Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 review: an awesome ultrawide gaming monitor
The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 is the 2023 model from the Samsung Odyssey line and the latest to make a tilt at our best gaming monitors list. As the more observant of you will have spotted from the name, it's the OLED version of the Samsung Odyssey G9 from 2021.
With 49-inches of screen real estate configured in a 32:9 aspect ratio, this is very much for those who want one of the best ultrawide monitors around. It shows off certain games superbly and lets you easily get multiple windows side-by-side in Windows and macOS.
This full and comprehensive Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 review should help you decide whether or not it's the monitor for you. If you need more help kitting out your gaming setup, check out our lists of the best gaming chairs and the best gaming headsets too.
Samsung Odyssey OLED G9: price & availability
The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 is available to buy now, and the widgets embedded on this page should give you the most up-to-date pricing and the best deals available on the web. At the time we're writing this review, you can pick up the monitor for a price of ￡1,600 in the UK and $2,200 in the US. In the UK, it's available direct from Samsung.
Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 review: design & setup
At 49-inches corner to corner, and weighing in at 12.9kg with the stand, this is a big unit – you can just about put it together on your own, but we'd recommend having someone else around to lend a hand.
Aside from the size and the weight, it's straightforward enough to put together, with the stand and the base and the monitor all slotting into each other. Thumbscrews mean that no screwdriver is required.
The Odyssey OLED G9 has on-board software, so you don't actually need to plug anything into it to start streaming video through apps like YouTube or Netflix. There's a supplied remote control, and getting these apps up and running is fairly straightforward if a little on the sluggish side, as is hooking the monitor up to a local Wi-Fi network (this can also be used to update the software running on the monitor itself).
As far as design aesthetic goes, this is very much following the trend of previous Odyssey monitors. With a curved monitor like this, you are of course going to get a lot of bulk around the back, and it's a mass of silvery plastic – not that you're really going to be spending a lot of time looking at the back of the monitor. There's a simple bit of cable management built into the stand, which we appreciate.
The lighting effect on the back of the stand is pleasant and customisable, and gives the monitor an even more premium feel. As far as ports go, you've got one DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.1, a Micro-HDMI 2.1, and two USB-A 3.0 hubs that you can use to hook up peripherals and charge other devices.
Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 review: features & picture
With a 32:9 aspect ratio – so double the standard 16:9 in terms of width – this is for a very specific type of ultrawide monitor fan. You've got a 5120 x 1440 pixel resolution, a maximum 250 nits of brightness, a 1800R curvature, a static contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, a impressive 0.03ms grey-to-grey response time, support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, and 99 per cent coverage of the DCI colour gamut.
Add in the OLED panel technology to those high-end specs, and you get a picture that looks fantastic almost all of the time. There are brighter screens out there, but the colours here are vibrant and well-balanced, while the blacks are as deep and solid as you would expect from OLED's self-emissive output. Motion blurring was practically non-existent, and HDR (high dynamic range) performance held up well in our testing too.
Load up something that can really take advantage of the whole screen – like Red Dead Redemption 2, for example – and it's a truly top-tier, immersive experience. Samsung is targeting this screen primarily towards gamers, and we'd say it fully delivers in that department, assuming you have a console or a PC that's powerful enough to do it justice (and even if you don't it's still pretty great). The Gaming Hub feature that gives you quick access to key settings is really well thought out too.
A word too for the two 5W speakers, which are decently powered and relatively crisp as far as integrated speakers go. While serious gamers will want to hook up a dedicated headset, we think the built-in sound system on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 is going to be good enough for most people. Overall, brightness would be our only real nitpick, but again it's going to satisfy the majority.
Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 review: verdict
The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 is a stunning monitor that gamers will love. It's well designed and engineered, and there's no doubt about its five-star rating – as you can see from our T3 Platinum Award score.
The only question is whether it's specifically the best monitor for you. Yes, it's ideal for gamers interested in ultrawide experiences on a curved screen. No, it's not so ideal if you're only going to be watching movies with massive black bars to the sides.
Not a lot of monitors give you so much built-in functionality either: whether that's wireless casting of content; Xbox, Nvidia, and Amazon cloud gaming; or support for streaming apps. It's a plus point because you get all of this integrated and don't have to use up a port for something like a Chromecast dongle or an Apple TV 4K box.
That price is definitely on the high side, and the monitor's bulk and width is going to put some people off too. However, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has heaps of benefits, and when you give it the right kind of content – like a premium game that can use the full dimensions of the screen – this display provides an untouchable immersive experience.
Also consider
If you want to stick with the Samsung Odyssey series there are lots of options: the 43-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G7, for example, keeps the on-board apps and impressive gaming performance, while coming in a smaller size and costing you significantly less. It's also not a curved monitor, so it ends up being thinner and less bulky.
If you definitely want something that fits into the ultrawide category, then the 34-inch LG UltraGear 34GN850 is certainly worth a look. It's simple to set up, it excels at any kind of task – from gaming to office work – and it comes in at a very reasonable price point too. However, you don't get the contrast and the colours that an OLED panel is able to offer.
