SAMSUNG 32″ Odyssey Neo G8 4K Curved Monitor

I used to have 2x 4K 28 inch monitors and eventually decided to get rid of the large black dividing line down the middle and use a single monitor. So I opted for the 49 inch Samsung Neo G9, with a resolution of 5120×1440 and 240MHz, which I loved. I also got used to the curved screen very quickly, and find it so much easier to work with multiple windows open, also play games is very cool, but dropping from a 4k resolution down to just 1440 vertical resolution did make my games look less clear and less defined. Eventually I saw this screen that has the highest resolution I would ever want to go to (for a screen thats this close to my eyes) ‎7680 x 2160 Pixels puts the highest definition of games back on and the colours and resolution are simply amazing. I love this monitor, its huge, as big as I would ever want to go, and has everything I need (picture in picture, 240 MHz, 1ms, 1000 NITS etc etc. The only thing I would have liked more was if they just replaced the terrible menu buttons, and added a $2 remote control. Such a shame it doesn’t have a decent menu button system.

I was first looking for a computer monitor to use my gaming consoles on them. Why a monitor? Because I didn’t care about the image processing or the advanced smart features of a full fledged television. I know Samsung generally make good products and I knew I was buying something good. Sure, some reviews state that there are better screens with more features out there, but I like the fact that the picture quality on this one is pretty close to the OLED, without the huge price tag. Overall, I am pretty satisfied with the aesthetic of the screen (love the sci-fi look with the white logo behind it), the picture quality is great, the smart features are enough without being intrusive and I am happy about this purchase. The size surprised me a bit, it’s roughly the same size as a full sized poster on a wall, that is 24 by 36 inches. The material doesn’t feel cheap and is light enough, I love the contrast and brightness and in spite of some claims, there is a RGB light at the bottom, it’s two small LED lights that can react to the content being shown on the screen, you just need to enable it manually. So far, it detects my Switch being turned on and my Xbox Series X and can also swap between them if needed. The setup with the SmartThings App was okay, I had a few glitches but it was easier than to manually input everything. The speaker is kinda weak but it works well enough for a small room. The remote is kinda small and feel robust enough, but I would be careful with it. I see this as a kind of hybrid between a smart tv and a computer monitor. I haven’t use my MacBook with it, but I tried to Airplay with my iPhone and it works pretty well. I can’t speak to the reported ghosting or input lag while using it as a computer monitor, so far. I would say it’s a pretty solid buy if you read about its specs first. I know OLED is the best of the best in term of picture quality, but mini-led is great for me, it reminds me of the 12.9 inches iPad Pro XDR display that also use mini-leds. One of the reason I chose this one over the other options is the included speaker, cause I don’t intend to use a dedicated one yet and I didn’t want to game exclusively using a headset. The 43 inches Samsung Odyssey NEO G7 is a great screen. Don’t be shy, it’s a good buy!

After considering OLED for a while and waiting for the price to drop, I finally decided to try this when on sale. I had very high expectations and was fully prepared to refund at the first sign of trouble.

Lets start with the cons in my experience.
1. After setting up the monitor and looking through the settings, trying to turn the RGB LEDs on worked… for the most part. The lights on the back worked fine, on the front there are two zones that are supposed to light up also, but only one of them worked. After doing some searching apparently a simple firmware update or downgrade can fix this, so it is not a hardware issue but a software one. I do not need LEDs on a monitor anyway, especially an OLED that has those nice true blacks, so I don’t want anything on to distract my eye. I turned the LEDs off completely and never card to change firmware just to be able to turn them on again.

2. The first day I setup the monitor, tested it a bit, then went to bed. The following day I turned on the monitor and after a few hours of using it I closed all my programs and went to desktop (which is a true black single color background). To my surprise the LEDs were still on, the screen looked no different from my other non OLED screens. After digging through various settings and power cycling the monitor a few times I decided to contact support. I explained my issue and got transfer once or twice through Samsung support chat before finally getting through to help. The first thing that I was asked to do was unplug the power cord that runs from the adapter box to the monitor, not from the wall to the adapter box, and not power cycling using the button on the monitor. After waiting about a minute and plugging it back in the black were true black again and I felt like an idiot. The important takeaway here is that the box will run some power to the screen even if the screen is of, so if you need to power cycle make sure you unplug the screen. After doing the reset once my pixels have remained true black where they should and have not been an issue since.

Before we get to the pros is want to mention settings. There are quite a few settings of which most are helpful, just about anything you would want to change you can. The only problem is that with so many settings it can be hard to find what you’re looking for sometimes. So far this is one of my only monitors to not change settings ever after setup, I have had ASUS and ACER monitors before that both will occasionally change a setting if a certain game launches or if the hdmi/vda/dp gets unplugged.

Finally we have the pros.

1. OLED monitor at a PC desktop form factor. This thing looks great, it is great to watch movies and videos on, and colorful and cinematic games look amazing, I have never seen a non OLED come anywhere close it is not even the same ballgame. I have had TN VA and IPS displays before and IMO all three of those look far more similar to each other than to this.

2. Responsiveness and Refresh rate. 240hz is incredibly solid for modern gaming, not as bug of jump from 60 to 144 or even 120, but still noticeable. Due to the OLED tech the overall screen response time is insane, it isn’t as simple as the 1ms, 0.5ms or 0.1ms that you see advertised on these monitor pages, if you look into it in depth, this monitor has a response time that is about 2x faster then the next best non OLED gaming monitor, and that monitor is even 360hz! What does this meant though? Blur essentially does not exist on this monitor, comparing to 144hz, 165, and 60hz, when setting this monitors refresh rate to match, it is significantly clearer and less blurry. At 240hz even taking a still image with a high fps camera it is hard to detect or extremely minimal, where my VA 165hz displays at least 5 clearly visible ghosted images at once just with my phone camera.

To summarize, this monitor I expected to be good but not worth the price tag, but after quite some use it has completely blown me away and I am definitely keeping it. The only monitor jump that has been as noticeable as jumping from non OLED to OLED is the jump from 60-144hz.

Me encanta este monitor. Es brillante, es colorido, no tengo reflejos en una oficina / sala de juegos con ventanas muy brillantes. El contraste es excelente para una pantalla LCD. Gran volumen de color. Sin retraso de entrada. Estaba preocupado por la curva extrema, pero me encanta. A pesar de las críticas que decían que me molestaría usarlo para el trabajo, no he tenido ningún problema con la curva de pantalla para ese propósito en absoluto. No he tenido problemas de conectividad. Estoy en el último firmware. En realidad, me sorprendió que se enviara con el último firmware para mí.

Supongo que lo único negativo es el soporte tambaleante y barato y los controles de pantalla donde deberían haber utilizado un joystick. No he tenido problemas con los escáneres ni nada por el estilo. Recomiendo encarecidamente este monitor.