First off, a little about me. This will go a long way to explain my choices, good and bad. Foremost, I am not a gamer! Let’s get that out of the way. I use both Mac and Windows, sometimes I am running Windows on my Mac with Parallels but usually I have a separate Windows computer. My Mac is my daily driver, used for all kinds of online activity (news, forums, YouTube, Streaming TV and movies, research etc.) and offline stuff, mostly writing overly long diatribes about computers, radios, coins and the other geeky things I do. The only gaming I do is the occasional Solitaire on my iPhone or iPad when I cannot sleep.
I have a separate Windows computer that I use for my radio programming and virtual control, using things like ProScan, ARC-xx, ScannerRecorder, and various FT8 or other ham radio applications.
I have a mixed history with the Samsung G9 49” curved monitor. I had purchased one back in 2021 for about $1400. This was the QLED 240Hz one newly available at the time. It was only available at the time in white, which did not match my all-black aesthetic, but I thought it would allow me to replace multiple monitors on my desk with just one big mother.
When it arrived, I unboxed it and set it up. I had some initial issues making it work on the 2018 version Intel Mac Mini I had at the time using an external graphics adapter but after futzing around with it for a couple days (and reading a lot of posts on various forums) I got it to work. I was less than impressed. It just did not have the pizzazz I was looking for. I wasn’t really impressed with the build quality either. I suspect that as these were brand spanking new at the time there may have been some hand assembly or last-minute alterations made. I really cannot point to any one thing that made me suspect this, it just did not have that well-finished appearance.
I had considered returning it and eating the restocking fee in place at the time as I really was not impressed. I was able to get the full resolution and refresh rates promised but it just didn’t wow me like I had hoped. Then I got lucky: the thing broke. I was working from home about a week or two after I got it and I heard a nasty “pop” and the monitor went dark. No video, no back light, no nothing. I went to the shop and recovered one of my old monitors, and it worked fine, even with the same cable. No smoke was seen or smelled but the monitor was dead. That saved me a couple hundred dollars in restocking fees and shipping. I contacted Amazon, got a return tag and shuffled off to the UPS store with a box that was huge and heavy.
Fast forward 4 years and the wife and I were walking thru Costco, and they had a newer version of the G9 on display for $950. I considered it a couple times, but it was still white. It was the third or fourth trip to the mega-store that I decided to go for it. Then I found out they were not in stock at the store at the time, and that ended up being good for me. After we got home, I did a little research and found that I could get it from Samsung direct for $250 less at $799 and also get for free a 27” Odyssey G5 curved monitor, all with free shipping! It also came in black, matching my style in my office. This was a deal I could not pass up, I didn’t even ask my wife first, I just told her what I did after the fact. I figured she was going to allow the $950 purchase at Costco so she would be good with an $800 one, especially if I got a freebie like that.
So a couple days later a full-sized semi showed up on my cul-de-sac and two guys carried in the large box with the 49” monitor and then went back out for the smaller (but still rather large) one. After carefully unpacking the monster, I set it on the desk and plugged it in. By now however I was rocking a brand-new Mac Studio M4Max. I connected it with the same USB-C to Display Port cable I had in use for one of my 27” Acer Nitro monitors and it fired right up at the full 5120x1440 resolution and 240Hz refresh rate.
Note to self here: Please follow the instructions on the box and in the paperwork. Put the display stand on while the monitor is still in its box, it is a whole lot easier to then remove and plop on the desk that way!
The free 27” G5 monitor matches the same aesthetic as its big brother so I am using it on the same desk with the Windows PC I use for my radio stuff. It does 3840x2160) with a 59.94 Hz. refresh rate and it works fine for my radio stuff. It visually matches the larger one, which is actually more important to me than high refresh rates.
I am now a couple months in and have no complaints. Both monitors have worked great and the 49” one, replacing 2 27’s, allows me to easily split several operations well. I can keep a Word document open on the left side, and a couple separate web browser windows in the center and on the right helps me multitask. I could use a pair of monitors to replicate the same monitor real estate but having a continues panel allows me to do it more efficiently.
As I do not game with it, I have no clue how this would work with gaming. As a productivity and streaming monitor, it works great. The freebie 27” works great for my Windows stuff too. The only issue I had was actually a Windows problem that I found would also happen with other monitors and either of these Samsungs when connected to a Windows computer, or even my Mac if I were running Windows on it via Parallels. When the monitor would go to sleep for inactivity the backlight would remain on. I tried turning off the automatic source select on the various monitors and that solved my issue.
While writing this article I see that the 49” version is now $1300 from Samsung but $750 from Amazon, which includes a Display Port Cable. If you buy it with both a DP and HDMI cable the price jumps to $900. $150 to add an HDMI Cable? I have to be missing something. It seems I had stumbled upon a great deal, I guess timing is everything. It paid to do some searching before buying!
I have a separate Windows computer that I use for my radio programming and virtual control, using things like ProScan, ARC-xx, ScannerRecorder, and various FT8 or other ham radio applications.
I have a mixed history with the Samsung G9 49” curved monitor. I had purchased one back in 2021 for about $1400. This was the QLED 240Hz one newly available at the time. It was only available at the time in white, which did not match my all-black aesthetic, but I thought it would allow me to replace multiple monitors on my desk with just one big mother.
When it arrived, I unboxed it and set it up. I had some initial issues making it work on the 2018 version Intel Mac Mini I had at the time using an external graphics adapter but after futzing around with it for a couple days (and reading a lot of posts on various forums) I got it to work. I was less than impressed. It just did not have the pizzazz I was looking for. I wasn’t really impressed with the build quality either. I suspect that as these were brand spanking new at the time there may have been some hand assembly or last-minute alterations made. I really cannot point to any one thing that made me suspect this, it just did not have that well-finished appearance.
I had considered returning it and eating the restocking fee in place at the time as I really was not impressed. I was able to get the full resolution and refresh rates promised but it just didn’t wow me like I had hoped. Then I got lucky: the thing broke. I was working from home about a week or two after I got it and I heard a nasty “pop” and the monitor went dark. No video, no back light, no nothing. I went to the shop and recovered one of my old monitors, and it worked fine, even with the same cable. No smoke was seen or smelled but the monitor was dead. That saved me a couple hundred dollars in restocking fees and shipping. I contacted Amazon, got a return tag and shuffled off to the UPS store with a box that was huge and heavy.
Fast forward 4 years and the wife and I were walking thru Costco, and they had a newer version of the G9 on display for $950. I considered it a couple times, but it was still white. It was the third or fourth trip to the mega-store that I decided to go for it. Then I found out they were not in stock at the store at the time, and that ended up being good for me. After we got home, I did a little research and found that I could get it from Samsung direct for $250 less at $799 and also get for free a 27” Odyssey G5 curved monitor, all with free shipping! It also came in black, matching my style in my office. This was a deal I could not pass up, I didn’t even ask my wife first, I just told her what I did after the fact. I figured she was going to allow the $950 purchase at Costco so she would be good with an $800 one, especially if I got a freebie like that.
So a couple days later a full-sized semi showed up on my cul-de-sac and two guys carried in the large box with the 49” monitor and then went back out for the smaller (but still rather large) one. After carefully unpacking the monster, I set it on the desk and plugged it in. By now however I was rocking a brand-new Mac Studio M4Max. I connected it with the same USB-C to Display Port cable I had in use for one of my 27” Acer Nitro monitors and it fired right up at the full 5120x1440 resolution and 240Hz refresh rate.
Note to self here: Please follow the instructions on the box and in the paperwork. Put the display stand on while the monitor is still in its box, it is a whole lot easier to then remove and plop on the desk that way!
The free 27” G5 monitor matches the same aesthetic as its big brother so I am using it on the same desk with the Windows PC I use for my radio stuff. It does 3840x2160) with a 59.94 Hz. refresh rate and it works fine for my radio stuff. It visually matches the larger one, which is actually more important to me than high refresh rates.
I am now a couple months in and have no complaints. Both monitors have worked great and the 49” one, replacing 2 27’s, allows me to easily split several operations well. I can keep a Word document open on the left side, and a couple separate web browser windows in the center and on the right helps me multitask. I could use a pair of monitors to replicate the same monitor real estate but having a continues panel allows me to do it more efficiently.
As I do not game with it, I have no clue how this would work with gaming. As a productivity and streaming monitor, it works great. The freebie 27” works great for my Windows stuff too. The only issue I had was actually a Windows problem that I found would also happen with other monitors and either of these Samsungs when connected to a Windows computer, or even my Mac if I were running Windows on it via Parallels. When the monitor would go to sleep for inactivity the backlight would remain on. I tried turning off the automatic source select on the various monitors and that solved my issue.
While writing this article I see that the 49” version is now $1300 from Samsung but $750 from Amazon, which includes a Display Port Cable. If you buy it with both a DP and HDMI cable the price jumps to $900. $150 to add an HDMI Cable? I have to be missing something. It seems I had stumbled upon a great deal, I guess timing is everything. It paid to do some searching before buying!
