SAMSUNG LS49C954UANXZA 49-Inch Curved Ultrawide Monitor

My wife needed a wide-screen monitor to replace the dual LG monitors setup for her MacBook Pro (Intel) and this is a great monitor to have a number of windows open side-by-side, including one for graphic editing.

I won’t repeat what others have already reported in great detail, but the headline is: do not use the “native resolution” but set it to the highest setting (5120×1440) and in our case, we also needed to tweak a bit the color settings to set the brightness/contrast to a good balance point: in MacOS, in Preferences, select the Dynamic Range and choose that in the OSD settings too.

This is overall a good monitor, and works great for office work, graphic editing and (probably) for development too, as you can have several windows open side-by-side without strain; it is also competent as a monitor to watch streaming (Netflix etc.) although it won’t match an OLED 4k TV in terms of picture quality.

A special word of thanks should go to the sellers: they have been super-responsive and attentive; the monitor has shipped without delay and has been delivered when they said it would (unlike another vendor, who kept delaying the shipping) – great communication and overall highly recommended.

Regarding the shipping, the packaging was really well thought out, the monitor was well protected and easy to assemble (even though, to be fair, the instructions could have been a tad more explicit and printed larger to be easier to follow – but just a minor nit)

This is a perfect replacement for a dual-monitor setup and paired with a docking station for the Mac, works flawlessly.

Buen monitor, cuenta con PIB/PIP, 100hz hasta en usbc, buen brillo al ser panel Va, no utiliza eliminador, no tiene bocinas, pero tiene un excelente Nitidez en texto, eso si, nula calibración de colores. Para el precio más que excelente. ACTUALIZO: YA TIENE UN PIXEL MUERTO…

For my use, this is a 5/5 monitor. I use this for work, not gaming. Checked all my boxes.

Picture Quality:
First of all, picture quality will exceed your expectations for work purposes (unless you’re in graphic design, please go find an OLED), especially with HDR mode turned on. That said, it is no OLED or NEO QLED and the blacks and contrast ratio will just not be up to that standard. If that is your priority then skip right over this and go to the NEO QLED 1000R version of this monitor (that however does not have USBC hub features in it’s current iteration). Which brings me to my next two points…

Radius:
This being a 1800R radius monitor, you cannot sit that close to it, the curvature is not high enough. If you have a very deep desk or will be mounting this back towards a wall or something, great this may be for you. You need at least an arms length between you and this screen or else you will need to be looking left and right a lot, and the viewing angle any closer will not be great and color saturation/quality will be poor because again, this is not an OLED screen and extreme viewing angles are not great. If you sit close to your screen, skip this and go to the 1000R version of this display, but just know that you will still need to look left and right (it is huge). I don’t mind that cause I had to do that anyways with a multi-monitor set up but for fast paced gaming this may introduce fatigue.

USB-C HUB:
This was a huge factor in my purchase for this version of this monitor because I don’t want a thousand plugs in my laptop – I just want to plug into my desk set up and go – and it works great as expected. You do not need dedicated graphics cards to support this – my work computer just has the Intel UHD 620 integrated graphics and it is able to support the full 5120×1440 at 60hz without any bogging down of my computer or lag and all peripherals plugged in work just fine with minimal lag.
HOWEVER a couple cons to note for USB-C HUB users:
-Yes it has built in speakers but they are pretty poor in the low frequency department, and actually pretty poor in general. Most macbook pros have better bass than these. However, the monitor does have the audio output plug (another plus for my set up needs) so you can plug in something nicer it will integrate over the USB-C as well. So this is not really a factor in my rating since I have external speakers plugged in but wanted you all to know that these speakers kind of suck and I bet your laptop can outperform them.
-USB outlets: there are only 3 A types and another C (which I haven’t tested daisy chaining yet). Depending on your needs this may not be enough which is a bummer because buying another hub would sorta defeat the whole purpose of this being a dual monitor/HUB/power all over one cable solution. That said, the space inside the back port cover is fairly large so you COULD fit one of those small UBC stick hubs in the back and expand your ports, though I can’t say how much latency that will add.
-The 2xHDMI and display port are inputs… such a bummer that you cannot daisy chain additional monitors to this one because that would be awesome. I don’t know where you would put them because this one is so huge, but still, if I ever wanted additional monitors they would have to be plugged into my laptop or some other hub. Hopefully Samsung iterates on that.

Stand:
Not bad, looks good and doesn’t take up too much space. The “legs” that spread out towards you are a bit long (it is a large heavy monitor) but they are also narrow in width, so they really don’t take up much space. The arm in back also has a cable channel which makes everything have a nice clean organized feel. I will likely replace with a mounting arm at some point but the built in one does look nice and has a decent amount of adjust-ability.
HOWEVER it does not raise that high (6inch clearance between the desk and bottom of the monitor at it’s maximum height). Depending on your sitting position, it could be too low sitting directly on your desk. I am 6’1″ tall and so it’s a bit low, not too bad, but that is the reason I will be mounting it to an arm to increase the height.

Value:
This is ok value. I got mine on sale so I would say good for me, but full price it really depends on your needs. Two similar quality 27inch monitors from Samsung to replicate the same resolution and real-estate would probably run you $300 each ($600 total) then to add in a quality (not a cheap stick type) USB-C docking hub with similar ports could be anywhere between $150-$300, so you would be running around $750-$900 for a similar solution with 2 monitors and a dock. But this is one monitor (no bezels or space between like a multiscreen setup) and the integrated hub solution through a single cable to your computer really adds a lot of value and it just looks way better than two monitors – you walk into your office and see the thing and it’s beautiful to look at. Plus what used to be 3 or 4 different power cables into a power strip is now just 1. It really does clean up your desk a lot and looks professional.

Summary:
Great productivity monitor for those who need more screen real-estate and want a USB-C hub solution and worth it when on sale. I think if I needed something with better image quality or was using for gaming I would definitely think about upgrading to the Odyssey Neo G9, but that is a pricey monitor and is really overkill if you don’t have the graphics card or purpose to back up those specs.

I’m already day-dreaming of buying a second one to put on top of my current one (why? I don’t know but who cares because it would look awesome)