Samsung U28D590 review - Ultra HD 4K 28" monitor for $599

[Andrew Reid]

Buy it now - $599

Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) has arrived on your desktop and it is cheap. This screen is like having a 28" Retina display. For filmmakers and photographers has the time come to finally go 4K?

Read the full article here

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Astonishing price. I was in the market for a monitor and I think I will search for this one. Hope I can find it here.

I have always wondered, is there a disadvantage to vieweing 1080p images on a 4K display compared to viewing them on a 1080p one?

I ask this because I did notice that when viewing 720p footage in full screen on a 1080p panel the image shows significant pixelation and loss in quality compared to viewing on a native 720p display.

Wouldn't the screen have to upscale the 1080p image to fit the 4K panel? Or if not, simply stretch it resulting in pixelation and image degradation? If that's the case then I have currently more use of a 1080p monitor.

[Andrew Reid]

This screen is capable of a 1080p > 4K upscale, which is meant to enhance the upscaling.

 

I haven't tested it yet but the Mac does a similar thing since Retina came along. Very advanced upscaling.

 

Image quality, whether it is pixelated or soft or not depends more on the quality of the upscaling. Potentially if the upscaling adds detail it can look better than on a native 1080p display.

 

Thing is whether we like it or not, native 1080p displays are a dying breed on laptops and desktops (if not yet tablets and phones).

 

The days of viewing our 1080p footage natively full screen with a 1:1 pixel mapping are going to be over pretty quickly.

 

All the more reason to get a 4K camera to do justice to your 4K display.

[leeys]

No IPS, no sale. I cannot stand working with TN panels. Would rather stick with my 2.5k screen and activate panning mode.

[Andrew Reid]

Ok let's try and be more helpful. What price do IPS 4K monitors start at Leeys?

[D.B.]

Wow, you have me sold but...what do you think about an Apple answer?  They haven't updated their monitor since Sept. 2011 and are way, way overdue.  I imagine it's because they're working on a 4K move. 

[Rob Bannister]

its great and the price is amazing. I do wish they went full 4k which has always been 4096 for me anyways. My monitor setup is getting close to needing an update too. Samsung at it again. Great stuff

[Dane]

I own a 39'' Seiki UHD TV, which I use as a monitor with my PC. When playing some 4k video files I notice quite a bit of flicker. Turning sharpness down to 0 on the tv helps but doesn't eliminate it. After reading your review I did some quick research and found a very similar monitor, the Asus PB287Q, has something called flicker free technology, which the Samsung doesn't have. Have you noticed flicker on 4k videos on the Samsung display?

 

Edit: read more about the Flicker free technology and I think it helps with a different flicker then I was describing. The strobing type flicker I'm experiencing probably has to do with the shutter speed I'm shooting the footage at.

[leeys]

Ok let's try and be more helpful. What price do IPS 4K monitors start at Leeys?

My point was, I won't cheap out and get this. Sometimes it's just not worth the money (think of cheap bargain "fluid" heads that don't quite work, or rigs that never fit right, or tripods that are just that wee bit unreliable).

[maisdoidoainda]

Really awesome? I didn't think so.

 

Dell has a 28 inch 4k (TN Panel) monitor since begin of 2014.

The price started at $699, but now it costs $499.

[Astro]

Andrew

Very interesting article...just one point you said "Is this the perfect monitor to watch your Gh4 footage on?" and then you never said anything further about that, apart from a little bit about the A7s.

What does the A7s footage look like? What does the GH4 footage look like?

Just in your opinion ..based on viewing on that 4K monitor.

You said its very revealing and you may have to re review some cameras...but not much more about that?

A positive and negative review of the current crop of 4K DSLR's on a 4K monitor would be great...avoiding the stuff we already know...like ISO performance...RS etc...

just the detail, colors etc of those 4K cams.....how they hold up,  and a comparison of current 1080p DSLR's on that monitor as compared to the A7s and GH4 would be very interesting as well.

There are no other articles about this as far as I know, and I am sure a lot of us would be very interested in the results.

Thanks for the article...

Cheers :)

[Damon Mosier]

I know that you said color reproduction wasn't exactly 100% accurate, but just the fact that the UHD color gamut is Rec.2020 instead of crappy Rec.709 is a major improvement...

[Orangenz]

I've had one since mid July. As you say, 4k is stunning. Colours are stunning. The only downside is that on the PC platform scaling is a little more varied between different programs. So windows scales, browsers like Firefox scale. Chrome doesn't scale well. Most Adobe products don't scale. So for video editing I have to lean forward every so often to see what I'm clicking on. But all the advantages so outweigh that one disadvantage.

Currently running off a single display port cable to a GTX780.

I can't work out how to upload a picture here. So here's a screencap of what the menu sizes and icons look like for Premiere on PC. HD screen on right (monitor mode). Desktop4K + 1080

Edit: 5cm scale added

[Jacek]

It's not the only one 4K 28" Monitor on the market at that price...

AOC u2868Pqu
ViewSonic VX2880ml
IIYAMA B2888UHSU-B1
Dell P2815Q
Philips 288P6LJEB
Asus PB287Q

[Jacek]

I know that you said color reproduction wasn't exactly 100% accurate, but just the fact that the UHD color gamut is Rec.2020 instead of crappy Rec.709 is a major improvement...

I have to disappoint you, but Rec.2020 is just a recommendation for UHD and has nothing to do with actual monitor colour gamut.

 

That Samsung is not bad (especially considering it's TN panel) and almost covers sRGB (similar to rec.709), but it is far far from rec.2020 colour gamut recommendation.

Don't know its colour accuracy (which is as important as color space coverage), but overall it is just avarage monitor (good for TN) in terms of colors.

[Branting]

Ok let's try and be more helpful. What price do IPS 4K monitors start at Leeys?

What about this Dell UHD IPS monitor for €567 from German Hardwarehouse? Sure, 24" (or 23,8" to be precise), but still IPS and (almost) 4K close to €500.

[tomekk]

Yeah, I want to see how much adobe rgb color space it covers. You image quality is one-sided Andrew. You don't take everything into account. Image quality based mainly on resolution is flawed.

[Damon Mosier]

I have to disappoint you, but Rec.2020 is just a recommendation for UHD and has nothing to do with actual monitor colour gamut.

 

That Samsung is not bad (especially considering it's TN panel) and almost covers sRGB (similar to rec.709), but it is far far from rec.2020 colour gamut recommendation.

Don't know its colour accuracy (which is as important as color space coverage), but overall it is just avarage monitor (good for TN) in terms of colors.

Figures. I originally worded my question specifically asking whether the color gamut was 709 or 2020, but didn't want to look ignorant if it was an obvious question for those familiar with UHD monitors. So I did some looking on the internet first and I saw that Rec.2020 was what UHD was supposed to aim for, then assumed this monitor had it. Thus, I ended up looking ignorant anyway...

[hmcindie]

"Every little imperfection from the lens or camera is there front and centre with no scaling to assist in hiding it under the rug."

 

That's not necessarily a good thing. A lot of LCD's that tend to be TN-panels artificially inflate artifacts. I think it's something to do with their gammas that are not very uniform. Also the less dynamic range you get with the monitor the more you will see all kinds of stuff in the shadows.

[Julian]

Ok let's try and be more helpful. What price do IPS 4K monitors start at Leeys?

 

Dell Ultrasharp UP2414Q. Starting around €650.

 

Even more Retina with 4K @ 24"