Samsung CF791 Series 34-Inch QHD Ultra Wide 1440p, Curved Widescreen Monitor (C34F791)

I had a VX238H monitor for about 5 years, and thought it was time for an upgrade in July of this year (2017). I saw Samsung launch their CHG90 monitor that I preordered, cancelled, and ordered again from Amazon because of constant shipping delays. When the monitor arrived, it was awesome, but had a dead pixel in the left middle of the address bar, so it was always obvious to me. After a few days I also noticed some dim pixel clumps and that a stuck blue pixel had developed. For the price there shouldn't have been any issues, so I returned it and ended up waiting to buy another monitor.I compared the X34, Z35P, PG348Q, the Dell U3415W and U3417W, as well as the Agon AG352UCG up through Black Friday, as well as some LG 60Hz monitors, but coming from the CHG90 I knew I wanted more than that, with 100 being the minimum, as well as 1440p.I had looked at the CF791 before but it hadn't grabbed my attention. It felt like more of a 'uninformed consumer' ultrawide rather than something that catered to the discerning. However, after comparing it honestly to the other monitors in my list and watching a number of reviews on it, as well as being familiar with Samsung's Q-Dot panels and how nice it was on the CHG90 (completely smooth/crisp colors with no bleeding or backlight imbalances), I decided to give it a shot at $689.00.The monitor actually arrived pre-assembled in the packaging, which was a big bonus for setup coming from the CHG90, since these ultrawides weigh quite a lot. Simply take it out and let it sit; no floor time required. The packaging was good, just as it was on the CHG90, and did its job.I didn't know how I would feel about the white. In the end, it offered a nice contrast between my black desk, and you'll never notice it when it matters. It kind of draws your eye to it rather than fading into the background when you walk into the room, which is nice since most people going to spend around $700.00 on a monitor would like it to be seen. It definitely becomes the centerpiece of your desk. Note that all the cables are also white, so anyone with darker flooring or carpet should be aware that the cables will be highly visible. It comes with HDMI, power, and DisplayPort cables.Upon starting up the monitor for the first time I seriously scrutinized the screen for any imperfections I could find, as they're the thing that irritates me the most and what really influences my decision to return. In the end I found a slightly phased out pixel in the top right hand corner of the monitor, but with its position and the increased pixel density, I had actually completely forgotten about it until today. You can only see it when looking at the monitor from a shallow angle on a full white screen. No new pixels have made themselves apparent to me, so the electronics are holding up great. The CHG90 was a little over 80 PPI, whereas the CF791 nearing 110. You're going from 144Hz to 100Hz, and it's noticeable, but still a substantial upgrade from 60Hz. Realize that you'll need to set your graphics driver to output at 100Hz, as the monitor's "native" refresh rate when initially connecting to your machine is set to 60Hz. Once you set it to 100Hz, though, you don't have to change it again, and any V-Sync capable application will read it as 100Hz. I use NVidia so I can't comment about Freesync.It's not set on the sturdiest stand in the world, but just don't smash anything on your desk and it won't ever be a problem, as the stand is more than capable of supporting the monitor. It doesn't have a lot of adjustment in terms of tilt and swivel (i.e. none), but has a Vesa adapter included if that's really a problem.As for the curve, it threw me off for a while. It felt like my eyes were seeing at different distances, like one was focusing further than the other. I had been using my VX238H again for a while after the CHG90, so a curved screen just required another adjustment period. After a month of owning it, I don't have any kind of eye strain now. The curve has a centerpoint at around a 2.5-3ft viewing distance, so you need to sit quite close to it.Coming from a TN panel, I can't say much about the colors. Are they good? Absolutely. Are they faded or strange? Not that I can tell. Are they the best? Definitely not, but it's not a big deal. I'd say the monitor is in the 90-95th percentile range of color quality; it will feel like a slight downgrade if you're coming from a current-generation IPS, but nothing to be worried about at all, especially with the nice Q-Dot technology from Samsung which definitely helps their VA panels feel closer to an IPS.Ghosting is unnoticeable, if it's even there. I game on it every day doing everything from MMOs to FPS to sidescrollers, and have yet to have anything pop out to me. If you're looking I'm sure you can find it, but that's like going to a movie and trying to be dissapointed with it. Immersed in whatever you're doing, and you won't be able to see anything wrong. Again, if you're coming from a top-end IPS display costing twice this, then you'll probably see a slight downgrade, but for half the price it definitely gets way more than half the performance (without having to play panel-roulette).Overall I've been very, very happy with the monitor. No issues whatsoever to write home about. Everything is just a tiny step lower than an IPS, but for so much cheaper and with a lot less hassle about stuck pixels, background bleed and IPS glow. This is definitely a monitor I will keep for a while.

The media could not be loaded. I only regret that giving ZERO stars is not possible. I bought two of these monitors, three months apart, and both have failed. One month after the second one arrived, the first one died. Sadly for me, when I bought it from Amazon, I didn't REALLY buy it from Amazon, it came from a third party seller in Korea. Samsung USA refused to honor the product warranty. The seller was kind enough to play middle man in the repair, but I had to pay ship it to Korea to get it repaired. Samsung Korea repaired it free of charge, but it cost me $170 to ship it round trip. It's very sad that a GLOBAL company such as Samsung does not have a better policy towards helping their customers when they have problems. Fast forward several months, the SECOND unit is now having problems. The backlight on the right side is dead. Anything east of center is cloaked in darkness. This one is also from a third party seller. This one also does not have a US part number. Do I spend the time and $$$ trying to get this repaired, or do I just set it on fire and post the video to YouTube? Over the past 15 years or so, I have owned FIVE Samsung monitors. THREE have had problems and needed repair inside the warranty period. That is a failure rate of 60% inside of 1 year. SIXTY. PERCENT. This particular model has a 100% failure rate for me. I'm done with Samsung monitors - never again.

Let me be clear: this really is a great monitor. The stand appears to be good quality. The circular base could benefit from a QI charging pad like another monitor I saw, but no big loss there. The stand arm itself is has some built-in hidden channels that your cables can be routed through, making for a clean appearance. And now for the monitor itself.Visual Aesthetics: I was very worried that the curve would be too aggressive. It's a 1500R curve, which is the most aggressive curve on the market. When I first took it out of the box, my heart dropped - I thought that alone would make me return it. Videos just don't do it justice. But after turning it on and playing around with it awhile, I really fell in love with the curve. I think for an ultrawide of this size, while sitting about an arm-length's away, it's just the right amount of curvature. Next, the bezels are small, about 1/3 in. (0.84 cm) on the top and sides, and 3/5 in. (1.5 cm) on the bottom. Finally, the slight matte finish on the screen does a great job at fighting glare.Usability: This monitor can be height and tilt adjusted, but not swiveled. The OSD is controlled via a 4-way "joy-stick" that's easy to use for the most part. The monitor is already assembled out of the box, so all you need to do is plug it in and go.Screen Quality: I'll start by commending the quality control team at Samsung. I may have just gotten exceptionally lucky, but my monitor had NO dead pixels, NO discernible light bleed, and really awesome viewing angles (it even went so far as to fool my brother into thinking that it was an IPS monitor). Now for the part that made me return it. I'll start by saying that I've exclusively used IPS displays in the past. While this screen does look pretty nice, it just cannot compete with even lower end IPS panels. Even with Samsung's "Quantum Dot" technology, the colors still seem washed-out to my eye. I've not seen any reviews complaining about this, so I'll assume that this is simply because I'm used to IPS panels. I asked the opinion of some friends who don't use IPS panels, and they all said that they thought this screen was one the best quality screens they've seen. So if you've never used an IPS before, this might just be the best quality you've seen to date. If you have, however, then I'll warn you that it just doesn't have the color vibrancy that IPS panels have to offer, and you might want to consider sticking with an IPS screen. Since this is purely a personal opinion, the product description does state it's a VA panel, and since the screen is still obviously very high quality when compared to other VA and TN panels on the market, this absolutely won't cost it a star.Features: Now for the second reason I'm returning it. Again, this is one of those things I knew going into this purchase that I didn't think would be a big deal, but turned out that it was: g-sync. I have a GTX 1070 that absolutely destroyed ultrawide 1080p games. I knew that it would have more trouble with ultrawide 1440p content, but didn't think that it would be a huge deal. It was. For many popular FPS games, you'll most likely be able to hit a stable 100 fps with a GTX 1070 at this resolution, but for more demanding games (Witcher 3 being one of my favorite), I could only get around 70 fps with near maxed out settings, which just wasn't going to cut it. **Again, this is not the monitor's fault** I'm only mentioning it because I know that the 1070 is a popular card, and I want people to be mindful of the fact that it won't be able to output a constant 100 fps on many demanding titles.It's for both of these reasons that I decided to return this monitor in favor of the Predator x34, which solves both of these problems. I'm now able to get that color vibrancy that I was missing, and play all the games I want while not having to worry about frame-rates.If you've never used an IPS, or if you don't mind missing out on a little bit of the quality IPS has to offer, this monitor is for you.If you have a power graphics card (1080/1080ti) or don't play highly demanding games, this monitor is for you.If you've only ever used an IPS, you might want to reconsider.If you don't have a top of the line graphics card and like to play demanding games, you might want to reconsider.I would again like to make it clear that the reasons I returned it were personal, but at this price point, I believe that we all have the right to be extremely selective and picky. I hope this review helps potential buyers make the right decision.I've included images of potentially useful measurements, some that I wish others had posted before I made the purchase. Hopefully this way you can get a better idea of the type of desk real estate this monitor requires.