Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 S49AG950NU 15.6 inches 4K DCI 2160p QLED-Monitor QLEDMonitor (LS49AG950NUXEN)

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I get it. This is a big monitor with a big curve, so it’s going to take up space. Still, I can’t help but think the monitor would be more practical with a less extreme curve and a stand that trades size for heft.

As far as how many ports are there, though, you get a disappointingly standard array. There are two USB Type-A ports, one USB Type-B cable (to enable the USB passthrough), two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort. Samsung includes both an HDMI 2.1 cable and a DisplayPort cable, though if you want to take full advantage of the 240Hz refresh rate you're going to have to use HDMI 2.1, as the refresh rate will be limited to 120Hz over DP. It’s no slouch when it comes to competitive online shooters, either. We’re not sure how Samsung has managed to create such fast VA panels of late. But it’s impressive all the same. Even using the most aggressive of the three levels of user-configurable overdrive offered in the Neo G9’s OSD menu, there’s no discernible overshoot. Just oodles of pace. This thing is so, so fast. Although the display presets offer a distinguishable amount of variation among them, I rarely found them especially useful. The FPS preset, in particular, was distractingly bright; though this implementation was likely inspired by the frequently dark cast of those games’ playing areas, the murky uncertainty of dark tunnels and shadowy ruins are usually part of the fun, and flooding them with light ruins the effect. Cinema, too, exaggerated colors and brightness, creating a dulling effect on motion picture–style video. To my eyes, the rather darker Custom setting was an excellent choice—if not the best choice—in nearly all situations. Samsung Odyssey G9 review: Gaming performanceUpdated the monitor to firmware 1011 and retested the HDR Brightness, HDR Color Gamut, and HDR Color Volume. The update only results in minor differences in performance. For instance, in Deathloop, we're usually hovering around 110 fps, with it often dipping down to 100 or 90 fps. That's still a fast frame rate, don't get us wrong, but we're pretty far off from being able to totally saturate this display.

What’s more, SDR content is handled poorly in HDR mode. Some screens can be set up to render SDR almost indistinguishably in either SDR or HDR modes. That’s handy because it means you can simply toggle HDR mode and you’re good to go. But with the Neo G9, you’ll need to jump between modes to get the best experience. Another minor niggle—and a surprising oversight—is that you can’t have both pixel overdrive and adaptive refresh enabled at the same time.

Testing the Odyssey Neo G9: Highs Across the Board

One day, you'll be able to have a monitor with really punchy full-screen brightness, per-pixel lighting, ultra-fast response, and genuine high-DPI pixel density in any size or shape you fancy. But right now, you have to compromise on one or two items from that list, it's just not possible to combine everything in one display. use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.

HDR performance is beyond the HDR1000 certification, too. In HDR test video, it's clearly capable of beyond 1,000 nits of brightness. Actually, you can see that in games, too. Pan the camera up to the sky and the desert sun in Cyberpunk 2077 and the panel absolutely sizzles. HDR video content looks spectacular, too. Onward to gaming performance testing. We used the HDFury 4K Diva HDMI matrix to determine the monitor’s input lag, which we recorded at less than 1 millisecond (ms), an excellent result. We tested the monitor with the PS5's new variable refresh rate feature and confirmed that even though the monitor supports HDMI Forum VRR, it's not working properly. Because the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 isn't just big and it's not just a high resolution, it's also brighter and more colorful than anything you've probably ever seen. And, when you combine that with the high refresh rate, it's kind of a piece of gaming heaven that you'll definitely want to be part of. But with that high refresh rate and the high resolution, you run into one giant problem: performance.

The behemoth of gaming monitors

Now, as for the refresh rate. The higher the refresh rate, the higher the frame rate ceiling you can show onscreen, and the more frames you can show results in a smoother picture displayed. Keep in mind that as discussed above, you’ll have to use a GPU with DisplayPort 2.1 to make full use of the 240Hz refresh rate. Otherwise, you’ll be limited to 120Hz or less. The difference may not matter in single-player games, but a higher refresh rate coupled with the Neo G9's state-of-the-art low input lag could mean life instead of death in fast-paced shooters where speed and accuracy are most important. Hardcore competitive gamers will probably be better served by smaller, less-curved monitors for first-person-shooter titles, but the Neo G9 is evidently more than capable of keeping up if it's paired with the right PC. Updated to Test Bench 1.2, resulting in changes to the results and scores with the Response Time and Input Lag. Added tests for Console Compatibility and macOS compatibility and made minor changes to other tests, which you can see in our Changelog. Average brightness (as measured with the monitor brightness maxed and all dynamic adjustment settings disabled) was upwards of 400 nits in every mode, with the brightest unsurprisingly being High Bright, with 418.6. This is well above what we saw with the Razer Raptor 27 (295 nits) and the Acer XFA240 (352 nits), but below the likes of the LG 38GL950G (544 nits) or the ViewSonic Elite XG270QC (524 nits). Samsung Odyssey G9 Neo Review – The monitor features a selection of additional cables including a Display Port, a USB-B cable for updates, a wall mount and a power cable