TelephoneSystems.Cloud stands out from the crowd of VoIP providers as its automated quote system lets you set your entire business service up without having to speak to any representatives. We tested this by visiting the main website (given away by the company name) and clicking on the “Get Quote” button, after which we were guided through a set of questions asking about our requirements.

For our VoIP testbed, we requested four users, chose to use our own internet provider, opted for softphones and our existing desk phones, skipped the optional Webex Teams+ and Presenter, asked for new UK phone numbers and selected the automated installation service. TelephoneSystems.Cloud presented us with an itemized bill showing a £60 setup fee and monthly charges of £11 per user, which we agreed to by completing the transaction with our banking details and setting an admin account password.

You’re nearly there now; the next web page asks for a preferred area code, details of the services required such as call groups and queues, plus auto-attendants and the MAC addresses of existing desk phones. Lastly, you add details of your users, provide passwords and choose their extension numbers.

On completion, we received an email and SMS advising us the account was being created. It was ready for action two hours later, and at no time during this process did we speak to anyone.

From our account dashboard, we saw that all our users had already been assigned a direct inbound dial (DID) number from the block we’d requested. Onboarding is simple: you issue an email invitation from the dashboard that provides a link to the Webex client and mobile apps, along with instructions on setting them up.

After installation, users sign in with the Webex email address and password the system assigned to them and they’re ready to start making and receiving calls. This is the standard Webex app so it offers plenty of useful features, including personal contact lists and a quick access dial pad. Integral videoconferencing lets users make video calls with consummate ease.

Pre-configured desk phones can be ordered online, with choices including Yealink, Jabra and Polycom. For our own Yealink T42S models, instructions were emailed to us so we just entered the supplied provisioning URL in their web consoles and, after a firmware upgrade, they were automatically assigned to each user.

Voice prompts for services such as the auto-attendant, voicemail, holiday greetings and on-hold messages can be added, and TelephoneSystems.Cloud goes a step further than many providers with its AI text-to-speech service, which costs £10 per message. Alternatively, you can upload your own audio files to an online library, and the company even offers professional voice actors to create them for you, with online quote services provided.

The dashboard presents plenty of account information and a call history graph for the past six months, while the billing section keeps you posted on the latest invoices and upcoming payments. All the action takes place in the account portal, which lists your sites, assigned numbers, all users and associated devices such as desk phones and mobile apps.

An incredible range of call-handling services are available and include an auto-attendant, call center, call parking, groups for ringback, hunt and pickup and much more. Rules control the numbers and countries to which outbound calls can be made, while group contacts are synced to Webex so they appear in the apps.

TelephoneSystems. Cloud is a great choice for businesses that know what they want from cloud-hosted VoIP services. The quote process is impressively smooth, and it offers a wealth of easily accessible call features at a competitive price.

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On its website, Samsung lists this monitor as the S90PC ViewFinity 5K Smart Monitor, but it feels more like a smart TV on first “boot”. It asks to be connected to your Wi-Fi network, and once you’ve jumped through various hoops you’ll find yourself in Samsung’s TV Plus section with a huge selection of live channels. Just to hammer home the point, your first interactions are via a remote control rather than an OSD.

The remote offers dedicated buttons for Disney Plus, Netflix and Prime Video. We watched the first few minutes of Top Gun: Maverick and the detail was so rich on the 5K panel that we picked up several details we didn’t spot in the cinema. Samsung backs up the visuals with the best speakers here by some distance. Whisper it, but there’s even bass on show.

You can also play games via Samsung’s Gaming Hub, with an option to sync your Amazon account via Luna. It supports Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia’s GeForce Now services, too. Games look great, despite the S9’s modest 60Hz refresh rate.

But we’re getting this the wrong way round, for Samsung is promoting the ViewFinity S9 as a work first, play later monitor, so let’s head to the Workplace area of its Tizen OS interface. Here, you can wirelessly connect to a PC, a Samsung phone (using DeX) and even log in to your Microsoft 365 workspace.

The latter is aggravatingly slow, though, and there’s also annoying lag on the wireless connections to your PC and phone, so you’ll reach for the Thunderbolt cable where possible. And at this point, finally, it becomes a normal monitor. Albeit one with a 5K (5,120 x 2,880) resolution, which gives a quite stunning 218ppi density. Overkill, but photographers will love the detail, and it makes the 109ppi of a 1440p 27in screen feel distinctly average.

At this price we expected mini-LED technology, but IPS is in place as usual.

It’s an 8-bit panel with FRC, giving 1.07 billion colors, but what will matter for professional users is that it comes pre-calibrated for sRGB and DCI-P3. Not Adobe RGB, though, which is a surprise as the ViewFinity S9 lists Pantone validation among its many features.

There are also two slots available in the OSD for hardware calibration via recent Samsung phones. Using the Smart Things app, you can opt for a simple 30-second calibration for basic colors and brightness, or complete a ten-minute “professional” calibration to either the sRGB or DCI-P3 color spaces. The result was little better than the pre-calibrated versions, but could be useful if the colors drift over the years.

Most of the time, though, you’ll find the default “Eco” mode does the job, which uses the panel’s native color profile and covers 99% of the DCI-P3 space. We’re not sure “Eco” is the correct term, however, as this is the most power-intensive 27in display here, consuming 42W at 200cd/m² and 61W at its peak 629cd/m². Films benefit from even higher peaks thanks to support for HDR.

The monitor itself looks stunning. Its thin bezels and stylish finish remind us of Apple’s Studio Display, and while we would have liked more tilt than 15° back and 2° forward, at least it includes 120mm of height adjustment. Only an ambient light sensor interrupts the clean lines of the front display, with the traditional OSD controls tucked next to a sprinkling of connectors at the rear: a miniDisplayPort, one USB-C input (complete with Thunderbolt 4 support), and three USB-C connectors for peripherals. The main USB-C port delivers 98W of power but the others a miserly 4.5W, which is surprising when you consider the gigantic power brick – think cigar case – that you’ll want to hide under your desk.

There’s one final bonus here: a 4K webcam. It comes with a privacy cover, albeit one that’s easy to lose, but for ultimate privacy simply disconnect it. The slimline unit attaches magnetically to the rear of the panel via pogo pins, so you can chuck it in a drawer when not in use. When it’s time for calls, its superb detail capture will surely impress.

Whether it’s great enough to justify the price is a different matter. If it included mini-LED technology we could understand the £999 tag, but the S9 – while a lovely monitor – only makes sense for those with money to spare and the need for a 5K work screen during the day and an entertainment center at night.

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