Review: Samsung Smart Monitor M9 M90SF

I don’t own a TV. That’s right, I’m a professional tech reviewer, and I’m still living like a millennial in my twenties. But a smart monitor—now, there’s something I could justify. A computer monitor is useless without a PC plugged into it, but that’s where smart monitors come in, offering a more versatile screen that is as much for work as it is for entertainment.

Not until now have these smart monitors felt like proper TV replacements in terms of quality. The latest model from Samsung, the Smart Monitor M9 M90SF, closes the gap by offering a 4K OLED panel with a 120-Hz refresh rate. It ain’t cheap, but for the first time, you won’t miss your TV.

Part Monitor, Part TV

Photograph: Luke Larsen

The M90SF is a gorgeous monitor. It doesn’t pretend to resemble a television physically like some other smart monitors cheekily do, but instead embraces its role as a monitor, first and foremost. That’s why the setup will be very familiar. The wide stand clicks into the back of the monitor with a standard VESA mount and then gets screwed into the base.

Unlike cheaper monitors in Samsung’s lineup, the M90SF has a wide, robust stand. It has a large base, a bit like an iMac, except that the stand can be removed from the screen so it can be VESA mounted. The monitor lacks swivel, so you can’t rotate it from left to right. Fortunately, it has full tilting capability, meaning it can be rotated fully into a vertical monitor. It also has a decent amount of height adjustment. That’s important for a screen that’s supposed to double as a TV.

Once you set it up, there are a few oddities about the M90SF, especially if you’ve never used a smart monitor before. First off, you’ll need to create a Samsung account if you don’t already have one. Annoyingly, this is required just to get into your streaming apps. The Tizen interface for accessing apps is convenient and easy to use, all controlled via the included Samsung Universal remote.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

Again, that’s identical to what comes with Samsung TVs, and it's a big part of what makes the Smart Monitor M9 M90SF work so well as a TV replacement. When you're lounging back on the couch with the remote, you might forget it's actually a monitor. It even comes with an assortment of free local TV, breaking news, sports, and kids channels with your Samsung TV Plus account, which was a pleasant surprise.

The PC controls on the monitor itself, however, are frustrating. It’s controlled with a four-way joystick, along with a power button. It’s surprisingly difficult to access important settings like volume and brightness, and I couldn’t even find an easy way to exit out of the menu without using the remote.

On the back, you’ll find a few necessary ports, though nothing too extensive. It comes with HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, two downstream USB-A 2.0 ports, and a USB-C port with 90 watts of power delivery. It’s not packed full of USB ports, nor does it have ports that creators might need, like an SD card slot or Ethernet jack. It’s even a few years behind in wireless connectivity, using Wi-Fi 5 instead of Wi-Fi 7 or 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

Made for Movies

Photograph: Luke Larsen

The M90SF is the first smart monitor to include an OLED panel. That’s its calling card. In fact, alongside the Dell 32 Plus QD-OLED (9/10, WIRED Recommends), it’s among the first nongaming monitors to adopt OLED. That’s not to say you can’t play games on this display. It even has a 120-Hz refresh rate. But it’s significant in that we’re finally getting OLED displays designed for tasks other than gaming.

The Dell 32 Plus QD-OLED is aimed more at creators, while this is designed for entertainment. And wow, shows and movies look incredible on this monitor. Even though this uses the same QD-OLED panel as gaming monitors (like Samsung’s Odyssey displays), image quality is better when using these streaming apps as compared to watching in a browser.

I measured a max of 980 nits of peak brightness in a 1 percent window and 850 nits in a 4 percent window, coming close to hitting Samsung's claim of 1,000 nits. That’s nowhere near the 2,000 nits (or more) you can get on a large OLED television, but for the current crop of OLED monitors, it’s plenty bright. It’s a huge upgrade over a typical IPS monitor when it comes to watching movies.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

As usual with OLED monitors, it’s not terribly bright in the standard definition range (SDR). I measured it at only 233 nits of max brightness. That’s dimmer than a high-quality LED or Mini-LED monitor, which can sometimes get up to 400 or 500 nits. You may wish that it were brighter if you're in a brightly lit room.

Colors, however, are fantastic, covering 91 percent of AdobeRGB and 98 percent of P3. I would calibrate this screen if you intend to use it for serious color grading. The colors weren't as accurate as I've seen in other OLED monitors, especially in the default color tone mode, “Warm1.” Switching to the “Standard” mode helped slightly, bringing the Delta-E down to 1.86. I would have liked to see the color accuracy higher, though, especially since OLED monitors are great for content creators.

Speaking of which, I wasn't able to access HDR when connected to a MacBook at all, which happens to be a popular option for those aforementioned content creators. I also encountered a frustrating bug in macOS that automatically fast-forwarded through every video, whether it was Netflix or YouTube. Fortunately, none of those problems occurred in Windows.

Paying Extra

Photograph: Luke Larsen

At its original price of $1,600, it’s insanely expensive. It’s $800 more expensive than the M8 M80F, another 32-inch 4K smart monitor with many of the same features. Inevitable discounts will make it easier to stomach, and I do not recommend buying the M90SF at full price.

You're still paying a few hundred dollars more than the Samsung Odyssey G8, which is also a 4K 32-inch OLED monitor and has a faster 240-Hz refresh rate. If you're unsure if you will actually consistently use those extra features, you're better off saving your money by buying either the Dell 32 Plus QD-OLED or one of the many good OLED gaming monitors out there. Heck, you can buy a pretty incredible TV for that cash.

You're paying more for those smart features and the ability to stream without being connected to a PC. There's more than that, like the impressive pair of speakers onboard and a nice 12-megapixel webcam. Those aren't things you'll find on your average gaming monitor. So, for the right person—which just happens to be a person like me—all that is worth an extra premium.