“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, this can be a display screen not like some 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 general ranges of lunacy, this isn’t an off-the-cuff 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 definitely worth the astronomical asking value?
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57″
Editor’s Selection
Completely bonkers due to its measurement, specs, and value, that is the equal of shopping for a supercar to tear up the monitor and not using a care on the planet. For those who’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 sizzling throughout use
- Takes up a critical quantity of house
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 large, however no image or video can do them justice. And the identical goes for the Odyssey Neo G9 on this 57-inch display screen measurement. For those who’re wanting 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 instantly subsequent to one another, with, in fact, no pesky central bezel to smash 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, in truth, that merely carrying it upstairs, assembling it, and putting it on my desk was a real ordeal. By the point I used to be carried out, my again was hurting (which, in equity, is dodgy at one of the best 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 received’t have to fret concerning the latter — when you’re the soon-to-be proud proprietor of a monitor of this calibre, it ought to serve you nicely for a few years to come back. Simply get a mate spherical that will help 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 carried out – so long as you’ve got received somebody that will help you raise 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 area. With a vertical size of round 140cm, it barely suits on my common workplace desk, with the v-shaped stand encroaching fairly a bit into the valuable keyboard and mouse territory. Evidently, you will wish to be sure to’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 measurement 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 significant to assist guarantee that you could extra simply see the sides.
Elsewhere, the design is every part 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 touch of traditional 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 large asking value), the Odyssey Neo G9 does not have the brains of Samsung’s Tizen OS encased inside it. Meaning no apps like Netflix, no reside TV, no Gaming Hub streaming, and no distant. With nothing however a typical onscreen show (OSD) and rear joystick management to tweak the settings, this can be a pure monitor, by means of and thru.
Now, one may confidently argue that the omission of all these further options on one of the crucial costly gaming screens on the planet is somewhat unfair. However when you occur to frequent the varied corners of the web the place PC players and monitor fanatics talk about issues like “subpixel layouts” and “scanlines”, you will shortly uncover that almost all of customers spending this form of cash on a monitor need the purest expertise doable, with no pointless bloatware.
The identical argument might be made for the dearth of built-in audio system. Once more, nearly all of PC players would not be caught lifeless utilizing their monitor’s built-in audio system, opting to make use of headphones or devoted audio system as a substitute. Whether or not or not these omissions are an enormous 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 high quality devoted sound answer to do it justice.
Extras apart, it is time to dive into the ports. There is a beneficiant collection 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 nevertheless, 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 truly able to operating AAA titles at these decision/refresh charge combos, however upcoming GPUS over the following few years will.
Naturally, this appears like an enormous 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 when you 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 further bandwidth signifies that screens with DisplayPort 2.1 (coupled with GPUs which are highly effective sufficient to do them justice), can attain 4K 240Hz with out show stream compression. Or, to present it its extra technical title, 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 truly discover a distinction is up for debate, and in the true world, you greater than seemingly will not, until you are significantly scrutinising one thing like small textual content on a colored background. However hey – a minimum of you are getting the newest tech in your top-of-the-line monitor, which can assist one of the best graphics playing cards for years to come back.
Display and efficiency
- Jaw-dropping immersion
- Excellent brightness and HDR efficiency
- Will get very popular
So what’s it like truly utilizing a 57in Mini LED monster as your foremost 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 gives an impressively sharp end result for a show of this measurement.
Gaming is, in brief, 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 virtually VR-like degree of depth, brute-forced into your eyes by the sheer measurement of the show. It is actually somewhat magical, and may even offer you a aggressive edge in shooters like Apex and Halo, as you are handled to a a lot wider area of view, letting you see flanking enemies earlier.
The draw back to this all, is the truth that when you’re sat fairly 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 valuable seconds turning to verify 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, until you sit additional away from the display screen or obtain a mod.
Productiveness by the best way, is as wonderful as you’d anticipate on a monitor this measurement, and having 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 directly with out having to alt-tab between them is a robust 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’s going to come as no shock to be taught that there is hardly any content material accessible past a couple of YoutTube trailers and drone footage that can refill the huge 32:9 ratio show that the Neo G9 gives. That signifies that something you are more likely to watch could have giant black areas both aspect 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 wonderful 240Hz refresh charge, I may 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 succeed in 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 greater settings both. Come the following technology or two of graphics playing cards although, and you may virtually definitely have the ability to make full use of the Neo G9’s most refresh charge, making it a high contender for followers of future-proofing.
Specs apart, I will even be the primary to confess that by 35-year-old eyes can’t decide any cheap distinction between 120 and 240Hz both, so relaxation assured that you just received’t be dissatisfied throughout the look ahead to 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, virtually actually, evening 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 loads extra brightness within the tank ought to I want it although, could be very reassuring.
On the flip aspect, darkish areas are dealt with by 2,392 native dimming zones, mixed with the best 12-bit black ranges. Working collectively to dim darker areas with extra precision to cut back issues like vivid halos round mouse cursors on darkish backgrounds (or simply to enhance the distinction and expertise typically), dimming zones are one of many foremost 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 by means of 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 nicely, particularly when you’re sneaking round in darkish environments and do not wish to miss out on any of the small print.
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 may discover blacks wash out when you view them from the aspect (not that you’d place your self that manner 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 dissatisfied in what the Neo G9 gives on the distinction entrance. This can be a massive 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 concern 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 realizing that there are preventative measures like Pixel Shift in place to keep away from burn-in, I nonetheless often change to a clean display screen, conceal the taskbar, and transfer home windows round to cut 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 concern although. The Neo G9 will get extremely sizzling throughout use. After a couple 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 a variety of warmth throughout intensive duties like gaming which definitely doesn’t assist, however I’ve by no means skilled this degree earlier than. You possibly can virtually really feel the warmth radiate off the display screen when you’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 when you run sizzling.
Verdict
There isn’t any dancing round the truth that $2,499/£2,199 is a staggering amount of cash for a monitor. For most individuals, in these occasions, it is an instantaneous barrier to entry, and one which’s unlikely to change into extra accessible any time quickly.
However in the identical manner it is pointless lamenting the value of the newest Lamborghini, it is simpler to simply sit again from the sidelines of the true 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 isn’t even shut. Its spec-shattering measurement, decision, brightness, refresh charge, and curve, make it a singular providing for essentially the most elite of fanatics to take pleasure in. For the remainder of us, it is an object to covet, to put on the post-lottery buying listing. For those who do end up fortunate sufficient to expertise it in your (hopefully large) desk although, then have enjoyable. It is a wild journey.
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