Samsung announced four new monitor models at the start of CES 2023. Two of them are gaming monitors, one is aimed at designers and photographers and the last one is for media consumption.
The showpiece is the new Odyssey Neo G9 (G95NC). This model has a 57-inch LCD screen with an aspect ratio of 32:9. The screen has a resolution of 7680 x 2160, essentially making it two side-by-side 4K UHD monitors, along with a 240Hz refresh rate. This means that the monitor refreshes almost four billion pixels every second.
This amazing combination of resolution and refresh rate is powered by the world’s first DisplayPort 2.1 (UHBR13.5) connector, which offers a bandwidth of 54 Gbps, almost twice the bandwidth of the HBR3 DisplayPort 1.4a connectors (32 Gbps) and also more than the HDMI 2.1 bandwidth of 48Gbps. The only devices that currently support this standard are AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT graphics cards. The new DP2.1 standard also supports lossless Display Stream compression to allow higher resolution and refresh rate combinations than what the original bandwidth would allow.
The display has a curvature of 1000R and uses mini LED backlighting with a quantum dot layer and VESA Display HDR 1000 certification. Samsung has also used a matte coating for the display to reduce reflections.
The second gaming model is the Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC). This model has a 49-inch 32:9 OLED panel. It has a resolution of 5120×1440 (so two 1440p screens side by side) and a refresh rate of 240Hz. There is no DP2.1 support here.
The panel has a quantum dot layer for improved color saturation, and Samsung claims true RGB, suggesting a standard RGB sub-pixel array, which isn’t common for OLED monitors. Being an OLED panel, it has per-pixel local dimming, true blacks, and a response time of nearly 0.1ms.
The OLED G9 includes apps like Netflix, YouTube and Prime Video so you can watch content without connecting a computer. There’s also support for Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia GeForce Now through the built-in Samsung Gaming Hub platform.
The next model is one for creative professionals. The ViewFinity S9 (S90PC) bears more than a passing resemblance to the Apple Studio Display and also shares roughly the same specs. It has a 27-inch 5K LCD display with a resolution of 5120×2880 (four times 1440p). Samsung claims 99% DCI-P3 coverage and average Delta E of ≦2 for color accuracy (dE in this case represents the deviation of the actual color signal and what the monitor is reproducing, with dE
The monitor has a built-in color management feature, with the ability to roughly calibrate it using a smartphone and Samsung’s Smart Calibration app, though creative professionals would be well advised to invest in a proper hardware calibration tool. The panel is standard provided with a matt coating.
The ViewFinity S9 features USB-C and Thunderbolt 4 connections, making it ideal for use with PCs, Macs and iPad Pros. Additional ports allow you to connect other peripherals, as well as the included 4K SlimFit camera. The built-in Samsung Smart Hub has apps like Google Meet that can work without a connected PC.
Finally, there is the Smart Monitor M8 (M80C). This is an existing model with a 32-inch 4K panel but is now also available in 27-inch. The monitor has built-in apps for media playback and SmartThings Hub for connecting smart home devices. This model essentially functions like a television, minus the TV tuner features.
Pricing and availability for all four models will be announced at a later date.