Two years ago, Samsung released the Odyssey monitor family and completely changed the rules on gaming monitors. The gaming monitors we’ve seen to this day have lagged behind televisions in important technologies. But the G7 and G9 models both had the image quality of QLED televisions and player performance such as low reaction and high frequency. Add to that the Odyssey G9’s massive size of 49″ and its 1,000R bend, and we’ve seen a monitor with features we’ve never seen before. Now with the new Odyssey Neo G9 model, Samsung is raising the bar again.
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 was released in some countries at the end of the summer with a very limited number and arrived in our country only 3 weeks ago. I’ve been following him since it was announced, and I’ve been calling Samsung all the time to see when he’s coming. Thanks to them, they sent me one first thing as soon as they arrived, and I’ve been using it for three weeks straight. But as a hardware editor who grew up on 14″ monochrome monitors, I also find it hard to believe that such a monitor exists and that I use it. I think my feelings are the same as william shatner in space.
In fact, from the outside, the Odyssey Neo G9 is no different in appearance than the previous model. A stunning screen with a size of 49″ that doubles the size of other monitors on one side and a deep twist that surrounds you, and a bright white case from sci-fi movies on the back. Many technical characteristics, such as the refresh frequency, are the same. Because the main difference of this new model lies in the back panel lighting. The old model was a Quantum LED monitor neo G9 a Quantum Mini-LED monitor. The “Mini” difference makes it the newest and most advanced display technology in the world. So far we have only seen it on the most expensive tablets, televisions Mini-LED and I use it on a gaming monitor for the first time. I’ve never even come across another brand that announced a Mini LED monitor of this size and features.
What is the prowess of mini-LED?
So what makes the Mini-LED special? To understand this, it is necessary to understand very briefly how LED monitors work. All monitors and televisions work just like shadow games, except for oled ones. There is an image on a thin LCD panel at the front, that is, colors, shapes, movements, a light strikes it from behind and the image is formed when you see the light. The weak point of this system is that the light source in the back is the only one, so when it lights up, it illuminates the entire screen. Therefore, the brightness difference between black and white, that is, the contrast is low.
What’s the difference with a mini LED? Imagine taking the light source on the back and turning it into 2048 small LEDs. Each LED can flash on its own. Thus, one point of the screen is bright, while the other side can be pitch black. Not all the lights, the brightness, are intertwined. For example, when you move a full white box on a full black screen, you can see the difference. On classic LED LCD monitors, everything lights up and turns to shades of gray, starting with the pixel right next to the white area to the end of the screen. But on the Mini-LED screen of the Neo G9 you clearly see that there is a sharp line between white and black, the rest of the monitor remains completely black..
That’s what separates a quality monitor and an ordinary monitor in 2022. You have already heard of this as Local Dimming Zones on television, we can translate it into Turkish as a local lighting area, and this is the most important feature that determines the quality of a monitor.
Until now, this technology was nonexistent in gaming monitors, until the previous generation samsung’s most expensive 8K QLED televisions had fewer local dimming regions. Thanks to this Quantum Mini-LED technology, there are 2048 on this monitor. This is a revolution for monitor technology. Until now, we could only get a similar effect on OLED monitors, but as you may have heard, OLEds always burn as long as the same image remains, so although they are used on tv, they are very troublesome to use on the computer, over time Windows logos, windows closing, cross icons remain constant on the screen.
A sparkle in the middle of darkness
So how does the 2048 Mini-LED in practice change our lives? You see the benefits and differences of this new technology most in dark games. The dark scenes of Halo Infinite, for example, are as different as the worlds between them and an ordinary monitor. On the same stage, when dark spaces are barely selected, you can see an object or character shining brightly on it. That’s why dark games on this monitor are going incredibly well, like Hellblade and A Plague Tale. It’s a whole other experience.
But it doesn’t just make life easier in games, you can use your computer much more easily in night contact. So you can enjoy clear, neat posts that don’t get mixed up in black, writing, reading, forums, reddit, social media. It’s not a messy gray screen.
And deep, real blacks aren’t the only benefit of quantum mini-LED. This backlighting is much more powerful and bright as it consists of 2048 separate LEDs. So when you actually play a game that’s bright, bright, and hdr-supported, like Forza Horizon, there’s a big difference. Because the Odyssey G9 with 2000 nits of brightness can give credit to the bright scenes. Already this monitor hdr 2000, we have seen 400, 800 of HDR before, but this is the first time I have heard of HDR2000, such a brightness, there is no such standard. The standards of the VESA association that distributes these HDR logos end at 1400. They didn’t take into account that one day an HDR 2000 monitor could come out.
In this way, you feel the HDR effect much more powerfully in games, and it does not bother you to use a computer in daylight, in the light, for example, when hitting the glass monitor with light, playing games. That’s a big plus.
Ancient heritage
All I’ve told you so far is the characteristics of the Odyssey Neo G9, which is different from the previous model, the Odyssey G9. But when these are added, the Odyssey G9 is added on top of the features that make it the best gaming monitor already available. Let’s also look at the features inherited from the previous model.
Surely it is necessary to start with the enormous size of the Odyssey G9. A monster 120 centimeters from one end to the other, two QHD monitor-wide monsters. When you sit across from it, from a distance of about 40cm, that is, a little closer, it completely covers your field of view. You don’t see anything but the monitor.
That’s why it only compares to VR headsets when you’re playing games, expanding your field of view, driving you into the game. Because when you lose, you see nothing but the game. And your field of view is so wide that, for example, on Forza Horizon, you see not only the path in front of you, but also the sunset over the sea, the passage of the mountains through the hills. Or in FPS games, you can catch side-by-side attackers with the tip of your eye. In strategy games, such as Age of Empires IV, a very large part of the map fits on the screen. Because your resolution is 5120×1440 and most game heights are held together with other monitors and play the game with your view open from the sides. In other words, this size increases the experience you get in games, offers a wide visuality that surrounds you, and provides a very serious advantage.
Of course, some competitive FPS games do not allow you to use this resolution. Then you open the game with a lower resolution, the sides are black. But I don’t think you’re going to get this monitor to play CS anyway.
The secret of the experience is in twisting
What makes such a large monitor available is that it is bent. Because as the monitor grows, the edges and the angle at which you look in the middle change and the image begins to be bent in the corners you are looking at at a narrower angle. It’s like trying to watch a movie from the front in a movie theater. The biggest monitor I’ve ever used was the 55″, and frankly, I was very uncomfortable. If you ask me, monitors larger than 32″ have to be sighing or you’re really not comfortable. 49″, which makes the need for bending even greater.
One of the features that makes the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 special is that it is narrower than other inner-bend monitors. I mean, the way he’s wrapping you up. We refer to these monitor bends by diameter calculation. So if this bend is a piece of circle, what is the half diameter of the circle that makes it? For example, in this Neo G9, it’s 1000mm in diameter, so it’s 1000R bent. The smaller this figure gets, the more the monitor wraps you up and reaches your view curve when the diameter decreases to 1000mm. So a 1000R monitor has the natural twist of your eye. Therefore, when using this monitor, even if it is huge, your eyes feel much more natural and comfortable, they get less tired.
Another feature I found striking in the Odyssey Neo G9 is the picture in-picture and picture feature next to the picture. The monitor has two HDMI and an Display Port input. You can adjust the images here, side by side, any way you want. For example, when you turn on a computer on half the monitor and have a lecture or meeting in Zoom, you can plug in an Xbox and play games on the other half. Or you can plug in two separate consoles and play games for two people. The fantastic usage facilities provided by the monitor are very good. Because two QHD monitors are created when the monitor is split in two, they are divided into playable areas with pleasure, not strange vertical areas.
All-round features
The more standard features and support are also very good neo G9. It already has new technologies since it supports HDMI 2.1. Adaptive Sync, G-Sync, FreeSync all support, low input lag support. The game console is seamless because it supports 144Hz in HDMI. If you use Display Port on the computer, the refresh rate goes up to 240Hz. And the latency is only 1 millisecond. On paper, all the features of this monitor are perfect, not a single weakness.
By design, the Odyssey family is one of my favorite line of monitors, but the G9 has a special place in them, of course. I especially like the white futuristic structure of the back panel. You know, in science fiction novels, there’s a very superior civilization, like Deus Ex Machina, with ships of amazing beauty. This smooth surface, the rounded lines remind me of that. At the point where the monitor meets the foot, there’s an LED-illuminated part that complements the design, which looks like the spaceship’s propulsion. But Led is not very strong, but it illuminates itself, for example, it cannot paint the wall at the back to a certain color.
Despite its size and design beauty, it has a foot that takes up surprisingly little space on the table. In fact, some of the 34″ monitors I used had more feet occupying the table. He’s got solid feet that are too wide to the sides but not too far ahead. There’s also a part of the foot that stores the cables and a headphone strap. The only thing I’m saying could be better at designing is that the panel that stores the cables is a big one-piece cover. It’s kind of hard to put this off the back when the monitor’s big. It has a two-port USB hub in the back, you also use it for firmware update, for example it makes it difficult to use those ports.
Speaking of firmware, I’ve seen some problems and bugs mentioned in some foreign media that examined the monitor when it first came out in the summer. The product came to me with 1007 firmware and I upgraded it to 1008 first thing and I haven’t had any problems in three weeks. I’ll write that down, too.
My dreams and my monitor
Of course, so many features, technology, unrivalledness, of course, have a serious price. Unfortunately, it’s not a product for everyone. It was sold for £30,000 on amazon.com.au while I was doing this review. But a small consolation is that it’s $5,000 to $6,000 less than it is in the U.S. and Europe. In Turkey, you know, all kinds of gaming products are an extra expensive, Samsung has at least followed a price policy aware of the country’s conditions.
As a result, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is an amazing gaming monitor that has only ever adorned our dreams. Of course, as technology advances, there will be better ones, but let’s note the Neo G9 as a touchstone in hardware history, where our dreams come true.
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