Samsung CF591 27-inch curved monitor review – high quality and immersive

Monitors are going down the same path as smart TVs with curved designs. Samsung, a company that’s been curving its TVs for years now, has applied those smarts to the CF591 27-inch curved full high definition LED monitor.

There’s nothing to say that your computer monitor has to be flat.

Samsung’s CF591 is just one of a range of curved monitors that are designed to immerse you even further into whatever you’re doing whether it’s work, playing a game or watching a movie.

On the design side, the CF591 has a virtually no existent bezel so all you see is the display.

At the bottom of the screen is a 1.7cm silver chin.

And of course, there’s that gentle curve. That 19-degree curvature is designed to imitate the curve of the human eye.

A curve on a TV is one thing – the angle of curvature is different and you’re sitting metres away from it.

But with the CF591, you’re sitting less than half a metre away and the curve is noticeable enough to draw you further in to the screen.

It offers a 178 degree viewing angle and a nice widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio.

It is nicely finished with a white rear panel and a stylish circular stand.

On the connectivity side, there’s HDMI, Display Port, 3.5mm Audio In, D-Sub and a headphone jack.

Also onboard the Samsung CF591 curved monitor are 5-watt stereo speakers which offer decent sound for your movies and games whether it’s connected to a computer, Blu-ray player or gaming console.

The menu system is also easy to navigate the settings and to adjust the picture and sound.

The Samsung curved monitor offers excellent picture quality with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a dynamic 3000:1 contrast ratio.

Black levels are impressive along with the colours thanks to Samsung’s Active Colour Crystal technology.

We connected our computer and a Blu-ray player and the quality was admirable.

For the computer gamer, the Samsung CH591 has features that make the experience even better when every second counts.

AMD FreeSync technology means the image is smooth and dynamically syncs the screen refresh rate with the frame rate of the content to minimise the latency.

Out of the box the screen has a 5ms refresh rate so fast motion offers smooth playback and hardly any motion blur.

There’s also an Eye Saver Mode which, when activated, reduces the blue light emissions and flickering.

Things we didn’t like about the monitor was the lack of USB and Thunderbolt connections. And having a secondary HDMI input would have been handy so you can keep a Blu-ray disc player or gaming console connected without having to disconnect your computer.

In terms of adjustment, you can tilt the screen but to turn the monitor you need to move the whole thing.

It’s also not cheap at $549.95.

VERDICT

The 27-inch Samsung CF591 curved full high definition monitor has a stylish and contemporary design and excellent picture quality but, at $549.95, you should expect nothing less.