The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is an updated version of the grandiose Odyssey G9 crack-ultrawide that debuted last yr. This new translation seeks to improve the HDR experience while retaining the basic elements of the original that made information technology special. The Odyssey Neo G9 stiff a 49-inch 5120 x 1440 Old Dominion State panel with a 1000R curvature.

At this size and resolution, IT's the equivalent of two 27-inch 1440p monitors glued unitedly into one seamless display. The refresh rate is still a same eye-popping 240Hz, with support for AMD FreeSync Agiotage Professional and Nvidia G-Sync Compatible.

The big area of melioration is HDR. The original Odyssey G9 jammed a quite pathetic 10 adjoin burning dimming zones, which is insufficient for true HDR visuals connected such a large show. Samsung has totally self-addressed this happening the Neo, swapping impermissible the backlight for a new mini-LED version that includes 2048 local dimming zones. In addition to that, Samsung lists support for what appears to be their personal in-house HDR standard, Quantum HDR 2000, which is a trifle meaningless by itself, though the spec sail does list up to 2000 nits of peak HDR brightness level.

Because we're departure from a monitor with limited HDR support, to replete HDR, the price tag has increased. The degree of that increase testament reckon to a great extent on your region though. In the Concerted States, the Odyssey Modern G9 is expensive at $2,500. That's a $800 jump over the Odyssey G9's $1,700. But in Australia, to name one example, the monetary value chase after has only increased aside $400. Either way you look at it, this clay a flagship Monitor sold at a premium price channelize.

Blueprint and Contour Factor

Esthetically, the Odyssey Neo G9 looks the same as the monitor it's replacing. On that point are some delicate differences, but the general design is the same. The glossy white impressionable utilized for the external housing connected the parent and stand remains, same wide legs with a angry plastic outer, and the same RGB LED lighting element in the midst of the stick out connection.

Samsung is going with a sci-fi / futuristic look into and I think it works to some degree, though of course with a monitor of this size you North Korean won't be getting anything too insidious.

Speaking of size, this will embody an issue for much as the Neo G9 takes up a lot of space.

The monitor is near 1.2 meters wide while the abide legs span 80cm, so you'll need a parcel out of desk real estate to fit this beast. On top of that, the overall footprint is quite a large due to the aggressive 1000R curve, sol you'll penury some available depth arsenic well.

This is actually wider than the LG C1 48-inch OLED we looked at a couple of weeks back, just without the extra pinnacle.

The 1000R bender is significant and not something I'm usually a fan of , merely on an ultrawide equal this I think it works quite well, particularly when gaming as IT gives an immersive feel.

It's non ideal for content creation Oregon productiveness work though, as at that place is a trifle of distortion, just that will turn on how sensitive you are to those. Besides, this is a gaming centered product so overall the 1000R curve is a irrefutable.

The stand Samsung includes is surprisingly adjustable for such a large display.

In that respect's height adjustment as well as swivel and angle support so it allows for a decent range of apparent motion. I'd probably care slightly more height, though you can VESA mount information technology with the enclosed adapter, and the stand is a little wobbly due to the massive size up.

In addition to the HDR upgrade, other area that's acceptable a spec encourage is port selection.

We're still getting a DisplayPort 1.4 connector with DSC, which provides bandwidth for the full 5120 x 1440 resolution at 240Hz with 10-bit HDR. But the HDMI ports have been upgraded to HDMI 2.1, and thither are ii of them, so HDMI is no longer crowned to 60Hz.

Unfortunately, despite HDMI 2.1 on paper having more bandwidth than DisplayPort 1.4, the Neo G9's HDMI 2.1 ports are still limited to 144Hz whether we'atomic number 75 in 8-act or 10-bit operation. I don't know wherefore this is the caseful – perhaps Samsung are exploitation a abject-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 implementation – and it will be unsatisfactory for those hoping for the full 240Hz direct HDMI.

The OSD cadaver the same and it's controlled through and through a directing toggle on the bottom bound of the screen. It includes features like black boosting modes, crosshairs and various color controls. IT also includes the VRR Control feature that was introduced to the Odyssey G9 firmware after launch, which should be enabled if you're having whatsoever issues with variable refresh rates. I didn't experience some flickering during my testing which was a problem some people reported with prior models.

Display Performance

Latent period performance is a simple story with the Odyssey Neo G9, As it's basically unchanged from the Odyssey G9. This includes how the proctor doesn't Lashkar-e-Taiba you change the overuse setting when adaptive sync is enabled, and as I expect the vast majority of gamers volition glucinium victimization this monitor with a variable refresh rate, I'll stick to the canonical default configuration.

At the maximum 240Hz, the Modern G9 is a selfsame loyal Monitor. It packs a 2.8ms grey to intermediate response time and while thither is several overshoot at this refreshen rate, it's somewhat accomplishable and actually a bit to a lesser extent overshoot than the same refresh rate on the G9. This leads to excellent cumulative deviation results and minimum wickedness level smearing which is outstanding for a VA display.

As the refresh rate decreases, functioning stays pretty balanced. At below 200Hz, go-around drops inaccurate to be insignificant, spell for the most part preserving a sub-4ms latent period mediocre with some changes to cumulative deviation. At 100Hz public presentation improves again as the Neo G9 actually runs this refresh pace at 200Hz on the video display, and similar at 60Hz which in reality runs at 180Hz, received brush up order duplication on a variable refresh monitor lizard which is cooked to deliver the best performance. But regardless you can clearly insure the Modern G9 delivers a single overdrive mode see.

At 240Hz, the Odyssey Neo G9 is a small improvement on the original G9, both in terms of response times and go-around. This keeps the Modern G9 as one of the fastest LCD monitors I've ever tested, although performance ISN't arsenic good arsenic the C1 OLED. With that said, the C1 is capped to 120Hz, vs 240Hz on the Neo G9, thus motion clarity when you'atomic number 75 able to harness the high refresh rate is generally better on this VA settled panel.

On ordinary across the refresh scope, the G9 and Neo G9 perform basically the same. Makes sense, as some use practically the same VA technology, with even a small improvement on the Odyssey G7. This allows this ultrawide display to measure most other contenders in the field, including products like the LG 34GN850 which isn't bad by hook or by crook for an ultrawide, but the Neo G9 is simply a shell out faster.

In additive deviance, the Neo G9 is a low regress on the regular G9, but that quiet puts IT succeeding with the Odyssey G7. I shady this is downward to Samsung pulling back slightly on overdrive at some refresh rates to minimize wave-off, it's always a delicate balance with those things simply at long last IT delivers a strong solution.

At a fixed 120Hz refreshen order we discove what I was talk about with the Neo G9 having slightly belittled overuse which does booster cable to somewhat slower response times, honourable at lower overshoot as asymptomatic. Whereas at 60Hz things go the other way with faster reaction times but more go-around. No matter which chart we're look though, the Neo G9 has excellent answer time behavior.

And that's highlighted aside brilliant dark level smearing results for a VA proctor. Samsung has resolved this issue with their high end VA panels, the Neo G9 is non alone better than most prior-gen VA monitors, but it also competes powerfully with and beats most IPS displays in that metric linear unit. Needless to say you won't be seeing any unsightly dispiriting trails following moving objects with this varan.

Stimulus lag is first-class with the Neo G9, the processing delay is slightly higher than I sounded with the groundbreaking G9 and that English hawthorn be down to the more complex mini-LED backlight and having to manage that but either way, receivable to the high 240Hz freshen rate and fast response times, the Neo G9 is one of the fastest monitors you can get.

Power consumption has increased by 10 percent moving from the senescent backlight to the brand-new mini-Light-emitting diode backlight the Modern G9, devising the Neo G9 a somewhat power hungry display which kind of makes sense given its size. This is only really relevant for heat output as most monitors don't consume that much power to be a epoch-making concern, and overall the Neo G9 is similar in power consumption to two 27-inch displays which makes sense given its sizing.

We'll note that the Modern G9, like the original G9, does not appear to support backlight strobing. There is an MBR lineament traded in the OSD, but it's greyed out for every combination of settings that I tried, which suggests that ilk the prior model, this feature is non comprehendible.

Colour Functioning

Color Blank space: Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 - D65-P3

Next up we have color performance and to be honest thither's not a plenty to talk about because the Odyssey Neo G9 performs barely like the newfangled G9. Wide of the mark gamut defend is the same for deterrent example, at 89% Director of Central Intelligence-P3 and 66% Rec.2020, which means the Neo G9 has a somewhat limited wide gamut that only really extends into P3 and not into Adobe RGB. Small-grained for HDR content and gambling, simply it doesn't make the G9 atomic number 3 versatile as the champion IPS monitors which sit at the upper of this chart and bring home the bacon a dual P3 and Adobe RGB experience.

Default Color Carrying out

Factory standardisation is below average in the default, out of the box mode. Greyscale execution is off, with a gamma that's too high-pitched, meaning the monitor is a little dark most of the time. Compounded with an wrong Patrick White point, and deltaE results are a emotional higher than we like to see from gaming displays. It also ships without an sRGB mode enabled by default, so you will see some oversaturation, though as the gamut itself isn't especially wide, this issue ISN't going to be that bad.

When comparing these results to other gaming monitors, some the Modern G9 and G9 have very similar factory calibration in both greyscale and ColorChecker, and that leads to a below average get. It would follow great to construe with Samsung put many focus into this, in uncommon tightening leading greyscale which is the most noticeable expanse where the Modern G9 was remove relative to accurate.

OSD Tweaked Color Carrying out

The Neo G9 does include an sRGB mode which is average at better. The main thing this mode does is clamp the gamut down to sRGB, and information technology does so to a passable but not nonesuch degree American Samoa reds still exceeded the sRGB color distance, though boilersuit IT is a hulking improvement happening the default musical mode. Unfortunately, greyscale is for the most part unchanged, and in this mode Samsung unnecessarily locks downcast the greyscale controls, meaning we tooshie't exquisitely tune this style. There is no reason whatsoever for these controls to be locked.

From this point, it is affirmable to slenderly tweak the default modality to improve greyscale results, but this doesn't solve the oversaturation issue Eastern Samoa in that location's no independent sRGB on-off switch for viewing standard content. I likewise institute the variable backlight a little distracting at times when using desktop apps that have large uniform areas, so I'd only recommend enabling it for HDR complacent.

Unfortunately the "Machine" musical mode doesn't actually disable the variable backlight for SDR content, information technology just tries to shine forbidden the backlight so it's less noticeable. The only style to actually disable it is switching IT to Off, which you then need to manually flick back to Auto for HDR. Would be nice if the Auto mode actually turned the backlight off for SDR.

Calibrated Color Execution

And here are my final standardisation results using DisplayCAL. For sRGB you can achieve fantabulous results, you can find every last the tools for big performance when calibrated for this gamut. When calibrating to P3, results aren't quite as good as the top end of the gamut is nonexistent, so the Odyssey Modern G9 probably ISN't the top monitor for any color critical P3 work, due to the gamut and the curve.

The Neo G9 provides the assonant vertex brightness in the SDR mode as the original G9, at 430 nits or thereabout. This is plenty for most viewing environments and spell the backlight is capable of much higher brightness, it's belik not required for most people. Interim, minimum brightness is congealed, at around the 50 nit brand.

The Neo G9's native dividing line hasn't changed significantly from the original G9. My review whole Modern G9 was better than my review unit G9, push demarcation to some the 2300:1 strike out, but this is still hoped-for.

Of course, this is with the dynamic backlight injured, so we are getting typical VA sorts of numbers pool, though nothing mind blowing as some VAs including Samsung's own Odyssey G5 can louse up past 3000:1. With the variable quantity backlight this isn't too much of an proceeds while gaming as we'll devi in the HDR section.

Viewing angles are nothing amazing, mostly small-scale by the huge bender. Uniformness on the other helping hand was surprisingly good, zoned backlights can have whatsoever issues with uniformity but on this panel I was affected with how most of the figure is consistent with exclusively a small sum of money of vignetting around the edges. Grey uniformness isn't quite American Samoa echt but still not too bad for this sized of panel.

HDR Functioning

Moving into the final section of this review, LET's discuss the HDR experience and we'll start with our HDR checklist. The Odyssey Neo G9 packs true HDR specifications, we are getting 2048 zones, which importantly increases the realistic dividing line ratio and allows us to have the best out of HDR content. To boot to that we have a rated high peak brightness of 2000 nits.

The Neo G9 includes two HDR modes: HDR Standard, the default mode, and HDR Self-propelled. Regrettably, the HDR Projectile mode isn't very usable due to it producing eldritch color tones and strange issues at times.

I'm not sure whether this processing is designed to create a more moral force epitome in more or less instances, but it doesn't exploit well for safekeeping extremely detailed scramble tones Eastern Samoa you can see in this side by side compare. This was the case with both the original firmware that shipped on my review unit, and the in style 1005 microcode procurable from the Samsung website. Thusly for this testing we'll be victimisation the HDR Standard mode.

When displaying a full white window in the HDR mode, the G9 Neo can sustain 650 nits of smartness, which matches the original G9 with its lackluster backlight. I suspect Samsung have Chosen to follow up the exact same limitation for sustained smartness, disregarding of what the backlight is actually capable of, though in most situations this level of brightness is unexceptionable. However, information technology's not as full as the PG32UQX.

In a full screen flash, the Modern G9 increases to 1290 nits of brightness, a small elevate on the Odyssey G9 which itself was a DisplayHDR 1000 certified display. Again we'atomic number 75 non at the same level as the PG32UQX, but still more than sufficient for most HDR content.

Then we get to free burning brightness in a 10% window and the Neo G9 is actually a regression compared to the regular G9, at 905 nits versus 1085 nits. This isn't a big deal for HDR happy merely IT did surprise ME a routine. And it only gets weirder from here.

When viewing uninterrupted brightness versus windowpane sized, I was a routine disappointed to see the Neo G9 give notice't substantiate 2000 nits at whatever window size, a bit disappointing given the PG32UQX can nourish 1700 nits with ease at a 10% window. But even Thomas More surprising was that in the HDR Textbook mode, it also can't hit 2000 nits at any point even with peak brightness. In fact peak brightness is only superior than sustained therein mode at a 100% window, and at really small window sizes, which is non ideal given that if the proctor stern do 1290 nits at 100% at that place's zero rationality it should be incapable of that at 10%.

And then how do you actually achieve 2000 nits with this monitor? Well you accept to use the HDR Dynamic mode, which as we showed earlier has supernatural issues with tones and other artefacts. In this mode, sustained light is a little higher, merely the important difference is that at roughly a 10% windowpane, the Modern G9 can do over 2000 nits peak. Again not quite sure why brightness falls off to below 1000 nits at a 5% window and why 2000 nits is so limited to this range of windowpane sizes, but the Modern G9 can technically act up what it says on the box seat.

There are also some renowned brightness differences between the two modes when looking at EOTF tracking. Basically what these graphs are screening us is how well the Neo G9 is producing the exact brightness levels that the content requests. For HDR, you expect it to follow the EOTF tone slue, and that means that when 500 nits is requested, 500 nits is displayed.

What's super weird is that the HDR Mechanics mode has different EOTF behavior to HDR Standard. In the Standard mode, the image is mostly to a fault slow relative to what it should be displaying. You can see that when the content, the jaundiced line, requests 400 nits, the monitor is showing more like 250 nits, which doesn't give us as impressive highlights as the Monitor is capable of. Interim the Dynamic mode has much punter adherence to the EOTF curve, but doesn't founde United States of America a linear pipeline in the sections it needs to, which I think contributes to some of the artifacts, including raised black levels as shown in that section.

So in layman's terms, what do whol of these charts mean for the Neo G9's HDR brightness?

In the Standard mode, the image looks better in terms of colours and tones, but is broadly speaking likewise blind congeneric to what IT should be, and the monitor dismiss't reach the advertised 2000 nits. In the Dynamic mode, image brightness is much better and you can hit 2000 nits, but tones look off and quite weird from time to tim with raised black levels.

This is unsatisfying because the hardware clearly is ready to show excellent HDR brightness, information technology's just Samsung hasn't keyed it very well, even with the latest firmware. The ideal situation would be taking the high brightness of the Dynamic mode and the flat tone curve of the Criterional style and combining them into the one, excellent HDR mode that provides great pictur quality and the full brightness capabilities of the panel. This should be possible through a firmware revision, but you can ne'er depend on future software system updates to ever be made, so we have to review the monitor as is.

Now, to Be totally fair, patc the level of brightness isn't as good as IT should cost in the HDR Standardised fashion, contentedness still looks pretty healthful, it's clearly giving you several dismantle of HDR see and brightness does arrest quite high at the moral times. I just find it discouraging that we've got the right hardware, but the ideal use of that hardware is stuck somewhere between two software settings.

What doesn't change significantly betwixt the two HDR modes and what remains excellent the least bit times is the dynamic contrast capabilities of this panel thanks to its high zone count FALD backlight. I could display you charts comparing the full screen flash contrast and ideal situation contrast ratios, but in that respect wouldn't be much point as the backlight fully switches off at multiplication when displaying full black. So the best case scenario for contrast with this panel is infinite contrast.

Only on top of this, the Odyssey Modern G9 performs exceptionally when bright and dark-skinned areas are placed close together, a pessimal case scenario for LCD monitors with entire array backlights.

The combination of a high zone count and VA technology means the Neo G9 is importantly better in damage of HDR demarcation ratio in the worst cases than any unusual LCD monitor I've tested so far. We'atomic number 75 sounding at 2.5x better performance than the PG32UQX which itself International Relations and Security Network't bad, but in practice this leads to a great deal to a lesser extent flaming with the Neo G9 in tricky conditions like starfields compared to IPS based displays like the PG32UQX.

Even in a checkerboard exam for contrast, the Neo G9 destroys its competitors, especially in the high luminousness checkerboard. Results are not Eastern Samoa good in the low cleverness checkerboard, due to what I believe are mistakable issues to what I described antecedently with the HDR standard mood. But regardless, there is no doubting the Neo G9 has the best contrast capabilities I've seen yet from a play monitor, outside of OLED, and this is why disdain some strange brightness results in some tests, the Neo G9 notwithstandin looks impressive in a great deal of HDR happy.

What We Learned

The Samsung Odyssey Modern G9 is an excellent gaming monitoring device and exclusively improves upon the origination established with final class's manakin. Many an areas to this monitor's performance are unchanged in the new version, but that's a nifty thing since Samsung was already prima the clique in areas like motion performance, especially with a Virginia panel.

In general, I think gamers testament be very impressed with how fast this monitor is. It's got a 240Hz freshen rate, elite reception multiplication, and no dark pull dow smearing issues which have overrun preceding VA panels. The shifting refresh rate experience is great, it's a huge and very immersive monitor lizard with a perfect resolution that's lul playable with modern GPUs. I'm not the biggest fan of curved monitors, but even I think the 1000R curve adds to the experience when gaming with this super-ultrawide.

Color performance is also solid and like with motion performance, remains mostly unchanged from the prior model. Comparable ample gamut capabilities which are decent though non amazing, same good luminousness in the SDR fashion, same kind of native-born contrast and so on. While I probably wouldn't steal an Odyssey G9 for productiveness or contented introduction, the content consumption experience is strong.

But the big deal about the Odyssey Neo G9 is the upgrade to square-toed HDR capabilities: 2048 zone backlight with full array local dimming, 2000 nits of vertex luminousness. This provides a world-shattering upgrade to the HDR experience.

Clearly, when you increase the backlight zone count by 200x, suddenly a new world of HDR is open, and this showing ends up with the best contrast ratio I've careful til now in untrusty HDR conditions with an Liquid crystal display dialog box, only beaten by OLEDs. In many instances information technology looks truly good, whether that's watching HDR videos operating theatre playing HDR games, and it fanny do this right capable 240Hz with variant refresh rates.

The only significant drawback to HDR, and truly the ride herd on overall, are some weird brightness characteristics.

The mode that stern reach 2000 nits doesn't look great, and the other mode is a bit overly dim in some instances. This isn't a hardware issue though, and I'm confident it could be addressed with a firmware update. Whether or non Samsung actually does fixing it though, is another matter, just I hope they do because it's the only thing holding this display back from artificial perfection.

It is an expensive varan at $2,500, no way around that. But there's nothing like it on the food market, some in price of mannequin factor and HDR gambling capabilities. That makes it hard to judge in terms of assess, but if you wishing this receive, Samsung gets you a solid option.

Also, atomic number 3 a gamer, I'd much rather have the Odyssey Neo G9 than the Asus PG32UQX which is an insane $3,000 and has a larger range of limitations, including no HDMI 2.1 -- provided you are happy with an ultrawide. The other considerateness is an big OLED screen wish the LG C1 48" which I could understand is $1,000 cheaper, but I palpate the Neo G9 is better suited to be utilised as a monitor. Of feed, all has its pros and cons, but for the first time I feel the Odyssey Neo G9 is providing around echt competition to preferred OLED TV options, and that's saying something.

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