In 2023, OLED gaming monitors became a reality and Samsung, the world’s leading OLED panel maker, introduced the Odyssey OLED G8, a stunning 34-inch, curved WQHD gaming monitor. I have been using it for the past two months and it is beautiful.
Although the OLED panel on this monitor is not the latest WOLED or QD-OLED, Samsung has incorporated various technologies from its TV line, making the OLED G8 more than just a gaming monitor. The monitor boasts Tizen OS, which allows it to function as a standalone TV, and Sammy’s Neo Quantum Processor that optimizes image quality.
The OLED G8 also has a stylish and gorgeous chassis with tasteful RGB lighting, making it one of the best gaming monitors available. The monitor is priced at $1,899, which is more expensive than the $1,599 Alienware AW3423DWF monitor that it competes with. However, with some searching, you can find the OLED G8 for under $1,500.
Overall, the OLED G8 and Alienware monitor are practically identical, but the Samsung monitor has one disadvantage that can be extremely irritating and a deal breaker, which is not mentioned in the text.
Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 Review
The OLED G8 is a stunning gaming monitor that boasts an incredibly thin and stylish design, surpassing even the Alienware in terms of aesthetics. Its sleek metal finish is just 3.9mm at its thinnest point, making it one of the thinnest gaming monitors available. The monitor’s stand is an elegant L-shaped affair that takes up minimal space on your desk, while still offering height and tilt adjustments for optimal viewing.
One of the most striking features of the OLED G8 is the circular vortex of RGB lighting on the back of the monitor. Dubbed Core Lighting+, this feature adds a touch of personality and vibrancy to the monitor, making it a great showpiece for any setup. However, while the colours are wildly vibrant, the lighting may not be bright enough to effectively light up the space behind the monitor.
The monitor ships with a solar-powered remote that has just enough buttons to give you complete control over the monitor’s functions. It is delightfully simple to use and makes navigating the Tizen OS a breeze. However, if you lose the remote or its not working for some reason, there’s a traditional joystick knub on the back of the OLED G8 where the input ports are located.
While the OLED G8 is a great gaming monitor, its connection ports are a bit of a letdown. Samsung opted for the rather uncommon Mini DisplayPort and Micro HDMI for video inputs, which may require you to purchase new cables or adapters. It would have been nice to see Samsung bundle the monitor with at least one Mini DisplayPort cable, or a Micro HDMI 2.1 and an HDMI adapter.
One of the redeeming features of the OLED G8 is its two USB Type-C ports with 65W charging. This feature is perfect for those who use a single cable laptop setup, allowing you to charge your laptop while still using the monitor as a larger display. And with some finagling, you can use the OLED G8 as a USB hub for your keyboard and mouse(though you’ll need some kind of dongle to connect multiple devices) and share them with connected PC or laptop.
Panel and performance
Once you’ve connected the cables, you can turn on the monitor and marvel at the 34-inch display with a resolution of 3440×1440 pixels. The monitor has a gentle 1800R curve, which is not as intense as the aggressive 1000R curve on the 32-inch Odyssey Neo G8 monitor that was reviewed earlier. This makes sense due to the OLED panel, which is less flexible than LCD, but it’s still enough for you to see every edge with a quick glance.
As an OLED, the monitor provides perfect contrast of 1,000,000:1, resulting in deep blacks, and with the addition of Quantum Dot color, the colors are super vibrant. The panel has a peak brightness of 250nits in SDR and 400nits in HDR, earning it VESA DisplayHDR True Black 400 certification. The OLED G8 only supports HDR10+ but not HLG or Dolby Vision. Nevertheless, HDR content looks stunning with clean darks and clear highlights, although the highlights are not as bright due to the low brightness.
The panel covers 10-bit color with 99% DCI-P3 coverage, making it ideal for color grading and photo and video editing. Thanks to the 21:9 aspect ratio, there is plenty of space for video editing and multitasking. The resolution ensures that the text is sharp and there are no color fringing issues that have been seen with previous OLED panels.
For gaming, the panel has a 175Hz refresh rate and a 0.03ms response time. Combined with AMD FreeSynce Premium and a powerful enough computer, games look amazing on this stunning display. The WQHD resolution is slightly more demanding than standard QHD but not as much as 4K, making it easier to run games at ultra settings over 60fps.
Even CyberPunk 2077 Phantom Liberty with Psycho Ray-Tracing runs smoothly at well over 100fps on a personal rig with an Intel Core i5-13600K, 16GB of DDR4 and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 thanks to the power of DLSS 3 and Frame Generation. The game looks stunning in HDR and ray tracing. Diablo 4’s blood-soaked caves in Season of Blood were also a delight. However, it’s a shame that the game’s Ray Tracing option wasn’t available at the time of testing.
Playing Destiny 2 Iron Banner saw a near 150fps with no issues. It was still easy to keep an eye on the HUD while tracking enemies on the map. However, one had to sit a bit further than an arm’s length to get the best view, but otherwise, everything looked and felt great.
Consoles also work on the monitor, but with the annoying caveat that they will not make use of the full display due to their limited 16:9 aspect ratio. However, you still get the full 120Hz experience thanks to the lower resolution of 1440p. Still, if you don’t like seeing the large black pillars on either side, then the OLED G8 isn’t for you. In that case, stick with a 16:9 monitor.
Like Samsung TVs, the monitor also features the Game Bar, which allows you to easily adjust monitor settings such as the picture mode, HDR, black levels, and more. A long press on the play/pause button on the remote brings up the dashboard. The overtly gamery aesthetic of the dashboard may not be to everyone’s liking, but it is simple and intuitive to use.
Smart monitor features
The OLED G8 monitor is not just designed for gaming and productivity, it can also be used to stream services like Netflix, Apple TV+, Disney+, Amazon Prime and Samsung TV Plus, thanks to the Tizen OS it comes with. When you power on the monitor, you will be taken to the Tizen home screen which has a familiar look and feel, especially if you own a Samsung TV. The OS is easy to navigate and you can customize it to your liking. You can install most major TV apps and even some games on the monitor.
The OLED G8 also supports Samsung SmartThings which allows you to control a wide range of smart appliances, and it has a built-in microphone that supports Alexa and Bixby. Gamers will be pleased to know that the monitor supports Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now apps. You can connect a controller via Bluetooth or USB-C and start playing games.
However, since the monitor only supports Wi-Fi 5, connection isn’t the best for gaming, but it works well for streaming Netflix or Disney+. The OLED G8 also comes with rich loudspeakers that you can use to listen to your media. While gaming is still better with headphones, the speakers are of good quality with great clarity and warmth.
One drawback of the OLED G8 is device management. If you have two computers connected to the monitor, they all show up in the apps list as “PC” with no way to distinguish which is which. You can rename the devices, but the monitor always forgets them, which can be frustrating.
Another issue is that streaming services like Netflix do not support the native 21:9 aspect ratio of the monitor, leaving black pillars on either side of the screen. This is also true for console gaming. If you paid $1800 for this screen real estate, you’d want to use it all the time.
Verdict
The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 is an incredible monitor that is perfect for both gaming and productivity. Although there are a few annoyances, such as the switch to Mini-DisplayPort and Micro HDMI 2.1 that require purchasing new cables, there is little to criticize about this monitor. It is a stunning piece of engineering art thanks to its slim, metal chassis and gorgeous Core Lighting.
This monitor is my dream come true, and I wish I had the new Fractal Design Terra PC case in silver to match Samsung’s aesthetic. The OLED G8 is an OLED monitor, which means it delivers stunning colors, deep blacks, and responsive gaming performance. Playing games on this display is incredibly smooth and delightful, and it made me excited to try out all sorts of games, which unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to do.
I’m not entirely sold on the Smart TV features, which I only used a few times, mainly for review purposes. Outside of that, I really couldn’t be bothered. If it saved me $300 to remove them, I would certainly go for that option. Similarly, I think Samsung should include more than just one Mini DisplayPort in the box. Adding a Micro HDMI 2.1 and USB Type-C as standard would save customers the hassle.
I really like the Odyssey OLED G8 as a PC monitor. However, if you want to have a single setup that includes consoles, you might want to wait for the upcoming monitors that Samsung just announced at CES 2024. These include the new and confusingly named, Odyssey OLED G8(G80SD), which is a 32-inch, 4K monitor, and a 27-inch 1440p OLED G6. Both of these monitors feature a console-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio, 240Hz and 360Hz respectively.
I’m excited to test those monitors, so stay tuned. However, if you want one of the best ultrawide OLED monitors, it’s hard to do better than the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.
Samsung Australia kindly loaned the Odyssey OLED G8 to PowerUp! for the purpose of this review.
