Samsung's Gorgeous 34-Inch Odyssey OLED G8 Gaming Monitor Breaks Cover For Preorder
Samsung says pairing OLED technology with Quantum Dots allows for a very bright display while retaining true black, all without dedicated backlighting or a color filter. This allows the display to be just 3.9mm thick at its narrowest point. Anything that helps a display shed weight at this size is quite welcome.
It features a 3440 x 1440 resolution and excellent 175Hz refresh rate. This is not the fastest refresh rate for the resolution—the Neo G8 offers 240Hz at 3840 x 2160—but the OLED technology helps pixels switch incredibly quickly. This results in a response time of just 0.1ms which ought to eliminate any apparent ghosting. This is joined by AMD FreeSync Premium for a very responsive gaming experience. For all intents and purposes, it is the same panel found in Alienware's 34" curved gaming monitor but with a slightly faster refresh rate.
The Odyssey OLED G8 is not just about speed. Its color reproduction is also impressive with 100% color volume for HDR content and 99.3% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It also carries VESA DisplayHDR 400 True Black certification, which allows black levels of just 0.0005 cd/m3 for excellent contrast and dynamic range.
The display uses an 1800R curve to help gaming immersion and to help with the sheer width of the display. We find 1800R is about right for a display of this size, but it may depend on a user’s preferred working distance. A height adjustable stand and tilt functionality round out the display’s ergonomic accommodations, but no rotation.
Technically, the Odyssey OLED G8 can be used on its own without any PC, game console, or media player attached. It incorporates Samsung’s Smart Hub which grants users access to streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube, and others. Combined with Gaming Hub, users can also play games via cloud services like Xbox, NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Amazon Luna, and the ill-fated Google Stadia until its service shuts down for good.
Of course, the best experience will come from pairing it with a high-end gaming PC. The Odyssey OLED G8 offers micro-HDMI 2.1, mini-DisplayPort 1.4, and USB-C connectivity options. While we would love to see DisplayPort 2.0/2.1, it just is not necessary for this display’s capabilities. The monitor also includes 5W stereo speakers for those times you don’t feel like donning a headset.
The Odyssey OLED G8 is available for preorder now on Samsung’s UK website with a list price of £1,299.00 along with other countries and regions. There is still no sign of it on the US page, but we expect to see it appear soon, either in the coming days or weeks.
