Affordable Ultra High Definition

Samsung has finally dropped the bomb on 4K with the release of the U28D590D Ultra-HD Monitor. Not only does the monitor support 4K at 60Hz, the Samsung U28D590D costs under $800 which is rather cheap. We have a look at this monitor, testing it for both consumer and gaming use – is 4K right for you?

Specifications

  • Screen Size: 28”
  • TN Panel
  • 1000:1 Contrast Ratio
  • Resolution: 3840 x 2160
  • 1ms GTG Response Time
  • 2x HDMI & 1x DisplayPort
  • $700-800 AUD Market Price

Before jumping into 4K, you’ll need to check whether your system is ready to handle that extra resolution. For standard consumer users, a simple budget video card that’s capable of handling 4K is enough however if you’re looking to game on something like the U28D590D, you’ll definitely need a card capable of pushing frames while handling 4K – cards like the R9 290X or GTX 780Ti minimum for the best experience. Dual GPU setups are necessary.

Inside the box, Samsung has provided everything you’ll need to get going. No need to buy extra cables as you get a HDMI and DisplayPort cable included. Setting up the monitor was a breeze; just slap together the stand and you’re all good to go.

Before even turning on the monitor, I’ve already disliked the bundled stand. It’s narrow and light meaning it just doesn’t feel steady. The monitor ‘wiggles’ quite a fair bit as well because of the narrow frame. It would be better if they included a better stand but I’m sure they had to cut corners to push this monitor at this price.

Samsung-U28D590D-658x370-97fbfae0b05d7be9

The monitor itself is quite thin and mostly made out of plastic. The screen is a somewhat reflective matte which brings the colours up quite a bit – although it’s not full reflective as most gloss screens, just right. On the middle rear, you’ll find the 2x HDMI and 1x DisplayPort input. On the rear bottom right of the screen, you’ll find the menu navigation joystick. The menu joystick is like a mini D-Pad where you can easily flick and select options without any hassles. One of the things I noticed about the monitor straight away was the lack of a VESA mount meaning you can’t install the screen on the wall or a better monitor stand – so you’ll have to deal with the wiggles.

Using the monitor for the first time, I had to adjust myself to read the smaller text with the resolution set on 3840 x 2160 which is max resolution. The most easier resolution to deal with was 3008 x 1692 which helped made reading font easy but obviously stretches the display to fit the screen – it’s hardly noticeable but when I switched to 2560 x 1440, I started to see the reduction in quality. While the text maybe hard to read at first, using a lower resolution is not the reason you’ve bought a 4K monitor because you’re missing out on all that extra real estate.

samsung4k2

The screen quality was pretty good even for a TN panel. They had to cut somewhere to bring the price down but I had no issues with the image quality at all. Watching movies was still impressive on the panel as well as doing standard photo/video editing. So what about gaming? I tried out some racing titles such as NFS: Shift and DiRT 3 which looked brilliant in 4K resolution. There was no sign of ghosting or anything so it was adequate enough for the standard gamer. 4K gaming is still a question mark for most users as it does require a lot of GPU power to push out decent frames on that resolution which costs LOTS of money.

The Samsung U28D590D is an impressive monitor coming at under $800 – sure Samsung had to cut a few corners like using a TN panel and a fairly average stand but overall, it’s a great stepping stone into the 4K realm without spending the big bucks.

Pros

  • That 4K resolution – impressive visuals, lots of real estate
  • 1ms Response/60Hz refresh – adequate for the average gamer
  • Price – cheapest 4K 60Hz for under $1K

Cons

  • TN Panel
  • Badly Constructed Stand – Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle
  • No VESA Support for  a better stand. Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle

Product was provided by Samsung Australia for review. You can this monitor from MWAVE Australia

9/10