Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 S49AG950NU 15.6 inches 4K DCI 2160p QLED-Monitor QLEDMonitor (LS49AG950NUXEN)

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Samsung also leaves the monitor’s functional problems untouched. The stand is an absolute unit that measures 31 inches wide and 9 inches deep. The full depth is 17 inches which, on my desk, places the edges of the monitor closer to the front of the desk than the rear. You might need to plan a desk upgrade to go along with the monitor. Yes, you can now connect an Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 at once, but neither supports an ultrawide or super-ultrawide aspect ratio. The Neo G9 can’t even deliver 4K from a console because its native resolution is 5,120 x 1,440, which is too low to handle 4K’s vertical resolution of 2160 pixels. HDMI 2.1 serves no purpose aside from letting Samsung slap that label on the monitor’s marketing. It’s no slouch when it comes to competitive online shooters, either. We’re not sure how Samsung has managed to create such fast VA panels of late. But it’s impressive all the same. Even using the most aggressive of the three levels of user-configurable overdrive offered in the Neo G9’s OSD menu, there’s no discernible overshoot. Just oodles of pace. This thing is so, so fast. Setting up our Odyssey G9 Neo review sample does require some elbow grease and forethought but the results are well worth the trouble and the investment especially for ardent gamers and power users. 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.

For instance, in Deathloop, we're usually hovering around 110 fps, with it often dipping down to 100 or 90 fps. That's still a fast frame rate, don't get us wrong, but we're pretty far off from being able to totally saturate this display. The Odyssey G9’s gaming-focused features were a delightful plus in almost every scenario. Its 1ms gray-to-gray response time kept our interactions in games snappy, and the high refresh rate (up to 240 Hz) kept the images always moving in perfect pace with the action. Depending on which video hardware drives your computer, you’ll also appreciate built-in support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro adaptive sync technologies (though AMD currently claims the latter is only utilized in 17 titles). 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 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. 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 – DesignThese are common gaming monitor additions; for most, its unique screen design is what will most set the Odyssey G9 apart—and prove most divisive. Whether the Odyssey G9 makes sense for you depends more than anything else on the types of games you play and what other software you use, as the large amount of space is not universally well utilized. I don’t blame Samsung for keeping the prior model’s look. Why mess with what works? The Neo G9’s glossy white rear plastic looks sleek, futuristic, and luxurious. A vent near the top provides sporty flair and the massive stand makes a statement on any desk. There’s also a vent-like ring rounding the stand’s connection with the monitor. This is where you’ll find the monitor's customizable RGB light. The rated HDR2000 peak brightness isn’t just for show and the brightness is breathtaking indeed if you have the appropriate footage to fully appreciate it but its sheer size and image quality will ensure anything you view on it is given due justice. use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.

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. 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.While the display is intended for supporting ultra wide 32:9 aspect ratio gaming, you’ll need the appropriate game that natively supports it like Cyberpunk 2077 and Call of Duty Warzone as well as a sufficiently powerful gaming rig capable of running it too. 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: All of this is worth it though when you gaze on the sheer majesty of this display when it gracefully reposes on your desk. On that note, you’ll also need to ensure that the table you put it on is as sturdy as possible or failing that, sufficiently reinforced to take its weight.

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). 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. 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. 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.Updated the monitor to firmware 1011 and retested the HDR Brightness, HDR Color Gamut, and HDR Color Volume. The update only results in minor differences in performance. Based on GtG measured under internal test conditions. Results may vary by content and monitor settings (requires ‘Extreme mode' setting). 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. The Neo G9’s incredible contrast provides a rich, deep image with great dimensionality. Yet, if anything, the high contrast ratio undersells the display’s strengths. Mini-LED completely eliminates the edge-lit glow that plagues most gaming monitors and ruins the ambience of dark scenes. Watching the sun set in an open-world game is a truly beautiful experience.

For the record, all this applies to both SDR and HDR modes and, on the Windows desktop, it’s all rather messy and distracting. You could say, so what? This monitor isn’t designed for serious content creation or office work. But at this price point, it’s surely a serious flaw. 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. Now, of course, you can use another stand with this monitor, as it has a standard VESA-compatible mount. However, the massive weight of the monitor gets in the way again, and you're going to have to make sure you get a stand that can handle it. Honestly, we'd recommend just mounting it on your wall – and when we spoke to Samsung about this display its representatives told us the same thing. In our tests, the games that came off best were those where you could easily see everything at once by focusing on the center and not having to divide your attention. The sprawling screen area provided a dazzling field of view in the first-person shooter Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition, where your open field of vision allowed you to drink in every detail of the devastated Moscow you trudged through. We tested the monitor with the PS5's new variable refresh rate feature and confirmed that even though the monitor supports HDMI Forum VRR, it's not working properly.In games like Destiny 2, which is our go-to game to test HDR, the monitor is absolutely stunning. HDR really is a luxury addition, but you'll never want to give it up when you get it, and the move from the HDR 400 displays we're usually testing – gaming monitors really need to get their stuff together – an HDR 2000 display like this really is in a whole other world of brightness and color. 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 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. 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).