First announced at CES 2023, Samsung's massive 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9 is ready to debut . The world's first dual UHD display split with DisplayPort 2.1, this giant curved display features dual UHD (4K) displays with native horizontal resolution and is a 32-inch dual-panel side-by-side display. (Otherwise, it's just "standard" 4K, so keep that in mind; "dual UHD" doesn't mean full 8K.)
At Samsung's New York showroom last week, PCMag got a chance to preview the company's upcoming all-in-one display before October 2nd. As big and impressive as the Odyssey OLED G9 is, the Odyssey Neo G9 hopes to appeal to gaming enthusiasts, at least those who spend money in their free time, because this big screen comes with an equally high price tag. At 2499 US dollars.
Discussion panel: up to 8K
The first thing that catches your attention is the diagonal of the 57-inch panel of this screen. (The actual panel dimensions are 54.9 x 15.4 inches.) “True” 8K will have a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 pixels, and this display will help you do half that with its native 7,680 x 2,160 resolution pixels. This equates to 8K and 4K horizontally. This equates to around 16.5 million pixels on the Neo G9, compared to 33 million pixels in native 8K.
In addition to the 32:9 aspect ratio, the ultra-wide screen has a depth curve of 1000mm or 1000R. As you know if you've ever purchased a curved monitor, the R number is a measurement of the radius of the circle formed by the hypothetical edge of these displays that extends from edge to edge. The smaller the millimeter and the R number, the more advanced the curve.
(Photo: José Maldonado)
Samsung presented the model in a white casing with a bright futuristic design on the back panel. Doubling its function compared to other Samsung monitors, CoreLighting+ is an RGB backlight located in the center of the back of the monitor.
(Photo: José Maldonado)
Unlike the Odyssey OLED G9, the Odyssey Neo G9 uses a "quantum mini-LED" display; This is a small LED backlit panel based on VA panel technology. The monitor aims to use smaller, lighter dimming zones to create greater contrast with the power of Samsung's Quantum Matrix technology, found in the company's non-OLED TVs. Additionally, unlike the Odyssey OLED, the Neo Odyssey G9 does away with the remote and some smart TV features seen on recent Samsung gaming monitors, like the Odyssey Neo G7.
We love OLED displays for their exceptional image quality, but smaller LED displays have proven to be a quality alternative. Panels that use mini-LED backlighting offer better brightness control, though they fail to capture the deep blacks, rich colors, and incredibly high contrast of OLED. However, the differences are not distinguishable to the untrained eye.
(Photo: José Maldonado)
According to Samsung, the Odyssey Neo G9 panel promises an incredible brightness of 1,000 nits and an equally impressive contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. However, high-end panel specs aside, the Neo G9's biggest surprise actually comes in the form of DisplayPort 2.1 support in the center of the port. To view the monitor's 240Hz refresh rate in full-screen resolution, users must use a DisplayPort 2.1 connection. Moving on to the more common DisplayPort 1.4 that we see on most monitors, DisplayPort 2.1 is essential for today's high resolution with high refresh rates. This port isn't new, but it hasn't received widespread support outside of high-end monitor models released this year, like the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQXR. DisplayPort 2.1 can handle double the bandwidth of DisplayPort 1.4 (80 Gbps vs. 32.4 Gbps).
(Photo: José Maldonado)
In theory, this means that DisplayPort 2.1 can support higher refresh rates while maintaining image clarity. The downside of this sophisticated technology is that it requires an equally advanced graphics card with DisplayPort 2.1 compatible video output to transmit the signal. As of this writing, the only GPUs that support updated DisplayPort support are the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX.
(Photo: José Maldonado)
Naturally, the display model we saw from Samsung is equipped with the necessary hardware to make it work. Running Microsoft Flight Simulator on a super wide screen is always nice, but double 4K resolution in one size is something else entirely . Games like Need for Speed and Atomic Heart looked especially attractive on this ultra-wide screen. However, not all games are compatible with the Neo G9's unusually high resolution or aspect ratio. Starfield, for example, is one of the latest releases that doesn't currently support it, although Bethesda plans to support larger screens in a future update.
Performance was excellent across all games, with no major issues. The concave curve distorts the image a bit when viewing some games from certain angles, but in our brief demo it was hard to tell that this was much of an issue.
Recommended by our editors
In addition to gaming capabilities, the monitor's productivity features allow users to view video from two sources simultaneously natively. And with three HDMI 2.1 ports on this panel, you can split the screen with inputs from multiple devices, including the Xbox Series
(Photo: José Maldonado)
Ultrawide monitors are the preferred choice for power users, gamers, and avid gamers who demand the highest resolution a monitor can offer. But commercializing advanced technologies is always too expensive.
The Odyssey Neo G9 retails for $2,499, but Samsung hopes to sweeten the deal by offering a $500 Samsung instant credit when you pre-order the monitor between September 18 and October 1. You cannot use this loan for a new loan. monitor, but can be applied to the purchase of any other Samsung product.
Very broad for ultra-hardcore
As usual, my time with Samsung's new monitor was short but sweet. The graphics were great, but the use case (and limited but stringent system requirements) meant it wouldn't appeal to anyone but the most demanding hardcore gamers. Stay tuned for our review on PCMag.com after the monitor's October 2 release date.
Discover our best stories!
Sign up for our What's Hot newsletter to get our top stories delivered straight to your inbox every morning.
This newsletter may contain advertisements, offers or affiliate links. By subscribing to our newsletter, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe from newsletters at any time.
Post a Comment