Samsung Smart Monitor M80D review: A top TV and monitor combo

If you work on the basis of the number of features per pound then the new Samsung Smart Monitor M80D is possibly the best value monitor on the market. Like earlier versions of this monitor, this new model attempts to bundle the best features of a PC monitor and a smart TV into one compact package.

Many of you will be thinking “Woooah, hold on there, if I attach a monitor to a PC or PlayStation then surely I have a smart system”. And you’d be quite correct, of course.

In fairness to Samsung, though, its TizenOS system is extremely comprehensive: it can manage all sorts of household smart tech, run gaming services such as GeForce NOW, XBox Cloud Gaming and Luna, access remote web services such as Microsoft 365 and interact with Bixby and Alexa, all without the need to connect a PC or games console at all.

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Samsung M8 review: What do you get for your money?

This monitor cum TV will set you back £529 – quite a bit less than the £699 the first Samsung M8 cost at launch. This is a very rare case of getting more kit for quite a lot less money.

Physically little has changed. The M8 still looks vaguely Mac-ish, it still comes with a detachable 1080p webcam and remote control in the box, and the white livery looks clean and modern, although it’s a shame the blue, green and pink colourways are no longer an option.

It’s unusually light and compact for a 32in monitor. It weighs just 7.2kg, including the stand, and the display is a mere 11mm deep, rising to 20mm deep in the area that hosts all the monitor’s connections. Of course, some of that diminutive stature is thanks to the external 140W power brick, which is a big old lump.

The stand may look the same as before but it has also received a couple of upgrades. First, it now pivots 90 degrees into portrait, as well as tilting and elevating. And second, the quick-release bracket now hides a four-point 100mm VESA mount. There’s still no swivel though which is an annoying omission.

Before pressing on, I should make it clear that the core problem that soured me on Samsung’s Odyssey G95SC is still present. Namely, the clumsy way Samsung has structured the menu system with the smart TV interface, basic monitor menu and Game menu all occupying distinct spaces and using wholly different design languages.

The reason I shall be cutting the M8 more slack than the G95SC is that it isn’t a gaming monitor so the Game menu can, frankly, be mostly ignored.

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Samsung M8 review: What connections does it have?

The port selection on the 2022 M8 was a bit of a disaster; on the new model it is  much better. Out goes the Micro HDMI of the old design to be replaced with a full-sized HDMI 2.0 port, while the two USB-C ports have been replaced with a single USB-C and two USB-A 2.0 ports. The former supports DP Alt Mode video and 65W DP charging.

The new layout makes attaching wired peripherals a far simpler affair but the absence of a full-sized DisplayPort connector is strange on a modern monitor.

With most monitors that would be the end of the story, but being smart the M8 also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. These enable various remote desktop implementations, from genuine remote PC access to the “desktop” implementations of smartphones that support them, such as Samsung’s DeX and Motorola’s Ready For. In addition, there’s support for control of a wide range of IoT gadgets.

Wi-Fi connectivity also means you have full access to Samsung’s Tizen smart TV system, which means all the usual streaming services from Netflix to Amazon Prime and Samsung’s services as well. Be warned though, that using any of these smart features involves creating a Samsung account, assuming you don’t already have one.

The Bluetooth connection is rather important too given that the M8 lacks a 3.5mm audio jack, making Bluetooth the only option for audio connection. If you own a set of Galaxy Buds you can enter what Samsung calls “the “immersive sound environment of 360 Audio Mode”, which creates a rather impressive ersatz surround sound effect.

Interaction with the M8 is conducted via a small white minimalist remote. While I applaud the options of USB-C and solar charging and the presence of dedicated Netflix, Prime and Disney+ buttons, the layout is rather too minimalist for my taste, forcing you to remember what a long-press of certain buttons does.

One feature that irritated me was that switching between the “smart” features and whatever is plugged into the video inputs still takes two presses of the remote (one to open “Quick Settings” then one to select “PC”) when there really should be a dedicated button that does nothing but swap back and forth.

Another thing to be aware of is that if you lose the remote you are well and truly stuffed because the physical controls are very limited. In fact, all you get is a power button, which is placed inconveniently high on the rear of the cabinet in the middle. Toggle this to left and right and you can adjust the volume but that’s as far as it goes.

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Samsung M8 review: How good is the image quality?

It should go without saying that a 4K 32in display is going to be very crisp. The 3,840 x 2,160 resolution gives a pixel density of 138ppi – for comparison, a 15.6in 1,920 x 1,080 display comes in at 141ppi – which means that from normal desktop monitor viewing distances you shouldn’t be able to see any pixel structure.

Some people will tell you that the limited viewing angles inherent in VA panels are an issue. I beg to differ. Modern VA panels are not far off their IPS cousins these days. Yes, there is a small degree of chromatic shift at very acute angles, but in everyday use, it’s not an issue. The M8 has a matte finish to its display as well, which does a good job of keeping reflections under control.

Delve into the menu and you’ll find that Samsung’s colour settings are all bespoke except the basic profile to which the panel is locked: Rec.709. You can swap the Picture Mode between Entertain, Graphic and Eco and the Colour Space between Auto, Native and Custom. On top of these, you can adjust the red, green and blue settings and the colour warmth between Cool, Standard, Warm 1 and 2 and Natural.  The gamma and contrast can also be tweaked.

Those various terms border on meaninglessness to anyone who wants a monitor they can lock to industry standard colour profiles such as DCI-P3, Display P3 or AdobeRGB. With all that in mind, I settled on Entertain/Native/Standard as the optimum setting because it gave me the best gamut volume at 105.3% sRGB – up on the 2022 model – and the highest brightness level of 315cd/m² – down on the 2022 model – and an average Delta E variance against the Rec.709 profile of 1.7.

That’s a more than acceptable range of performance with enough brightness for indoor use and enough accurate colour to make what’s on the screen look lifelike and natural. Can I guarantee that the peak brightness can’t be cranked up to the 400cd/m2 that Samsung claims and that the 2022 model managed? No, but I certainly couldn’t get any higher than 315cd/m² no matter what obscure combination of settings I tried.

Being a VA panel you’d expect a high contrast ratio and low black luminescence and so it proved, the former an excellent 2,466:1 thanks to the latter being a lowly 0.127cd/m². The M8 does support HDR 10 Plus content, but in Windows HDR mode the maximum brightness doesn’t increase beyond 315cd/m².

You won’t be expecting great gaming performance from a 60Hz monitor with a quoted 4m GTG response time, but ghosting was surprisingly restrained and there wasn’t as much blurring as on the last M8 we tested.

Once you’ve stumbled across the Game menu you’ll find several features aimed at the gaming fraternity like a virtual crosshair and response time settings, though the second doesn’t do anything useful. And there is a Game picture mode with various screen optimisations for FPS, RPG, Sports and other types of games. I can’t see most users spending much time on this menu.

This new M8 also comes with what Samsung calls “AI upscaling, powered by the NQM AI Processor”. This is supposed to make sub-4K content look more like real 4K which is a trick a lot of TVs can pull off but few PC monitors. Does it work? Up to a point.

My subjective take is that the upscaling system makes 1080p content look similar to genuine 4K, at least to the casual viewer, but that anything below 1080p still looks like low definition. This should come as no surprise. Any upscaling system can only do so much with the pixels that are there; it’s technology, not magic.

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Samsung M8 review: Are there any other features I should know about?

Our verdict on the speaker system built into the 2022 M8 was that it was dreadful. The 2024 model does better, but not by as much as I would have hoped. There’s no lack of volume, with 76dBA being pumped out as measured against a pink noise source at 1m distance, and the soundscape is both wide and detailed.

What’s missing, although not to the same extent as the 2022 model, is bass. It isn’t wholly absent, but there’s not enough of it to overcome the pervading sense of brittleness. Listening to music and maximum volume can quickly become rather tiresome. Samsung can do better.

The detachable SlimFit 1080p webcam comes in more pieces than expected and consists of a magnetic housing, a detachable USB-C pogo plug that links the camera to the cabinet and a removable lens cap. As a camera it performed well, delivering bright and clear images.

Usefully you can use it in split-screen alongside, for example, a workout video, so you can see how your form and technique compare to that of the instructor, and if you have a Galaxy Watch you can take this one step further and see real-time health data on the screen while streaming content. As always, the more heavily invested you are in the Samsung tech ecosystem, the more you will get out of its smart gadgets.

If the webcam has a fault, it’s the lack of adjustability. To get my face anywhere near the centre of the frame I had to tilt the screen as far forward as possible and raise my chair to its maximum height.

In the absence of a data cable to accompany the HDMI video input, the M8 doesn’t support KVM in the traditional sense of the word but if you own multiple Samsung gadgets you can use a feature called Multi Control to move content between other devices like the Tab S9 tablet or Galaxy Z Fold 6 handset with the keyboard and mouse that is connected to the M8. It’s essentially a wireless KVM system with added content sharing.

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Samsung M80D review: Should I buy it?

Samsung’s M80D is a decent all-rounder and has plenty of things to recommend it. In particular, I like the fact that the 2024 M8 is cheaper than the model it replaces, despite being loaded to the gunnels with smart features, and the fact that it has a solid base level of performance.

That makes it self-recommending to anyone who is looking for a 4K monitor and TV in one unit. It’s a shame, though, that Samsung couldn’t see its way to adding a DisplayPort connector, a swivel stand and improving the speakers. Maybe in the next generation.