SAMSUNG 34" ViewFinity S50GC Series Ultra-WQHD Monitor, 100Hz, 5ms, HDR10, AMD FreeSync, Eye Care, Borderless Design, PIP, PBP, LS34C502GANXZA, 2023, Black

Been using this monitor for a while and the screen quality and response time of the VA pixels are much better than you’d think for a monitor at this price. The 100hz refresh rate actually looks like 100hz, and on a VA panel, this is impressive. It handles all my open windows well too as I hoped for, so that’s great. I do love how an ultrawide monitor adds a TON of emersion when playing games and watching content. First thing I did when I powered on the monitor on my PC was load up the second season of The Rings of Power, which felt somewhat small on my 16:9 32” 4k monitor that I have, but only because it is recorded as an ultra-wide, so when on this monitor it filled it corner to corner, giving me a FULL-screen ultra-wide 34”. Watching ultra wide content on this thing makes it feel actually a bigger image than on a standard 16:9 43” display to be honest, or at least the same. And when playing video games, the extra FOV is pretty nice for the emersion. The monitor does show the regular drawbacks of a VA panel though, especially with penning over darker colors on a bright background, or visa-versa, you do still get the smear-y look, but as a VA panel that it is, the monitor really makes up for it with the 100hz refresh rate and a good response time (with FreeSync support — dunno about G-Sync though I haven’t tried) to mitigate this.The colors are nothing to write home about, and the display lacks HDR, however, they are 10-bit and is seamlessly recognized by windows. So, that’s strange, it must be an 8-bit+FRC then, regardless, if you set the gamma, color, contrast/brightness settings right, it really does look like an HDR panel minus the brightness levels of course. But, in regular use, it does get very very bright still on the desk, I haven’t ever used it past 50-60% brightness, normally having it at around 30% or so with no issues seeing anything.The stand it comes with is a bit cumbersome (albeit not as bad as a lot of other monitor stands), so I would recommend putting it on a monitor arm though.Don’t bother getting a monitor with a higher refresh rate. 100hz at 1440p ultrawide (4k length x 1440p width), you are effectively pushing nearly the same amount of pixels as a 4k monitor, and you won’t ever get, let’s be real here, more than 100fps in almost all your games at 4k (I am using an AMD RX 6800XT), so the 100hz is more than sufficient for this. You’d benefit from a higher refresh rate for just general tasks around windows, but for games and content it is plenty.Oh, and when viewing 16:9 content or other aspect ratios, it’s still pretty good, it’ll just have the same resolution as a non-wide screen 27” monitor with black bars on the sides. But that brings me to my last couple points, the monitor recognizing different resolutions is automatic and scales very nicely, which I haven’t had good luck with with other monitors in this price range. For example, plugging in my nintendo switch, and the display automatically scales for 1080p, which is pretty convenient (just make sure you turn off FreeSync for that…yeah that’s really dumb). Then you also have the PiP mode, which is great if you want a couple different sources you want to reference at the same time on the same screen. Would’ve been nice though to be able to set the sources side by side or something and have it properly adjust the aspect ratio…the PiP is a bit janky to be frank, albeit still works well, just keep that in mind.

I spent weeks looking into different monitors for my Mac Book pro for work and my Mac Book Air for school. I actually bought a different Samsung option originally that was more square, and it didn’t have the best picture. After even more research I figured out that for most Mac’s, it’s best to have a wider screen, especially one this size. The amount of pixels in a Mac screen is a lot more than the other brands of laptops, so in human terms, it needs more space to look good. I am so happy with this monitor! And ended up buying a second one! It easily adjusts to the angles I need it in any a given day. The color is bright and full. Looks amazing when watching my Apple TV shows. I’m able to have multiple windows pulled up at once, as well as all the widgets I’ve filled the screen with. I’ve yet to test out a high performance video game but everything else works great. There’s plenty of screen filter options that would allow for a better looking game no matter what you are playing. I saw some people complaining about the speakers, but I don’t buy a monitor for the speakers, and I don’t have any issue with them when I’m not connected to Bluetooth. Sturdy on the stand, and even better on the dual monitor mount I bought.

This is a nice crisp, light monitor. No problems setting it up. I've mounted it to a tripod and that allows me to move it around as needed, and fold it up when not needed. I'm very happy with this purchase.

Monitor is ok after tweaking contrast and colors. I have used it for about a week. The nonadjustable stand is a real bummer though. The current height of the monitor was too low. I had to buy an adjustable VESA stand to make the monitor work for me. Overall, I probably would've went with a different monitor if I wasn't in a rush to get my computer setup.

I bought this on Black Friday for about $199 for my work office. Probably one of the best monitors I've had for that purpose. Colors are fantastic and the adjustability is enough so I can match most of my other media platforms accurately. I don't use it for gameplay so I can't comment on lag or other features, but in an office setting its almost perfect.