Ultrawide monitors are amazing technologies. We love an ultrawide monitor because it eliminates the need for us to run two monitors at the same time. It is also sort of a more economical way of running multiple monitors in terms of space. Instead of having to fit two monitor stands, you only need one.
Ultrawide monitors are great for gaming too, in our opinions at least. You see more of the gaming world. You get more information from the environment around you. In games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, you get a little more immersion and situational awareness from an ultrawide view. When you go into racing games like Forza Horizon, or Assetto Corsa, or even Need for Speed titles for that matter, you get to go full immersive mode by putting yourself into the cockpit of the racing car and having all your information on one display. You only need to swivel your head to find information you need in your cockpit.
Imagine our excitement when Samsung first announced their Odyssey G9, a 49-inch gaming monitor that is a beast to work with. It packed dual 1440p displays to create a 32:9 aspect ratio that is quite unheard of. It also pushes the envelope of gaming with up to 240Hz in refresh rate, higher than any high-end monitor that boasts 1440p QHD in resolution.
Samsung has upped the ante when it comes to the ultimate gaming monitor though. They have introduced the behemoth that is the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9. To be fair to the monitor too, the technologies fitted to it sounds more like a high-end television than a gaming monitor.
It did not lose any heft and size at 49-inch. It has not lost that ultrawide magic too at 32:9 aspect ratio on the display. At 1000R, the curvature is exactly the same as the older Odyssey G9 too. In fact, side-by-side, the Neo G9 and the original G9 looks practically the same.
Dig deeper though, and you find a world of difference in the Odyssey Neo G9 compared to the original Odyssey G9. You now find a Quantum Mini LED panel to push the same 5,120 by 1,440 pixels (Dual QHD) out of the ultrawide 49-inch display. That means more brilliant colours and brighter display.
You get 12-bit colour depth over the 8-bit on the original G9, far more colours also mean smoother colour gradients and better lighting control on the display itself leading to more realistic and accurate colour representation from the display. At 2,048 dimming zones compared to 10 in the previous generation G9 too, the Neo G9 ensures that there are no halos on your images sitting over dark backgrounds which adds to your immersion and image accuracy. At Quantum HDR 2000 with peak brightness of 2,000 nits and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, black and white on the display are as black and as white as they can get.
It is an impressive feat, fitting high-end television features to a gaming monitor. What is even more impressive is that the Odyssey Neo G9 is not just a regular high-end TV in a 49-inch ultrawide guise. It comes packing the latest HDMI 2.1 to take advantage of a higher data transfer bandwidth to fully take advantage of the 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time on the panel. It even has both NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro capabilities to ensure you get the best gaming experience on either platform.
To cap the whole thing off though, the rear of the monitor features a new infinity core lighting that features up to 52 colours with five lighting effects. It also comes with a new CoreSync feature that syncs the lighting system to your games to create a higher level of immersion in games. The only issue with that system is that you do want to be in a dark room and your monitor should be facing a wall to fully experience the capabilities of CoreSync.
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 with Quantum Mini LED will be available globally by the 9th of August 2021. Pre-order starts on the 29th of July 2021 and it will be priced at US$ 2,499.99 (MYR 10,575.26*). There are no colour options when it comes to the shell though, but if you place and use the Odyssey Neo G9 the right way, you will not be noticing the white coloured shell all that much anyway. More information on the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 with Quantum Mini LED can be found on their website.
*approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.23 on xe.com as of 27/07/2021