Samsung Odyssey G9 monitor review: Ridiculous in the best possible way

Our Verdict

The Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor is a strong overall performer, simply its unwieldy design and heaven-high price do non brand it ideal for everyone.

For

• Excellent color reproduction
• Brandish gets quite brilliant, especially in HDR fashion
• Wide assortment of powerful gaming features
• Good performance overall

Against

• Big desktop footprint
• Extraordinarily expensive
• No integrated speakers
• Not all games make full use of unusual attribute ratio

Tom'south Guide Verdict

The Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor is a stiff overall performer, but its unwieldy blueprint and heaven-high price do not make it ideal for anybody.

Pros

• +

  Fantabulous colour reproduction

• +

  Display gets quite bright, especially in HDR mode

• +

  Wide array of powerful gaming features

• +

  Skilful performance overall

Cons

• -

  Large desktop footprint

• -

  Extraordinarily expensive

• -

  No integrated speakers

• -

  Not all games make total apply of unusual aspect ratio

The Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor is determined to alive upwardly to its proper noun. Everything about the design and characteristic set of this ultrawide brandish is aimed at improving your gaming feel, from its more traditional technological inclusions (HDR, 1ms gray-to-gray response time, 240 Hz refresh rate, both Nvidia's and AMD's adaptive sync technologies) to its astounding size (49 inches beyond the diagonal) and distinctly precipitous curvature (1000R).

This monitor packs in a lot, and considering its wallet-withering cost of nearly $1,700, this is a good thing.

Samsung Odyssey G9: Specs

Dimensions: 45.2x21.2x16.four inches (with stand up)
Screen Size: 49 inches
Resolution: 5,120x1,440
Refresh Rate: 240 Hz
Inputs: HDMI, DisplayPort, USB

Whether the Odyssey G9 will exist a good thing for you is another question, the answer to which depends entirely on whether y'all need (or want) all of these features and are so game-focused that you're willing to surrender the benefits of the kind of normal rectangular monitor that companies and, well, society take been orienting themselves around for decades. For someone on the fence, our Odyssey G9 shows that it does a lot of things very, very right.

 Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Toll and availability

• Expect to pay as much every bit $1.7k, though you can discover it on sale for cheaper

The Samsung Odyssey G9 lists for $1,699.99, only can exist found at online retailers for slightly less. (Equally of this writing, it is priced at $1,399.99 on Amazon and $ane,479.99 on Newegg.)

 Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Design

• Extremely wide with abrupt curve means more immersion — sometimes
• The monitor takes up tons of space

Samsung touts the Odyssey G9 as its "largest 1000R gaming monitor," which has a number of implications for the potential client. First is the curve itself. The "1000R" refers to a radius of i,000 millimeters (or 1 total meter) were the bend extended to a full circumvolve—ostensibly the same curvature every bit the human eye.

Every bit y'all may imagine, this is pretty abrupt, the kind of matter that may take some getting used to only does make a compelling case for increased immersion—at least in some situations (which we'll get to).

(Epitome credit: Samsung)

The second major implication is that owners of small desks need not apply. Measuring a hair more than than 45 inches from left to right and, thanks to the curve, about 11.v inches front end to back, it takes up a lot space—and that's without the stand. Add that in and monitor juts out more than 21 inches from the wall. The elevation of the monitor itself is just over 14 inches; this increases near ii inches more with the stand, but vertical space is, in most setups, more than plentiful.

(Prototype credit: Samsung)

Even if you utilise the included 100x100mm bracket to mountain the Odyssey G9 on the wall, yous may still have to make extra room. (The shipping box itself measures l inches in length and weighs 50 pounds before unloading; yous will definitely desire to enlist someone to assistance yous go everything into position.) Considering so much of the monitor is not continued to the stand, it's far wobblier than almost models; just bumping information technology gently sets the whole matter shaking, simply it otherwise never looked or felt insecure.

(Prototype credit: Future)

The blackness bezel forth the superlative and sides of the screen is thin (less than i-eighth of an inch), but the bottom bezel is considerably wider (just over 0.5 inch). Black is just about all y'all can see from the forepart, but the rear is a different story. The curved casing is white plastic with a sci-fi–style blueprint, a look that extends to the simply removable back pieces: one cover for the stand (which sports a black pop-out claw for storing your gaming headset) and another for the ports (in add-on to the power jack, there are headphone, HDMI, two DisplayPort, and USB).

Y'all don't take to worry about anything blocking the speakers, as in that location are none; Samsung undoubtedly believes (probably correctly) that your PC will already have its own robust audio system. Just you lot can also bank check out our roundup of the best computer speakers.

(Prototype credit: Future)

That's non to say there's no potential for color: The Infinity Core scheme (controllable from the on-screen menu—encounter the next section) lets you customize the backlight of the depression where the stand connects to the display and so it tin can emit light in five different styles (Static, or solid; Rainbow, switching fluidly betwixt the colors; Flash and Double Wink, doing exactly that in one case or twice in a row; or Breathing, a slow increase and decrease in effulgence) in any of 52 private hues.

 Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Interface

• Easy to adjust via a joystick under the correct front edge

You bring up the Odyssey G9's menu using the joystick located under the monitor'due south front edge, about 12 inches from the lower-correct corner. This takes some getting used to; these buttons are typically located on the back panel or in a corner (usually the lower-correct 1), though its placement closer to the eye makes sense given the monitor's width. The button, which doubles every bit a navigational joystick, provides instant admission to power, input, PIP and PBP (picture-in-film and flick-past-picture) settings, in addition to the main menu itself.

At the top of the Star Expedition–mod menu are five circles that provide at-a-glance data about current central settings: Blackness Equalizer, Response Time, Refresh Rate, Adaptive-Sync, and Low Input Lag. It'south easy to adjust those settings, or any others; just motion the monitor's control stick to the right to motility 1 level "downward" and printing the stick to make your selection.

The top-level options include Game-based settings like the refresh rate, black blaster, adaptive sync support, and so on; Movie, for adjusting the brightness, contrast, color presets, and other features; PIP/PBP; OnScreen Brandish, for irresolute the menu's language and the amount of fourth dimension it stays upward on the screen; System, for adjusting the Infinity Core lighting, local dimming, volume, and dynamic contrast; and Support, for diagnosing problems, updating the firmware, and resetting everything to the factory defaults.

 Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Performance

• Unique five,120x1,440 (or 32:ix) resolution
• Great brightness and respectable color reproduction

The Odyssey G9'south unusual shape results in an unusual resolution: 5,120x1,440 (a 32:9 aspect ratio), or the equivalent of ii side-by-side 2,560x1,440 monitors. This is more than than 3 times the size of a standard 1080p (1,920x1,080) brandish, but yet smaller overall than a single 4K (3,840x2,160) screen, so you won't need as beefy a graphics card to max out the details in your games (though, certainly, having the most powerful one you tin can detect never hurts).

The screen fared well in our SDR color tests. Using a Klein K10-A colorimeter and DisplayCal scale software, we measured the Odyssey G9'southward delta-E (its variation from an established color norm) at a solid 0.26, and we determined that it covered 113.7 percent of the sRGB color gamut and 80.6 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut on its default settings (Custom manner).

Near gaming monitors nosotros've looked at do this well or meliorate: The Razer Raptor 27 covers 162% of the sRGB spectrum, the ultrawide LG 38GL950G covers 148.9%, and the ViewSonic Elite XG270QC covers 139%, for example. Samsung advertises 125 percent sRGB coverage for the Odyssey G9, something we only came close to in Cinema fashion (with 123.9 percent). Merely all of the default presets (the others are High Brilliant, FPS, RTS, RPG, AOS, and sRGB) were more respectable, with the lowest-performing sRGB (102.6 pct of the sRGB color infinite and 72.7 percentage of DCI-P3).

(Image credit: Future)

Average effulgence (as measured with the monitor brightness maxed and all dynamic adjustment settings disabled) was up of 400 nits in every mode, with the brightest unsurprisingly existence High Bright, with 418.six. This is well to a higher place what we saw with the Razer Raptor 27 (295 nits) and the Acer XFA240 (352 nits), but below the likes of the LG 38GL950G (544 nits) or the ViewSonic Elite XG270QC (524 nits).

Effulgence improves even further in HDR mode. That'south the but way to obtain the Odyssey G9'due south rated peak effulgence of i,000 nits, a number nosotros confirmed in our testing with Portrait Displays' Calman software. Annotation, though, that nosotros saw brightness in that range in tests utilizing simply a portion of the screen (from about 10 per centum to about 50 percent). At full-screen, the HDR effulgence maxed out at 561 nits. By any measure, the Odyssey G9'southward effulgence is highly respectable.

Although the display presets offer a distinguishable amount of variation amidst them, I rarely found them particularly useful. The FPS preset, in particular, was distractingly bright; though this implementation was likely inspired by the frequently nighttime cast of those games' playing areas, the murky uncertainty of dark tunnels and shadowy ruins are commonly function of the fun, and flooding them with calorie-free ruins the issue. Cinema, too, exaggerated colors and effulgence, creating a dulling upshot on motion pic–style video. To my eyes, the rather darker Custom setting was an excellent choice—if not the best option—in nearly all situations.

 Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Gaming operation

• Makes games with minimal or complementary interfaces feel more immersive
• Some games and apps are harder to utilise or don't make total use of the monitor

The Odyssey G9'due south gaming-focused features were a delightful plus in almost every scenario. Its 1ms greyness-to-greyness response fourth dimension kept our interactions in games snappy, and the loftier refresh rate (upward to 240 Hz) kept the images always moving in perfect stride with the action. Depending on which video hardware drives your computer, you'll too capeesh built-in support for Nvidia Chiliad-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro adaptive sync technologies (though AMD currently claims the latter is only utilized in 17 titles).

These are common gaming monitor additions; for nearly, its unique screen pattern is what will virtually set the Odyssey G9 apart—and prove most divisive. Whether the Odyssey G9 makes sense for you depends more than anything else on the types of games y'all play and what other software you lot use, equally the large amount of infinite is not universally well utilized.

In our tests, the games that came off best were those where you lot could easily see everything at once by focusing on the heart and not having to separate your attention. The sprawling screen area provided a dazzling field of view in the first-person shooter Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, where your open field of vision allowed you to drink in every detail of the devastated Moscow you trudged through.

The Odyssey G9's width proved fifty-fifty more advantageous in more specialized titles. With DiRT v, it bestowed the impression of a nearly life-size windshield for looking out on the frantic racing activity, and the game'southward centrally located roadmap and speedometer put the most critical details right where y'all needed them. And with Microsoft Flight Simulator, it plunged you straight into the cockpit and gave yous the broadest possible wait at that title's sumptuous, satellite-derived vistas.

(Epitome credit: Future)

The Odyssey G9  was considerably less successful with titles using more than spread-out interfaces. Considering Assassin's Creed Valhalla uses pop-ups on both the extreme left and extreme right of the screen, there was no way to easily have in all the useful information when seated in front of it at a desk as opposed to on a burrow some six feet away, playing with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Even worse was Sid Meier's Civilization Vi: Gathering Storm. I loved being able to come across so much of the world map at one time, but my cervix was swiveling more a malfunctioning merry-go-round trying to take in the tech and civics trees anchored on the far left and the notifications, affairs tools, Civilopedia, and more ensconced on the far right.

(Image credit: Futurity)

The width causes other bug, besides—none of which are Samsung'southward error, per se. Prerendered 3D scenes (like those that pack Assassin'south Creed Valhalla) are unlikely to fill the entire screen, which provides a devastating blow to immersion, and playing videos from streaming sites like YouTube results in wide blackness bars consuming half the brandish in nearly every example.

Although all the real estate is a benefaction if yous're the type of person who (like me) tends to piece of work with multiple windows of multiple applications at in one case—so you could accept YouTube up in one window, Discussion in another, and your electronic mail customer in a third—nether about any other circumstance you're unlikely to find an ideal way to fill every inch at your disposal here.

 Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Verdict

Boasting elevation-notch functionality and impressive performance along every metric, the Samsung Odyssey G9 is worthy of serious consideration from anyone who can make full use of it. And then if you lot have a high-end graphics card, a spare $one,700 or so, an excess of desk space (or a sizable hunk of wall), a stuffed-to-bursting game library you want to apply a unique (and not always completely complementary) visual spin to, and not much desire to use the monitor for everything else, you probably won't exist disappointed.

Just if whatever of these descriptors doesn't utilise to you, you may want to think twice. The Razer Raptor 27 is a superb-looking model that can be plant for shut to one-tertiary the price. Some monitors have higher refresh rates, such as the Alienware 25 Gaming Monitor AW2521H (360 Hz). Others have somewhat more vibrant colour (the Razer, the LG 38GL95G, the ViewSonic Elite XG270QC). Still more (the LG and ViewSonic) get a lilliputian brighter with non-HDR content. Enough of displays do straight 4K in the even so-industry-standard 16:9 attribute ratio, which will ensure you never have to worry about how your game interfaces expect (or play). And nearly every regular gaming monitor on the market costs less than this ane.

All of this combines to maker the Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor a luxury purchase for a certain type of gamer with a certain gear up of gaming preferences and a sure layout of their gaming area. If that'due south yous, this is liable to exist one of the all-time, nigh intriguing monitors you can discover.

Matthew Murray is the head of testing for Future, coordinating and conducting product testing at Tom's Guide and other Future publications. He has previously covered applied science and performance arts for multiple publications, edited numerous books, and worked as a theatre critic for more than xvi years.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/samsung-odyssey-g9-review-ridiculous-in-the-best-possible-way

Posted by: cumminsswast1947.blogspot.com

Share this post