Depending on your point of view, monitors are making a comeback (the selection at Best Buy keeps getting better), and Samsung’s Space Monitor stood out as among the most innovative.
Sometimes a seemingly basic design element can have a transformative effect. Throughout Samsung’s keynote before the show kicked off, the Space Monitor was one of the more interesting products the company highlighted. And it’s coming to Canada.
The unique hinge is the key to the whole setup. There are actually two of them, one built into the arm and the other the clamp. The clamp stabilizes the Space Monitor onto the edge of a desk, where it can stand straight up at a 90-degree angle. Pull it in and get a closer look at whatever it displays, almost like a laptop. Or pull it out and angle it back further to get more of a studio-like setup that lies flatter with the desk or table.
To make it minimalist, cables will connect to a hidden panel in the rear and snake along the arm. Those ports aren’t as easily accessible as other monitors, however, so if you tend to change things up often by connecting different cables, it does take more time to do that here. Not that you have many choices. There’s only a USB-A and HDMI port to work with, so you can’t plug in peripherals directly, like a mouse or keyboard.
The Space Monitor doesn’t require a desk or table up against a wall, but Samsung is recommending it as a safer option to add support for it. Another key point is that the monitor won’t swivel sideways, so you can’t tilt it left or right, meaning you do have to orient it to face you straight up when sitting down or standing.
There will be 27-inch and 32-inch sizes, with distinct models designed for office or gaming, apparently. Samsung didn’t share specs for it, so it’s not entirely clear if different versions will be really distinct from one another. It appears there will be 1440p and 4K options for screen resolution, but again, not much else beyond that.
The monitor will work with a Windows PC and Apple Mac, so regardless of what computer you use, you shouldn’t run into compatibility issues.
It’s a simple, yet neat idea for a monitor, though I would need to test it to gauge how effective it can be for wider use. The lack of swivel could be a problem, especially in collaborative environments, and it looks like the overall design is final, so don’t expect an extra hinge in the back for lateral orientation.
Samsung will be launching the Space Monitor in the coming weeks, where it will be available in Canada. Check out other monitors for more as this display gets closer to landing.
