“What on Earth is that?” “Oh my…” “That’s insane.” These are however a handful of real recorded reactions from family and friends getting into my workplace and seeing the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 for the primary time.
A curved, attention-sucking 57in monolith with an ultrawide 32:9 side ratio and a pixel-packed 7680 × 2160 Mini LED show, it is a display screen not like every other. At $2,499/£2,200, it is also an object of pure luxurious, designed to dominate your imaginative and prescient whereas offering an unmatched expertise of immersion whereas gaming and dealing.
Naturally, given its dimensions, value, and normal total ranges of lunacy, this isn’t an informal buy. However, rammed with the newest and best tech, it does look set to be absolutely the pinnacle of gaming monitors for the foreseeable future, overshadowing even its mighty Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 sibling. However is it actually well worth the astronomical asking value?
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57″
Editor’s Alternative
Totally bonkers because of its dimension, specs, and value, that is the equal of shopping for a supercar to tear up the observe and not using a care on the planet. If you happen to’re an fanatic with deep pockets, put together to be blown away.
- Large display screen for immersive gaming
- Unimaginable for productiveness
- Eye-searingly vivid
- Excellent blacks for a non-OLED
- Quick refresh charge and future-proof connectivity
- Very costly
- Will get noticeably scorching throughout use
- Takes up a severe quantity of area
Design
- Dimensions (with stand): 1327.5 x 601 x 499.6mm
- Weight (with stand): 19kg
- Gigantic, straightforward to assemble
The Grand Canyon. Large Sequoia bushes. The Octuple Bypass burger at Vegas’ Coronary heart Assault Grill. Everyone knows they’re enormous, however no image or video can do them justice. And the identical goes for the Odyssey Neo G9 on this 57-inch display screen dimension. If you happen to’re trying on the image above and considering, “gee, that’s a large monitor”, then imagine me after I say that no image can precisely convey simply how giant this factor is within the flesh.
For some tough context, it is equal to having two 30in 4K screens immediately subsequent to one another, with, after all, no pesky central bezel to break your immersion. Due to its Mini LED nature, it’s additionally noticeably thicker and heavier than, say, the 49in Odyssey OLED G9 which, at 9kg, is half as heavy as its 57in titan-like relative.
The Odyssey Neo G9 is so giant, the truth is, that merely carrying it upstairs, assembling it, and putting it on my desk was a real ordeal. By the point I used to be performed, my again was hurting (which, in equity, is dodgy at the most effective of occasions), and I used to be already dreading having to disassemble and pack it again up for assortment on the finish of the evaluate interval. At the very least most individuals gained’t have to fret in regards to the latter — if you happen to’re the soon-to-be proud proprietor of a monitor of this calibre, it ought to serve you properly for a few years to come back. Simply get a mate spherical that can assist you with the heavy lifting.
Regardless of the herculean effort it took to truly shift the stand and monitor’s mixed 19kg weight, the precise meeting of the Odyssey Neo G9 was a doddle. Merely clip within the stand, tighten 4 screws, slide within the v-shaped base, tighten a pair extra screws, and it is performed – so long as you’ve got bought somebody that can assist you elevate it up, you are good to go.
As soon as in situ, it is a sight to behold, virtually drawing you in with its personal gravitational discipline. With a vertical size of round 140cm, it barely matches on my common workplace desk, with the v-shaped stand encroaching fairly a bit into the valuable keyboard and mouse territory. For sure, you will wish to ensure you’re rocking a considerably giant desktop set as much as home this all-encompassing beast, or mount it to the wall for essentially the most space-saving expertise.
Sheer dimension apart, the Odyssey Neo G9’s 1000R curve additional provides to its unapologetic vastness. However, as with Samsung’s different curved gaming screens, this bend is important to assist guarantee you can extra simply see the sides.
Elsewhere, the design is all the pieces you’d anticipate from a top-tier Samsung gaming monitor, with the identical white shiny plastic rear and LED Core Lighting so as to add a splash of basic Gamer Aesthetic with out going fully overboard.
Options, sound, and connectivity
- DisplayPort 2.1
- 3 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack
- No audio system
- Rear LEDs for atmosphere
Not like a few of Samsung’s different high-end screens (and regardless of its huge asking value), the Odyssey Neo G9 does not have the brains of Samsung’s Tizen OS encased inside it. Which means no apps like Netflix, no reside TV, no Gaming Hub streaming, and no distant. With nothing however a normal onscreen show (OSD) and rear joystick management to tweak the settings, it is a pure monitor, via and thru.
Now, one might confidently argue that the omission of all these additional options on one of the crucial costly gaming screens on the planet is slightly unfair. However if you happen to occur to frequent the varied corners of the web the place PC players and monitor lovers focus on issues like “subpixel layouts” and “scanlines”, you will shortly uncover that almost all of customers spending this type of cash on a monitor need the purest expertise doable, with no pointless bloatware.
The identical argument may very well be made for the dearth of built-in audio system. Once more, nearly all of PC players would not be caught useless utilizing their monitor’s built-in audio system, opting to make use of headphones or devoted audio system as an alternative. Whether or not or not these omissions are a giant deal, is as much as you, however anybody with the Odyssey Neo G9 on their shortlist ought to, on the very least, be planning on a top quality devoted sound resolution to do it justice.
Extras apart, it is time to dive into the ports. There is a beneficiant choice of them, consisting of a 3.5mm headphone jack, three HDMI 2.1 ports, a twin USB 3.0 hub, and the star of the present, a single DisplayPort 2.1 providing.
The latter stands out, because it makes the Odyssey Neo G9 one of many first, if not the first monitor on the planet to launch the newest model of the DisplayPort customary. With out diving too deep into the bottomless pit of port requirements, the primary benefit of DisplayPort 2.1 is that it virtually doubles the utmost refresh charge accessible.
DisplayPort 1.4, for instance, permits you to attain a max of 480Hz, 240Hz, and 60Hz at 1440p, 4K and 8K resolutions, respectively. The brand new 2.1 customary nonetheless, bumps these numbers up considerably, to 900Hz, 480Hz, and 165Hz. Now, even essentially the most highly effective graphics playing cards from AMD and Nvidia, aren’t really able to working AAA titles at these decision/refresh charge combos, however upcoming GPUS over the subsequent few years will.
Naturally, this seems like a giant win for the Odyssey Neo G9, however there is a catch — it has a most refresh charge of 240Hz which, at first look, seems to make the newer port format redundant. However if you happen to permit your self to dive into the depths of DisplayPort requirements, you’ll discover that 2.1 helps 3 times the bandwidth of 1.4 (80Gbps vs 32Gbps). This additional bandwidth signifies that screens with DisplayPort 2.1 (coupled with GPUs which might be highly effective sufficient to do them justice), can attain 4K 240Hz with out show stream compression. Or, to present it its extra technical identify, chroma subsampling.
In different phrases, the Odyssey Neo G9 will allow you to take pleasure in full, uncompressed colors, for essentially the most correct expertise doable. Now, whether or not or not you will really discover a distinction is up for debate, and in the actual world, you greater than seemingly will not, except you are significantly scrutinising one thing like small textual content on a colored background. However hey – at the least you are getting the newest tech in your top-of-the-line monitor, which is able to help the most effective graphics playing cards for years to come back.
Display and efficiency
- Jaw-dropping immersion
- Excellent brightness and HDR efficiency
- Will get highly regarded
So what’s it like really utilizing a 57in Mini LED monster as your principal monitor? In a phrase – immersive. The sheer expanse of display screen, coupled with the aggressive curvature, signifies that your whole world could be very a lot dominated by it throughout use. And that is with out even mentioning the unbelievable 7680 x 2160 decision which, whereas not true 8K because of the decrease quantity of vertical pixels, nonetheless supplies an impressively sharp end result for a show of this dimension.
Gaming is, briefly, a beautiful expertise, particularly in titles that lend themselves to a primary particular person view. From racing round in Forza to flying over rolling hills in Flight Simulator, there’s an nearly VR-like stage of depth, brute-forced into your eyes by the sheer dimension of the show. It is actually slightly magical, and might even provide you with a aggressive edge in shooters like Apex and Halo, as you are handled to a a lot wider discipline of view, letting you notice flanking enemies earlier.
The draw back to this all, is the truth that if you happen to’re sat moderately shut, you will actually have to maneuver your neck to view the corners and ends of the display screen. This is not an issue in one thing like Flight Simulator, however in a fast-paced first particular person shooter, you do not wish to waste treasured seconds turning to examine in your ammo or your radar. Fortunately, some video games like Halo Infinite allow you to tweak the place of the onscreen HUD, letting you progress them extra in the direction of the centre for straightforward viewing. In others although, you may wrestle, except you sit additional away from the display screen or obtain a mod.
Productiveness by the way in which, is as wonderful as you’d anticipate on a monitor this dimension, and with the ability to ditch the faff of a number of screens throughout testing was a really welcome expertise. The power to have a number of home windows open without delay with out having to alt-tab between them is a strong productiveness increase, though I did discover myself with a little bit of a sore neck from craning to see the far edges of the display screen. Nonetheless, a small value to pay for Large Display Ascension.
On the media entrance, it will come as no shock to study that there is hardly any content material accessible past a number of YoutTube trailers and drone footage that may refill the huge 32:9 ratio show that the Neo G9 provides. That signifies that something you are prone to watch can have giant black areas both facet of the content material. It is to be anticipated and is one thing that any ultrawide proprietor has to get used to, and the additional flexibility to have content material side-by-side is definitely a profit.
As for the fantastic 240Hz refresh charge, I might solely obtain it in lighter video games like Rocket League (the place the efficiency and on-screen motion at 240Hz was buttery easy). Regardless of testing with AMD’s mighty 7900XT (which has the newest DisplayPort 2.1), all of my different extra demanding video games like Halo Infinite, Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk 2077, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and extra, failed to achieve even near 240fps in max settings.
From previous testing on lower-resolution screens, I do know that even Nvidia’s mighty RTX 4090 cannot attain 240fps in increased settings both. Come the subsequent technology or two of graphics playing cards although, and you will nearly actually have the ability to make full use of the Neo G9’s most refresh charge, making it a prime contender for followers of future-proofing.
Specs apart, I am going to even be the primary to confess that by 35-year-old eyes can’t decide any affordable distinction between 120 and 240Hz both, so relaxation assured that you just gained’t be upset throughout the watch for much more highly effective playing cards.
Onto the brightness. Able to reaching 1,000 nits, the Mini LED nature of the show signifies that it is able to eye-searing brightness. In comparison with an OLED monitor just like the OLED G9, the distinction in brightness is, nearly actually, night time and day. I attempted utilizing the Neo G9 on max brightness settings initially, however quickly turned it down to avoid wasting my eyes from being strained. The truth that there’s a lot extra brightness within the tank ought to I want it although, could be very reassuring.
On the flip facet, darkish areas are dealt with by 2,392 native dimming zones, mixed with the very best 12-bit black ranges. Working collectively to dim darker areas with extra precision to scale back issues like vivid halos round mouse cursors on darkish backgrounds (or simply to enhance the distinction and expertise normally), dimming zones are one of many principal methods for non-OLED screens to enhance their black ranges.
Samsung’s efforts haven’t gone to waste right here both, because the blacks on the Neo G9 are significantly spectacular. I put it via its paces with an onslaught of OLED TV demos, and in isolation, the black ranges get impressively near true-black. The advantages of this distinction is reaped in gaming as properly, particularly if you happen to’re sneaking round in darkish environments and do not wish to miss out on any of the main points.
Now, utilizing an OLED show instantly after utilizing the Neo G9 made it clear that even that variety of dimming zones will not work miracles — and you will discover blacks wash out if you happen to view them from the facet (not that you’d place your self that method in actuality, thoughts).
So sure, OLED will stay king of distinction and black ranges till the holy grail of Micro LED rolls round to avoid wasting the day. However with out an OLED display screen to right away evaluate it to, you’ll not be upset in what the Neo G9 provides on the distinction entrance. This can be a large win, too, as a result of the Neo G9 has managed to serve up spectacular black ranges and better-than-OLED brightness, with out the worry of OLED burn-in hanging over it.
Now, I am a very paranoid tech consumer, so the OLED screens that I do have in my home trigger me no finish of stress after I’m utilizing them as a PC monitor. Regardless of figuring out that there are preventative measures like Pixel Shift in place to keep away from burn-in, I nonetheless repeatedly swap to a clean display screen, disguise the taskbar, and transfer home windows round to scale back the dangers of burn-in. To have the ability to use the Neo G9 freely with none of that nonsense, is liberating, to say the least.
There is only one situation although. The Neo G9 will get extremely scorching throughout use. After a number of hours on a heat day, my workplace felt like a sauna in comparison with the remainder of the home. Granted, a gaming PC churns out quite a lot of warmth throughout intensive duties like gaming which actually doesn’t assist, however I’ve by no means skilled this stage earlier than. You possibly can nearly really feel the warmth radiate off the display screen if you happen to’re too shut, which I suppose is a boon for the winter months. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, however nonetheless one thing to keep in mind if you happen to run scorching.
Verdict
There isn’t any dancing round the truth that $2,499/£2,199 is a staggering sum of money for a monitor. For most individuals, in these occasions, it is a direct barrier to entry, and one which’s unlikely to change into extra accessible any time quickly.
However in the identical method it is pointless lamenting the worth of the newest Lamborghini, it is simpler to only sit again from the sidelines of the actual world and recognize a product that is as extravagant and bonkers, as it’s impressively highly effective.
No different product on the time of writing will give you the expertise that the Neo G9 is able to delivering. It is not even shut. Its spec-shattering dimension, decision, brightness, refresh charge, and curve, make it a novel providing for essentially the most elite of lovers to take pleasure in. For the remainder of us, it is an object to covet, to position on the post-lottery procuring listing. If you happen to do end up fortunate sufficient to expertise it in your (hopefully huge) desk although, then have enjoyable. It is a wild experience.
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