This week, Samsung unveiled their new Odyssey OLED G8 gaming monitor at IFA in Germany.
Odyssey G8 has a 34-inch screen and is boasting an ultra slim thickness of only 3.9millimeters at its thinnest part, which looking at it seems to be the very edges of the monitor itself. It’s the slimmest in its category to date which is impressive. It has height adjustment and tilting features though exact measurements are yet to be seen and around the back you’ve got CoreSync & Core Lighting+ which is essentially Samsung’s way of projecting colour onto your wall so it leaks out around the edges, again to heighten that immersion. It features Micro HDMI (2.1), Mini DP (1.4) and USB-C ports.
There’s no backlighting either its all controlled at the pixel level, which aids with the accuracy of colours in an image a true black screen when pixels aren’t needed to make up a picture. We’re expecting huge contrast ratios and brightness to really aid HDR gaming. But this is something that we’re yet to see in real life, so we’ll let you know if we get the chance to see one. It does however have a VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certificate attached to it.
The max resolution is 3440, 1440 which for a 21:9 monitor isn’t the highest, but I can’t say that it’s going to be bad. 1440p ultrawide gaming is alright, but I must admit for this monitor being 34-inches, a 4K equivalent resolution would have been preferable. 0.1ms response time and 175Hz refresh rate which is ideal for gamers.
The screen has an 1800R curve for maximum immersion and follows suit to other Odyssey monitors that have come to market. I very much like a 1800R curve. 1500R seems a little too sharp to me but 1800R is excellent for the peripherals.
The Odyssey G8 comes with an internet-enabled connection and will give users the ability to stream from popular on-demand services like Netflix and Amazon Prime and free service Samsung TV Plus, and it’s also compatible with Samsung’s SmartThings app so you can monitor your IoT devices directly from the monitor which is a really nice feature. If you’re just wanting to watch some content then you can do it without the need to turn on your PC.
The Odyssey OLED G8 will be available globally from Q4 2022, with launch schedules varying by region.
