Samsung - A650 Series 34" ViewFinity LED 1000R Curved WQHD FreeSync Monitor with HDR - Black

Customer Images

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• See
  More

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  The curve takes getting used to

  • Incentivized
  • Verified Purchaser
  • My Best Buy® Member
  • Owned for 7 months

  Seriously, it will take you a few days for your eyes to get used to the curve. But once you do man this is a great monitor. I use it 8 hours+ a day at work and it gives me so much real estate for Excel work, it’s game changing. Wish it was a tad bit brighter but if you adjust the settings a bit you can get it to a pretty good mix of brightness and clarity. Won’t ever look as good as a 4K or Retina screen does but it’s half the price of those so you get what you pay for. Also, I really like the built in stand. I was planning to mount it on an arm but the stand is really nice and I like how it’s almost completely out of the way.

  • 

  Posted 3 years ago by Tom1

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Amazing display!

  • Incentivized
  • My Best Buy® Elite Member
  • Verified Purchaser
  • Owned for less than 1 week

  This is my first ultra wide curved display. My use case is primarily for productivity so I can't speak for all the gamers who may be interested here. Great display overall and would definitely recommend! Only issue is that after a few days of use I've noticed a few dead pixels pop up so I will have to send this back to Samsung at some point..

  • 

  Posted 4 years ago by iamadev2021

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Good Ultrawide with 90W USB-C, But With Caveats

  • Tech Insider Network Member
  • Top 100 Contributor

  < INTRO > The Samsung A650 Ultrawide monitor aims to provide users with a wide array of features that could appeal to both productivity focused tasks as well as gaming. It sports a 34” 21:9 aspect ratio VA display with high contrast ratio, “HDR10” support, 100Hz refresh rate with FreeSync, and a USB-C connection that supports DisplayPort, USB Data transfer, Ethernet & 90W Power Delivery. It aims to combine two separate purchases—a Monitor & USB-C dock into one product. But does the A650 deliver on this promised experience? < UNBOXING & INITIAL SETUP > The unboxing experience of the A650 was pleasantly simple. Inside the box, you’ll be presented with the components for the 2-piece stand as well as the display, itself. I grabbed a Phillips-head screwdriver and assembled the base to the pole-like stand, and then without any additional tools, I attached the display to the stand using the integrated latching mechanism. It was very easy to assemble, which is always great to see, as I’ve dealt with many monitors that require too many screws or are fidgety to assemble. < PHYSICAL ADJUSTMENTS > Once it was assembled, I placed it on my desk and used the stand’s built-in height adjustment to bring the monitor to eye-level. Samsung gives users 120mm (4.7”) of height adjustment which might seem small, but can really make a big difference. On my recording studio desk, I sometimes stand up to play guitar while viewing the monitor, so it’s nice to have that extra height so I can have a more appropriate viewing angle. You also have a -2 degree (aiming down) to 25 degree (aiming up) tilt which is plenty for users to dial in good posture for viewing the display. Additionally, the display can be rotated left or right 30 degrees each way—this might be useful for showing content to someone standing next to you, so you don’t have to rotate the entire stand. The stand doesn’t have a swivel which might be desirable for some workflows like coding, but since this display has such a strong curvature, it wouldn’t be such a great experience. < BUILD > In terms of the build quality, I have no complaints. The base might be thin, but it is a solid hunk of metal and feels very sturdy. I don’t have issues with screen wobble on my unit, and it doesn’t have any issue maintaining all of aforementioned physical adjustments. The A650 appears well-built, and I like the classy aesthetic. It’s not too business oriented, and it’s also not gamer-oriented. While it’s largely a plastic build, everything feels solid without also being super heavy. < ON-SCREEN CONTROLS / OPTIONS > The on-screen controls are usable, but certainly not my favorite. Under the bottom center of the display is effectively a rubber D-pad with a center “action” button (which can also be used to power-on the display). While it’s easy to feel the buttons (as they have small dot bumps that you can feel), they’re rather mushy and require extra force to press in. I’d rather they have provided plastic tactile buttons. That being said, the user interface for the on-screen controls is fairly intuitive, although if you’re used to dedicated back buttons, you’ll need to instead press the action button to escape modals and the left arrow button to exit sub-menus. As a UI/UX developer, I found this to be not my favorite user experience, but this is honestly just a nit-pick and isn’t something worth dwelling over. However, one thing that really confused me was the number of settings that directly affect brightness. The on-screen descriptions of these settings don’t explain when the options are available; instead, forcing you to consult the manual for guidance. Many of the settings won’t allow you to engage them if other settings are toggled. Let’s walk through some of the extra settings that affect brightness. • Eco Sensor Mode: Optimizes brightness in real time, based on your lighting environment. • Eco Saving Plus: The Eco Saving Plus function reduces power consumption by controlling the electric current used by the monitor panel. • Dynamic Brightness: Automatically adjust the Brightness to provide the best possible screen contrast under the current conditions. • Adaptive Picture: Optimizes brightness and provides the best picture quality in real time, based on the lighting condition and the content you're viewing. • Min Backlight: Minimizes screen backlight when running Adaptive Picture. If you’re thinking that’s a lot, well that’s because it is. And you’ll need to consult the manual to see which ones you should (and can) engage based on your needs—whether professional or personal. There are a lot of helpful settings for things such as auto-switching to a newly plugged in device when there’s no signal, as well as some extra power savings features based on your habits and needs. < USB-C CONNECTIVITY > The A650 supports DisplayPort over USB-C along with 90W Power Delivery. In the monitor’s system settings, setting the USB-C Preference to High Resolution will enable 3440x1440@100Hz, but will limit the 3 USB ports to USB 2.0 speeds and also limit the speed of the ethernet port. Whereas setting it to High-Speed Data will limit the display to 3440x1440@60Hz, but the 3 USB ports can operate as USB 3.0. Since this isn’t a Thunderbolt or USB4-enabled monitor, you’re unfortunately forced to pick between these options. On one hand, if you only need to use the USB ports for mouse and keyboard, using the High Resolution mode will be great. But if you planned to use the ethernet jack and/or external SSDs, you’ll have to compromise on the frame rate by selecting High-Speed Data mode instead. Hopefully with USB4 becoming more prominent, we’ll see more ultrawide monitors with high refresh rates as well as high speed USB ports at lower costs. But in the meantime, this is really only available in Thunderbolt 3-enabled ultrawide monitors. My USB-C usage was limited to my 16” Intel-based MacBook Pro. My intention was to have a one-cable solution that would allow me to forego a Thunderbolt 3 dock. And while it did work just fine during actual usage, it also had some worrisome issues with Power Delivery during sleep mode. I found that during sleep mode, the monitor would seemingly cause the power chime noise to go off every couple minutes until it eventually woke up my MacBook and subsequently woke up the monitor. The MacBook itself would become hot while this was happening. The “fix” to this is to power the MacBook via the wall adapter. This will allow it to sleep normally and without overheating. This means it’s unfortunately not a one-cable solution for MacBook users unless you plan to unplug the MacBook from the monitor after each session. There are other monitors that exhibit this same issue with MacBooks, so it may very well be something more related to the MacBook ecosystem. But if you don’t have any intention of using this monitor with USB-C, then you may want to consider other options because you could easily spend a couple hundred dollars less and get a great display without USB-C but with faster response times and also higher refresh rates. < DISPLAY > My assessment of the display will be largely subjective since I do not have the tools to perform measurements. Firstly, I think this is a great display for productivity purposes. I didn’t think I’d like the 1000R curvature over the milder 1500R curvatures I’m used to, but I forgot about it very quickly after using it for a while. Viewing angles are definitely focused on the sweet spot and will definitely shift more due to the curvature exacerbating the “actual” angle from which you’re viewing the display. It gets plenty bright when configured correctly and has excellent contrast so that blacks are rich while lighter colors still pop through. The colors present themselves vividly compared to some other displays that end up more washed out. However, HDR is best experienced on displays that can achieve much higher peak brightness. When I tried using HDR in macOS with the A650, darker scenes in HDR content became noticeably noisy at times. Having more local dimming zones is necessary for HDR content, and this A650 just doesn’t really hold up well compared to a proper HDR display certified by VESA The 100Hz refresh rate lends to a fluid visual experience and is decent for gaming, but there are certainly better monitors for gaming, especially for the price. That being said, there is a Game Mode which Samsung recommends enabling if you intend to use the A650 for gaming. Additionally, there is a setting for enabling faster response times, which is good to see for a monitor that doesn’t market itself heavily towards gamers. If your primary purpose is for gaming, I’d still advise looking at other options. < CONCLUSION > Overall, the Samsung A650 ultrawide monitor is a good contender for those looking for a display that is decent for both gaming and productivity over USB-C. If you’re the kind of person who has two computers—a desktop for gaming and a USB-C enabled thin and light laptop for work, the A650 might be a good option to simplify your connectivity. While I don’t think it’s the best option for single-cable use for MacBook owners due to the sleep-related issues I encountered, your mileage may vary for other USB-C enabled notebooks. It’s well-designed and otherwise a joy to use. The display is good, but not the best I’ve used. And while it claims to support HDR10, it’s not bright enough and also not VESA-certified. There are not many ultrawide monitors that support 3440x1440@100Hz along with 90W Power Delivery over USB-C. In that regard, Samsung is delivering something that is pretty rare to find—especially at this price point. You’ll have to spend a lot more for Thunderbolt 3-enabled displays. So while the A650 isn’t perfect for everyone’s use-cases, it provides a compelling feature set for the price when compared to the competition.

  • 
  • 
  • 

  Posted 4 years ago by Xephyroth