The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is big. And while that is pretty obvious from the fact that it's a 49-inch ultrawide monitor, it doesn't hit until you take it out of its box to set up on your desk. Minus the box, our Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo review sample weighs an absolutely mammoth 14.5kg which is the equivalent of holding a ludicrous 55 Galaxy Z Fold4 foldables in your hands. Updated to Test Bench 1.2, resulting in changes to the results and scores with the Response Time and Input Lag. Added tests for Console Compatibility and macOS compatibility and made minor changes to other tests, which you can see in our Changelog. I get it. This is a big monitor with a big curve, so it’s going to take up space. Still, I can’t help but think the monitor would be more practical with a less extreme curve and a stand that trades size for heft. Although the display presets offer a distinguishable amount of variation among them, I rarely found them especially useful. The FPS preset, in particular, was distractingly bright; though this implementation was likely inspired by the frequently dark cast of those games’ playing areas, the murky uncertainty of dark tunnels and shadowy ruins are usually part of the fun, and flooding them with light ruins the effect. Cinema, too, exaggerated colors and brightness, creating a dulling effect on motion picture–style video. To my eyes, the rather darker Custom setting was an excellent choice—if not the best choice—in nearly all situations. Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Gaming performance

Based on GtG measured under internal test conditions. Results may vary by content and monitor settings (requires ‘Extreme mode' setting). That alone would be impressive, but it also includes Samsung's new Quantum Mini LED tech, which is behind its latest QLED TVs. So, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 has 2,048 local dimming zones, which is a massive improvement over the measly 10 dimming zones in last year's model. Indeed, during our time with the display, we didn't see any of the glitches and bugginess that have blighted Samsung's big Odyssey gaming LCDs of late. So, that's progress of sorts. Because the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 isn't just big and it's not just a high resolution, it's also brighter and more colorful than anything you've probably ever seen. And, when you combine that with the high refresh rate, it's kind of a piece of gaming heaven that you'll definitely want to be part of. But with that high refresh rate and the high resolution, you run into one giant problem: performance. Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo Review – The monitor comes in an absolutely massive box that securely protects the equally humongous curved display. Assembling and deploying it is easily a two-man job.use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.

While the Neo G9’s HDR performance is great in games, it’s not ideal in Windows. Turning on HDR makes the display appear washed out and dull rather than more vivid. You’ll want to turn HDR off outside of games or HDR movies. This is a common problem for all monitors, but one the Neo G9 doesn’t resolve. Purchasing Guide Despite the monitor not being close to true 8K, you’re still looking at an incredibly high resolution with a 32:9 aspect ratio along a deep curve of 1,000mm, or 1000R. The R-number is the radius measurement of a circle that would be created by a hypothetical ring of these monitors placed edge to edge. The lower the millimeter count and the R-number, the tighter the curve is. It’s said that lower numbers better mimic the natural curvature of the eye. A curve of 1000R is the tightest typically seen on gaming monitors, but they can get tighter in a few one-offs like the Corsair Xeneon Flex. For any content that you submit, you grant SAMSUNG a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, fully transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Overall, the local dimming is better than any other monitor we've tested as it helps to improve the contrast and make highlights pop. It looks really good when viewing from the center, but there's more blooming when looking at it from the side. It's on par with some local dimming features on TVs, but don't compare the score with TVs. Instead, we took real content local dimming videos like we do with TVs so you can see how it looks:

Samsung's new 57-inch dual-4K monster is so spectacular it's silly.

As far as panel type goes, Samsung opts for a VA panel over IPS or OLED. The difference? VA panels typically have better contrast ratios, while IPS panels enjoy wider viewing angles and fuller color gamut support. OLED displays outclass IPS and VA panels in just about every category, meanwhile, from power efficiency to color gamut, but at a much greater cost. Utilizing smaller, more discrete dimming zones, the Neo G9 monitor strives for sharper contrast with the power of Samsung’s Quantum Matrix Technology, which is frequently seen in the company's non-OLED TVs. HDR performance is beyond the HDR1000 certification, too. In HDR test video, it's clearly capable of beyond 1,000 nits of brightness. Actually, you can see that in games, too. Pan the camera up to the sky and the desert sun in Cyberpunk 2077 and the panel absolutely sizzles. HDR video content looks spectacular, too. What might worry you is the comparison with Samsung's own 49-inch ultrawide OLED monitors, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 G93SC and G95SC. Those screens are a little bit cheaper and run at a much lower 5,120 by 1,440 resolution. Instead of being essentially two 32-inch 4K monitors fused into one, those OLED monitors are two 27-inch 1440p panels in one. The screen fared well in our SDR color tests. Using a Klein K10-A colorimeter and DisplayCal calibration software, we measured the Odyssey G9’s delta-E (its variation from an established color norm) at a solid 0.26, and we determined that it covered 113.7 percent of the sRGB color gamut and 80.6 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut on its default settings (Custom mode). The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 delivers all of the above yet suffers new problems that take the shine off its best feature. Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 – Design

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9’s exterior is nearly identical to last year’s G9. The only aesthetic change is on the monitor’s lower left bezel, where the prior model’s bright green Nvidia G-Sync logo is replaced by a more subtle monochrome badge. It’s a minor, but positive, tweak. It's hard to draw a really definitive conclusion about the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 G95NC, then. It's expensive enough to be irrelevant to most gamers, on the one hand. And it has obvious limitations. But it also delivers an experience no other monitor can match.

Bezels are definitely still visible, especially along the bottom, but because the screen is so big, it's not something you're going to notice on a day-to-day basis. Plus, the only logos you'll find on the front of the display is the Nvidia G-Sync logo, which we would rather not be there. But hey, at least the monitor has G-Sync. Average brightness (as measured with the monitor brightness maxed and all dynamic adjustment settings disabled) was upwards of 400 nits in every mode, with the brightest unsurprisingly being High Bright, with 418.6. This is well above what we saw with the Razer Raptor 27 (295 nits) and the Acer XFA240 (352 nits), but below the likes of the LG 38GL950G (544 nits) or the ViewSonic Elite XG270QC (524 nits). Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo Review – The monitor features a selection of additional cables including a Display Port, a USB-B cable for updates, a wall mount and a power cable As far as how many ports are there, though, you get a disappointingly standard array. There are two USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-B cable (to enable the USB passthrough), two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort. Samsung includes both an HDMI 2.1 cable and a DisplayPort cable, though if you want to take full advantage of the 240Hz refresh rate you're going to have to use HDMI 2.1, as the refresh rate will be limited to 120Hz over DP. In terms of performance, the display offers a fast 1ms GtG response time speed, an input lag of a mere 2ms, a 240Hz refresh rate and a quoted 2000-nit peak brightness while offering support for 95% DCI-P3 colour gamut along with 125% sRGB. It also supports NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro while playing nicely with HDR10 and HDR10+ content.

Samsung’s inclusion of two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort might sound like an upgrade, but it’s not. It’s actually a downgrade from the prior model, which had one HDMI 2.0 and two DisplayPort ports. When we're sitting in front of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 and playing games – mostly Final Fantasy XIV, let's be real – the game takes up nearly our entire field of view, making it extremely easy to lose ourselves in the moment. Distractions basically don't exist unless you really want them to, and when we're grinding in a desperate last bid to get our relic weapon before Endwalker drops in November, it's definitely a blessing to be able to focus so entirely on the game. What we did see and what really marks this display out is the elevated pixel density on an epic scale. The 140DPI is exactly the same as a 32-inch 4K monitor, it's just you've never seen this kind of pixel density on such a large panel before. It really is remarkable to experience this kind of image detail across such a huge monitor. The stand does its job, at least. It keeps the monitor stable and includes adjustment for height, tilt, and swivel. The tilt and swivel action are well-tuned, making it possible to adjust the monitor with a light yet intentional touch. VESA mounting is supported with an included adapter. You might want to look up your monitor arm’s maximum weight, however, as the Neo G9’s display panel tips the scales at a hefty 26 pounds. Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 – Features

Plan Benefits

The monitor also supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, the highest tier of AMD’s technology that eliminates screen tearing and stuttering by providing a variable refresh rate if you have a compatible graphics card. To that end, the gameplay was smooth from all angles, and while I did notice some warping when viewing from the sides, I saw no issues when seated right at the center of the monitor, exactly where you want to be to enjoy all of its ultrawide splendor. I also noticed the top of the monitor would get warm after extended play sessions, though it didn’t interfere with gameplay. ms" means one milliseconds which is the range of avg. response time between 1.00ms to 1.99ms truncated to whole number. Added in the Variants section that the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9/G95SC S49CG95 is a newer version of this monitor with a QD-OLED panel. The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, an upgrade from HDMI 2.0 on last year’s G9, and one DisplayPort 1.4 port. The HDMI 2.1 ports can handle a refresh rate up to 144Hz.