With six different models currently on the market, Samsung is leading the charge on curved-screen monitors. The LS27D590CS-ZA ($399.99) reviewed here is a 27-inch display that uses a Vertical Alignment (VA) panel to deliver good color and gray-scale performance, with inky blacks and wide viewing angles. Although its curved panel gets you closer to the action while gaming and watching movies, this monitor maxes out at 1080p and lacks certain features, like USB ports and a height-adjustable stand. For around $50 more, our top pick for midrange big-screen monitors, the Acer K272HUL, offers a higher resolution and more video inputs.

Design and Features
The LS27D590C’s($343.75 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) half-inch, glossy-black bezels, curved cabinet and stand, and brushed aluminum trim offer a sleek, minimalist design. The cabinet measures 24.54 by 14.40 by 2.34 inches (HWD). The T-shaped stand has a slight curve that matches the curve of the panel, but doesn’t have height, swivel, and pivot adjustments. However, it does let you tilt the panel 20 degrees backward and 2 degrees forward. The monitor has two embedded 5-watt speakers that are relatively loud and can be cranked up without distorting, but they don’t offer much bass response.

As with the Samsung LS27D590PS( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), there aren’t any function buttons on the front of this monitor. Instead, the settings menus are accessed and navigated using a jog button on the rear of the cabinet on the lower-right side. The button, which also acts as a Power switch, is much easier to use than the traditional multi-button configuration used on most monitors. Also at the rear of the cabinet are HDMI, VGA, and DisplayPort video inputs, an audio input, and a headphone jack. Like the Acer K272HUL, the LS27D590C doesn’t have any USB ports.

Picture settings include Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Image Size (Aspect Ratio), and four presets (Standard, Cinema, Dynamic Contrast, and Custom). There’s also a Game Mode that is much brighter than the other presets and produces oversaturated colors. There are individual sliders for adjusting red, green, and blue saturation levels and five Color Temperature settings, but you don’t get the advanced 6-Axis Color settings that you do with the Acer H257HU($369.99 at Acer)(Opens in a new window). Samsung backs the LS27D590C with a one-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight. Included in the box are HDMI and audio cables and a Quick Setup Guide.

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Performance
As shown on the chromaticity chart below, the LS27D590C delivers mostly accurate colors. The colored dots represent the panel’s measured color coordinates, and the boxes represent the ideal color coordinates as described by the International Committee On Illumination (CIE). As you can see, red and blue colors are closely aligned with their ideal coordinates, while green is slightly skewed. Fortunately, this flaw is minor and doesn’t result in tinting or oversaturated colors.

The LS27D590C’s VA panel was able to display each shade of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test, but it can’t match the intensity and sharpness of a high-end In-Plane Switching (IPS) panel such as the one used on the NEC MultiSync EA244UHD($1,499.95 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). That said, the monitor produced very dark blacks and provided good shadow and highlight detail while displaying my test images and while displaying scenes from Marvel’s Ironman 3 on Blu-ray. As with the LG 34UC97-S( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) and the Dell UltraSharp U3415W($799.99 at Dell)(Opens in a new window), the LS27D590C’s curved screen gives you a feeling of immersion; it’s a subtle effect but it makes gaming and watching movies a bit more pleasurable.

See How We Test Monitors

Speaking of gaming, the panel’s 4-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response kept ghosting to a minimum while I played Crysis 3 on a PC and Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Microsoft XBox 360($118.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) console. Its 11.8-millisecond input lag (the time it takes to react to a controller command, as measured by the Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester) isn’t quite as fast as the BenQ XL2430T($449.00 at Walmart)(Opens in a new window) (9.5 milliseconds), but it’s still pretty fast, and I did not notice any lag whatsoever.

The LS27D590C is energy efficient. It consumed 20 watts of power during testing while set to the Standard preset and 16 watts while set to Eco mode. That’s comparable to the BenQ GL2760H (32 and 13 watts, respectively) but not quite as efficient as the Dell UltraSharp UZ2715H( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window), which used 17 watts while set to Standard mode (it does not have an Eco mode).

Conclusion
The Samsung LS27D590CS-ZA is a solid choice for users who want a curved-screen monitor but don’t have the money or the space for a really big model like the Dell UltraSharp U3415W. It offers good all-around performance and an attractive design, but it comes up short in terms of features, and it’s limited to a 1080p resolution. If you can live without a curved screen, our Editors’ Choice midrange big-screen monitor, the Acer K272HUL, gets you a Wide Quad High-Definition (WQHD) IPS panel for around $50 more. If the Acer K272HUL’s 2,560-by-1,440 resolution still isn’t enough, check out the Acer B286HK($199.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window); it’ll run you around $600, but it has a 28-inch, Ultra-High- Definition (3,840-by-2,160) panel and lots of features.