Samsung Odyssey G7/G70B S32BG70 Monitor Review

The Samsung Odyssey G70B looks like many other Samsung monitors, with an all-black plastic body and RGB lighting zones in front and back. Although it has a flat screen, the back panel still has a curvature with textured plastic, giving it a gamer-oriented look.

The build quality is great. It's made of high-quality plastic that feels sturdy, and it's well put-together. The stand supports the screen well when you adjust it, and even though the display wobbles a bit when you shake the table, this isn't a problem unless you have an unstable desk. It does have a dead pixel near the center, which you can see in the Black Uniformity photo, but it isn't a major concern, and it's hard to notice.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has fantastic ergonomics, and it's easy to adjust to an ideal viewing position. The stand has a clip for cable management to help keep your setup clean, but it's rather basic.

The stand supports the screen well as it holds it in place when you adjust it, and even though there's a bit of wobble, this is only a problem if you shake the table.

Unlike other Samsung Odyssey monitors, this one comes with Tizen OS built-in, and you can change the settings with the included remote. You can also plug in peripherals like a mouse, keyboard, or joystick to navigate the menu. Although it has a directional pad underneath the screen, it isn't easy to navigate the menu with it.

• Power supply and cable
• DisplayPort cable
• USB-B to USB-A cable
• Remote
• VESA-mount adapter
• User guides and documentation

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has a mediocre contrast ratio, making blacks look gray next to bright objects. Although it has a local dimming feature, it doesn't do much to improve the contrast, as most content causes all zones to turn on.

The edge-lit local dimming feature is terrible. It has 32 zones, and all of them turn on with the majority of content, meaning it doesn't improve the contrast at all, even with Local Dimming set to 'High'. When zones remain off, there's still distracting blooming around bright objects, and the uniformity is awful, as you can see backlight bleed. Although the dimming zones keep up with fast-moving objects, there's a noticeable backlight flicker whenever a small object transitions between zones. Overall, the feature does little to improve the picture quality in dark scenes and make blacks deeper.

It performs equally as badly even when using the built-in applications, although the zones are a bit less sensitive to light in that scenario, so they don't turn on as often.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has great SDR peak brightness. It easily gets bright enough to fight glare, and there aren't any distracting changes in brightness. These results are with Game Mode enabled in the 'Custom' Picture Mode with Local Dimming set to 'High'.

The HDR peak brightness is okay, but it doesn't get bright enough to make small highlights stand out against dark backgrounds. The EOTF doesn't follow the target PQ curve well with bright scenes, meaning the image looks darker than it should.

These results are in Game Mode with the Picture Mode set to 'Custom', Local Dimming on 'High', and the HDR10+ Gaming setting in HDR Tone Mapping set to 'Advanced'. The EOTF performs the same even if you set HDR10+ Gaming to 'Basic'. You can also enable Game HDR if you want a brighter image, but then the EOTF is too bright, as you can see here.

The horizontal viewing angle is decent. While you won't notice any inconsistencies when sharing the screen with others or viewing off-center, the image starts to look washed out at wide angles.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has a decent vertical viewing angle. For the most part, the image remains consistent, even if you're standing up and looking down at the screen.

The gray uniformity is good. Although the edges are darker than the rest, it isn't too distracting, and there isn't much dirty screen effect in the center.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has disappointing black uniformity. While the local dimming feature helps reduce some backlight bleed, there's still clouding throughout and some blooming around the center cross. You can also see the dead pixel to the top left of the center cross, but it isn't a major concern.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has excellent accuracy before calibration. Setting the Color Space setting to 'Auto' instead of its default of 'Native' locks the colors to the sRGB color space, and you can still change other settings as you wish. Most colors are accurate, and the white balance is only slightly off. The color temperature is a bit on the warm side, resulting in a reddish tint, and the gamma doesn't follow the sRGB target curve perfectly, so most scenes are too dark, while bright scenes are too bright.

The accuracy after calibration is fantastic, and you won't easily notice any inaccuracies.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It displays a wide range of colors, both with the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space and the wider Adobe RGB color space used in some publishing and photo editing.

The Samsung G70B has a remarkable SDR color volume. It displays colors well at a wide range of luminance levels, although it can't display darker colors due to its low contrast.

The HDR color gamut is remarkable. It has near-perfect coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used in most HDR content. Even with the wider Rec. 2020 color space, it has decent coverage with good tone mapping.

The HDR color volume is superb. It's incredible with the DCI-P3 color space but struggles more in Rec. 2020 due to its incomplete color gamut.

The reflection handling is good. While some reflections from strong light sources can get distracting, the monitor still gets bright enough to fight intense glare.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has excellent text clarity. While text looks sharp thanks to its 4k resolution and high pixel density, some letters aren't as bold as on other 32-inch, 4k displays like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 S32BG85. These pictures are with Windows 10, and you can also see the pictures in Windows 11 below.

• ClearType On
• ClearType Off

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has remarkable gradient handling, and you won't notice any banding.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B can reach its max refresh rate with a 4k resolution over HDMI, thanks to its HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. You need to be in Game Mode if you want to send a fixed 144Hz signal.

Luckily, FreeSync and the G-SYNC compatibility work over its entire refresh rate range with both HDMI and DisplayPort connections. However, the VRR support is unstable at times, as it would cause the screen to turn black or flash on and off when switching applications, as if it was resetting the handshake. Even while using Adobe Premiere and Lightroom, the same thing would occur, and the screen would turn on and off while using the applications. If you're just in the desktop, it's best to disable VRR because of this issue and stay in Game Mode for low input lag. It's better to only enable VRR for gaming.

The Samsung G70B has an incredible response time at its max refresh rate of 144Hz. You can adjust the Response Time overdrive setting whether or not you have VRR enabled, and the recommended setting is 'Standard' because 'Faster' and 'Extreme' have too much overshoot.

The response time at 120Hz remains incredible, and you won't notice much motion blur with fast-moving objects. Once again, the 'Standard' Response Time setting has less overshoot than 'Faster' and 'Extreme'.

Even with 60Hz signals, the response time is extremely quick, and motion looks smooth. As the recommended overdrive setting is 'Standard', you won't have to adjust the overdrive setting if the frame rate of your game drops.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has an optional backlight strobing feature to reduce persistence blur, but it's very limited. It only works when sending a fixed 60Hz signal with VRR disabled, and it dramatically increases the input lag.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B is completely flicker-free with the local dimming disabled, which helps reduce eye strain. However, the flicker is over 1,000Hz when you enable local dimming, and you can see the graph here.

Other Samsung monitors, like the Samsung Odyssey G7 C32G75T, have flicker and scanline issues, especially with VRR enabled and in darker scenes. We didn't notice any of the same flicker issues, but you can still see the same scanline issues with specific test patterns, as seen here. However, this is a very specific example and isn't noticeable with real content.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has low input lag for a responsive feel with high-frame-rate signals like at 144Hz and 120Hz. While the input lag increases with 60Hz signals, it's still low enough for casual gaming, but you'll notice delay with BFI enabled. For the lowest input lag you need to make sure you have the input label set to 'PC' and you're in Game Mode. With these settings, you can only send a fixed 144Hz refresh rate with VRR disabled, so we had to use a workaround to measure the input lag at 120Hz and 60Hz while still in Game Mode with the 'PC' input and VRR disabled.

The input lag changes depending on the settings you use, and you can see the different results below. Additionally, if you disable Game Mode you can't send a 144Hz signal.

Game Mode Off - PC Mode On

• 144Hz: N/A
• 120Hz: 30.2 ms
• 60Hz: 55.4 ms
• BFI: 70.4 ms

Game Mode On - PC Mode On - Refresh Rate 144Hz

• VRR Control On: 43.6 ms
• VRR Control Off: 7.6 ms

The VRR Control setting is a feature Samsung implemented to help reduce the flicker seen on past models, but since there isn't noticeable flicker on this monitor and it increases the input lag, it's better to disable it.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B doesn't have any compatibility issues with the PS5, and it works perfectly with it. The Tizen OS knows it's connected to a PS5 and automatically switches the input label to 'Game Console'. You need to make sure it does because you can't send a fixed 120Hz or 60Hz signal when the input label is still set to 'PC'.

The Xbox Series X works perfectly with this monitor, and it supports all resolutions. Like with the PS5, the monitor automatically switches the input to 'Game Console' when you start your Xbox.

As both HDMI ports support the full 48 Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, your graphics card doesn't need to use compression to send high-bandwidth signals, like 4k @ 144Hz. Also, the monitor has an RJ45 Ethernet port, so you can connect it directly to the Internet for streaming. It also supports other connectivity options you'd normally find on a TV, like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and HDMI ARC if you want to connect a soundbar.

You need to plug the USB-B to USB-A cable into your computer for the two USB ports on the monitor to work.

The Samsung G70B works well with recent M1 MacBooks. With macOS only, HDR doesn't work while in Game Mode, so you have to choose between a 144Hz signal in SDR with low input lag or a 120Hz signal in HDR with higher input lag. Still, if you want to watch videos and you don't mind the higher input lag, HDR looks good. There aren't any problems with VRR either. While windows return to their normal position after waking up the laptop from sleep, they don't return to their position when you open the lid after closing it, which is a common issue when using a DisplayPort to USB-C adapter.

This monitor comes with Samsung's proprietary Tizen smart platform built-in, unlike older Samsung gaming monitors. It lets you stream content directly from the monitor without a computer and has built-in apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, etc. You can read more about all its features in the Smart Features section of the Samsung QN90B QLED TV review. Although it has a Multi-View feature, it isn't a true Picture-by-Picture/Picture-in-Picture mode because you can't view images from two sources at once, and instead, you can only split the screen between one external source and one built-in app.

The Samsung Odyssey G70B has other gamer-oriented features, including:

• Core Lighting: Controls the RGB lighting on the monitor.
• Game HDR: Helps increase the perceived brightness of the image in HDR.
• Game Mode: Mode needed for the lowest input lag possible.
• HDR10+ Gaming (HDR Tone Mapping): Adjusts the colors in HDR to match the creator's intent.
• Local Dimming: Setting used to control the monitor's local dimming feature. You can set it to 'Off', 'Low', 'Standard', or 'High', depending on your personal preference.
• Ultrawide Game View: Simulates a 21:9 aspect ratio for ultrawide gaming; you'll see black bars on the top and bottom.
• Virtual Aim Point: Adds a virtual crosshair on the screen that your PC won't detect.
• VRR Control: This feature is meant to reduce flicker with VRR enabled, which is a problem with other Samsung monitors, but not so much this one.

Unlike other Samsung monitors, the menu uses the Tizen OS interface and looks much like the menu on TVs. You can read more about the settings with TVs here.