Latest news with #ManofMany
Man of Many
8 hours ago
- Man of Many
Lenovo's 34' Legion Pro Monitor is an Ultrawide OLED Powerhouse
By Dean Blake - Review Published: 2 June 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 8 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. The Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 is a fantastic ultrawide monitor for gaming It boasts a natural 3440×1440 resolution and 240hz refresh rate, alongside a ton of ports It's effectiveness in gaming is somewhat hampered by most games' lack of ultrawide support, though Lenovo's gaming-focused Legion lineup has always been a solid bet for anyone wanting to dive into their favourite form of interactive entertainment: whether it be through one of its Pro laptops, the surprisingly powerful Legion Go handheld, or, as I've done for the past few weeks, using its impressive Legion range of monitors. In particular I've been toying around with the Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10, a 34' ultrawide monitor that can hit an esport-level refresh rate of 240Hz on a beautiful, curved OLED screen. We'll dive into just how beautiful that screen is below, but suffice to say it made everything I threw at it look far better than my usual fare. That ultrawide size is really the star of the show here. If you're in the market for an ultrawide gaming monitor, this is among the best I've tested, and the 34' size profile keeps it from completely dominating my desk space as other, bigger monitors have. Remember kids, bigger doesn't always mean better. The price is a lot of swallow, I won't lie: AUD$1,899 itself could be the price of your entire rig, but this is 100 per cent an enthusiast display. If you don't already own a PC (or console) capable of pushing this thing to its limit, you're probably better off upgrading a different bit of your kit ahead of your monitor. For everyone else, read on. Tech Specs Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 Philips Envia 34M2C8600 QD Price AUD$1,899 AUD$1,799 Display Size 34' 34' Panel Type OLED OLED Resolution 3440 x 1440 (WQHD, 21:9 aspect ratio) 3440 x 1440 (WQHD, 21:9 aspect ratio) Refresh Rate 240Hz 175Hz Response Time 0.03ms GtG 0.03ms GtG Ports 1x HDMI 2.1 1x HDMI 2.1 (with eARC) 1x USB-C (with DP Alt Mode) 1x Display Port 1.4 1x Ethernet 3x USB-A 3.2 2x USB-C 3.2 1x USB-B 3.2 (Upstream) 1x USB-C 3.2 (Upstream) 2x HDMI 2.0 1x USB-C (with DP Alt Mode) 1x Display Port 1.4 1x USB-A 3.2 4x USB-A 1x USB-B Upstream Scroll horizontally to view full table Why Trust Us Here at Man of Many, we use a wide variety of technology. We're not fans of any one brand, like to get our hands on the latest-and-greatest tech before we call it the next-best-thing, and we've built up extensive experience in reviewing tech as a publication over the past 10 years. The author of this article, Dean Blake, is Man of Many's technology journalist, and has followed the industry for years. He's worked and gamed on many monitors throughout his career, and largely plays his games on PC. Acer sent a review unit to Man of Many, but no money exchanged hands, and all opinions expressed are those of the author and haven't been seen by Acer ahead of time. For more information on our independence, testing and review guidelines, you can read our full editorial policies here. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many The Good Immersive Curved, OLED Screen Well, this is what you're here for, right? The bells-and-whistles are there, don't get me wrong (headphone hook, anyone?), but the selling point is how good the display makes your content look. And, yeah, the 34WD-10 made almost every game I threw at it look incredible—and those that didn't were down to poor optimisation on the side of the game, not the display. It's the delicious combination of top-tier OLED technology paired with an 800R curved ultrawide display that really sells this thing, and the icing on the cake is the 240Hz refresh rate: a limit I didn't come close to reaching. (Though, it's worth noting I was only able to calibrate the display to around 180Hz, for some reason. I'm chalking that up to user or driver error, as I haven't seen anyone else have this problem.) The extra real estate provided by the ultrawide resolution really does go a long way in making a game's environment feel more immersive, and the games that take advantage of such a wider display, while few and far between, benefit from it greatly. I tested out a few games on the 34WD-10, but the standouts were Sons of the Forest (my current multiplayer obsession), as well as Death Stranding and Armored Core 6 – all of which are capable of running at an ultrawide resolution out of the box. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many As I've noted in prior monitor reviews, OLED display technology really benefits games that deal in darkness, with the various caves dotted around the map in SOTF completely blacking out my display, save for the small area illuminated by my character's flashlight, or small LED lighter. That game is stressful enough, with all the weird and wacky shit hiding below the ground, but doing in it true darkness ramps up the tension in a way few horror-focused titles can replicate. Likewise, when you emerge from the underground you're granted a beautiful look at the forest itself: a view that looks incredible with the 34WD-10's colour range: with a 99% sRGB colour gamut, and high-dynamic range compliance. Simply put, everything's going to look better on this display. Now, this being part of Lenovo's Legion lineup, it's fair to focus on what this monitor brings to the gaming experience, but it's 34' ultrawide configuration is actually a fantastic productivity improvement for work: giving you more room to use multiple windows or programs, or to keep a cheeky YouTube video up while doing something a bit less mentally taxing. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Port selection is fantastic Now, if you've read a few of our other monitor reviews, you'll know that port selection is often pretty average. Not here: the 34WD-10 has more ports than I know what to do with, in all honesty. We're largely comparing the 34WD-10 to the similarly sized and priced Philips Envia 34M2C8600 QD—a great monitor, in its own right, but one that falls behind in a few key areas. The biggest gulfs between the two monitors are, of course, the refresh rate and the port selection. Here, you're getting HDMI 2.1 ports, as well as more, faster USB-C and A ports. It's maybe a bit of a boring positive to bring up, but honestly, the last thing you need is to want another port for a keyboard, mouse, microphone, a pair of headphones, or whatever else you want to plug in, and be short a port. The more the merrier, and there's definitely plenty here. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many The 'Bad' Gaming Still Hasn't Embraced Widescreen Now, a monitor this impressive is doesn't really have any major issues to speak of: except one. As common as ultrawide monitors are becoming, there are still plenty of games that simply don't work out of the box in an aspect ratio wider than 16:9. That's not the fault of the monitor, but it's something worth noting before you go out and buy one. For example, one of my favourite games of the past few years, Elden Ring, simply refused to play ball: when running through the Legion Pro, it wouldn't acknowledge my efforts to change its resolution, and only took up a portion of my screen, leaving the rest to display Steam running below. It was a shit show, and that's not an uncommon occurrence. The very recently released Elden Ring: Nightreign also doesn't have access to ultrawide resolutions, so you can't be sure even brand new games are going to take advantage of your hardware. Additionally, most games made in the past five-to-ten years are poorly optimised even for high-end rigs, let alone when pushing the game to a wider-than-usual resolution. I had fun diving into caves and soaring through the skies with my friends in Sons of the Forest, but playing that game at 3440×1440 was netting me a frame-rate jumping between the 30s and 50s. It also didn't get better by lowering the resolution or graphical options — again, this isn't the fault of the monitor, but it's worth mentioning that unoptimised games are pretty common. If you're willing to put time into finding out what games work well in the ultrawide format and then focus on them—Death Stranding, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Armored Core 6 are stand outs, to be sure—or are willing to put in a bit of work installing ultrawide mods onto games you want to play, you can definitely make it work. Just know that you're not necessarily going to get a plug-and-play experience, so if that's what you're after I'd still advise sticking to a display with a more traditional 16:9 ratio. Lenovo's Legion Pro 34WD-10 Monitor | Image: Dean Blake/Man of Many Man of Many's Verdict In all, the Lenovo Legion Pro 34WD-10 is one hell of a monitor in the right contexts but, like all ultrawide displays, it's effectiveness is dependant on what you're feeding into it. If the games you love are capable of bringing out the best in it, the Legion Pro is a sight to behold.
Man of Many
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Man of Many
Samsung OLED S95F 83-Inch TV Review: A Big, Bright, Beautiful Blade of Glass
By Rob Edwards - News Published: 27 May 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 9 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. I recently had the opportunity to check out Samsung's latest TV offering, which meant an afternoon of very hard work: watching a movie, chucking on a little footy, and seeing if there's some kind of televisual revolution in the works — remember when tech companies tried to convince us that curved TVs were the future? What an insane time that was. Happily, upon entering the plush suite at Sydney's Kimpton Margot hotel, booked by Samsung for the occasion, I was greeted by the entirely flat and impressively thin 83-inch OLED S95F TV. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel, it was clear that Samsung has designed this panel to elevate your in-home viewing experience via a range of upgrades that, while subtle individually, noticeably enhance the whole affair when combined. Now, if you've bought a TV in the last couple of years, you probably won't feel compelled to upgrade at this stage — a good TV should last you at least five years these days, maybe even a full decade. Having said that, I love the 65-inch Samsung OLED I purchased just a few years ago, and yet there are some upgrades here that I wouldn't mind taking home if I happened to stumble across a spare AUD$9,999. With that, let's take a closer look and see if Samsung is still the TV brand to beat. It's hard to tell from a photo, but the S95F is massive at 83 inches | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Why Trust Us? Here at Man of Many, we use a wide variety of technology. We're not fans of any one brand, and we like to get our hands on the latest and greatest tech before we proclaim any product the next great thing. Over the past 10 years, we've built up extensive experience in reviewing tech as a publication. The author of this article, Rob Edwards, is one of Man of Many's technology journalists and has followed the industry for over a decade. He's previously reviewed competitors' devices and spent a few hours with the Samsung S95F for the purposes of this feature. No money exchanged hands, and all opinions expressed are those of the author and haven't been seen by Samsung ahead of time. For more information on our independence, testing and review guidelines, you can read our full editorial policies here. Even at this resolution, ol' Tom looks pretty good | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many The Good: Image, Design, User Interface, and Glare-Free Viewing Blockbuster-Ready Settling in to put the S95F through its paces, I started scrolling through the catalogue of streaming services via Samsung's intuitive user interface. Coming across Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning—a timely refresher for the then-upcoming Final Reckoning sequel—I sat back to see if Samsung's panel could make the most of Tom Cruise's attempts to land himself in an early grave. First, I should say that it was immediately apparent that the visual impact of the 83-inch behemoth was on another level, offering 30 per cent more brightness than that of Samsung's previous flagship model. Contrast, colour saturation, sharpness, and the rest of those pesky picture settings one can be forced to fiddle with for hours to get them just right, were also perfectly balanced. No adjustments were required on my behalf, as the picture offered a natural, yet rich and vibrant depiction of whatever image was on screen. Jumping into the settings to return things to the factory setup, I was pleasantly surprised to find whoever set the S95F up initially hadn't made any tweaks at all, so it should perform this well for anyone straight out of the box. The picture was also beautifully crisp. Samsung's NQ4 AI Gen3 Processor does a commendable job managing picture quality at all times. While I'm sick of talking about AI, here it actually works, responding to whatever you throw up on the screen. While most of the sources I used during my viewing were 4K, I tested out some lower-res content on YouTube and a few other places and found the TV's upscaling impressive. From my position on the couch, I could not tell the difference between a 4K source or one that was merely HD. Even sub-HD pictures performed surprisingly well. Anyway, back to Cruise's shenanigans, the S95F deftly handled the frenetic action of the Mission: Impossible franchise's (for now) penultimate instalment. Whether the Hollywood icon's skin was flapping in the wind—having ridden a motorbike off the edge of a sheer mountaintop—or he was weaving through pedestrians on the streets of Rome in a battered BMW, the drama always looked clean and clear. Come on, Wests! | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many A Good Sport While one would expect cutting-edge images from a contemporary Hollywood blockbuster, I also felt compelled to give some sport a try — in my experience, a considerably less reliable performer when it comes to in-home viewing. Having previously had some nightmares with TV testing using this kind of content—on one occasion the upscaling achieved little more than making the players look like melted wax figures—I'm always apprehensive at what I might discover. However, I'm happy to report that the NRL and NBA games I streamed from Kayo during my time with the S95F were comparable to the Hollywood blockbuster in terms of crispness. In fact, I was surprised to find that the NRL game (Wests Tigers vs Brisbane Broncos, for anyone who's wondering) was actually the better-looking of the two. I have to confess to being less invested in this game. It looked great, though | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many A Glaring Difference To be honest, while the above results are impressive, anything less would be disqualifying for a TV with an almost five-figure asking price. Saying that, there was one feature that really struck me. In fact, it was the first thing I noticed when entering the Kimpton Margot suite. I'm referring to how the S95F performed under the extremely well-lit conditions of the suite. Not only were the lights on at full brightness, but large windows running down the wall of the room where the TV was set up enabled bright sunlight to come streaming in. For many panels—included my beloved 65-inch model at home—this would present a massive issue when it comes to glare and reflections. But not for the S95F. Thanks to Samsung's anti-glare technology, the TV looked as if it was occupying a dark room. While most TVs would have you struggling to see past your own reflection in the panel—rather than Tom Cruise's nip-tucked visage—the S95F's image was in no way obscured by either the room's artificial lighting or the rays of sunlight pouring through the adjacent window. Not the most glamorous photo, but you get a sense for how thin this panel is | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Can TVs Get Any Thinner? Finally, I should also call out the impressive build of the S95F. Despite its enormous 83-inch span, it measures just 12.6mm thick. That means that it essentially looks like a giant blade of glass, and until you stand right up beside it, you'd be mistaken for thinking you could cut yourself on it. This makes it perfect for wall mounting, although it looks elegant sitting on its stand as well. For those unfamiliar, this thinness is made possible by Samsung's One Connect Box, which contains all the bulky innards that would normally add depth to your TV's construction and enables you to place it elsewhere in your viewing space, giving you welcome flexibility in terms of your layout. For an authentic cinema experience, you're going to need a soundbar at the very least | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many The Bad: Price and Audio Options To describe any of the below as 'bad' is harsh, but this is Man of Many's review format and I'm sticking with it! For a cutting-edge 83-inch OLED TV, an asking price of AUD$9,999 is perfectly reasonable, particularly when you consider it was AUD$11,499 a few short weeks ago. However, no matter how you justify it, it's still a big wad of cash and can in no way be described as a bargain. This is exacerbated when you consider that the audio performance of a TV as thin as this is going to be passable at best. It's just the nature of skinny TVs. As such, to make the most of this impressive panel, you're going to want to fork out even more for an equally impressive soundbar. During testing, Samsung had the Q-Series HW-Q990F Soundbar installed and it did a bang-up job. That's another AUD$1,999 right there. Worth it, but something to consider. However you slice it, it's a great TV | Image: Rob Edwards / Man of Many Many of Many's Final Verdict on the Samsung OLED S95F 83-Inch TV It should come as no surprise that the new flagship TV from one of the most formidable tech brands on the planet is an outstanding piece of kit. It looks spectacular while displaying a wide range of content, boasts an extremely refined design (how much further can these things go?), and feels like it was designed specifically for well-lit Australian homes. It'll cost you, but once it's mounted on your wall it'll do a phenomenal job for years to come.
Man of Many
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Man of Many
Porsche's Big EV Bet is Paying Off in Australia, Electric Macan Sales Overtake Petrol
By Ben McKimm - News Published: 21 May 2025 Share Copy Link Readtime: 3 min Every product is carefully selected by our editors and experts. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more. For more information on how we test products, click here. Despite EV sales slowing nationally, Porsche's EV bet is paying off with deliveries of its new all-electric Macan (from AUD$128,400 plus on-roads) confirmed to have overtaken the previous-generation petrol-powered variant in Australia. Dealer stock of the petrol Macan has dwindled in recent months after global production was stopped towards the end of 2024, but the transition from petrol to electric (and enormous price rise) has not hampered the sales. Porsche does not split Macan sales by powertrain variant, but a spokesperson confirmed the news to Man of Many. The brand achieved 240 sales in April 2025, which is a +79.1% month-over-month increase compared to the same month last year. Over the year-to-date, the Macan has achieved 998 sales, which is a +3.0% increase. Of course, brands sometimes play silly buggers with these numbers, but more than 120 sales of the all-electric Porsche Macan is a big number that puts them in the same ballpark as much cheaper EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (116 sales) and Mercedes-Benz EQB (107 sales). The year-to-date sales increase also tells us that this number is unlikely to be a drop in the water. Previously, Porsche wound back its target for electric cars that would see 80 per cent of its line-up become battery-electric by 2030—leaving the remaining 20 per cent for the 911 sports car. 2025 Porsche Taycan 4 | Image: Porsche Porsche Macan Sales in Australia: Macan April 2025 : 240 units : 240 units Macan April 2024: 134 units Macan YTD 2025 : 998 units : 998 units Macan YTD 2024: 969 units Month-over-Month Change : +79.1% YTD Change : +3.0% Porsche Taycan Sales in Australia: April 2025 : 17 units : 17 units April 2024: 12 units YTD 2025 : 73 units : 73 units YTD 2024: 138 units Month-over-Month Change : +41.7% YTD Change : -47.1% Where the sales for the all-electric Macan have been a runaway success, Porsche's flagship electric vehicle, the Taycan, has struggled for sales so far this year, despite a new facelifted model arriving with one of the longest range figures in the business. The Taycan Turbo GT is also the most powerful new car on sale in Australia, with 815 kW (1,092 HP) in launch control mode. Taycan sales were marked at 17 units in April 2025, which is an increase of +41.7% compared to the same month last year. However, more concerningly, sales are down -47.1% year-to-date, with the 73 units sold less than the 138 units sold in the same period last year. This follows a similar trend to overall 2024 sales, where the Taycan struggled. They sold 282 Taycans in 2024, which is down on the 535 vehicles they sold in 2023. Premium EVs are a tough sell, even if you have the best product in the business. 2024 Audi RS e-tron GT | Image: Supplied / Audi 2024 Audi RS e-tron GT | Image: Supplied / Audi Lotus Emeya | Image: Lotus Lotus Eletre | Image: Lotus Still, the Taycan is faring better than it's platform-shared brother, the Audi e-Tron GT, whose sales were down a painful -75.2% in 2024 with 339 total sales for the year. They haven't rebounded in 2025 with just 16 vehicles delivered through April. It's a tough market for premium EVs in Australia, and no one knows that better than EV newcomer Lotus. The brands 'Porsche-rivalling' Eletre and Emeya models have struggled since their arrival. The Lotus Eletre SUV has managed two sales so far in 2025 and the Emeya GT has managed just three sales YTD. Last year, the Emeya managed a total of five sales on the year, and the Eletra managed 12 sales. In a struggling premium EV market, Porsche has figured it out. The success of the electric Macan in Australia is something they can hang their hat on, while the Taycan flagship continues to set the benchmark for all other electric vehilces globally.
