Amid the sea of displays being announced at CES, Las Vegas, Samsung has revamped multiple high-end product lines. The South Korean tech giant is officially announcing the world’s first dual-UHD (7680×2160) gaming monitor in the form of the Odyssey Neo G9, but it is the more conventional ViewFinity S9 that has caught our eye.
Optimised specifically for content creators and professionals, the latest addition to the ViewFinity range employs a matte 27in panel with 5120×2880 (5K) resolution, 99 per cent DCI-P3 colour coverage and the promise of “clear and precise” out-the-box accuracy.
We’d have preferred a larger canvas if we’re brutally honest – 32in would have been a fine fit – but Samsung seems to be positioning the ViewFinity S9 as the PC equivalent of Apple’s Studio Display. The exterior design certainly echos that sentiment, with clean lines and a familiar-looking stand.
2,880 vertical pixels is an obvious attraction for creative types and the S9 has a few other neat tricks up its sleeves.
There’s an option to pivot into portrait mode, and much like Samsung’s latest TVs, the monitor can be calibrated through a smartphone using the Samsung Smart Calibration app. How well it works in practise remains to be seen, but we’re told the panel can automatically adjust white balance, gamma and RGB colour based on smartphone readings.
Connectivity will include HDMI, DisplayPort and USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, allowing laptop charging with up to 96W power delivery. Rounding out the home-worker credentials is a bundled 4K webcam that clips onto the display and promises to zoom and track the user automatically.
Samsung’s ticking a lot of the right boxes on paper, but as is often the case with CES announcements, the finer details are yet to be revealed. Complete specifications including HDR credentials remain unknown, and though there’s no hint of a price tag, we do know the ViewFinity S9 is expected to ship early in 2023.
