Samsung 49" Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC) Curved Smart Gaming Monitor, QD-OLED, 240Hz, 0.03ms, FreeSync Premium Pro, G-Sync Compatible, Dual QHD, Neo Quantum Processor, LS49CG954SNXZA

Update 2 years later: This panel has been going strong since purchasing in October of 2023. Like others, I too have encountered random black screens. And I resolved it by changing out my Display Port cables. Ironically, the 4th one I chose, a standard DP 1.4 Amazon Basics stopped this issue outright. Last time it happened to me was Jan 2024. No burn in issues to report either or dead pixels. I know others haven't been so lucky with Samsung's panels, but it's been good to me. But it is a gamble. You may get lucky like me, you may not. Original review: I was initially hesitant given how middling the CHG90 was (what I had before this G9 OLED). Along with the usual fears of OLED burn in given this is a PC monitor and would be used as such. Not just gaming. But after a few months of usage, I'm still floored every time I use it. The PPI, colors, clarity, response, refresh, contrast are all amazing. However like all OLEDS, it suffers in total peak brightness (though being a Gen 2 QD panel does help). In HDR it produces amazing contrast, and can even hit 1000 nits in 2% windows for some amazing highlights. But overall it's just a 400 nit panel. Not the worst (better than an HDR 400 LCD), but not HDR1000+ mini LED amazing either. Using in a light controlled room is recommended for optimal usage. The added Tizen smart UI is a bit wonky however, and I wish I had opted for the version without it. I don't ever see myself using a single app from it, ever. No need for it to be on a gaming monitor. Overall, this has been the best monitor I've owned. 5120x1440p 240Hz is perfect, having it be OLED is a cherry topper.

[UPDATE - 12-13-2024] I am updating my review on this panel due to a problem with the VRR support in this panel that I believe showed up at some point after a firmware update that results in the panel just going black randomly, requiring you to forcibly change some settings like resolution to kick it back in gear. Even turning it off and on again doesn't seem to reliably fix it. This seems to happen when opening full screen applications, however it also happens when closing Photoshop. The only workaround appears to be to disable VRR, which also seems to turn off game mode, which prevents access to a lot of handy settings. From what I have read, this does not occur on the less expensive (and preferable, in my opinion) G93SC panel that is functionally identical, minus the spyware smart tv garbage that comes with this version. In conclusion, skip this one, save yourself some money, and go with the G93SC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've had this panel for about 2 weeks now. Coming from a pair of 24" 1080p IPS panels from 2016 this was a massive upgrade for me, so I cant really speak for this panel compared to other similar panels. With that in mind, I love this panel. I have been absolutely blown away by the true blackness of this panel, essentially, the black areas look like the thing isn't even turned on in those areas. It's crazy. For productivity it's almost like having a three-wide panel setup, because I can have windows in the center where the bezel would have been on my previous setup. Since I don't maximize windows basically ever unless it's a video, this means I can easily have my main window centered, with other windows on either side. And there is something to be said for being able to stretch a spreadsheet out to the full 32:9 if I'm working with a particularly large dataset. I've even played around with stretching my VS Code window out to make word wrapping a thing of the past. It's glorious. Games that support 32:9 (or can be forced into it using config tweaks or by using Flawless Widescreen to inject support are so much more immersive, though for the heavy hitters, even my 4080 can struggle to output enough frames, and I've found myself turning down some details to keep things around 60 fps. Video playback is great, except in situations where widescreen videos have baked in letterboxing. This has required finding solutions to zoom the video in somewhat so that I can get the full vertical capacity of the screen, but there are solutions out there. Now for the annoyances. I wish I had known about the "lower" spec version of this panel that does not include the "smart tv" stuff. There is nothing that can do that I cannot (and do not) already do with the PC it is connected to. It's a neat feature, knowing that if I wanted to I could simply take this panel, a keyboard, mouse or controller and still get access to gaming and most of the entertainment stuff I would want to have, but realistically, transporting a 32:9 panel anywhere is just not going to happen. If I want to do those things while traveling, I will simply take my laptop, so I could have saved a couple hundred bucks. Additionally, the UI is not the best. Getting to some settings requires you to first bring up the "smart" menu, then select settings, then you can either select the setting, or go to the settings and select the settings in a different way. It would have been so much nicer to just have a direct access button to the settings. Then, when you are done depending on where you are in the UI you can either simply use the back button on the remote, or sometimes that just puts you into a loop of switching between the smart menu and the smart category, and the only way to get out of that is to go to the input list and select the one you already have selected. It just adds extra actions, and again, would have been so much better to have a button that just exits the smart features directly. And then we come to the panel health features. Certainly a gladly accepted function (assuming it actually does what it says on the tin) A feature to help prevent burn in (a real concern with oled, especially when spending this much on a panel). I love the idea of a feature that will help improve the longevity. I HATE that I have zero control over it. Several times, in the middle of working, I've had this thing pop up and tell me that it will need to turn the panel off for 10 minutes. In the middle of my work day, while I'm in a teams meeting, while I'm working on code, whenever. I would REALLY like to have an option to set a specific time for this to happen, or even better, schedule a time when the panel can just shut off for an extended period of time (like when I go to bed at night) without screwing up my monitor settings in Windows, because if I just turn the panel off, suddenly all of my windows shift to other displays on my system (I've got a 24" panel to the right, and a 43" tv above). Samsung! Let me set a schedule for this health improvement feature for the love of god! Then there is the fact that after this completes and the panel turns back on, it insists on telling me that it finished, as if I can't tell because there is an image on screen. And this notification doesn't just show up for a couple seconds, I have to use the remove to tell it okay to make it go away. Does Samsung think I'm a moron? I think they do. One thing I do wish, is that this panel was available with a 1000r curve. Because it is so much larger than my previous pair of 24" panels, I actually find that the extreme sides of the panel aren't as easily readable because they aren't angled toward me as much as I had my two panels angled. The 1800r curve definitely is better than if it were flat, but I kind of feel like a 1000r curve would have made this a complete non-issue, though admittedly as the cost of desk real estate due to the panel being "deeper". This is probably a somewhat niche thing, but probably worth mentioning. I have a Tobii eye tracker. Currently I have only mounted this by using double double sided tape on the bottom of the panel. This works, but isn't the cleanest. Obviously since the panel is curved I can't mount it properly until I print out a curved adaptor for it. This isn't a deal breaker, but probably worth knowing for anyone else who has a tobii. So ultimately, this is an amazing panel that is hindered by how "smart" it isn't. I suspect that if I had gotten the non "smart" version, this would have been a 5 star review. Naturally, I will follow up on this review in the future if it blows up or whatever, or if Samsung decides to hire some actual UX people and improves things in that area.

WOW.... 1) I am 95% about production type work (Spreadsheets, Emails, Billing), and "thinking about" doing a little gaming, now that I am only working part time, not that I am in my mid 60's. 2) I hooked my new Samsung 49" Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC) Series Curved Smart Gaming Monitor up to my HP Probook 450 G6 laptop. 3) I immediately thought I had made a mistake in purchasing this new G95SC monitor. The laptops image DID fill the whole 32:9 Ultrawide screen, but all of the documents, icons, pictures, texts were extremely stretched to fill the screen. It looked awful. My immediate thought was to box it back up and return it. I decided to wait until my new desktop computer arrived in a couple days. 4) I plugged this monitor into a new desktop that had a video card that could 32:9 graphics (RTX 5080 Prime) and "WOW", the monitor popped to life. Distorted icons, documents and pictures were now all perfectly view on this awesome monitor. I can now easily put three documents up on the screen, all at once and just slide my pointer to any of the documents I want (ALL ON ONE SCREEN).... Man, did I say, "This monitor is awesome"!? I can fit four documents on this monitor too, if I want, but I find three documents at one time, is perfect for what I do. 5) At first, I doubted that I did the right thing by buying this. I thought perhaps I should have gone with three monitors turned up vertically, but the issue with that is, small (21" or 24"), do not come with the specs that this G95SC does, and my documents would have physically been on three different screens, with that annoying bezel in the way. 6) No doubt about it... I AM HAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE. It was a little pricey, but it has great specs. looks great and ticks all the boxes I needed for a productive monitor. And oh yeah, #7 It looks awesome as a gaming monitor too! LOL I have only used it for MSFS 20024 so far, but with .03 latency, and all the specs that a great gaming monitor needs, I have no doubt that it will perform flawlessly in and environment I put it in. 8) If you have the money, and the graphics card to run it.... "DO IT"! 9) WOW

My son purchased this for his computer set up and the quality is unreal. Very satisfied with this purchase

Bought this in March of 2024. It arrived and it was amazing. Then, in May is started blacking out. Every five minutes or so it will go completely black in the middle of the game. Called Samsung. They told me it’s the HDMI cable. They won’t cover their own HDMI cable within warranty. So I went and bought a new one. Same thing. Screen blacking out. Tried the monitor cable. Same issue. Called again. They refused to take the screen for repair or assessment. I argued. Here is the lies I was told on separate calls. 1. We don’t have a supervisor present. You won’t be able to talk to management. 2. We decided we will repair it. You have to take it to the authorized repair center. - I called repair center. They were very confused. Because Samsung never created a ticket. 3. We don’t create tickets before repairs. We wait for the repair to happen then create a ticket. 4. I personally will contact the repair center, and will email you when you can bring the monitor to them. This is an expensive monitor. That is not going to receive any support from Samsung. If it works - great. If it doesn’t it’s an almost 2K piece of trash. I am severely disappointed in Samsung. As an Apple user this is my first experience with the brand. Safe to say it’s my last. Never going to be dealing with them again. Amazon, bless their heart have given me a return label. Sending this screen back.

Only had it for a couple of days so far, but it looks awesome. Don't have any issues with Text at the default display settings. Use it for Work and Home/Gaming. It does come with mini HDMI, but also regular HDMI and DP, but those are a little difficult to get connected due to their lateral location. It also comes with a built in USB-C Hub. Both the upstream and downstream connectors are USB-C. Gaming is beautiful on this monitor. Playing Diablo 4 doesn't use the whole screen, but enough of it that I can see the whole horizontal map, if not the full vertical dimension. Civ VI via Steam will use the whole screen and looks great as well. I thought I had an arm for it, but it turns out it was too weak for the weight of the monitor. Ended up going with a Vivo for $110 Canadian, and that is working great so far. The stand is nice too though and is very heavy duty. So far very happy with my purchase.

This is by far the best looking monitor I have ever owned. Allan wake 2 Looks like glass, just spectacular. I have noticed there are some reviewers saying the screen will just turn off to do the pixel refresh, perhaps a new firmware update has fixed this issue because the screen has never just " turned off" while using it. It has however told me that a pixel refresh is due and it will perform the refresh the next time the monitor is turned off. I would recommend using a Spyder to calibrate it as it makes the colors really *pop* and lowers saturation. Just all around an excellent monitor.

The Samsung Odyssey G9 delivers a stunning display when paired with a high-performance laptop, like one with an Intel Ultra 9 processor. However, not all laptops support its full quality, leading to potential blurriness on such a large screen. Additionally, it requires high-end HDMI or DisplayPort cables, adding about $100 to the overall cost. The screen quality is excellent, but its size and weight make it suitable only for a permanent setup on a large desk. The rear light feature is subtle and often goes unnoticed. One major downside is the sound quality—it feels like an afterthought and falls far below expectations for a monitor in this price range. For a better gaming experience, investing in external speakers or a soundbar is essential. While the monitor is slightly overpriced, it excels in visual performance when set up properly.