nope nope.
If there's a device which requires firmware updates, I expect to be able to RS232 serial into that thing using open-standards tools.
(Needless to say, I have a hate/hate relationship with my Logitech mouse...........)
@cdp1337 I have the same relationship with them. Luckily Mac Mouse Fix handles most of my complaints. The latest issue with their AI component making a new folder in the root directories was a step too far. Won’t install Options+ ever again.
@thatsthequy what? Logitech has a mouse with an LLM attached to it? If that's the case I'm less upset that their software doesn't run on Linux.
@cdp1337 not sure if the LLM runs on the mouse itself, but they plugged it into the damn mouse app/driver. https://512pixels.net/2024/04/ai-overlay-tmp-home-folder-mac-os/
Logitech’s Mouse Software Now Includes ChatGPT Support, Adds Janky ‘ai_overlay_tmp’ Directory to Users’ Home Folders
I recently noticed a new folder in the root level of my Home directory, named ai_overlay_tmp: In preparation for a Mac Power Users episode, I've been playing with a bunch of AI software, and I assumed something I downloaded generated this folder. I deleted it, just to be frustrated when the folder reappeared on its [...]
@thatsthequy Wow, that's all sorts of special; the type of shit I would expect from Microsoft.
Then again this is also from the company investigating if it's feasible for them to start charging a monthly subscription fee for your mouse, so I should not be surprised.
@thatsthequy my preference is plug in a flash drive and select update on the OSD. I wouldn't have an issue with a windows based tool. Having to connect the monitor to WiFi isn't even that horrible, but having to log the monitor in to some account just to update the firmware is where I draw the line.
@paul yeeesh, requiring an account is bad. Even most Samsung TVs don’t go that far.
Kevin Karhan 
@paul WHY THE F*K DOES IT NEED A F*KING UPDATE??
It's not gonna upgrade it's colourspace or get a higher resolution panel, it's fking static!!!
Jason Cox@paul I miss dumb monitors and dumb TV’s.
今季之果的阿丽思@paul I don’t like products that has smart in it’s name😂
Steve@paul that capitalization of ‘software’ would get me every time—at least it won’t appear very frequently. Unlike the splash screen of my set-top box…