Samsung C27F398 Review - Quick Verdict
The Samsung C27F398 is a 27″ curved monitor that is perfect for those who are looking for an immersive viewing experience. The colors are vibrant and the display is perfect for media consumption and gaming. Though a little tweaking is needed, image quality is neat. If you’re going for curved monitors that has the perfect balance of price and features, this Samsung display could be the one for you.
- 1800R screen curvature is great for immersive viewing experience
- Decent color accuracy making it suitable for professional photo and video editing
- Excellent value for money
- Height adjustment is not possible
Author's Rating
Curved monitors are pretty cool and bring some sophistication to your room. In this Samsung C27F398 review, we are going to analyze one such curved monitor that comes with an affordable price tag.
With its full HD resolution, it is not the pixel beast, but it sure brings in a good number of features to make an enticing final product. If you’re looking for a curved screen at a price point that’s inexpensive, then this monitor should have your interest. Let’s find out if this display is worth the price.
Design
Even though the Samsung C27F398 is a budget monitor, Samsung has made it a point to not cheap out when it comes to the design of this display.
In fact, the monitor carries the same design language you can see in the higher-end models. It comes with a glossy black front and a matte black back which gives it a premium look.
You can find bezels surrounding the panel, but they’re not that big. Since the entire setup is black, you wouldn’t notice the bezels that much.
But this is a cheap monitor, and that shows in the build quality. There is a lot of plastic in the monitor that makes it look and feel a bit cheap. Some might even think of this monitor as fragile.
It does stand firm when placed on the table, but all it takes to disturb that serenity is a little push. Then you take a trip to wobble town.
The glossy finish you find in the Samsung C27F398 is a smudge magnet. Make a slight adjustment with your hand, and you can see fingerprints all over that glossy surface.
The Y-shaped stand takes a lot of space on your desk. Most of the monitors come with height adjustment, but you’ll not find it here. The only thing you can do here is tilting which, sadly, doesn’t give you all the flexibility you need.
The VESA mount compatibility is another good thing about the Samsung C27F398. If you can follow instruction, then you can mount this thing on your wall with ease.
Connectivity
The Samsung C27F398 curved monitor gives you some connectivity options. The monitor comes with an HDMI and a display port which are much better than having a VGA port or a DVI port.
Having these ports enable you to connect this monitor with the latest desktops and laptops with ease. Just take the cord and plug, no need to meddle with screws and such.
There is also a headphone jack at the back. You can connect one, but the positioning is not that great. Once you connect your headphone, you might want to leave it there to avoid reaching the back of your monitor every single time.
Samsung C27F398 Specs
Before we talk about the performance, let’s take a look at what the Samsung C27F398 offer on paper.
The monitor is a 27″ display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels which puts it in the full HD category. The panel here is a VA one and not IPS.
The display comes with a refresh rate of 60Hz, and a response time of 4ms which is pretty decent. With a contrast ratio of 3000:1, the Samsung C27F398 can go up to a maximum of 250cd/m^2.
The monitor has a curve radius of 1800r which is a bit more aggressive than other models on the market, but it doesn’t go as far to distort the images on the screen.
If you want this display just for the curvature, then this should be a problem. Having this curved screen does make things a lot better and closer for a more immersive experience.
How Does the Display Fare Out of the Box?
Out of the box, the display does a decent job, but there is scope for a lot of improvements.
For one, the screen produces only 97% of the sRGB color gamut with an accuracy of Delta 3.5. This is not that high quality, but it can be improved by tweaking the settings a bit. After tweaking, you get massive improvements which make this display much better.
Gamma is also not right when you first use the display. After careful calibration, you can increase the gamma to the proper levels. This process also reduces the yellowish tint on the screen and makes it more white. Though this is personal preference, you are better off with a screen that is less warm.
Samsung C27F398 Performance
The monitor’s performance is impressive for the price. The monitor can put out a contrast ratio of 3000:1 at maximum brightness. With this contrast ratio, you get deep blacks and bright whites. You can also see improvements in grayscale performance as well.
When you display a full black picture on the screen, it does look a bit brighter on the center. While this can be a minor issue for some, it won’t affect the screen’s performance during gaming or media consumption.
Being a VA panel, you’d expect a viewing angle that is better than that of a TN panel. We can say that the viewing angle is definitely better, but you’d expect more in this case.
The panel uniformity is a concern here as there is a notable deviation from the center to the sides. While this is not as bad as to break the whole viewing experience for you, it can be a pet peeve for some.
The Samsung C27F398 has a response time of 4ms which is not that great. The monitor does come with a 3-stage response time setting which can help reduce any ghosting or smudging. If you’re a fan of action games, then use this feature to improve the quality of your visual output.
The monitor comes with FreeSync compatibility. This is similar to Nvidia’s G-Sync but for AMD graphics cards. The monitor can match the GPU’s frame rate and offer a much better gaming experience that is void of ghosting and other problems.
Samsung C27F398 Review – Bottomline
The Samsung C27F398 27″ curved monitor is what it is. It is an affordable curved monitor that offers a good viewing experience without the bells and whistles.
While it doesn’t get too bright, it does have excellent contrast ratio to back it up. The image quality, with a bit of tweaking, can be excellent which is ideal for gaming and other graphics work.
If you’re okay with the 1080p resolution and the 60Hz refresh rate, then you won’t have a bad time with this curved monitor from Samsung.