One display screen to rule all of them

• Design
• Options, sound, and connectivity
• Display screen and efficiency
• Productiveness
• Verdict

Let’s not beat across the bush. The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 gaming monitor is totally ridiculous. However in one of the best type of method.

A curved, desk-filling, 49-inch ultrawide QD-OLED gaming monitor (full with a 240Hz refresh price and HDR), it guarantees to unapologetically barrage your retinas with inky blacks, daring colors, and silky clean efficiency, till you are left with no selection however to undergo its visible majesty.

At a wallet-busting $2200/£2000 although, it must dazzle, enthral, and downright blow minds to justify the money. Fortunately, it does simply that, after which some.

Design

• Dimensions: 1194.7 x 365 x 180.8mm
• Weight: 9.2kg
• 1800R display screen curvature

First issues first — this factor is very large. Its 49in, 32:9 ultra-wide display screen is equal to having two 27in 1440p screens facet by facet. With a complete size of 120cm, it nearly suits on my comparatively giant desk, with no room for something on both facet. When you’ve bought audio system surrounding your present monitor, likelihood is you may want to purchase a bigger desk, or get inventive with mounting choices.

Fortunately, the OLEG G9 helps an ordinary 100 x 100 VESA mount, and, due to the skinny, light-weight nature of its OLED panel, ought to make for a slightly slick and simple wall-mounted setup. Its mild 1800R curvature means it’s going to stick out a bit of, thoughts, however nothing too drastic. The curve itself is simply the correct quantity to my eyes, though some customers will want the extra aggressive 1000R curve of Samsung’s non-OLED 49in Odyssey Neo G9. For us although, the gentler curve of the OLED G9 is right for a mix of gaming and productiveness.

Regardless of its measurement, it is simple to assemble too, due to its manageable 9.2kg weight, which is noticeably lighter than the 14.5kg weight of the Mini-LED Odyssey Neo G9. Merely clip within the height-adjustable stand, safe the sturdy metallic base with two toolless screws, and also you’re performed. The stand itself is a single-piece, slightly than a dual-leg affair, which makes for a way more sensible desktop footprint, with out something protruding and encroaching on treasured mouse territory.

Options, sound, and connectivity

• Tizen OS with all main apps
• 10W whole sound output (two channels)
• Rear LEDs for atmosphere

There’s an excellent purpose why the OLED G9 comes bundled with the identical USB-C-chargeable distant that you’re going to discover included with Samsung TVs. Working Tizen OS, the OLED G9 has the identical menus and formidable app choice, with the whole lot from Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, to Apple TV and Disney+ all current and accounted for.

This additionally signifies that customers have entry to apps like Samsung Gaming Hub, letting them join a controller on to the OLED G9 for some cloud gaming goodness from the likes of NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, or Amazon’s Luna.

Finally although, for those who’re dropping this a lot cash on a gaming monitor, you may desire a highly effective gaming rig to do it justice.

The power to make use of the OLED G9 as a standalone system for movies, TV reveals, YouTube and extra is a pleasant bonus, letting it pull double responsibility as a TV if you want — although the side ratio will not allow you to get pleasure from its full potential (extra on that in a bit).

As for sound, its twin 5W audio system are surprisingly good, for a monitor a minimum of. Whereas most monitor audio system have a tendency to supply torturous, tinny outcomes, the OLED G9 is able to standing by itself in terms of watching content material or taking part in video games.

Its max quantity is greater than sufficient for many, and there is a first rate quantity of depth and house to the sound it produces. Naturally, it is missing on the bass entrance, however it’s a decent efficiency nonetheless. Even supposing most customers will probably be gaming with headphones or devoted audio system, this additional auditory consideration continues to be very welcome.

Flip the OLED G9 round, and you will be greeted by a round LED ring. Dubbed Core Lighting, it may be set to a static color, or turned off utterly. There’s additionally a CoreSync characteristic which lets it mirror on-screen content material for added immersion. It is fairly refined, and can solely actually be noticeable if the monitor itself is in entrance of a white wall, however it’s a pleasant addition for these in search of a bit of additional bling.

Beneath, you may discover a conventional miniature toggle for navigating the on-screen menu (although the distant makes this slightly redundant), together with a number of connectivity choices. These embrace an HDMI 2.1 port, a Micro-HDMI 2.1 port, and a triple USB hub, together with a DisplayPort 1.4 port.

The latter may look like a step again, given that there is a newer DisplayPort 2.1 customary (featured on Samsung’s yet-to-be-released 57in Odyssey Neo G9), however it’s nonetheless sufficient to assist 240Hz refresh charges on the OLED G9’s 5120×1440 decision. The bigger 57in monitor has a noticeably increased decision, and due to this fact requires the additional bandwidth of DisplayPort 2.1 to push extra pixels on the similar 240Hz refresh price.

Display screen and efficiency

• 49-inch QD-OLED panel
• 32:9 side ratio
• 240Hz refresh price

On the threat of sounding like a advertising hype mouthpiece, utilizing the OLED G9 is a very jaw-dropping expertise. Let’s begin with its beautiful QD-OLED panel. Its true blacks and vibrant colors, mixed with the sheer measurement of the show itself, is sufficient to cease even technophobes of their tracks. I misplaced myself in numerous OLED TV demos on YouTube, marvelling on the distinction and efficiency on supply. The expertise is so vivid, actually, that it virtually seems like you may attain in and seize the whole lot you see.

The QD, or Quantum Dot a part of the panel, is necessary, as it is a newer kind of display screen tech that mixes the self-emissive advantages of OLED shows (learn: true blacks and punchy colors), with the brightness and color saturation of Quantum Dots.

Whereas I will skip the in-depth clarification and refer you to Pocket-lint’s QD-OLED explainer for extra, in brief, through the use of blue gentle to light up purple and inexperienced Quantum Dots, QD-OLED shows overcome one in every of OLED panels’ conventional weaknesses — brightness. However what does that imply in the true world?

Effectively, whereas the OLED G9 nonetheless does not attain the eye-searing brightness of Mini-LED screens, it is loads vivid sufficient, and I had no points utilizing it in a vivid room with a window at my rear. The shiny nature of the display screen, coupled with the curve, does, nonetheless, lead to noticeable reflections. Whereas I personally discovered myself tuning them out, those that are typically distracted by such issues will wish to bear in mind that, as with most OLED shows, dim or darkish rooms will present essentially the most optimum expertise.

The whole lot from video games to Hollywood blockbusters seems merely beautiful, and will probably be extraordinarily troublesome to return to a non-OLED panel as soon as my time with the OLED G9 is over. And whereas you will get different, smaller QD-OLED panels from the likes of Alienware, the 49in, ultra-wide nature of this specific show mercilessly envelops your imaginative and prescient. In aggressive video games like Rocket League and Halo Infinite, it is a large benefit. The bigger area of view enables you to spot enemy gamers far earlier, whereas making it simpler to plan routes and ambushes.

In single-player titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and Hogwarts Legacy, the QD-OLED visuals, coupled with the sheer quantity of display screen actual property, make for a very particular expertise. Simulators like Microsoft Flight Simulator attain completely new ranges of realism too.

The crispness of visuals, coupled with virtually zero enter lag and as much as a buttery clean 240Hz refresh price, make for one of the best gaming classes I’ve ever had. In fact, your expertise will probably be completely dependent in your setup, and never even my combo of Intel’s Core i7300K and NVIDIA’s beastly RTX 4090 might attain 240fps in Cyberpunk 2077 or Hogwarts Legacy at their highest settings. Nonetheless, even 120fps is a slick and clean expertise, a minimum of to my eyes.

And that is all with out mentioning the VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 efficiency, which treats your eyes to superbly balanced vivid and darkish scenes, which will be tweaked to your liking in-game and/or by way of Home windows and the monitor itself.

Extra conventional media like TV reveals and movies nonetheless, is the place the OLED G9 struggles. Type of.

It nonetheless seems wonderful, however nothing bar a slim number of YouTube movies is filmed in a large 32:9 side ratio, so content material from streaming providers and common TV reveals will solely occupy a a lot smaller, central portion of the entire show. If you need a display screen that doubles up as a TV substitute, you may be higher off going for a smaller 42-48in OLED TV as an alternative, although you’ll be restricted to a max 120Hz refresh price.

Productiveness

Given the sheer quantity of house on supply, it’ll come as no shock to listen to that the OLED G9 is an outstanding monitor for multitaskers. On any given workday, I’ve bought a number of browser home windows, Photoshop, Spotify, and extra, working on the similar time, and the power to comfortably match the whole lot on one show with room to spare is an outstanding productiveness boon.

Not solely do you not must cope with a number of energy cables for a couple of monitor, however having all of it on one show is a luxurious I by no means beforehand knew I wanted.

Now, for those who’ve bought plenty of text-heavy work, it’s possible you’ll come throughout info on-line stating that OLED panels aren’t the only option on account of their subpixel structure. In brief, you may discover loads of customers on-line who imagine that textual content seems garbage on OLED panels — and also you’ll discover simply as many customers saying that it makes no distinction. From my expertise, I can confidently say that I’ve had no points with textual content readability on the OLED G9, although your mileage might after all fluctuate.

The one actual drawback I’ve discovered in terms of productiveness on the OLED G9, is the potential of burn-in — the principle draw back of all OLED shows. Naturally, there are pretty hefty preventative measures in place, akin to Samsung’s Pixel Shift characteristic, which sometimes shifts the whole lot round by one pixel, to make sure that nothing stays in the very same spot. It sounds intrusive, however I have never observed it in motion as soon as, such is the subtlety of its impact.

Finally although, with static browser tabs, Photoshop toolbars and Spotify buttons on-screen for eight+ hours a day, my overly anxious mind simply cannot shake these burn-in worries off. I’ve taken measures akin to minimising the taskbar and shifting round apps every so often, whereas making certain that the monitor is turned off once I go away my desk. When you’re of the same disposition and plan on utilizing the OLED G9 for normal work along with gaming, that is undoubtedly one thing you may must weigh up.

Verdict

There isn’t any skirting across the OLED G9’s huge footprint or extravagant price ticket. Both one is more likely to be a dealbreaker for most individuals. Then once more, there’s nothing else prefer it, and for those who have the money, house, and PC highly effective sufficient to max out its full potential, there is no denying the unbelievable, immersive expertise it presents.

Whereas MicroLED screens are the final word finish sport (offering all the advantages of OLED with no threat of burn-in), inexpensive MicroLED screens are years from turning into a actuality. For now, and for the foreseeable future, the OLED G9 will stay one essentially the most covetable gaming screens round. And with superb purpose.