The Samsung Smart Monitor M8 S32BM80 is a 4k smart monitor and an updated version of the Samsung M7. It comes with Samsung's proprietary Tizen smart platform built-in, which is the same platform that their TVs use, so it has a ton of apps to stream your favorite content if you don't want to use your PC. Because of this, it's essentially a small 32 inch TV without a tuner. It also has more features than most monitors, like the ability to control other smart devices with it. It comes with a webcam that you can use for making video calls with your PC or with native apps. It has a remote with a mic for voice control, and you can choose whether you want to use the Bixby or Alexa voice assistants. It's available in four different colors, but the only thing that changes is the stand color, as the back remains white no matter which version you get.
The Samsung M8 is good for most uses. It's best for streaming movies and shows because it has a built-in smart platform, and it's good for dark room viewing thanks to its high native contrast ratio, though it lacks a local dimming feature. The 32 inch screen and 4k resolution make it good for content creators as it delivers crisp images, but it doesn't display all the necessary colors needed for photo or video editing. It's also good for office use, but it has limited ergonomics that make it difficult to share your screen with someone else. Sadly, it's just okay for gaming because it doesn't have any variable refresh rate (VRR) support or a high refresh rate.
The Samsung M8 Smart Monitor is a good office monitor. The large 32 inch screen makes it easy to open multiple windows at once, and the 4k resolution helps deliver clear text. It also has decent reflection handling and great peak brightness, which is enough to fight glare in well-lit rooms. It comes with a webcam if you want to make video calls, but the microphone on it performs terribly. Also, it has narrow viewing angles, and you can't swivel the screen, so it isn't ideal to share the screen with someone else.
The Samsung M8 is okay for gaming. It doesn't have any gaming features like variable refresh rate support, and it has a basic 60Hz refresh rate. Its response time isn't bad, but fast-moving objects still look blurry, and its input lag isn't as low as other gaming monitors. However, it's great for dark room gaming because it displays deep and uniform blacks, but it doesn't have a local dimming feature.
The Samsung Smart Monitor M8 is great for media consumption. The built-in smart platform makes it easy to stream your favorite shows and movies if you don't want to do it from a PC. The 4k resolution delivers crips images and the 32 inch screen is big enough to share with someone else, although it has narrow viewing angles, so the image looks inaccurate from the sides. It's also great for watching content in bright and dark rooms because it gets bright enough to fight glare, and it displays deep blacks too.
The Samsung M8 Smart Monitor has a large 32 inch screen and 4k resolution that makes it easy to view your entire workspace at once, but it's not the best for professional content creators. Sadly, its out-of-the-box accuracy is mediocre as most colors are inaccurate, and it doesn't display the entire sRGB color space used in most web content, meaning primary colors don't appear as they should. It performs well in bright rooms because it has great SDR peak brightness and decent reflection handling, meaning visibility isn't much of an issue.
The Samsung M8 is decent for watching HDR content. It displays a wide range of colors in HDR, and there's minimal banding with shades of similar colors. It displays deep blacks thanks to its high native contrast ratio, and there's minimal blooming around bright objects too. Sadly, it doesn't get bright enough to make highlights pop, and it lacks a local dimming feature to improve the picture quality in HDR.
We tested the 32 inch Samsung M8, which is a newer version of the M7 and M5 Smart Monitors. It's only available in the 32 inch size, and the only difference between the variants is the color of the stand and the front bezels. The results apply to all the variants. Keep in mind that the model code can vary slightly between regions or even retailers.
Color | US Model |
---|---|
White | LS32BM801UNXGO |
Blue | LS32BM80BUNXGO |
Green | LS32BM80GUNXGO |
Pink | LS32BM80PUNXGO |
If you come across a Samsung M8 Monitor with a different panel type, or if it doesn't correspond to our review, let us know in the discussions, and we'll update our review. Note that some tests, like gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
Our unit was manufactured in April 2022; you can see the label here.
The Samsung M8 is a unique 4k monitor with a smart platform built-in. It's convenient if you want a display to watch your favorite shows and movies and don't want to connect a PC, and you can't find a TV small enough for your space. The 4k resolution helps deliver sharp images, but if you're only after the 4k resolution, you can get cheaper office monitors with that resolution and use your PC to stream your favorite content.
See our recommendations for the best 4k monitors, the best 32-inch monitors, and the best multimedia monitors.
Although the Apple Studio Display and the Samsung Smart Monitor M8 S32BM80 look similar in terms of style, they're very different monitors. The Apple is a 5k monitor meant for content creators as it has remarkable out-of-the-box accuracy, and it displays a wider range of colors in SDR than the Samsung. Also, the Apple has wider viewing angles that make it a better choice for sharing content with someone next to you. The Apple also gets brighter and has better reflection handling if you want to use it in a well-lit room. On the other hand, the Samsung has a built-in smart platform, making it easier to stream your favorite movies, and it comes with a remote that has voice control. It also supports HDR, which the Apple doesn't, and it displays deeper blacks if you want to use it in a dark room.
The Samsung Smart Monitor M8 S32BM80 and the Dell U3223QE are different types of 4k displays. The Samsung has a built-in smart interface meant to make it easy to stream your favorite content without a PC. It also performs better in dark rooms thanks to its higher contrast. However, the Dell is an office monitor with a bunch more inputs, including USB-A ports, making it easy to connect multiple devices and your mouse and keyboard. It also has much better out-of-the-box accuracy, and it displays a wider range of colors, making it a better choice for content creators.
The Samsung Smart Monitor M8 S32BM80 is better than the Samsung Smart Monitor M7 S43BM70. The smaller M8 delivers much better text clarity, and the stand has better ergonomics, so it's easier to place it in an ideal viewing position. The M8 also gets brighter, and it has a flicker-free backlight. Finally, the M8 comes with a detachable webcam, so it's a better choice if you're looking for a standalone setup without a PC and want to make video calls.
The Samsung M8 looks a lot like the Apple Studio Display with a stylish design. It's rather simplistic and will look nice in any setup. It's available in four different color variants, but only the stand and front bezels change color as the back remains white. It has speakers on the back, a sensor for the remote on the lower right side of the screen, and a detachable webcam on top.
The Samsung M8 has decent build quality, but it's not something you would expect from a premium monitor. The screen bends slightly when you try to tilt it, the plastic doesn't attach evenly to the screen, and the stand makes a creaking sound when you try to adjust it. Overall, it looks nicer than it feels.
The Samsung M8 Monitor has mediocre ergonomics. It's hard to put the screen in an ideal position, and you need to rotate the entire stand if you want to share the screen with someone next to you. Sadly, you can't remove the stand to use a mounting arm either. There's a cutout in the stand for cable management.
This monitor comes with a remote to control the monitor's settings and navigate through the smart interface. It's a bit different from the remote that comes with Samsung TVs as it doesn't have a Multi-View button, but it still has shortcut buttons to popular streaming services. There's a mic that allows you to search for content, and it supports both Alexa and Bixby voice assistants, but not Google Assistant like with Samsung TVs. Also, the remote only comes in white, even if you get the pink, green, or blue variants. There's a joystick on the back to navigate the menu, but it's easier to use the remote.
The Samsung M8 Monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so that you can compare the backlight performance with a monitor that has local dimming.
The Samsung M8 has great SDR peak brightness. It gets bright enough to fight glare in well-lit rooms, and the brightness is very consistent across different scenes. Sadly, the minimum brightness is a bit high, which can be annoying if you're using the monitor in a dark room and sensitive to bright lights.
These results are from after calibration in the 'Custom' Game Picture Mode with the input label set to 'PC' and the Brightness at its max.
Unlike many monitors, the Samsung M8 supports HDR10+, but with just okay HDR peak brightness. It's not bright enough to deliver a satisfying HDR experience as most small highlights don't pop. It displays most scenes at their correct brightness, but there's a sharp roll-off at the peak brightness, causing a loss of fine details with bright objects.
These results are from the 'Game HDR' Picture Mode with the input labelled as 'PC'. Even if you use other Picture Modes and label the input as 'Blu-ray', the peak brightness doesn't change much, and you don't get the same low input lag and clear text as you do in 'Game HDR' with the input labeled as 'PC'. You can reach 390 nits in 'Game HDR' with the input labeled as 'Blu-ray', but text isn't as clear with that setting because it doesn't display chroma 4:4:4, so it's best to keep it as 'PC' for the best monitor experience.
The Samsung M8 Monitor has a narrow horizontal viewing angle, meaning the image looks washed out from the sides. It isn't ideal if you want to watch something with someone sitting next to you.
The Samsung M8's vertical viewing angle is poor, but this isn't much of a problem unless you're standing up and looking down at the screen.
The Samsung M8 has mediocre out-of-the-box accuracy. Unlike other monitors, it doesn't have an sRGB mode, but you can instead adjust the Color Space Settings to 'Auto' to limit the colors to the sRGB color space in the 'Custom' Picture Mode. The 'Standard' Picture Mode performs similarly to 'Custom', while the 'FPS', 'RTS', and 'RPG' modes all have over-saturated colors. The color temperature is also close to the 6500K target with the Color Tone set to 'Standard', but setting it to 'Warm' or 'Cool' makes the image too warm and too cold. Sadly, most colors and the white balance are very off, and the gamma doesn't follow the target sRGB curve at all, as dark scenes are too dark while other scenes are too bright. The Contrast, Sharpness, Color, and Tint were at their default settings during testing.
The accuracy on the Samsung M8 after calibration is excellent, but it doesn't fix all issues. The monitor still doesn't cover all of the sRGB color space, so some primary colors aren't as saturated as they should be, but the overall color accuracy and white balance are better than before calibration. You can see the 2-point white balance settings here.
The Samsung M8 Monitor has an excellent SDR color gamut. It has fantastic coverage of the sRGB color gamut used in most web content, but it doesn't fill up the space entirely. It also has great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used in photo editing, but greens and reds are inaccurate.
The Samsung M8 Monitor has a very good HDR color gamut. It has excellent DCI-P3 coverage, which is important as most HDR content uses that color space, but the tone mapping with pure white is off. Also, it's not future-proof because it has limited Rec. 2020 coverage and more content will start to use that color space.
The Samsung M8 has decent reflection handling. There aren't any mirror-like reflections thanks to the matte finish, but it still struggles with strong light sources, like if you were to place it opposite a bright window.
The text clarity on the Samsung M8 Monitor is incredible thanks to its 4k resolution. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) makes letters appear bolder, but it's not necessary. You need to make sure you set the input label to PC for it to display proper chroma 4:4:4 for the clearest text possible. The larger Samsung Smart Monitor M7 S43BM70 has much lower pixel density, resulting in significantly worse text clarity.
The Samsung M8 Monitor has a basic 60Hz refresh rate. You can only get 10-bit color depth via the Micro-HDMI input. The USB-C port has an 8-bit color depth limit, even if you lower the resolution and refresh rate.
The Samsung M8 doesn't support variable refresh rate technologies.
Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
Standard | Chart | Table | Photo |
Faster | Chart | Table | Photo |
Extreme | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Samsung M8's response time at the max refresh rate isn't bad, but motion still looks blurry with fast-moving objects. You can adjust the Response Time setting. Even though the three settings are all similar, leaving it on 'Standard' results in the least amount of overshoot.
The Samsung M8 Monitor doesn't support 120Hz signals.
The Samsung M8 Monitor doesn't have a backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur.
The Samsung M8 Monitor has low enough input lag for a responsive desktop experience as long as you're in 'Game Mode' or have the input labeled as 'PC'. You get the same low input lag if you're in 'Game Mode' with the input labeled as Blu-ray, or if you're outside of 'Game Mode' with the input labeled as 'PC'. However, the input lag increases once you're out of 'Game Mode' with the input labeled as something else, causing noticeable delay. For the best monitor experience, leave it in 'Game Mode' with the input as 'PC' for low input lag and clear text.
The 32 inch screen still maintains a high pixel density thanks to the 4k resolution. The larger Samsung Smart Monitor M7 S43BM70 has the same native resolution, resulting in a much lower pixel density.
The Samsung M8 Monitor works as expected with the Xbox Series X for games under 60 fps. Like with the PS5, it has an Auto Low Latency Mode that automatically switches the monitor into Game Mode for low input lag.
The Samsung M8 comes with a Micro-HDMI to HDMI cable, so you don't have to worry about getting an adapter if your device uses HDMI.
One of the USB-C inputs supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, which allows you to display an image from a compatible device and charge at the same time. The other USB-C input is for data transfers only. There's a USB-C Preference setting with 'High Resolution' and 'High Data Speed' options, which allows you to choose the USB bandwidth for a higher resolution or faster data transfer.
The Samsung M8 is a smart monitor with a lot more features than most monitors. It comes with the Tizen smart platform like on Samsung TVs, which is user-friendly and has a ton of apps available to download. This means that you don't even need to connect a PC to stream your favorite content and you can treat the monitor as a small TV, but without a tuner. You can even connect your mouse and keyboard directly to the monitor and use the built-in web browser or Microsoft 365 apps. You can choose between the Alexa and Bixby voice assistant features, and you can use them to control Samsung products in your household. You can learn more about all of Samsung's extra features in the Samsung QN90B QLED TV review.
It has an option for Picture-by-Picture called Multi-View but it's not for two external sources as you can only display content from your PC along with the webcam's image or a smart app. It's not that convenient either because if you want to change anything on the native apps you need to open them in full-screen mode then go back to Multi-View, so it's not a real Picture-by-Picture mode.
It has a detachable webcam that connects to the back of the monitor with the proprietary connection. The video quality isn't bad, but the microphone sounds terrible. You can see an example here. The webcam has a few extra features too, like auto-zoom that centers you in the frame when you move around, but that only works with certain apps, and there's a privacy cover.
The speakers aren't anything special, which is what you expect for built-in monitor speakers. They're not nearly as good as the speakers on the Apple Studio Display; they don't produce any bass, and they don't get loud, though they're fine for listening to dialogue. You can see the results below:
The Samsung M8 has many more settings than most monitors as it's similar to Samsung TVs. You can learn more about the settings on Samsungs with the Samsung QN90B QLED settings page.