The world of large format gaming displays is not necessarily a crowded space. There is a good reason for that. When you buy a large format display like a TV, you want something that can at least project up to 4K in resolution. Anything lower than 4K with displays less than 40 inches can look rather weird and pixelated (the days of 1080p Full HD TVs are far behind us).
At the same time, while 4K TVs are abundant today, 4K gaming is not something that is easily accessible today. Well, when we say not easily accessible, we are mostly talking about PC gaming more than console gaming. Sure, the PlayStation 5 and latest Xbox Series X can easily play games at 4K resolution and boasts up to 120fps for displays that does 120Hz. But at the same time, not every game can run at that framerate at 4K resolution too.
In the world of PC gaming, 4K gaming is not unheard of, it is just rather rare. The most common high-end gaming set up in the world of PC gaming sports displays that tops out at 1440p at 165Hz these days. That is also because in the world where your display is no more than an arm’s length in front of you, you never really need anything that is more than 30 inches big and more than 1440p to look good. At the same time, the amount of money you want to spend on hardware that can run games at 4K resolution at up to 120fps always is ridiculous.
That does not mean that there is no such market though. For those with enough money to get something like an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 and Intel’s latest 12th Generation Core i9 processor combinations, Samsung has something that will wet their beaks and make full use of their hardware. They have this, the Odyssey Ark.
The argument behind the Samsung Odyssey Ark is plenty simple. The idea is to make the best gaming display money can buy. They came up with a 55-inch behemoth that is curved at 1000R.
The 55-inch curved display sports Samsung’s highly acclaimed Quantum Matrix technology with Mini LEDs. With up to 14-bit processing, 16,384 black levels, your blacks look deep, and your images looks ultra-realistic. At 55-inch, you are going to be fully immersed in the game world too. At 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio with HDR10+, finding things in the darker areas of your map is a breeze.
It is not just a beautiful looking 4K display too. It is a super-fast display; it is a gaming display after all. It sports up to 165Hz in refresh rate. Its Grey-to-Grey response time is as low as 1ms for the fastest response you can get out of your display. It even supports AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro for not just a tear free gaming experience, but also a super responsive one.
You might want to forget going for a VESA mount for this monitor. The stand it comes with is plenty enough to handle the weight of a 55-inch gaming monitor. It is also a tiltable base so that you can use it in what Samsung calls the “cockpit mode”. You flip the display vertically and it really wraps around your head.
A display this size also requires big sounds. Because it takes up so much space on your desk, you might want to not get a sound bar, or a speaker set up. This one offers you four speakers with Dolby Atmos certification. They call it the Sound Dome Technology with object tracking capabilities for the most immersive experience available.
Of course, it comes with its own Samsung TV style remote, because it is that big. It also comes with something called an Ark Dial. It is a smart remote thing that allows you quick and easy access over the TVs more prominent and more frequently accessed functions. At the same time, like the latest Samsung TVs, it comes with a One Connect Box for a much easier access to all its four HDMI 2.1 ports, LAN port, and USB ports.
The Samsung Odyssey is nothing short of breathtaking. It only comes in black, but it also has RGB strips on the top and bottom of the back plate. It does not matter though what colour the display comes in, the 55-inch curved Mini LED panel stands out like a sore thumb anyway. The Odyssey Ark is now available for pre-order in the United States of America (U.S.A.) and select regions. Malaysia? Not yet, but we can expect it to come pretty soon, since the 49-inch ultra-wide behemoth has already landed. In the U.S.A. it will set you back US$ 3,500 though, about MYR 15,631*, or the price of a very high-end, very big TV from the likes of Samsung. More information the Samsung Odyssey Ark can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on conversion rate of US$ 1 = MYR 4.47 as of 16/08/2022 on xe.com
