Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 review: an ultra-widescreen gaming monitor sensation

What you should take away from this Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 review is that this is one of the best gaming monitors there has ever been. It's really no surprise as the original Samsung Odyssey G9 before it was just as eye-catching. 

There's no denying this is an absolute beast of an ultra-widescreen monitor with 49 inches of screen real estate corner to corner, and a tight 1000R curvature to the monitor, you really feel part of games (and movies too). The screen resolution remains the same as before as well, at 5,120 x 1,440 pixels.

In our Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 review we'll outline everything you need to know about this giant monitor – from the gaming performance to the time it takes to set up to the connections and ports you've got available – so you can decide if it's the right buy for you.

This is one seriously impressive monitor, but it clearly won't be ideal for everyone. For others, though, it's going to be the ultimate panel. So let's see why.

Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 review: design and setup

The setup process for the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 isn't particularly complicated, but the sheer size of the hardware means you're going to need someone to help you to put it together – this isn't a monitor you can assemble on your own. You're also going to need a screwdriver to attach the stand to the screen, which isn't the case with many other monitors. Wall mounting is an alternative option, if you need it.

With the stand, you're looking at a total size of 45.3 inches x 21.1 inches x 16.5 inches (that's 1151 mm x 536 mm x 419 mm) and a weight of 32 pounds (14.5 kilograms). You'll need a lot of room to put this up, and it takes up more space from front to back than you might think, because of the curved design. The bulbous back features a lot of white plastic and the same RGB LED lighting ring as the original Odyssey G9, and the ports face straight down, making plugging everything in a little tricky.

You can adjust the height of the monitor fairly easily, and it tilts and swivels to a limited degree as well. Once it's been set up, you can just about move it without any help, but have no doubts about the size and weight of this particular piece of hardware – it's only for those who want the ultimate in gaming monitor technology, and have the space for it. There are no integrated speakers here, so you'll need room for some external speakers too (or a pair of headphones).

The on-screen menu that you get with the Odyssey Neo G9 is straightforward enough to get around, enabling you to quickly adjust the screen's key settings, jump between modes, and enable the picture-in-picture capability if you've got more than one input connected. Ports-wise we've got one DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1, two USB-A, one USB-B and a 3.5 mm headphone jack (though it's worth noting that only the DisplayPort supports the maximum 240Hz refresh rate).

Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 review: features and picture

The 32:9 aspect ratio VA LCD panel on the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is backlit using the same quantum mini LED technology used in Samsung's top-end TVs. It's the key upgrade from last year's model, it's a key selling point for the display, and it results in a stunning picture: games look fantastic on this monitor, with rich and vivid colours, deep blacks, and not barely any ghosting to speak of. There's HDR support included, which results in a well-balanced panel with no loss of detail.

As well as a maximum 2,000 nits of brightness, the monitor offers a 1ms response time, a maximum 240Hz refresh rate, 100 percent of the sRGB gamut, 90 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut, and support for both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Pro. It all adds up to a picture that looks vibrant and sharp no matter what you happen to be doing with it – there's no doubt you're getting one of the best monitors on the market at the moment in terms of the end results.

The ultra-widescreen form factor makes a significant difference in lots of games – from racing games to first-person shooters. One of the games we used for testing was Red Dead Redemption 2, and the sweeping landscapes of the American West never looked so good. It also means lots of room for stacking windows side by side for your general computing tasks, though it's worth bearing in mind that movies and shows are going to appear with thick black borders down the sides.

We're not sure we'd choose this for a general purpose computing monitor – not because of any major flaws, but just because there are better options out there, and flat monitors tend to be better for spreadsheets, web browsing and so on. This won't work brilliantly with Macs or with gaming consoles either, because of the extended form factor, so it really is just for those top-end Windows gaming rigs.

Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 review: price and verdict

Check the widgets embedded on this page for the latest Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 pricing, but at the time of writing the official retail prices are £1,849 for the UK, $2,499 in the US and AU$2,999 in Australia – that's a lot of cash, but you're certainly getting a lot of monitor in return. It's also worth checking our Samsung discount codes to see if you can get a lower price. If you want the very best gaming monitor tech out there, in the largest and most extravagant form factor, then it's hard to beat what you get with this. 

In terms of negatives, perhaps the biggest one is that it's simply too much for a lot of people: not just too much in terms of the price, but also in terms of its size, its curvature, it's weight and so on. Most gamers simply don't need to go to this kind of level – and bear in mind too that you've going to need a seriously powerful GPU setup in order to drive all of these pixels, so that's something else to weigh up in terms of costs.

The quantum mini LEDs that Samsung has introduced here – all 2,048 of them – produce a stunning picture for your games and everything else you might want to do on the monitor. The local dimming is exceptionally well done, and it's easy to tell that Samsung has plenty of expertise in TVs as well as monitors. Gaming is the panel's primary focus, but you do of course get lots of room for everything else as well.

While there are cheaper ultra-widescreen monitors out there, none can match the specs and the picture quality of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 at the moment – so it's a question of whether you want or need to pay for the very best or not. You're likely to be blown away by the quality of the monitor when it comes to your Windows gaming, but it's up to you to decide if you think you have the space and the budget for it.