You may or may not have heard of the infamous Samsung Odyssey G9 NEO monitor. Known for its expansive screen and immersive user experience; it’s commonly the gamer’s ultimate dream screen but with a nightmarish price tag attached.
Whether or not its gaming-centric features impress you, you can’t help but see that this is an absolute unit of a monitor definitely deserves, if not your consideration, then certainly your attention.
Today, we’re giving you an insider’s look into how it is to use the Odyssey G9 NEO monitor. Is it worth the upgrade especially from a small monitor screen? Here’s our review.
Our video editor, Tarvin, had the pleasure of switching from his previous dual monitor setup to a 49-inch Odyssey G9 NEO monitor, and so this review will be reflected on his experience with the monitor.
Specifications
- Panel: VA / Curved / 178°(H)/178°(V) viewing angle
- Display: 49 inches / 5,120 x 1,440 resolution / 32:9 ratio / 240Hz refresh rate (max) / 1(GTG) response rate
- Colours: HDR10+ / Color Gamut (DCI) 95%
- Ports: x1 Display / x2 HDMI / x2 USB Hub / Headphone
- Design: - 120.0 ± 5.0 mm HAS(Height Adjustable Stand) / -3.0(±2.0) ~ +13.0(±2.0) tilt / -15.0(±2.0) ~ +15.0(±2.0) swivel
Build & Setup: At First Glance
If we were to simply put it, this 49-inch monitor is basically two 24.5 inch monitors stapled together and sold for the price of four monitors, specifically for people who really, really hate bezels.
For us, looking at the monitor through promotional non-moving media visuals versus our review in person was something else.
Our first thought: “Oh, wow.”
The monitor brings out the philosophers in us as if you suddenly begin to ask yourself questions you never expected, like ‘Is this too much monitor?’
Initially, it felt almost greedy having this much screen space to use, just like if one were a dragon hoarding wealth from others. But over time, the experience began to die down and our team gradually got more comfortable with the space as a whole. Honestly, it took us faster than we expected to get used to it.
The initial setup felt strange too. For once, we never felt the need to specifically size our windows (we usually just blow them up to full-screen on one monitor and use the other monitor for other things).
In fact, with all the big space to navigate around, the Odyssey G9 NEO made actions like opening up YouTube videos on one screen while writing scripts or playing games on the other a bit tiring.
Luckily, Samsung had a solution for that: Picture in Picture mode. This technically splits your monitor into two and receives two video inputs at the same time. You can plug a HDMI cable and a Display Port from your PC to your monitor, and even have an HDMI port free for your Nintendo Switch or PS5.
Although the monitor only supports two screens at a time, it's still pretty impressive, and there’s even a neat feature where you can control how big or small you want the split to be.
For example; choosing the 75:25 option made us feel like we were back to our dual monitor setup. You don’t even have to fiddle with any settings, as the Auto Source Switch+ feature detects which of your devices you turned on and instantly displays them.
Still, the feature is not completely without its problems. Several times when we switched from full video to Picture in Picture, the monitor displays the source that doesn’t have an input. Although this is annoying, it is something we can live with as we don’t use the Picture in Picture mode all that often.
Software & Hardware
Let’s talk specifics now, specifically specs. As previously mentioned, the Odyssey G9 NEO monitor has a 49-inch screen with a DQHD resolution. You might not have heard of the ‘DQHD’ term before as it's coined by Samsung specifically for this type of monitor.
The 5120x1440 resolution is essentially just two (dual) QHD displays sitting side by side, so not exactly 4K but it comes close enough. As for the 240hz refresh rate, it’s great for gaming, as well as the 1ms response time.
But if there is one huge downside, it's probably the fact that it’s a VA panel. Coming from an IPS display, our video editor noted that the difference between them is noticeable, but the overall display is still quite decent as a whole. Just be prepared to have an adjustment period.
Because the monitor has a quantum dot panel, colours are vibrant and basically pop out of the screen. This is especially noticeable while gaming.
When it comes to port selection, it’s actually quite limited, especially for a monitor of this size. The Odyssey G9 NEO monitor has two Display Ports; one HDMI port, two USB ports, a USB-B input, and a line out. We felt that the lack of a USB-C port is pretty disappointing.
Special Features
There’s also a slew of special features on the Odyssey G9 NEO monitor, meant to either enhance your gaming experience or your optic health.
Firstly, there’s the Black Equalizer Mode which brightens up darker areas on your screen so you’d be able to spot enemies hiding in the dark. Meanwhile, the Eye-Saver Mode does what it says it does by adding a warm tint to your display.
Then there’s Local Dimming, which controls the brightness of your blacks to give you a better colour contrast. Finally, Dynamic Brightness automatically tunes the display in accordance with your surroundings.
Thankfully, there are also special gaming features like AMD Freesync, Nvidia G-Sync, and low latency input. Together, all of these features offer quite a step up from the normal adjusted brightness setting we were used to on our previous monitor.
Screen & Performance
But how does it feel to use the monitor in real life? Honestly, pretty great.
Being a gaming monitor first and foremost, we tested the Odyssey G9 NEO monitor with a couple of games that we felt would pair best with the display.
MMORPGs like Final Fantasy 14 often have really busy UIs that clutter up the whole screen, making it difficult to focus on your character with all these visual distractions. But not with the Odyssey G9 NEO; we barely had to adjust the camera angle to fully see the scope of the arena.
We also tested the monitor with a few laps around the course in Forza Horizon and was it truly an experience. Putting the game onto a driver’s POV was one of the most immersive gaming experiences we’ve ever had.
Other games that would fare well with this monitor are eSport titles like CSGO or Valorant. The ability to have a wider field of view as well as a 240hz refresh rate almost makes it feel like cheating.
But it's not just good for gaming; we also found the monitor to be in favour of our productivity. Our video editor appreciated how, during post video production, he could see the timeline at the bottom of the screen, which made it so much easier and faster to edit a video.
Still, the Odyssey G9 NEO monitor isn’t perfect, and we have some grievances about the device.
For one, all the fancy features, like 240hz, HDR10+, AMD Freesync, and Nvidia G-Sync, are disabled once we turn on Picture by Picture mode.
This makes us question, “why have that mode in the first place when there’s so much comprises we have to give?” And this is especially given the monitor’s hefty price tag.
We also noticed some curving at the top and bottom of the monitor, though this is pretty standard with curved monitors in general.
But the biggest problem we had was arguably the monitor’s biggest strength - its size.
Sometimes it can get overwhelming to the point of nauseating staring at that much screen, especially for a long period of time. Probably due to too much motion happening on the screen; we had to take short breaks every once in a while to get our bearings before returning to work or gaming. But this could also just be us not fully transitioned from our previous flatscreen monitor.
Conclusion
- Pros: Optimised well for gaming; the big screen is a boon for creative productivity; Eye-Saver Mode helps with reducing eye strains
- Cons: The big screen will take some time to get used to; a high price tag
- Who is it for? Enthusiast and professional gamers
Although the Samsung Odyssey G9 NEO might seem a bit much, we honestly think there’s a market for this. Given its price and size, it is admittedly a niche product, coming in at RM7,999.
But for the gamers out there who want the best of the best when it comes to their gear, we don’t think they can find a better ultrawide monitor than this.
Table of Contents
