Samsung CHG70 FreeSync 2 Monitor Review: 32 Curved Inches Of Smooth HDR Gaming
While the Lagom and Techmind tests on the previous page lay out a monitor's performance in black and white (and blue, and green, and red and...), we'll also take into consideration some subjective analysis. You're not purchasing a monitor to view test patterns for hours on end, after all. To see how the Samsung CHG70 performed in the real world, we viewed a series of HD, UHD, and UHD HDR video clips and fired up a few games. It's a tough job, we know, but hey, you guys are worth every minute of our entertainment...
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The World In HDR 4K (YouTube), Scaled To Full Screen
Ready Player One (1080P SDR Video Scaled To Full Screen)
Watching movies on the Samsung CHG70 was nothing short of excellent in our opinion. The screen offers bright whites, dark blacks, decent uniformity, and rich, but realistic color saturation, even without any fine-tuning. The panel's high-refresh rate and relatively fast response time meant there was no easily noticeable ghosting with videos either. The wide viewing angles also keep the in-screen imagery looking good, though with a curved display, you really want to be perched right in front it. For video and multi-media tasks that don't require the precision of a professional IPS display, the Samsung CHG70 is an acceptable option.
We also did quite a bit of gaming on the Samsung CHG70, both with and without FreeSync and / or HDR enabled. We played some older titles like Left 4 Dead 2 (which can run at very high frame rates on the latest hardware), and some newer, more taxing titles like Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, and Middle Earth: Shadow of War, the latter two of which support HDR.
We also did quite a bit of gaming on the Samsung CHG70, both with and without FreeSync and / or HDR enabled. We played some older titles like Left 4 Dead 2 (which can run at very high frame rates on the latest hardware), and some newer, more taxing titles like Rise Of The Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, and Middle Earth: Shadow of War, the latter two of which support HDR.
When playing games that run at very high frame rates, with the monitor configured at 144Hz, you get the low-lag and smoothness benefits of the high-framerate, but can still get some tearing. And with L4D2 specifically, when scrutinizing edges of brighter objects as they zip through darker areas on-screen, a small amount of ghosting was occasionally visible, but in no way did it detract from the game. If they weren't specifically looking for it, we doubt most gamers would even notice.
When playing more taxing games, with framerates that may fluctuate above or below 60 FPS or so, but fall within the 48 - 144Hz FreeSync range of this display, the effect the variable refresh rate technology has on the on-screen animation and / or lag is excellent. We wish there was an easy way to visually convey how variable refresh rate technologies like FreeSync affect on-screen animation, but there isn’t. We don’t have a means to capture DisplayPort feeds and shooting video of the screen and hosting it on-line doesn’t capture the full effect either. In lieu of a meaningful method to show the effects, you'll just have to take our word for it, or go hit a big-box store like Best Buy and hope they have one on display.
We are kind of indifferent as to this panel's HDR performance at this point, however. If you seek out on-screen differences, they are there. We had the benefit of setting up the CHG70 right alongside a high-end 4K SDR display and you can notice the enhanced contrast and brightness and improved detail in some scenes when HDR is enabled. It is not like the SDR images looked bad though -- the CHG70's HDR output was just a notch better, and with this display in particular we felt color reproduction with HDR enabled resulted in more realistic, properly saturated images.
HotHardware Scaled 150% In Edge @ 2560x1440
We should also mention that simply using a high 144Hz refresh rate on your desktop when you've also got a good mouse is great too. There is a noticeable improvement in smoothness when mousing or even moving windows around the screen. And if you're the type that gets headaches when looking at a 60Hz screen all day, the higher refresh rates of a display like this panel may be ideal. Text, however, suffers from some minor issues in certain circumstances.
You'll Want To Click To Enlarge This One...
Admittedly, we are somewhat spoiled by having sat in front of a high-end, 32" 4K display for the last couple of years, but it appears that the combination of the Quantum Dot technology as it is implemented on this display, and the pixel density / spacing on the CHG70, result in some artifacts under certain conditions. If you look at the capital V, and lower case a's and o's in the zoomed in photo above, you'll see a pattern where the pixel coloration and or alignment seems slightly off. For the most part, this is NOT easily visible, unless you're closely scrutinizing the display, but it was something we picked out during the course of our time working on the CHG70.
Viewing angles on this display are pretty good, however. As you can see in the pictures above, when viewing the screen from relatively steep angles, from the sides, top, or bottom, on-screen images appears mostly uniform, with rich colors, that aren't grayed or washed out. This is due to the relatively wide viewing angles of the VA panel Quantum Dot Technology versus cheaper TN panels, but it's not quite on the level of an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel. Sill, viewing angles are fairly good and shouldn't be an issue even with more than one person sitting in front of the Samsung CHG70.
When playing more taxing games, with framerates that may fluctuate above or below 60 FPS or so, but fall within the 48 - 144Hz FreeSync range of this display, the effect the variable refresh rate technology has on the on-screen animation and / or lag is excellent. We wish there was an easy way to visually convey how variable refresh rate technologies like FreeSync affect on-screen animation, but there isn’t. We don’t have a means to capture DisplayPort feeds and shooting video of the screen and hosting it on-line doesn’t capture the full effect either. In lieu of a meaningful method to show the effects, you'll just have to take our word for it, or go hit a big-box store like Best Buy and hope they have one on display.
We are kind of indifferent as to this panel's HDR performance at this point, however. If you seek out on-screen differences, they are there. We had the benefit of setting up the CHG70 right alongside a high-end 4K SDR display and you can notice the enhanced contrast and brightness and improved detail in some scenes when HDR is enabled. It is not like the SDR images looked bad though -- the CHG70's HDR output was just a notch better, and with this display in particular we felt color reproduction with HDR enabled resulted in more realistic, properly saturated images.
HotHardware Scaled 150% In Edge @ 2560x1440
We should also mention that simply using a high 144Hz refresh rate on your desktop when you've also got a good mouse is great too. There is a noticeable improvement in smoothness when mousing or even moving windows around the screen. And if you're the type that gets headaches when looking at a 60Hz screen all day, the higher refresh rates of a display like this panel may be ideal. Text, however, suffers from some minor issues in certain circumstances.
You'll Want To Click To Enlarge This One...
Admittedly, we are somewhat spoiled by having sat in front of a high-end, 32" 4K display for the last couple of years, but it appears that the combination of the Quantum Dot technology as it is implemented on this display, and the pixel density / spacing on the CHG70, result in some artifacts under certain conditions. If you look at the capital V, and lower case a's and o's in the zoomed in photo above, you'll see a pattern where the pixel coloration and or alignment seems slightly off. For the most part, this is NOT easily visible, unless you're closely scrutinizing the display, but it was something we picked out during the course of our time working on the CHG70.
Viewing angles on this display are pretty good, however. As you can see in the pictures above, when viewing the screen from relatively steep angles, from the sides, top, or bottom, on-screen images appears mostly uniform, with rich colors, that aren't grayed or washed out. This is due to the relatively wide viewing angles of the VA panel Quantum Dot Technology versus cheaper TN panels, but it's not quite on the level of an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel. Sill, viewing angles are fairly good and shouldn't be an issue even with more than one person sitting in front of the Samsung CHG70.
