My Samsung U28D590D (4K) has arrived... and it's awesome

[jim]

Shipped in the largest cardboard box I've ever seen, courtesy of Amazon's "always wrap twice" policy, my U28D590D arrived this morning.

I was a bit nervous, especially when the price dropped to £400, that it might be awful, but so far I'm loving it.

Yes, the TN doesn't look great from an angle, especially not when it's alongside two U2212HM IPS monitors, but I sit straight on so I'm not too bothered.
Yes, the text elements are absolutely minuscule, but I can still read them just fine.

The main thing though is that Mass Effect 2 looks spectacular... it's really hard to describe, but it feels so much more lifelike. I'm sure the panel size has a lot to do with that - 21.5" -> 28" makes a huge difference in terms of filling your field of view, but the textures also look amazing - the detail really is spectacular.

Obviously ME2 isn't the most recent game, which helps a lot considering that I'm asking a GTX 760 to run @ 4K (and power two 1080p panels in 2D), so I'll try it out with some others soon, but it really is impressive. I'm thinking that Skyrim with some textures mods might be worth a crack as well - Legendary Edition is about to hit my Steam account!

The other thing, of course, is the sheer space available in 2D which is the main reason for purchasing. I can see most websites from top to bottom now without having to scroll, which is really great - 1080p suddenly feels like looking through a letter box.

I know it's not exactly scientific, but hey, I'm excited. And no-one outside of the internet gives a stuff about monitors

[GoNz0]

I was looking at that to replace my old dell 24" as it is a bit past it now, sat here on my 4k 15" laptop, now that redefines squinting when you run an app that doesn't scale on windows 8!

running an RDP sessions a PITA..

[kompukare]

Cool, always nice to hear about people buying expensive stuff and testing it for us!

I assume you're driving it with DisplayPort or you'd be stuck at 30Hz which is a bit slow? I take it that this Samsung is a good quality TN panel?

I did some size calculations and my current Dell P2414H 24" screens have a 0.25mm dot pitch while your 28" 4K is 0.17mm dot pitch. Which is way too small for my eyes. But in a few years I might consider a 40"/42" 4K TV which would have the same dot pitch as my current one. Hopefully by then all OS will have more than Windows 7 Win+Cursor key combination since such a monster screen is equal to four of my current one and I wouldn't want to spend all my days resizing Windows. (Not that I have tested Linux since I started using two screens.)

For my idea of a 40"+ screen I would only consider IPS or VA since at that kind of size horizontal viewing angle limits would apply even straight on.

[Spreadie]

The main thing though is that Mass Effect 2 looks spectacular... it's really hard to describe, but it feels so much more lifelike. I'm sure the panel size has a lot to do with that - 21.5" -> 28" makes a huge difference in terms of filling your field of view, but the textures also look amazing - the detail really is spectacular.

You'd have gotten a similar experience going to 1440 or 1600p, although that is a lot of monitor for £400. I'm impressed that you're driving it with a 760, maybe slot a second one in there for more demanding games? Crysis 3 would be a slide show.

I saw someone talking about uneven backlights on 4K TN panels, can you tell us how yours fares?

[jim]

I was looking at that to replace my old dell 24" as it is a bit past it now, sat here on my 4k 15" laptop, now that redefines squinting when you run an app that doesn't scale on windows 8!

running an RDP sessions a PITA..

Yeah I can imagine - it's just about legible for me at 28", but I imagine 31.5" screen would be a bit more comfortable to read.

Cool, always nice to hear about people buying expensive stuff and testing it for us!

I assume you're driving it with DisplayPort or you'd be stuck at 30Hz which is a bit slow? I take it that this Samsung is a good quality TN panel?

I did some size calculations and my current Dell P2414H 24" screens have a 0.25mm dot pitch while your 28" 4K is 0.17mm dot pitch. Which is way too small for my eyes. But in a few years I might consider a 40"/42" 4K TV which would have the same dot pitch as my current one. Hopefully by then all OS will have more than Windows 7 Win+Cursor key combination since such a monster screen is equal to four of my current one and I wouldn't want to spend all my days resizing Windows. (Not that I have tested Linux since I started using two screens.)

For my idea of a 40"+ screen I would only consider IPS or VA since at that kind of size horizontal viewing angle limits would apply even straight on.

Yup, displayport. Right now it's the Samsung on the DP, then the 1080p screens on the DVIs. I can see why people would think that big screens would be a pain - I'm happy with this but there is a sense that you have to look around, i.e. angling my neck down to see the taskbar. In truth I might just need to move the whole thing up a bit - it's the one big issue with this monitor, in that the stand is fairly rubbish. It doesn't adjust in any meaningful way and wobbles all over the place, but I was aware of that before purchase. I might build a little hollow stand 2" tall, sit the monitor on top and run any cables underneath.

You'd have gotten a similar experience going to 1440 or 1600p, although that is a lot of monitor for £400. I'm impressed that you're driving it with a 760, maybe slot a second one in there for more demanding games? Crysis 3 would be a slide show.

I saw someone talking about uneven backlights on 4K TN panels, can you tell us how yours fares?

You're probably right - truth is my main driver was never gaming. It's one thing for me to splurge on this, but to then fork out again for a graphics card that could push out 4K on the latest games? No chance. Sadly, given that I'm running mATX (FT03) I doubt it would work. Something like the 295x2 would probably be perfect, as it would dump heat out of the top really effectively, but I'm not willing to spend the money. What plays into my hands is that I very rarely play new games. Right now I'm replaying ME2, and then after that maybe I'll replay Skyrim with the expansions I've just bought. So generally speaking I don't need quite as much power as others might.

I can't say I've noticed any issues with the backlight, but I wasn't looking for it specifically. If I remember I'll take a photo this evening and see how it fares.

[shamus21]

Was that £400.00 a one of jim.

[jim]

Was that £400.00 a one of jim.

I'm really not sure. I agreed to pay £480, but they had no stock and delivered 7 weeks late - when I received the invoice it was for £400, and I got a £20 gift certificate as an apology.

I think I've got a euro import as a UK plug was plonked on top of the polystyrene so maybe they discounted for that. Not sure.

They're out of stock at the moment so who knows what they'll ask when it's back in stock.

[shamus21]

perhaps it`s a sign of things to come. (price wise)

[shamus21]

I'm really not sure. I agreed to pay £480, but they had no stock and delivered 7 weeks late - when I received the invoice it was for £400, and I got a £20 gift certificate as an apology.

I think I've got a euro import as a UK plug was plonked on top of the polystyrene so maybe they discounted for that. Not sure.

They're out of stock at the moment so who knows what they'll ask when it's back in stock.

I don`t no if you already no this but you can get a free copy of Watch Dogs from Samsung. link (http://www.samsung.com/uk/offer/free...ton_20140615):)

[jim]

I don`t no if you already no this but you can get a free copy of Watch Dogs from Samsung. link (http://www.samsung.com/uk/offer/free...ton_20140615):)

Yeah, grabbed that. They made it pretty easy, although it's via uPlay which is a pain.

Can't say I would've spent much on Watch Dogs but it's a nice freebie.

[Agent]

Very tempted myself. I'm just put off by the TN panel given I do a fair amount of work involving colour.

Torn between playing with an ultra widescreen for a bit or this. I do game, but not a terrible amount. I have other screens I could use for that anyway.

[jim]

Very tempted myself. I'm just put off by the TN panel given I do a fair amount of work involving colour.

Torn between playing with an ultra widescreen for a bit or this. I do game, but not a terrible amount. I have other screens I could use for that anyway.

I don't know whether it's a good TN or not (a lot of people have suggested that it is), given that it's years since I've used a TN of any kind. But I can definitely tell the difference between it and my IPS panels. I had a look at some of the online calibration tests and I couldn't even get close on the gamma tests.

Thankfully, though, I don't do anything that's colour-dependent so it doesn't matter to me. In-game it's very difficult to tell, although anyone looking at the screen from the side can tell in an instant that there's something "wrong". In an ideal world, yes, I'd have both 4K and high-quality panel, but I'm not forking out £1500 for a 31.5" IGZO any time soon.

[Biscuit]

Very tempted myself. I'm just put off by the TN panel given I do a fair amount of work involving colour.

Torn between playing with an ultra widescreen for a bit or this. I do game, but not a terrible amount. I have other screens I could use for that anyway.

IMO, despite the extra pixels in 4k, the ultrawide 1440p from LG (DELL have one in the pipeline apparently) would give you more usable real estate
(I wouldn't go 29" ultra wide. Its good but not quite good enough to recommend over a similarly priced 1440p 16:9 monitor.)
Most people would have to enable scaling in windows to actually comfortably use a 28" 4k panel. This also brings a whole host of other issues as windows is still crap if you are using multi monitors with scaling on and a lot of apps don't even support it, or worse don't support it properly giving unpredictable results.
4k is also a lot of strain on video cards in gaming whereas ultra wide much much less so.
Ultra wides are (as far as I have seen) all IPS panels so have good colour.

For me, its a no brainer really but availability of the 1440p varient is still poor and its looking like its going to start at £800ish

[UseItNow]

Nice ya git!

Though have to admit, like yourself, TN panels have got much better IMO, I've an IPS as well as a XL2420T.

[KeyboardDemon]

Gratz, I'm happy for you. I was close to getting a 4k monitor as there are a few well priced models at the moment, in the end I decided to pre-order the new 2560x1440 Asus PG278Q as I think the 144hz refresh would be better for gaming than the higher 4k resolution running at 60hz.

[Biscuit]

Gratz, I'm happy for you. I was close to getting a 4k monitor as there are a few well priced models at the moment, in the end I decided to pre-order the new 2560x1440 Asus PG278Q as I think the 144hz refresh would be better for gaming than the higher 4k resolution running at 60hz.

Does it come freesync compatible?