Samsung launches 28-inch 4K billion-color UD590 monitor for just $700

Time to get that second graphics cards, guys: Samsung has announced that its 28-inch 4K UD590 monitor will soon be available in the US for the paltry sum of $700. The UD590 packs a 28-inch 3840×2160 TN panel (157 PPI), capable of displaying 10-bit color (1 billion colors) at 60Hz with 1ms GTG response time. Priced at $700, this is probably your best bet if you want to try your hand at 4K gaming — or, if you’re a creative of some kind, the idea of 10-bit color on a 4K display should be very, very alluring.

From what we can tell, the UD590 has been available as a gray import from South Korea for a month or two — but now Samsung is preparing to launch it officially in the USA. Design-wise, the UD590 has a very minimal stand and bezel that’s finished in silver and black — in my opinion it’s much more attractive than the Dell P2815Q, the other $700 4K monitor that’s currently on the market. There are no DVI connectors, two HDMI connectors, and a single DisplayPort connector (which is what you need to use, if you want 3820×2160 @ 60Hz).

Samsung UD590 4K monitor, bezel detail (click to zoom in)

But enough about the minutiae — let’s get down to nitty-gritty here. In particular, that 10-bit TN (twisted nematic) panel. As you may know, in today’s market, there are two primary underlying technologies used in LCD displays: TN and IPS (including Samsung’s PLS). TN is cheap and fast, but IPS has wider viewing angles and generally better color fidelity. Personally, I have never heard of a 10-bit TN panel before; usually, if you want 10-bit color (10 bits per pixel, or bpp) you have to spend a lot of money ($1000+) on a professional-grade IPS monitor. To think that you can get a 10-bit 4K monitor for $700 makes me a little dizzy. (Read: No, TV makers, 4K and UHD are not the same thing.)
 Unfortunately, even though the UD590 has been available as a gray import, none of the reviews online appear to mention the monitor’s color fidelity/image quality. The official Samsung specs don’t offer much in the way of guidance, except to say that it can display 1.07 billion colors, that it has 1-millisecond gray-to-gray (GTG) response time, standard 300 cd/m² brightness and 1000:1 contrast (or 10,000,000:1 dynamic contrast, if you prefer), and that there’s the usual poor viewing angles associated with TN panels.

So, for $700 you can get your hands on a 28-inch 4K desktop monitor. 28 inches is a little too large for a normal home or office setup, especially if you have multiple monitors, but it’s workable. We’ll have to wait and see about the UD590′s image quality, but we pray that Samsung’s claim of 10-bit color isn’t some kind of horrendous half truth (“er, it’s 6-bit, with four extra bits that we can kinda sometimes use on leap years”). The question is, though, is it really the right time to buy a 4K monitor? Gaming at 4K at a decent frame rate is still a bit unreachable, even with a dual-Titan setup. 4K makes a lot of sense for professional designers and photographers — but for them, buying a TN panel with poor image quality is a fate worse than death.
I think the only solution is that I’m going to have to buy the UD590 and a few Nvidia Titan graphics cards, and report back. I owe it to you guys.