displays
Latest
Samsung's first Odyssey gaming monitors include a 240Hz ultra-wide
Samsung is now applying its Odyssey gaming badge to monitors, and it's marking the occasion with two displays that are clearly geared to enthusiasts. The 49-inch G9 (above) is billed as the first 5,120 x 1,440 ultra-wide display with a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1ms pixel response time. You won't have to choose between extra-smooth performance and expansive, high-res visuals. It's also one of the first Samsung screens with a 1000R curvature, and it can handle DisplayHDR 1000 brightness as well as AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync. It should show up in the second quarter of the year.
Apple's redesigned Mac Pro is now available
Right on cue, Apple has started taking orders for the redesigned Mac Pro and its optional Pro Display XDR. The workstation is available starting at $5,999 with an eight-core 3.5GHz Xeon processor, 32GB of RAM, Radeon Pro 580X graphics and a 256GB solid-state drive. In a pleasant twist, there's also a rackmount version for servers and other non-desktop uses -- it's only listed as "coming soon," but it's poised to start at $6,499.
ASUS' 27-inch, 165Hz gaming monitor is $150 cheaper for Black Friday
Now might be a good time to upgrade your gaming PC's display if your current model is feeling old in the tooth. Two of ASUS' gaming monitors are on sale from now until December 30th at 3:05AM Eastern, and both of them pack features you might appreciate. The ROG Swift PG279QZ has dropped to $450 from its usual $599, making it a considerably sweeter deal. The 27-inch, 1440p screen packs a 165Hz refresh rate (with NVIDIA G Sync support) as well as an IPS panel, giving you very smooth gaming and IPS' vivid colors. There's also eye fatigue reduction for those marathon Modern Warfare sessions.
LG Display's TV and phone screens struggle against cheaper Chinese rivals
Unable to compete with the glut of cheaper Chinese LCD panels, LG Display has replaced its chief executive and is looking to cut jobs. Early this week, the South Korean company held an emergency board meeting to accept the resignation of Han Sang-beom and appoint LG Chem President Jeong Ho-young as the new CEO, Reuters reports. According to Financial Times, the company has also revealed a voluntary redundancy program in an attempt to reduce its domestic workforce.
Watch ASUS' IFA 2019 event in under 10 minutes
ASUS hosted its IFA 2019 press event at 7AM ET this morning. We don't blame you if you were still sleeping, or on your way to work, and missed it. Lucky for you we were on the ground in Berlin and we've condensed the whole thing down to just under 10 minutes so you can catch up quickly. The company announced a new smart watch, expanded availability for its high-end ROG Phone II gaming phone, powerful new laptops for creative pros (including the first to harness NVIDIA's Quadro RTX 6000 graphics), displays and a whole lot more. Now it's time to get caught up while your boss is out for coffee.
ASUS’ StudioBook Pro X is a powerful laptop for creatives
ASUS is massively expanding its ProArt line here at IFA 2019, adding laptops, a desktop and a display to the series this week. Not all of it was on display ahead of the show, but the one laptop that caught our eye was the Studio Book Pro X. It's a massive machine, and the first NVIDIA Quadro-powered device to house the ASUS ScreenPad tech. If you're unfamiliar, that's the fancy touchscreen display that sits where the trackpad usually is. Now ASUS is on ScreenPad 2.0, a feature we first saw at Computex.
Samsung's 32-inch Space Gaming Monitor makes room for your PC
Giant gaming monitors have a conspicuous problem: all that visual real estate usually swallows up desk space, leaving limited room for your speakers, elaborate peripherals or the PC itself. Samsung might have a simple fix. Its newly unveiled Space Gaming Monitor (aka SR75Q) adopts the small-footprint formula of the Space Monitor, but tunes it for a crowd more interested in frame rates and tear-free visuals than resolution. It touts the same 32-inch design that pushes flat against the wall when you need room, but ditches 4K in favor of a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution with a speedy 144Hz refresh rate and support for AMD's FreeSync.
Nintendo may have many, many more Switch consoles planned
Nintendo is definitely releasing the $200 Switch Lite handheld console on September 20th, and may release a higher-end console soon too, if rumors are to be believed. Its plans might even go beyond all that, however. The company is reportedly working on further updates beyond those models "to make the platform's lifecycle long," according to WSJ sources inside the company.
Samsung expects another big slump in profits
Samsung isn't about to leave the doldrums any time soon. The company warned that its profits were likely to slump in the second quarter, dropping about 56 percent year-over-year to roughly 6.5 trillion won (just short of $5.6 billion). That doesn't sound great, but it could have been worse -- a one-time payment from an unnamed customer buoyed Samsung's income. The company reportedly asked Apple for compensation after its OLED display orders didn't meet minimum levels, although that hasn't been confirmed.
Samsung unveils its first gaming monitor with NVIDIA's G-Sync
Samsung is no stranger to gaming monitors, but you've had to use AMD FreeSync (if it was even available) if you were determined to eliminate any trace of screen tearing artifacts. What if your PC uses NVIDIA graphics, though? You can relax -- Samsung has finally released a display with G-Sync, the 27-inch CRG5. The panel mates G-Sync with a 240Hz refresh rate to deliver tear-free visuals as long as you have a GeForce GPU under the hood. There's a low-latency mode and a reasonably quick 4ms gray-to-gray pixel response time, too, so it could be a solid pick even if you prefer Radeons.
Apple built a 32-inch 6K Retina display for the Mac Pro
Apple didn't just have a new Mac Pro to show at WWDC -- the company has unveiled a 32-inch Retina 6K display, the Pro Display XDR, to match. The screen matches the industrial look of the Mac Pro and delivers the kind of color performance you'd expect, including support for the P3 color space and extremely accurate high dynamic range. Also, glare might not be an issue -- Apple has ditched the usual anti-reflection coating by etching the glass itself with a "nano-texture," and it touts both a 1,000-nit typical brightness and a 1,600-nit peak. The 1,000,000-to-1 contrast ratio will help produce deep blacks, too.
Apple is no longer selling LG's UltraFine 5K display
It looks like Apple has unceremoniously dropped another third-party display option from its online store. 9to5Mac noticed the LG UltraFine 5K display appears to be no longer available for purchase from Apple. This comes just a few weeks after Apple stopped selling the 4K model of the monitor. The apparent removal of the LG's offerings come as Apple is reportedly working on its owns 6K display that is rumored to be released later this year.
HP's latest pro-grade laptops pack new Intel chips and bright displays
Intel has introduced a new generation of pro Core processors for laptops, and HP is determined to make the most of them right from the word "go." The PC maker has unveiled a string of work-oriented laptops that all take advantage of Intel's latest hardware, including computational speed boosts and faster WiFi 6 networking. The star of the show is arguably the updated ZBook line -- the 14-inch ZBook 14u (above) and 15.6-inch ZBook 15u both tout up to a quad-core 1.8GHz Core i7, 32GB of RAM and Radeon Pro WX 3200 graphics, giving it up to a 50 percent graphics boost for tasks like 3D modeling. The 14u in particular is billed as the "world's thinnest" mobile workstation at 0.71 inches thick -- it's not the slimmest laptop ever, but it'll be easy enough to slip into a carry-on bag without much fuss.
NVIDIA certifies a dozen FreeSync monitors as 'G-SYNC compatible'
Monitor manufacturers must usually decide whether to use NVIDIA's G-SYNC and AMD's FreeSync, a crucial choice that can divide consumers into camps and drastically affect sales. Now, NVIDIA has brought G-SYNC compatibility certification to a number of monitors from Acer, Agon, Asus and Benq that were previously only FreeSync certified. The goal is evidently to expand its display ecosystem, but it will be a big benefit to the owners of those monitors, too.
LG Display unveils an 88-inch 8K OLED screen with built-in sound
It wouldn't be CES without a few exotic screens from LG Display, and the company is keen to deliver this year. To start, it's offering a dramatic upgrade to the Crystal Sound screen technology it unveiled back in 2017. The new version is an 88-inch, 8K OLED display (not pictured yet) whose panel produces 3.2.2-channel Dolby Atmos audio -- you'd not only have a great picture, but good-enough sound that you might not rush to buy your own speakers. LG Display hasn't outlined plans for the screen, but there's little doubt this would be most relevant for a future TV set.
E Ink display lets you write on it as if it were paper
You can already get e-paper notepads that come close to replicating the feel of writing on dead trees, but E Ink thinks it can do better. The company has unveiled a new film, JustWrite, that promises more natural scribbling. It doesn't require a backlight or another display layer, and there's "almost no" lag. You won't have to strain your eyes or second-guess your drawing. The technology is also bendable, works with virtually any size and shape, and needs just a basic stylus as well as some basic electronics -- it shouldn't carry a significant premium.
Dell's 49-inch ultra-wide monitor is built for extreme multitasking
Dell is about to make you very happy if you're into heavy-duty multitasking. The company has unveiled the UltraSharp 49 Curved Monitor, billed as the first dual QHD (5,120 x 1,440) ultra-wide curved display at its size. The allure, as you might guess, is the no-compromise productivity -- you can run two typical full-screen apps (or two PCs) side-by-side without a drop in resolution or overall size. It's also using an IPS panel that covers 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut, so it should be helpful if you're a photo or video editor who wants as much space as possible for palettes and timelines.
Samsung ships its curved QLED monitor with Thunderbolt 3
Thunderbolt 3 displays are still quite rare in the PC world, let alone curved ones, but Samsung is ready to supply both at once. After a preview at CES, it's releasing its CJ79 curved QLED monitor worldwide. The 34-inch screen mates an ultra-wide 3,440 x 1,440 quantum dot screen (including a 125 percent sRGB color gamut) with two Thunderbolt 3 ports that provide 85W of power, a display signal and data through a single cable. Samsung pitches it as a productivity hub for MacBook Pro and Windows laptop owners who want a vast workspace without straining their eyes looking at a flat screen.
RED teaming with Foxconn on smaller, cheaper 8K cameras
Foxconn plans to build smaller, cheaper 8K cameras in collaboration with cinema company RED, Nikkei reports. "We will make cameras that will shoot professional-quality films in 8K resolution but at only a third of current prices and a third of current camera sizes," CEO Terry Gou told reporters. RED currently has several 8K models, including the 3.35 pound, $30,000 Epic-W 8K (above). That means Foxconn could conceivably produce an 8K camera that costs around $10,000 and weights just over a pound -- less than many DSLRs.
Samsung is the latest to try modernizing the whiteboard
Samsung isn't just limiting its CES launches to your home -- it wants to spruce up your meetings, too. It's releasing a Flip digital whiteboard (or "interactive digital flip chart" in Samsung speak) that can take on collaborative screens like the Google Jamboard. The 55-inch 4K display lets up to four people draw or add content at once, whether they're using their fingers or a dual-sided pen. And as the name suggests, you're not locked to a landscape view. You can flip the display vertical if you're writing a list or just don't have room for a wide screen, and it can be wall-mounted if it's going to be a permanent fixture.
