This is the year of 4K, aka Ultra HD. The technology was once prohibitively expensive, but prices are dropping fast for these TVs and monitors that have 3840 x 2160-pixel resolution, or four times the resolution of 1080p screens.
Enter the Samsung UD590 computer monitor, a 28-inch screen with sleek design and Ultra HD resolution. Its $699 price is the real attention-getter.
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The UD590 can also display 1 billion different colors and has a 1-millisecond response time, making it well suited for gamers, along with sports and action film fans, says Samsung.
And as 4K hardware proliferates, more 4K content sources are emerging. Netflix and Amazon Prime have both committed to filming and streaming their original programming in 4K, as have YouTube and some smaller online services.
The UD590's minimalist, T-shaped stand is designed to take up as little deskspace as possible, leaving room for external speakers or anything else that may clutter your workspace.The UD590 also boasts a brightness of 370 Nits and a 170-degree viewing angle. This means even people sitting on the side of the room can still view the picture with close to the same quality as those viewing the screen from head-on.
This device's two HDMI ports and "Picture-by-Picture" feature let users connect two computers to a single monitor. The UD590 will then split its screen to display the two different desktops at the same time. Multitaskers can also use the monitor's "Picture-in-Picture" feature to watch video in a smaller window without sacrificing that video's resolution (for example, a YouTube video in 1080p open in one part of the screen).
The UD590 is available for preorder now.
Samsung has also released four less-expensive monitors, each with smaller screens and HD resolutions of 1920 by 1080 pixels. The cheapest, the 23.6-inch D390HL, sells for $250. Samsung also offers the $310 D390H (27 inches), the $270 D590PL (23.6 inches) and the $329.99 D590P (27 inches, with the sleek, T-shaped stand).
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