Samsung M8 Smart Monitor review: the good enough of both worlds

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The M8 Smart Monitor is a product that dazzles you with its many features, even though most of them are not. The TV is for people who don't have the space, money, or desire for two large displays. Many people already use their monitors as TVs, and if you buy a big 4KHDR screen, why not use it as a monitor?

You can connect a laptop with a single cable and use that enormous screen to get work done with the M8'susb-C port. You can watch TV shows and movies on the built-in Tizen Smart TV interface. The remote has a battery. It doesn't have a Cast, but it has a pair of wireless communication devices. There are speakers and a microphone in it. You can use your phone as a computer with DeX, make a video call with a Duo, or use a Microsoft Office document as a computer. You will be able to play games on it without an XBOX.

The M8 isn't great at everything it tries to do, and it only makes sense if you plan on using it as a monitor and a TV There are better options if you want one or the other. The low-profile design and kitchen-sink approach give the M8 a unique appeal.

The M8 is a good monitor and a decent TV for less than it would cost to buy each individually, but outside of that, things start to get messy. You can not swap out the built in stand for a better one. It has a clever design but mediocre image quality and is difficult to navigate. The browser it uses to load web apps is very slow and incompatible with other applications. It isn't ready to handle a basic workload without a machine attached to it In the next iteration, I would like to see improvements on these things.

For a second, let's zoom out. The M8 comes in four fun colors, which can be seen on the monitor's stand and front bezel. It is thin, easy on the eyes, and is definitely inspired by Apple's latest iMac design.

The M8 makes a good first impression with it's large 4K display. It is large enough to make a small desk stand out. It may take a while to get used to having so much screen real estate if you only stand and sit.

If you want a monitor first and a TV second, the VA panel is a good compromise. It is bright and vivid. The all-white background of the document was different from the gray background. Blacks were not washed out when I used MacOS Monterey in dark mode. The M8 covers 99 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is helpful for content creators, even though the display isn't factory-corrected.

The M8 is brighter than a monitor at 400 nits of peak brightness, but it picked up glare from windows and overhead lights, and even reflected the white desk in our office. It has a refresh rate of 60Hz and a peak of 400 nits in HDR mode.

The M8's display is washed out when viewed from an angle. This 32-inch screen does seem targeted at people in relatively tight quarters, but don't expect to entertain a room full of people unless they're all crammed together on the couch.

Beneath the stand is where the ports are located. There are twoUSB-C ports at that location. One can handle video and data pass through with 65 watt charging. The other is downstream and has up to 15W power delivery, perfect for charging its remote or phone or connecting low-bandwidth peripherals. I was able to connect a keyboard and externalWebcam. It took six minutes to transfer a 13gigabyte file, but only if I removed the snap-on webcams first. There is also a DC barrel input for power, as well as a microHDMI 2.0 port. It would be great to have a full-sized HDMI port instead, as well as anEthernet jack for better streaming quality and a couple moreusb ports while we're at it.

Let's discuss the M8 as a TV. There are almost every streaming app that you can think of that is supported by Tizen. The M8 does not support Dolby Vision. It also supports AirPlay 1.0, which allows you to beam content from one device to another. The M8 doesn't offer the same screen mirroring for Windows computers and phones as the M7 does.

The speakers work well in a pinch. If you're okay with a little audio lag, you can connect one of the soundbars or speakers. Audio aficionados aren't really the target audience for the M8. A headphone jack could have made this situation simpler. It's just a statement.

The M8 has a key selling point that it can be used to make Duo calls without a computer. Duo on the M8 feels like a giant smart display since it has face tracking and can automatically zoom in on your face.

It was easy to place a call, but the quality of theWebcam is not good. The video looks pretty bad and its tracking features are more delayed and jittery than similar techniques on the iPad. I always looked a little too dark and fuzzy in video calls, even in our brightly lit office space, despite the claims of the company. The M8's camera was noticeably lower-resolution and had a much choppier frame rate than the MacBook Pro's built-in camera, according to my editor. He noticed that I sounded muffled and distant when using the M8's built-in microphone.

The back of the monitor has a set of pogo pins that the webcam can attach to. I couldn't tilt the screen far enough back to avoid neck pain and glare without relegating myself to a fraction of the webcam's field.

Outside of video chats, the built-inWebcam has other uses. As you follow along with fitness videos on YouTube, you can use it as a mirror to see your form. I didn't have a chance to fully test out the feature of watching and tracking your workouts through the camera.

I didn't try out the smart home features because they aren't the main focus of the M8 You can use the far-field microphone to speak to the voice assistants. It can be used as a control center for SmartThings, allowing it to control a lot of third-party devices. If you want the M8 to work with your Zigbee products, you will need to buy the VG-STDB10A accessory. The M8 supports DeX, which allows you to connect your phone to a computer.

It doesn't work well enough to recommend using the M8 as a stand-in computer if you're on a deadline. The most frustrating way to type documents on the M8 is via the web app of Microsoft 365. It was slow to load and operate and the typing indicator didn't show up during testing You would get more computing grunt with a low-end Chromebooks.

Every smart device has a set of terms and conditions that you have to agree to before you can use it. It is not possible for us to read and analyze all of them. We started counting the number of times you have to agree to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people can't negotiate.

You need to agree to use the M8.

• Selecting a language
• Set up either via smartphone or with the included remote control

There are other agreements.

• Connect to Wi-Fi (required to take advantage of all smart features)
• Smart Hub terms and conditions, as well as Samsung’s Smart Hub privacy policy (required to use apps, get software upgrades, and other Smart Hub services)
• Log in with a Samsung account
• Input ZIP code
• Select voice assistant
• Set up streaming services
• Enable adaptive picture
• Enable adaptive sound

You have to accept two agreements in order to set up the M8.

If you want one screen to be used as a TV and a monitor, the M8 is a good choice. Even then, the obvious comparison is to the M7 which lacks the M8's good looks but does have the same features as the M8 including VESA support, two HDMI ports, and AirPlay 2. The spec sheet shows a dimmer panel with a lower color depth and slower refresh rate, so it won't look good.

You can get a comparable TV or monitor for less money if you don't want something that can do double duty. The M8's monitor features are better than this 32-inch 4K monitor fromLG. It has a slightly lower peak brightness, but it is balanced out by the additional ports. You can get a 50-inch TV with local dimming for the same price.

You could be tempted to upgrade to anOLED tv. You will get a number of benefits if you do, like better picture quality, higher refresh rate, and perfect blacks. If you envision yourself working in productivity apps more than entertaining, it's not a good idea to use anOLED as a monitor. The technique they use to prevent burn-in gave him headaches, and they use a technique to reduce the size of the screen.

The M8 is not the best monitor for the money. It isn't the best streaming box, video calling device, or SmartThings hub for the money. If you only had $700 to buy it, it would be a better monitor and TV than you could get, and it would take up less room. Since you can ignore them, the lousy computing experience and lacklusterWebcam don't detract much. Instead of leaving them out of the next iteration, I would like to see improvements to the features that didn't work out so well. Maybe using the M8 would be more revolutionary.