Is Samsung’s new Quantum Dot gaming monitor ahead of the curve?

Samsung has always been very proud of their Quantum Dot display technology and for good reason — the panels do look awesome. In the past, this technology has been limited to the company’s television screens — notably their flagship TVs — but now they’re also bringing that technology into their monitors.

Meet the Samsung CFG70, the company’s first Quantum Dot curved monitor targetted at gamers. First impressions? It’s got a lot going for it.

I did a video awhile back explaining Quantum Dot and what that means to the consumer, so if you’re unfamiliar with this display technology, you can check that out first.

In essence, this CFG70 works the same way. It will come in either 24-inch or 27-inch screen sizes with Quantum Dot panels pushing a Full HD resolution. The panels themselves have a matte finish on top so that should help in reducing glare.

To earn its “gaming” pedigree, Samsung’s new monitor comes with a fast 144 Hz refresh rate with an incredible moving pixel response time (MPRT) of just 1ms — typical IPS monitors have about 4-5ms. What’s more, thanks to Quantum Dot, this monitor also covers 125% of the sRGB spectrum with a contrast ratio of 3,000:1.

Oh, and as an added cherry on top of the proverbial cake, this monitor comes supporting AMD’s FreeSync technology for reduced screen tearing. Unfortunately, if you’re using an NVIDIA card like I am, you won’t be able to reap the benefits.

Looking at the monitors on display at the launch event, the image quality looks really solid. The 1800R curve on the monitor gives it great immersion, but it still manages to retain some respectable viewing angles.

Moving on to the build, the CFG70 comes with a new arm that makes it really easy to adjust the monitor’s height. It’s also got a little notch at the back to hold your headset, though I found that if I wanted to do that, the monitor has to be adjusted to its lowest height otherwise the headphones just slide off.

However, despite how easy it is to adjust the height of the monitor, and how rigidly it stays there, I’m rather disappointed with how wobbly the arm actually is. It’s bad enough to wobble the monitor even when you start bottoming out during typing.

That said, when it comes to settings, Samsung’s CFG70 has to have one of the most intuitive menu and settings designs I’ve ever come across on a monitor. At the bottom of the display, you have three buttons that let you cycle between three different presets, while everything else (main menu, etc) can be accessed from a little joystick that’s placed at the back of the display.

I don’t know why more manufacturers don’t use joysticks to navigate a monitor’s menu because it just works. There was no guessing and fiddling about with which button does what — it’s just a matter flicking the nub in a direction you want and pressing down to select your setting. Absolutely awesome.

For input, the monitor supports 2 HDMI inputs, one DisplayPort and a headphone jack.

As far as first impressions go, this monitor looks pretty good overall. Support for AMD’s FreeSync, the fast 144 Hz refresh rate and fast pixel response time makes it a compelling option for gamers running AMD cards. It also has one of the most intuitive menu navigations I’ve seen yet. However, many will probably be turned off by the Full HD resolution and iffy monitor arm wobble.

Samsung’s new monitor will be priced at RM1,699 for the 24-inch model and RM2,099 for the 27-inch model. It will go up for preorder on Lazada from the 19th to 26th of January and the first 100 customers will walk away with a free gift worth up to RM264.