First Impressions: Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch is the most impressive gaming monitor I’ve ever seen, with an immersive ultrawide design along with the first dual UHD gaming display and a stonking 240Hz refresh rate. That said, with a high price and specs that very few graphics cards can fully support, this monitor is a luxury that very few people can justify.

Introduction

Samsung has become the king of the ultrawide gaming monitor in recent years, with its Odyssey G9 series sporting a stretched-out 32:9 panel to improve immersion tenfold. 

Yet Samsung is refusing to rest on its laurels, launching a new 57-inch model for 2023. Not only has Samsung stretched out the panel to achieve a wider design, but it’s also upped the pixel count and upgraded the DisplayPort connection. 

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch is the world’s first Dual UHD gaming monitor, which means you can display two 4K pictures sides by side from different sources. It truly is a mouthwatering spec sheet, making it difficult to see where else Samsung could improve. But does it hold up in practice? After going hands on with the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch at Gamescom 2023, here are my thoughts. 

Design

• Sports a 57-inch curved screen
• Stylish sci-fi design
• Features a DisplayPort 2.1 port

The older and smaller 49-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 gaming monitor was so visually impressive that I had numerous colleagues stop by and laud its impressive curved screen that envelops your peripheral vision. 

The new Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch takes this further, adding an extra 8 inches to the screen. That makes a big difference, as the wider screen is allowed more space to wrap around my peripheral vision.

When trying it out on the Gamescom 2023 show floor, I was enamoured with the level of immersion on offer. I could almost forget about the busy crowds behind me as I soaked in the bright, vivid colours of the popular MMO Black Desert. 

Otherwise, Samsung has stuck with the tried-and-tested design that has helped make the Odyssey G9 series such a resounding success. The two-pronged stand ensures a sturdy base, while the small bezel ensures your eyes remain fixated solely on what’s occurring on screen. 

I’m also a big fan of the white plastic that adorns the rear, giving the Odyssey Neo G9 a distinctive sci-fi design aesthetic. It looks great, and is one of the few gaming monitors I’ve seen that I’d be happy to have its rear exposed to friends, family and colleagues.

The port offering remains largely the same, with the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 although Samsung has upgraded the DisplayPort 1.4 connection to DisplayPort 2.1 in order for users to make the most out of the Dual 4K and 240Hz refresh rate. 

The biggest issue here is that the vast majority of graphics cards don’t currently support DisplayPort 2.1 – not even the ultra-expensive Nvidia RTX 4090. Only AMD’s latest Radeon 7000 generation features the required connection to get full use out of the Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch. This limits the number of people that this monitor makes much sense for in the present, although will future-proof your setup for years to come. 

It’s also possible to connect two different sources simultaneously, so you could have your gaming PC displayed on one side, and your PS5 on the other.

Image quality and Performance

• Absorbing Mini LED screen
• Can display two 4K pictures side by side
• Requires powerful GPU for full potential

The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch features the same excellent screen technology as its predecessor, with Quantum Mini LED lighting. This boasts an advantage over OLED in terms of a greater peak brightness, with Samsung suggesting an SDR peak of 420 nits. For comparison, the Odyssey G9 OLED is limited to a peak 250-nit brightness. 

Despite the high brightness, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch isn’t quite as competitive when it comes to contrast, restricted to a 2500:1 result, whereas the perfect black levels of the OLED model sees a remarkable 1,000,000:1 contrast. Of course, we’ll need to verify these figures when we get a review model of the new monitor. 

Which one is superior, out of Mini LED and OLED, will come down to your own personal preference, but what I can say is the vibrant picture of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch looks remarkable. The emerald grass on screen looks striking, as does the bright blue staff that glistens so brightly that it appears as if it’s popping out of the panel. 

The headline feature of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch is the Dual UHD resolution. With a 7680 x 2160 pixel count, this monitor is capable of displaying two 4K pictures side by side. Opt for a single image instead, stretched out across the entire panel, and that pixel count is approaching 8K territory. 

Bundle in the gloriously high 240Hz refresh rate, and the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch is the complete package in terms of both high fidelity and lightning-quick performance. In fact, these specs are so high that there’s only really one graphics card that can maximise the potential of this monitor, and that’s the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX. The Nvidia RTX 4090 arguably offers enough power too, but its DisplayPort 1.4 connection handicaps it to 4K at 120Hz and 8K at 60Hz.

As such the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57-inch has a tiny market. If you don’t own AMD’s most powerful graphics card, you’re better off sticking with the more affordable Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 49-inch, which has a lower Dual Quad HD resolution instead.