Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 Monitor Review

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 is essentially a redesigned version of the Samsung Odyssey G3 F27G35T. It has a borderless design on three of its bezels, with a thicker bottom bezel. The stand sits flat against the table, and the back of the monitor has more of an aggressive gamer-oriented design, including a blue ring that doesn't light up.

The stand has wide V-shaped feet that feel cheap, but they support the screen well. They're wide enough that you can put stuff in front, like your mouse and keyboard.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has decent ergonomics. The stand allows for all types of adjustments, but as you can only rotate it into portrait mode in one direction, the inputs will always be facing left if you want to use it vertically. This isn't ideal if your PC is on the right.

The back of the monitor has a busy design with etched lines throughout the plastic. It also has a slot for a Kensington lock on the back right side. Sadly, the blue ring doesn't light up. On the stand, there's a clip that you can use for cable management.

The bezels are thinner than those on the Samsung Odyssey G3 F27G35T, one of the advertised differences between these monitors.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has decent build quality. It's made entirely of plastic, which feels cheap, but there's nothing of concern either. However, the plastic feels cheap as the back panel flexes easily, and the blue ring around the VESA mount is flimsy. Also, there's a bit of a gap between the bottom bezel and the screen at certain parts because it's not evenly attached.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has a VA panel with an excellent native contrast ratio for deep blacks. It's much higher than the advertised 3000:1 contrast, but this can vary between units. We measured the contrast with another luminance meter and our colorimeter and got similar results each time. Sadly, there's no local dimming feature to further improve.

There's no local dimming feature. The video is for reference only, so you can see how the backlight on this display performs and compare it to a similar product with local dimming.

The SDR brightness is mediocre. It's lower than the advertised 250 nits, but not enough to make a significant difference. It doesn't get bright enough to fight glare in well-lit rooms.

We tested the peak brightness after calibration in the 'Custom' Picture Mode with Brightness at '100', and Black Equalizer at '13'.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 doesn't support HDR.

The horizontal viewing angles are mediocre, which is expected from a VA panel. The colors wash out, and the screen appears darker when viewed from the sides, so it's not a good choice for sharing your screen with someone else.

The vertical viewing angles are poor. You lose accuracy if you mount the screen above eye level.

Our unit of the Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has excellent gray uniformity. The edges of the screen are a bit darker than the rest, but there's no dirty screen effect in the center. Uniformity is better in near-dark scenes, but there's backlight bleed along the edges. Uniformity can vary between units, but it's rarely an issue on modern monitors.

The black uniformity is decent, but this may vary between units. The screen looks fairly uniform, except for the backlight bleed and clouding that's happening along the edges and corners. Luckily, there's minimal blooming around the center cross.

The out-of-the-box accuracy is good. Most colors and the white balance are only a bit off, but it's not too noticeable. However, the color temperature is on the cold side, giving the image a blue tint. Gamma seems to follow a flat 2.2 target instead of the sRGB curve, so some dark scenes are over-darkened, while others are too bright. Note that accuracy may vary between individual units.

The accuracy after calibration is incredible. Any remaining inaccuracies in colors and the white balance can't be seen without the aid of a colorimeter. The color temperature is much better as it's nearly spot-on with our 6500K target. Gamma is also improved, but it's still not perfect.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and shouldn't be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit, even for the same model, due to manufacturing tolerances.

The SDR color gamut is excellent. The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has full coverage of the sRGB color space used in most web content, with good coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, but that's not enough for most photo editors.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has fantastic SDR color volume. Despite its low peak brightness, it doesn't have many issues displaying sRGB colors at most shades, and it's also great with the Adobe RGB color volume.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 doesn't support HDR.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 doesn't support HDR.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 doesn't show any signs of temporary image retention, but this may vary between units.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has good gradient handling, but it's limited because the highest signal it supports is 8-bit. There's banding with most colors, especially dark shades.

There are no signs of color bleed, and even though this may vary between units, color bleed issues are rarely noticeable with real content.

The reflection handling is good. It's slightly improved from the Samsung Odyssey G3 F27G35T and performs well with a few lights around. However, the reflections can be distracting if it's opposite a bright window.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has decent text clarity. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) makes letters bolder. It's better than the Samsung Odyssey G3 F27G35T because of the smaller screen, resulting in higher pixel density. There's a 27 inch version that will have worse text clarity due to the lower pixel density.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has a disappointing response time at its max refresh rate of 144Hz. All of the Response Time settings have a slow response time, resulting in motion blur, and like other VA panels, there's black smearing in dark scenes. We recommend using the 'Fastest' Response Time setting because it has the quickest response time. When you enable VRR, it locks the Response Time settings, and the monitor seems to perform like 'Standard', which has a slow response time and noticeable black smearing and motion blur, but there's no overshoot.

Once again, the response time at 60Hz is bad as the response time is slow. This time we recommend using the 'Faster' Response Time setting because it has less overshoot than 'Fastest', but that means you'll have to change the setting if the frame rate of your game drops; if that bothers you, leave it on 'Faster' for all frame rates. Enabling the VRR settings locks the overdrive setting, and it performs like 'Standard' with a lot of black smearing and a slow response time.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has a flicker-free backlight, which helps reduce eye strain.

There's an optional backlight strobing feature, known as black frame insertion. It only flickers within a narrow range and can't be used at the same time as VRR. It also creates noticeable image duplication. Keep in mind that scoring is based on the flicker range and not the actual performance.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has native FreeSync premium support, and we confirmed that G-SYNC also works over a DisplayPort connection only. You can achieve its entire refresh rate range over an HDMI connection. If you want something with an even higher 240Hz refresh rate, check out the Samsung Odyssey G4/G40B S27BG40.

The Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has incredibly low input lag, and it remains low whether you have VRR enabled or not.

The 24 inch screen may be considered too small for some people, and there's a 27 inch variant, but it has lower pixel density. However, the higher-end model of this monitor, the Samsung Odyssey G5 S27AG50, is available in 27 and 32 inches, and has a 1440p resolution.

Unlike the Samsung Odyssey G3 F27G35T, the Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30 has a USB input, but it's just a service port for updates, and you can't use it for charging.

There aren't many extra features on the Samsung Odyssey G3 S24AG30, but it still has:

• Crosshair: You can add a virtual crosshair that your game won't detect.
• Eye Saver Mode: Removes blue light to help reduce eye strain.
• Timer: Adds a timer on the screen

There's a single knob underneath the center branding to control the on-screen menu.

• DisplayPort cable
• Power cable
• Power brick
• User guides