Williams Pelegrin
I consider myself a person with simple needs. I use a Chromebook for work, the smartphone I use every day turns two in a few months, and it took much coaxing from my wife to replace my damaged Xbox One with the Xbox One S on Black Friday. Then I see the Samsung Odyssey G9 gaming monitor, and all I want to do is open my wallet as wide as its panel and throw my credit card at it.
And this is a wide panel—49 inches of pure 1000R curvature bliss with a 32:9 aspect ratio, to be exact. The monitor’s resolution reaches 5,120 x 1,440, with the refresh rate topping out at 240Hz. It’s unlikely you’ll play recent triple-A releases at their highest graphics settings and at 240Hz. However, competitive e-sports players specializing in older titles will feel right at home. The high refresh rate translates to super-smooth gameplay, possibly giving a competitive advantage to some. That said, you can knock down the Odyssey G9’s refresh rate if you primarily play newer, more demanding titles.
The gaming features don’t stop there, as the Odyssey G9 supports AMD FreeSync 2 and Nvidia G-Sync. Both technologies prevent screen tearing, which is when one part of the screen seems to lag behind other parts of the screen. The technologies also minimize input lag and display stutter. The Odyssey G9 also supports HDR1000 for improved contrast and a 1ms response time.
You can’t ignore the Odyssey G9’s looks, which match the extreme nature of the monitor. The back of the monitor is reminiscent of Iron Man’s arc reactor or a robotic eye. The glowing blue orb doesn’t have to be blue, by the way—you can customize the lighting with 56 different colors and six different lighting effects. In general, this looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
Given the high-end specs and design, you can expect the Odyssey G9 to cost a pretty penny once it’s made available later in 2020. For comparison, the Odyssey G9’s two predecessors each started above $1,000.
