Best UK transport apps for Android

Google Maps offers the best all around experience when you are looking for easy ways to get around the UK. With plenty of options on route and mode, it can help you to get where you need to be as efficiently as possible.

Best overall

Google Maps

See at Play Store

Google Maps is pretty much the undisputed master of getting from point A to point B, no matter where you are. Google Maps can show you the easiest way to get around by walking, driving, or finding public transit. There are options to add stops on your journey, as well as avoiding highways or tolls along the way.

You can also access nearby places by checking out the Explore tab. This will show you nearby restaurants, gas stations, and more with top rated recommendations. Google Maps has up-to-date traffic conditions, which means that you’ll know before you hit a problem spot when navigating in the car.

If you’re on a longer trip, it’s also easy to program in stops along your way. This lets you ensure that you get back on track as quickly as possible.

Bottom line: Google Maps gives you a great overall experience whether you’re traveling by car, truck or train, and easily lets you find great local places to find a bite to eat.

One more thing: If you’re concerned about having data, you can also download areas that can be perused offline.

Why Google Maps is the best

Google Maps delivers you a little bit of everything, making it easy to get around even if you have no clue where you are.

There are dozens of apps that can help you get around, but none of them are quite as accurate or as all-encompassing as Google Maps has become. It covers just about every mode of transportation, and will also show you the different routes that you can take along the way. Absolutely free, it may even come preloaded on your phone, making it hassle free to use.

Google Maps also has tons of features that you can choose to use. You can save the locations of favorite restaurants, or your friends houses. If you use Google Calendar it will also show you the locations of upcoming events in your calendar. If you need to find food, you can see local restaurants and their reviews from customers.

One of the greatest features that Google Maps offers, though, is the ability to adjust your route. You can choose to avoid tolls and highways, as well as add stops on your trip. You can also see up to date traffic conditions while driving, which means that it’s easy to avoid accidents a few miles down the road.

The best for cities

Citymapper

See at Play Store

If you spend a lot of time in the city, then Citymapper goes above and beyond what Google Maps has to offer. You can easily get wherever you need to go, so long as it is within one of the app’s supported cities, like Manchester or Birmingham. There are detailed routes for public transit, as well as integration with Uber and even rain-safe routes to keep you dry during a downpour.

Citymapper even offers Android Wear support, so that you don’t need to keep an eye on your phone to keep from getting lost. Their Uber integration is also well done, letting you know if prices are surging. The biggest problem with the app is that it isn’t available for every city, but the list is always expanding.

Bottom line: Citymapper can make getting around in the city a breeze, you’ll just want to make sure you’re in a supported city before downloading and installing it.

One more thing: The SmartCommute feature can help you find the fastest and most cost effective routes for your commute.

Best for the Tube

Tube Map London Underground

See at Play Store

While having access to all public transit might be good, having a dedicated app to help you navigate the Tube is a good call. Tube Map London Underground is officially licensed by TfL and it is jam packed with just about anything you need to know. You get access to a zoomable map of the rail network, complete with every station. Tapping a station will get you more info, like departures, service info, and Wi-Fi coverage.

You can also use the route planner, which is especially handy for anyone not familiar with the city. This includes choosing between a fast route, or an easy one. You can also see how long it will take to walk between stations if there is a backup. You can even check out disruptions, and social media to help plan your trip.

Bottom line: Tube Map London Underground is the best aid to keep you up to date and getting where you need to go using the Tube.

One more thing: The basic app is free, but to get access to every feature you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro version.

Best ride share

Uber

See at Play Store

Whether you’re visiting the UK, or you’re just trying to get to work, driving yourself isn’t always an option. If you’re looking for a ride share to use while in the city, then you can trust Uber. While they aren’t accessible from anywhere, you can check coverage before you download the app.

Once you’ve signed it, and set up a payment method, you’re good to go. Uber is super convenient when staying in the city, and is often a lot cheaper and easier than using a taxi or public transit. You just want to keep an eye on choosing the correct level of service for your ride, and make sure that you are aware of any surge pricing before requesting a ride.

Bottom line: Uber is an accessible, easy, and often cheap way of getting around while in supported cities.

One more thing: Using Uber is a great way to go out for drinks, and not have to worry about a designated driver at the end of the night.

Best for driving

Waze

See at Play Store

If you’re getting from point A to point B, then having an app to keep you on course is a solid choice. Waze is particularly handy for avoiding congestion and traffic spots before you hit them. While information from Waze is included in Google Maps, the standalone app is well worth downloading.

On top of knowing about accidents and traffic, you’ll also be able to see fuel prices, and the presence of police. All information displayed within Waze is added by users, meaning that you’ll get real time updates as you head wherever you’re going. This is especially handy if you’re heading towards traffic, because you’ll see drivers reporting as it gets better — or worse.

Bottom line: Waze uses community reporting to deliver real-time up to date traffic conditions, as well as the presence of police, and local fuel prices.

One more thing: As you travel while using Waze, you’ll slowly unlock the various different reporting features.

Conclusion

While Google Maps can’t do absolutely everything, it does its level best to try. From exploring the area around you to navigating your way across the country, Google has you covered. It’s easy to save locations, add stops, and even avoid highways or tolls. Google Maps even delivers up to date traffic conditions as you drive to ensure that you get where you’re going with as few complications as possible.

Best overall

Google Maps

See at Play Store

Google Maps is pretty much the undisputed master of getting from point A to point B, no matter where you are. Google Maps can show you the easiest way to get around by walking, driving, or finding public transit. There are options to add stops on your journey, as well as avoiding highways or tolls along the way.

You can also access nearby places by checking out the Explore tab. This will show you nearby restaurants, gas stations, and more with top rated recommendations. Google Maps has up-to-date traffic conditions, which means that you’ll know before you hit a problem spot when navigating in the car.

If you’re on a longer trip, it’s also easy to program in stops along your way. This lets you ensure that you get back on track as quickly as possible.

Bottom line: Google Maps gives you a great overall experience whether you’re traveling by car, truck or train, and easily lets you find great local places to find a bite to eat.

One more thing: If you’re concerned about having data, you can also download areas that can be perused offline.

Ford will make your dumb car smart with plug-in module

Ford has said it will release a plug-in module later this year for Ford and Lincoln cars made between 2010 – 2016 without a modem, that will add smart functions such as remote start, security alerts and a Wi-Fi hotspot.

• New Ford Mustang offers 12-inch all-digital display, smartphone unlocking

The SmartLink module plugs into the car’s OBD II port, which is normally used for onboard diagnostics, and can be found below the steering wheel. Ford says it will be available from dealers later this year, although it’s likely to be available in just the US for now.

The module will make it possible to remote start, lock and unlock the car from a smartphone, provide a 4G Wi-Fi hotspot for up to eight devices, monitor vehicle health and security alerts and provide vehicle location assistance. Ford offers similar functions on the new Mustang.

Stephen Odell, executive vice president, global marketing, sales and and service said: “Ford SmartLink will surprise and delight owners of recent model-year vehicles by adding some of today’s popular connectivity features”,

“Offering it through our dealerships is another way to keep us connected with our customers and earn their loyalty”.

• Never stop at a red light again with future Ford and Jaguar Land Rover cars
• Ford announces refreshed 2017 Fiesta line-up with more technology than any other small car

“We are thrilled to offer this level of convenience and connectivity to our existing customers, extending the value their vehicles and giving them just one more reason to love their Ford or Lincoln vehicles”.

A different shade of green | 2018 Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid First Drive

Acid Green, the color Porsche uses for details on its electrified cars, doesn’t exactly sound environmentally friendly. After driving the new Panamera E-Hybrid, you don’t really get a tree-hugging vibe either. Porsche’s third attempt at a gas-electric sedan uses its electric motor to add performance, with environmental advantages like lower fuel consumption and electric-only driving considered bonuses.

Of course environmental factors are the reason the 2018 Panamera 4 E-Hybrid exists, and plug-in hybrid benefits are no accident. But Porsche engineers approached the new E-Hybrid system with a goal to enhance the engine’s power any time it’s active, not to replace internal-combustion output with juice. This is a departure from most hybrids, including the last Panamera E-Hybrid. In the previous plug-in Panamera (second in the lineage), three conditions had to be met before any electric power was added: the car was in Sport mode, you pressed the accelerator more than 80 percent of the way, and you pressed through that travel quickly enough. You had to really want it, and the system had to want to give it to you.

Porsche’s new E-Hybrid system borrows the boosting strategy used on the 918 Spyder – hit the throttle in anything but electric-only E-Power mode and you get a combination of engine and motor power. Instead of the old Aisin automatic transmission that was unique to the last E-Hybrid, the new car uses a version of the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission used on all other Panameras. All-wheel drive is now standard (hence the 4 in the name) to appeal to more snow-staters, whereas before only rear-drive was offered due to packaging constraints – there wasn’t enough room for the front driveshaft on the electrified Panamera.

Transmission swap aside it’s the same basic powertrain setup in this Panamera, with an electric motor sitting between the engine and trans. That electric motor is now more powerful and battery capacity is up by about half, from 9.4 kWh to 14.1, though the new battery weighs the same as the old one. A full charge takes 12.5 hours at 120 volts, or 2.4 hours if you have the optional 7.2-kW on-board charger and a 240-volt hookup. On the European test cycle, it returns about 32 miles of electric-only driving.

The E-Hybrid’s engine contributes the same amount of power as a standard Panamera 4’s single-turbo 3.0-liter V6 (330 horsepower and 331 pound-feet of torque) but it’s a 2.9-liter twin-turbo six instead, a detuned version of the Panamera 4S engine. (Yes, two different engines with the same output ratings is weird.) With the electric motor factored in, the E-Hybrid powertrain puts out 462 hp and 516 lb-ft, increases of 46 hp and 81 lb-ft over the last E-Hybrid. Imagine them written in Acid Green, because these aren’t power levels you usually associate with hybrids.

And with those improvements, the new E-Hybrid is quicker than before. As long as there’s charge left in the battery, it will beat the lighter Panamera 4 in an acceleration fight, hitting 60 mph in 4.4 seconds compared to 5.0 for a Panamera 4 with launch control and 5.2 seconds for the outgoing E-Hybrid. The Sport Chrono package is standard on all 2018 E-Hybrids, which means launch control comes on each one as well. On a launch-control start, the E-Hybrid provides the familiar feeling of having your internal organs rearranged for a moment, but after the initial hit of acceleration there’s a pause, where it feels like the complex powertrain takes a breath, shifts up a gear, resets its electric motor, and then continues on. It’s not bad, just different.

You also notice the hybridity under normal full-throttle acceleration, where the gasps and whooshes of the turbos and exhaust are split by electric-motor whirrs that are surprisingly audible. The motor noise stands out more here than in a full EV because it’s a momentary surge instead of a building spinning sound, since the electric motor’s output is being fed through a multi-speed transmission and therefore has to pause in between gears along with the engine. Again, not bad, but different from the standard Panamera experience.

The electric-only E-Power mode is, of course, the biggest departure from regular Panamera driving. It’s active every time you start the car and otherwise selectable with the E position on the steering-wheel-mounted dial. When running electrically, there a physical detent in the throttle pedal travel that marks the threshold to engine activation – you can push through the stop like a kickdown switch. The car feels surprisingly normal when running under electric power, with adequate acceleration for around-town work, and it’s not that hard to keep the engine from lighting right up to the electric top speed of 86 mph. The transmission and its shifting help, both in keeping the engine off and giving a familiar feeling to the experience. The E-Hybrid acts more like a quiet luxury car with Acid Green trim than a big EV in this mode.

Two more electro-friendly modes can only be accessed through the central 12.3-inch touchscreen: E-Hold and E-Charge. As you might guess, E-Charge runs the engine to top up the battery, while E-Hold allows you to save your current state of charge for later – say a low-speed drive through town or to sneak back into the garage at night without waking your nosy neighbor.

Hybrid Auto mode is the default when once you’ve run down the battery, so for many drivers it will get the most use. It works like most hybrids, using the engine or electric-only power as needed but slightly smarter: the Panamera E-Hybrid uses nav data to make those choices when you have a route set, similar to how the optional InnoDrive system anticipates elevation changes and curves for cruise control. The engine is quiet enough at low revs, and the stop-start system so vibration-free, that you neither hear nor feel when combustion ceases or reignites. Contrast that with the 918 Spyder, which shouts in your ear every time the engine cracks to life. In the Panamera, you have to look down at the tach occasionally to check if the engine is running.

Once the revs pick up, the engine provides a pleasant performance-appropriate soundtrack much like the one from the Panamera S with the same engine. And you can now get the electronically controlled Sport Exhaust system, just like on other Porsche models, if you really want to hear the engine when it’s actually running.

Sport and Sport Plus keep the engine on, both to preserve electric charge for when full power is requested and to provide the quickest response. We didn’t find much need for either mode in normal driving, instead preferring to hit the Sport Response button in the center of the mode dial for a 20-second burst of the powertrain’s full attention and then letting the car relax back into whichever mode it was in prior. Sport Response is also effective in waking up passengers, who may have a tougher time relaxing back into their own previous mode.

Air suspension is standard on the hybrid, and the car rides and steers much like the other Panamera models. The added weight of the hybrid components is barely felt in most situations. There’s none of the shudder over bumps or transitional roll you get with some smaller battery-filled cars, in part because the Panamera is relatively big and its battery relatively light.

To us, the most interesting aspect of the Panamera E-Hybrid is its braking system, which goes the complex route to feel simple. It’s also the piece that could use the most work. Here the E-Hybrid again takes a page from the 918’s book, using a brake pedal linkage that passes through an electromechanical box of magic that is in turn connected to a master cylinder. The special master cylinder can circulate hydraulic fluid within itself instead of sending it out to the mechanical brakes, which is what it does when the brakes are in regen mode using only the motor, up to 0.3 g of deceleration. The upshot is that your foot is always moving hydraulic fluid and, in theory, the magic box can vary brake assist force so you can’t tell the difference between regen-only and mechanical braking.

It does that in most situations, but when the car is about to come to a stop – say, the last ten feet or so – you get nonlinear pedal force, either it goes soft when you don’t expect it to or it briefly firms up, while the brake response remains linear. Even with these faults, the system still beats most hybrid brakes. And we have some hope that the E-Hybrid’s brakes will improve, because 918 prototypes exhibited similar pedal feel that was smoothed out with subsequent updates. Luckily there’s the available Traffic Jam Assist to modulate the brakes in stop-and-go traffic without your feet getting involved, and it does so with no jerkiness at all.

Those really concerned with how their E-Hybrid stops can choose the Porsche Carbon Ceramic Brake (PCCB) option. The standard calipers and the larger ones for the carbon brakes come painted Acid Green, just like the ones on the 918. If you want to tone it down a little, black standard calipers and yellow PCCB calipers (okay, not that toned down) are a no-cost option. This is a marked change from Porsche’s original policy on hybrid brake colors, including the 918 Spyder, which originally had mandatory Acid Green caliper paint.

You’ll still see Predator-blood touches around the interior, mainly on the gauges, as well as on the exterior E-Hybrid badges and the Panamera 4 script on the back (the latter of which can be omitted with no-cost badge delete). The body doesn’t differ from a standard Panamera’s – there are no extra aero tweaks like on other hybridized models. And the interior has the same design and pile of tech, including the big center display, reconfigurable gauges, mix of haptic and non-haptic center-console “buttons,” and disappearing cup holders.

The E-Hybrid’s price doesn’t stray much from a regular Panamera 4’s either. The base MSRP of the nonhybrid car is $90,650 while the 4 E-Hybrid stickers for $100,650 (or $105,150 for the long-wheelbase Executive model). But when you factor in items that are standard on the hybrid and optional on the other car – Sport Chrono and air suspension – the price difference is $5,545. So yes, it’s still a good chunk more, but the plug on the right rear fender means you may be entitled to federal and local tax breaks or rebates. And that Acid Green trim is priceless, whether you like it or not.

If all you’re concerned about is performance, the quicker and more powerful Panamera 4S is only $300 more than a 4 E-Hybrid. It acts more like a normal car because it is as normal a car as you can buy at the price with four doors, a hatchback, and the looks of a sports car. But we can understand preferring the hybrid, either for the electric-only driving or the general whiz-bang neatness. Those who fall in that camp will be able to pick one up this summer.

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Tesla sues ex-Autopilot chief for stealing company secrets

Tesla is suing its former Autopilot director, claiming he took confidential, proprietary information about its self-driving technology and destroyed evidence to cover his tracks, according to a lawsuit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court. It alleges Sterling Anderson also attempted to recruit at least a dozen employees, in violation of his contract, all in an attempt to create a competing autonomous vehicle startup called “Aurora.” Also named in the suit is Google’s former self-driving director Chris Urmson, Anderson’s partner in the venture.

Tesla’s Model S and Model X vehicles have an autonomous driving system that gathers data from a dozen ultrasonic sensors, a camera and radar, in conjunction with GPS data. The company just rolled out a new Autopilot update that gives the vehicles even more autonomous capability. Ex-Googler Urmson is reportedly an advocate of fully self-driving vehicles, having lobbied congress to allow cars on public roads without pedals or a steering wheel.

According to the court documents, Anderson collaborated with Urmson on their venture “on Tesla time, using his Tesla company laptop, and on Tesla’s premises.” It alleges that they attempted to recruit Tesla engineers, making offers to at least a dozen employees. “Even after Tesla terminated Anderson that afternoon [on January 2nd], he and his partners continued to recruit from Tesla,” Tesla said, in violation of a contract that prohibits employee solicitation for 12 months after employment.

A Tesla Model X self-parks in a recent demo video (Tesla)

Furthermore, Anderson “downloaded hundreds of gigabytes of Tesla confidential and proprietary information to his personal Toshiba hard drive,” the document states. He then allegedly hacked the time-stamps on his laptop and secure-erased certain files to conceal the theft, it adds. “As for the company-issued iPhone that contained perhaps the most damning evidence of Anderson’s unlawful solicitation ofTesla employees — he wiped that altogether,” Tesla alleges.

Citing Cruise Automation, an autonomous car company GM recently bought for $1 billion, and Uber’s $680 million acquisition of self-driving startup Otto, Tesla believes that Aurora “decided to take a run at a similar fortune.” It adds that “Tesla does not file this action lightly,” saying it doesn’t bind employees to long-term contracts and is supportive of their personal ambitions. It adds, however, that it “cannot sit idly by” when an employee violates his non-solicit agreement, steals proprietary information and then tries to hide the evidence.

In a statement, Aurora replied that “Tesla’s meritless lawsuit reveals both a startling paranoia and an unhealthy fear of competition. This abuse of the legal system is a malicious attempt to stifle a competitor and destroy personal reputations. Aurora looks forward to disproving these false allegations in court and to building a successful self-driving business.”

Via: Techcrunch

Source: Santa Clara Court (PDF)

Chrome 56 Offers Faster Reloads, Better Security, Lower Power Usage, and More

Version 56 of Google Chrome browser started rolling out to Macs today, bringing with it several new security enhancements, lower power consumption, and a performance boost.

To begin with, Chrome now presents a clearer warning to users when a website requests password or credit card information over a non-HTTPS, unsecure connection. Chrome 56 is also the first version to make HTML5 the default standard for all users, with Flash content automatically blocked by the browser.

Support for the HTTPS-secure Web Bluetooth API has also been included, allowing websites to connect to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices like printers and lightbulbs for a more interactive online experience. Chrome 56 also brings 51 additional security fixes to the browser.

According to a Google blog post, in the latest version of Chrome, changes to page reload behavior now produce reloads that are 28 percent faster and result in 60 percent less validation requests. The new behavior is said to maximize the reuse of cached resources which results in lower latency, power consumption, and data usage.

In addition, Chrome 56 brings built-in FLAC support for the first time, meaning users of the (non-iTunes compatible) audio format can listen to tracks from within the browser.

Lastly, in an attempt to deal with resource hogging Chrome tabs, Google has introduced a new Browser Timer feature that automatically throttles background pages overstepping their allotted runtime allowance, provided they aren’t playing media.

Chrome 56 is available to download for Mac users now. Existing users can update by selecting Chrome -> Preferences via the menu bar and clicking the About section. Users downloading Chrome for the first time will automatically receive the updated version from the Chrome download page. An update for the iOS browser app is expected soon.

Tag: Chrome
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NVIDIA updates older Shield TVs for 4K HDR game streaming

Remember when we told you the old NVIDIA Shield TV would be getting the new units smarts via firmware update? It’s rolling out now as part of an over-the-air patch, TechCrunch has noticed. That means 4K HDR for NVIDIA’s GameStream (which lets you broadcast titles from your gaming rig) as well as the newly added Amazon Prime app. (Netflix was already broadcasting in 4K HDR on the box last year.) Of course, if you really want to upgrade your Shield experience, you’ll need to pony up for the new game controller. But hey, $60 is a lot cheaper than $200 for the new streaming device itself.

Source: TechCrunch

Ford SmartLink brings WiFi, LTE-connected features to older cars

If you want new car features like the ability to remote start via an app or have a WiFi hotspot onboard without buying a new car, then Ford’s new SmartLink is one way to add them. Chrysler has offered WiFi and other features as a part of Uconnect since 2008, while GM followed on most vehicles in 2014 but Ford’s Sync platform leaned more on customer’s own devices. Now, owners of 2010 – 2016 model year Ford and Lincoln vehicles without a built-in modem can add a 4G LTE connection that plugs into the car’s OBD-II diagnostic port underneath the steering wheel.

It connects to Verizon’s wireless networks, but we’re not sure how much it has in common with the $15-per month Verizon Vehicle platform that launched a couple of years ago. The SmartLink promises a WiFi hotspot, plus smartphone-based remote start, lock and unlock, vehicle health and security notifications, and location assistance. Third parties like Samsung, Onstar and others also offer various devices, but not all of them have all of these features. There’s no word on the pricing, but it will be available via dealers starting this summer.

Source: Ford

Scientists found a way to bring back lost tomato flavor

Tomatoes don’t taste like they used to, because breeders have been prioritizing other traits like pest and disease resistance. To bring that lost flavor back, a team of researchers from the University of Florida went on a quest to find the chemical combinations that make tomatoes tasty. First, they sequenced the DNA and examined the flavor-associated chemicals of 398 modern, heirloom and wild tomatoes. After that, they selected 160 samples out of the 398 and had 100 subjects rank them according to taste.

By combining the taste panel’s results and the samples’ chemical and genetic analyses, the researchers were able to identify the missing genes associated with flavor. They were then able to replace bad genes in modern tomatoes with good ones that restore their taste. Besides finding a way to make tomatoes taste like tomatoes again, the study also provides breeders a thorough genetic analysis of the fruit.

Plant and microbial biology professor Adrian Hegemanat from the University of Minnesota told The Verge:

“A breeder can now simultaneously select for hundreds of these genetic markers to rapidly select new plants with as many of the desirable traits as possible. This will make it easier to cross two different tomato varieties and test the progeny from that cross at very early stages of growth to get rid of plants that lack key gene linked traits.”

Breeders can’t get everything they want, though — in some varieties, for instance, sweetness is linked to a smaller size. But, hey, they now at least have the choice to make delicious tomatoes. If you want to know more about how the researchers accomplished their mission, check out their paper on Science.

Via: The Verge

Source: Science, University of Florida

Samsung CF791 ultrawide curved gaming monitor review

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Samsung CF791

When you’re seated in front of a curved ultrawide monitor, walking the neon-bathed streets of a futuristic Prague while rain pours in thick, heavy sheets, it’s easy to lose yourself. With a big enough monitor, with a deep enough curve, the display commandeers your entire field of view.

It’s no wonder these monitors started to really pick up steam in the latter parts of 2016 — and they’re poised to take over the market entirely in 2017. Prices are going down, performance is going up, and companies like Samsung are rolling out ultrawide curved monitors to match growing customer demand.

The Samsung CF791 is one such monitor. It’s a 34-inch, ultrawide monitor with a curve deep enough to wrap around your entire field of vision. Those specifications on their own would be impressive, but the CF791 has another trick up its sleeve: quantum dots.

More: Rise of HDR and 4K on display in the top 5 monitors at CES 2017

Yep, this monitor is filled to the brim with those nanocrystal semiconductors that bend light to their will and deliver unparalleled color depth, contrast ratios, and all sorts of other stimuli for your retinas. Quantum dots are supposed to deliver sharp, accurate colors at a much lower price than their OLED competitors, but the Samsung CF791 retails for $1,000. It’s not the most expensive ultrawide, but it’s far from the cheapest.

Is the Samsung CF791 worth the price of entry? Let’s find out.

Adjustable elegance

Before you even turn it on, the Samsung CF791 cuts an elegant figure. A broad aluminum-colored disc supports a glossy white armature that seems to effortlessly hold the display aloft. It’s not often that a monitor’s adjustable stand is appreciably different from all the others on the market. It has a simple job — hold the monitor up, keep it from wobbling, and don’t be a pain when you need to adjust the height or angle.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

It’s a straightforward, but thankless job, and you only ever really notice the stand if it’s misbehaving — if your display is wobbly, or if it never manages to stay at just the right height. Curved monitor manufacturers sometimes cut corners here, and offer stands that are nice-looking but inadequate, or stable but overly large. With the CF791, Samsung establishes a comfortable middle ground.

The base is large, but not too large. It provides stability without overreaching and taking over your whole desk. Despite the size of the base, it never seems overbearing, and the stability it brings to the monitor is a welcome addition. Ultrawide curved monitors have a bad reputation for being wobbly, due to their size, but the CF791 proves a steady hand.

A narrow, articulated armature clad in glossy white plastic sprouts from the back side of the base. This arm holds up the monitor, and accounts for the CF791’s impressive adjustability. Every monitor is adjustable in some way or another, usually just a little up and down with some give to tilt it forward or back. Usually, these adjustments produce audible clicks or require some muscle to get just right.

Even when bright, vibrant rose-reds contrast well against stark, snowy whites.

Again, the Samsung CF791 manages to improve on a simple aspect of the user experience that is very easy to ignore. Adjusting this monitor’s big, curved display is easy. Not just that — it’s pleasant, which is a weird thing to say. When you pull the display toward you, angling it up or down, the arm moves with just the right amount of resistance before settling into its new position.

Once adjusted, the stand is remarkably stable. Tapping or nudging the display doesn’t change its position, nor does bumping the table or desk it sits on. The display itself only wobbles noticeably when directly jarred, or if you start shaking the table.

Familiar faces

The CF791 features a standard array of connections and ports, including two HDMI 2.0 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 port, and one USB port, alongside built-in speakers. It’s also VESA compatible, another nice, standard addition.

More: LG OLEDs still reign supreme, but its SUHD LCDs got a major update this year

Basic configuration is handled with a set of familiar on-screen menus accessible via the jog button on the back-right side of the monitor. It’s responsive, and makes clicking through the menus easy enough, but like most jog buttons, you’re going to end up hitting the wrong setting now and then. It’s not exactly a precision instrument.

The menus themselves are easily navigable, clear, concise, and surprisingly robust. There are a lot of options here. You can adjust your brightness, contrast, and individual color levels, also configure which version of HDMI or DisplayPort you want the monitor to be running (1.4 or 2.0) on each of the input ports, and you can toggle AMD’s FreeSync on or off.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The CF791 supports a 100Hz refresh rate, even without AMD’s FreeSync, in case you don’t have an AMD video card. It’s a nice addition and definitely puts the CF791 in competition with other gaming monitors.

The speakers get the job done, but they’re nothing to write home about. Playing music through them, you’ll end up losing most of the bass, and games don’t fare much better. Gunshots are sharp and snappy, but deep rumbly sounds get lost in translation.

In search of content

It’s impossible to discuss the Samsung CF791 without mentioning its overwhelming size. This is a big monitor. With a 34-inch diagonal wingspan, as well as a 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, the CF791 has a comfortable 110 PPI. The deep curve makes the already impressive presence of the monitor even more dramatic. Just putting it on your desk makes your workstation look like a futuristic command center.

Before we even cracked open our colorimeter and set about calibrating the CF791, we had to find some video content to test it with. This isn’t a 4K display, and it’s not 1080p. Of course, 1440p content is easy enough to find, but at an appropriate aspect ratio to really leverage the CF791’s ample screen space? Not so much.

That’s actually something of a larger problem for the CF791. Games support its odd dimensions with ease, but streaming services like Netflix, HBO Now, and Amazon Video had trouble scaling video content without losing quality. HBO Now, in fact, had the most trouble scaling to the CF791’s enormous and unusual size, zooming in on one corner of the video and chopping off the rest.

You might have better luck if you hooked up a game console or downloaded your favorite streaming service’s official app instead of streaming from your browser.

This isn’t the monitor’s fault, and it’s a symptom you’re going to see on any monitor with a resolution a little outside the norm. If you’re in doubt, it’s best to just use 4K content on this monitor — browsers and streaming services are better at scaling down than they are at scaling up.

Other than a handful of user-created videos on YouTube, finding content at a native resolution large enough to fill the CF791’s display was pretty difficult. It’s something you’ll want to keep in mind, especially if you plan on using this monitor primarily for media. Worse comes to worst, you’ll just find black bars on either side of whatever you’re watching, or you’ll have to temporarily lower your monitor’s resolution to accommodate the video content.

Once we did track down some appropriately sized video content, 4K or 1440p, the Samsung CF791 exceeded our expectations in the most spectacular fashion. When you put it to work, this monitor is breathtaking.

Simply astonishing

From edge-to-edge, the CF791 delivers rich, velvety colors. Watching a movie trailer, colors just cascade across the screen, reds leap out against deep, inky blacks, whites are sharp and stark. These colors don’t run, they don’t bleed, they are precisely where they need to be and they never stray outside the lines. Even when bright vibrant beet-reds are contrasted against snowy whites, the CF791 never misses a beat.

It’s easy to see why — right out of the box, the CF791 sports an impressive 940:1 contrast ratio and displays 100 percent of the sRGB spectrum, and 85 percent of the AdobeRGB spectrum. What does that mean in practice? It means this monitor looks great, without tweaking a single setting. Pull it out of the box, plant it on a desk, fire it up, and you’re done. You don’t need to mess around with contrast settings to pull the most out of this monitor — it’s not shy, it doesn’t need coaxing.

Compared to Samsung’s last 34-inch curved monitor, the S34E790C, the CF791 is an improvement on an already great product. The new design all but eliminates the bezels around the screen, deepens the curve, and shatters the S34’s impressive contrast ratio of 740:1 with its own 940:1 contrast ratio. Gamma is fairly middle of the road, coming in at 2.1.

Brightness maxes out at about 299 lux, and black levels are appreciably deep — moving up to only .33 at full brightness, and 0.0 at the lowest brightness setting. What does that mean for your display? Just that your highlights and lowlights, your bright patches and shadows will remain nicely differentiated no matter your brightness setting — a credit to the CF791’s fantastic contrast ratio.

Samsung CF791 Compared To

Dell U3417W

Samsung CFG70

LG 38UC99

Dell s2417DG

BenQ PV3200PT

Samsung CF591

Acer Predator Z35

LG 4K UHD 27UD88-W

Eizo Foris FS2735 gaming monitor

LG 34UC98 monitor

Dell S2716DG

HP Dreamcolor Z32x

Philips 276E6ADSS LCD monitor

BenQ BL3201PH

Samsung U32D970Q

How did Samsung do it? Well, that contrast ratio is the result of those quantum dots, which handle color much more efficiently than standard LCD displays. They’re essentially molecular-sized prisms that bend light to different colors (frequencies) depending on their size. These nanocrystal semiconductors act as a filter between the LCD’s backlight and the display, ensuring that colors go where they need to, when they need to, and nowhere else.

More: Asus ROG leaks announcement of a 4K HDR gaming monitor — the Swift PG27UQ

Those quantum dots manage to push the CF791 ahead of the competition, without inflating its price tag. For instance, the LG 38UC99 boasts an impressively high brightness level of 300 lux, and a 38-inch screen, but it’s 660:1 contrast ratio doesn’t come anywhere near the CF791’s impressive 940:1 contrast ratio.

Even with a lower maximum brightness, the CF791 just seems brighter. Its quantum dots make its colors sharper, more vibrant, and much more accurate. Let’s see if we can make them work a little harder with some calibration.

Wait, it gets better

Normally, calibration can help gloss over a monitor’s shortcomings — you can give that color accuracy a boost, and fix off-kilter gamma, but that’s usually about it. Expecting anything other than a minor improvement is unrealistic — most of the time.

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

Bill Roberson/Digital Trends

The Samsung CF791 is just full of surprises. While the out-of-the-box color accuracy is not ideal, coming in at 2.56 (anything lower than 1.0 is undetectable to the human eye), running it through a basic calibration lands you nearly pitch-perfect color accuracy — about 1.08, which is just a few decimal points away from professional-grade color accuracy. Thanks, quantum dots.

The CF791 also avoids a common pitfall of curved ultrawide monitors — the dreaded light bleed. Throughout our tests, even when we were trying to reproduce some common light bleed, the CF791 maintained its inky darkness even with a fully black — but active — screen. No light bleed around the corners, none along the top or bottom edges. In this regard, the CF791 is again able to run circles around some of its high-end competitors like the LG 38UC99, which fared better than most curved monitors, but still had some unsightly light bleed around the curvature of the screen.

Before you even turn it on, the Samsung CF791 cuts an elegant figure.

Calibration might ding your contrast just a bit, though. In our tests, the precalibration contrast ratio of 940:1 went down to 910:1, which is a fairly negligible loss given what you stand to gain in color accuracy. Brightness and black levels remained pretty much the same, pre- and post-calibration, but those gains in color accuracy are definitely worth the trouble of calibration.

If you don’t have access to a professional colorimeter, worry not. You can check out our calibration guide here for some tips on how to get the most out of this — or any other — monitor.

The Samsung CF791’s color accuracy manages to edge out a few rivals, including the Samsung S34E790C, which comes close, but doesn’t quite match the CF791’s stellar accuracy. In fact, the CF791’s post-calibration color accuracy actually comes close to the accuracy you’d find on a professional-grade monitor like the BenQ SW2700PT, which features out-of-the-box color accuracy of .84.

Warranty information

The Samsung CF791 comes with a standard one-year warranty for parts and labor, covering manufacturer defects in materials and workmanship, but only guards against noncommercial use. It’s not an unusual warranty, it’s just a little sparse. The Acer Predator Z35, for instance, features a three-year warranty, which is much more common for high-end monitors.

If you purchase a CF791, you might want to pick up some kind of device insurance or extended care plan from a trusted retailer — the included warranty has a lot of caveats.

Our Take

Ultrawide curved monitors are impressive to behold. They just look great. They’re aesthetically pleasing, they create a luxuriant workspace that supplants typical two-monitor setups, and they’re immersive. Size and scope often compensate for any shortcomings a typical ultrawide monitor might have.

The Samsung CF791 isn’t a typical ultrawide monitor. It doesn’t really have any shortcomings. It doesn’t need to compensate for anything, because it delivers in every way you need it to. It’s a gaming monitor that upgrades your workspace, and a workspace that delivers stellar gaming performance.

Is there a better alternative?

Simply put? No, there isn’t a better alternative. The CF791 sits comfortably in the Goldilocks zone when it comes to price, performance, and picture quality.

There’s the Acer Predator Z35, if you need a blisteringly fast refresh rate, but you’ll lose out on that deep curve and the rich contrast provided by the CF791’s quantum dot display.

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Similarly, you could pick up the LG 38UC99, a 38-inch IPS monitor, which delivers an immersive experience with a massive panel, but less-than-impressive contrast. It’ll also run you an extra $500 more the CF791.

How long will it last?

We’re in a unique period when it comes to consumer technology, particularly monitors. Resolutions continue to ramp up, year over year, but for most uses, we’ve reached a comfortable plateau. For instance, 4K displays have trouble with icon scaling and text because of their overwhelming pixel density. On the other hand, 1440p is a happy middle ground between 1080p and 4K — it’s a safe place to be for quite a while.

The Samsung CF791 has two major advantages that will contribute to its longevity. Its size, which is unlikely to be eclipsed any time soon. After all, monitors might keep getting bigger, but desks sure don’t. You only have so much space available for a monitor, and the CF791 just barely scrapes the ceiling on that front.

Second, the resolution and pixel density are pitch-perfect for text. Pixel density is high enough that text and icons aren’t visibly pixelated — they’re sharp and smooth like a pen stroke — and the resolution is capable of approximating 4K content without too much difficulty. After all it’s only 400 pixels shy of 4K.

In short, the Samsung CF791 will last an awful long time. It’ll outlast most of the components in your PC, and continue to deliver immersive gaming experiences long after you replace your brand-new video card.

Should you buy it?

Yes, you should. It’s expensive, but for what you get, it’s a good deal. The Samsung CF791 will outlast your current gaming rig, and if you’re buying it for a general use PC, it’ll last even longer — as a workspace, 21:9 is fairly cutting edge.

Samsung has outdone themselves with the CF791, and with a slightly below average retail price, this is one monitor you don’t want to pass up.