Samsung

Monitor arms are great -- they provide more flexibility for the location and positioning of a display than you can get with a stand. But they're traditionally clunky, conspicuous and/or industrial looking. Samsung's taken its invisibility-is-golden, flush-against-the-wall TV design aesthetic and applied it to its new line of minimalist Space Monitors, which debuts with 27- and 32-inch models at CES 2019.

Samsung

There are trade-offs for the beautification -- you can only raise and lower the display, not rotate horizontally, which means it needs to sit directly in front of you rather than off to the side. And while the marketing photos show it sans cables -- that's typical -- they will mar the austere emptiness of your desk. It also looks like it uses a proprietary cable with a dual-headed power and HDMI (v2.0), though that may just be what comes in the box; it also has a Mini Display DisplayPort (v 1.2) connector.

But unlike a traditional stand, it can be lowered down to the level of the desk, which is a nice perk.

Samsung

The Space Monitors (SR75) will initially ship in 27- ($400) and 32-inch ($500) versions, which are in preorder now, though not expected to ship until March 2019.

Aside from the stand, though, they're pretty ho-hum displays. the Both use VA panels and traditional LED backlight technology -- they don't use Samsung's better QLED variant, and with typical brightness of 250 nits, seem kind of dim. The 27-inch has 2,560 x 1,440 resolution with a gaming-friendly 144Hz maximum refresh rate, while the 32-inch 4K display maxes out at 60Hz.

Samsung

When Samsung first rolled out its QLED 49-inch HDR gaming monitor in 2017, the biggest downside seemed its relatively low resolution of 3,840x1,080 -- that sounds like a lot, but it isn't really when spread out across that big a surface and especially since it means you're limited to 1080p gameplay.

Samsung addresses that somewhat in the CRG9, bumping the resolution up to 5,120x1,440. It uses the same oddball 32:9 aspect ratio, but improves the pixel density significantly (for a sharper image). The company also bumped up the peak brightness to 1,000 nits, though maximum refresh seems to have dropped from 144Hz to 120Hz -- that should be sufficient for the frame rates you'd get at 1440p, anyway. Other specs seem to remain the same, including support for FreeSync 2 HDR.

This big'un won't be available until later this year, and as yet there's no pricing. The current model runs about $1,000, but launched at $1,500, so that should give you a ballpark.

Samsung

Finally, Samsung's new UR59C 32-inch 4K slim, curved display goes for classy with rounded edges and a fabric back. It's available now for preorder now for $500 and expected to ship in early April.

Now playing: Watch this: CES 2019: What tech to expect





CES 2019: See all of CNET's coverage of the year's biggest tech show.

CES schedule: It's six days of jam-packed events. Here's what to expect.