Samsung Odyssey OLED G9/G95SC S49CG95  Monitor Review

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has a premium design with metal plastic and black accents throughout. It also features a ring of RGB lighting on the back, where the stand attaches to the screen. Besides that, it has a rather simplistic look, similar to the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8/G85SB S34BG85, but the back has a different shade of silver.

The build quality is excellent. The plastic materials feel good, and the entire monitor is well put together. The screen wobbles a bit on the stand, but that's normal for a display of this size, and you won't have issues as long as you have a stable table.

It's important to note that we bought a first unit whose inputs died after one day of testing. We couldn't confirm whether the inputs fried or if the internal cables stopped working, but none of the inputs accepted video signals or were outputting power. We bought a second monitor to test, but the issues with the first monitor aren't counted against the build quality score.

The Samsung G95SC has mediocre ergonomics as it doesn't have as many adjustments as other monitors due to its large size. The stand has a cutout for cable management, and it helps keep your cables tidy, as you won't see your cables from the front.

The hexagonal stand base takes up minimal space, but because of the large size of the screen, the monitor wobbles easily. The thickness of the monitor is measured from the side of the monitor to the back of the stand, and the thickness from the center to the back of the stand is 5.2 inches (13.2 cm).

The thickness is measured from the side of the screen to the back of it, and the thickness from the center to the back is 2.8 inches (7.0 cm).

The remote that comes with Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 resembles those from their TVs, but it only charges via USB-C, as it doesn't have a solar panel on the back. You can navigate the settings with it and control the Tizen smart platform. It even has a mic you can use for voice control with Bixby and Alexa voice assistants. There's also a joystick on the back for basic controls like navigating the menu and powering the display on and off.

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

The Samsung G95SC has an OLED panel with a near-infinite contrast ratio, meaning it displays perfect blacks next to bright highlights in dark rooms. However, like other QD-OLEDs, the black levels rise in bright rooms, and blacks have a purple tint to them.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has no local dimming feature since it doesn't have a backlight. Regardless, the near-infinite contrast ratio doesn't produce any blooming around bright objects, which is equal to a perfect local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can see how the screen performs and compare it with a monitor that has local dimming.

The SDR brightness is alright. While it's fine if you have some lights around, it struggles to fight glare if you place it opposite a bright window. Luckily, it maintains its brightness consistently across different content, so you won't see any distracting changes in brightness in SDR. However, the minimum brightness is a bit high, which can be a problem if you like using your monitor in the dark and you're sensitive to bright lights.

These results are from after calibration in the 'Custom' Picture Mode with Color Tone on 'Warm1' and Game Mode enabled. Unfortunately, after firmware update 1023 that Samsung released in Aug. 2023, the Peak Brightness setting isn't available to use in SDR. It was before the update, letting the screen get extremely bright with a Real Scene brightness of 314 cd/m² and some windows hitting 440 cd/m². However, once you update the firmware, you can only enable Peak Brightness in HDR. Although locking this setting results in a less aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL), it's still disappointing if you want to use the monitor in a bright room in SDR. After the firmware update, the Real Scene brightness is the same whether you use a 32:9 or a 16:9 image.

If you want a super ultrawide monitor that gets significantly brighter, then check out the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9/G95NC S57CG95.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has okay HDR peak brightness. It gets brightest with small highlights as they pop and stand out against the rest of the image. However, it has an aggressive Automatic Brightness Limiter (ABL) that makes large areas of bright objects dimmer. While it isn't too distracting, it's still noticeable when minimizing and maximizing windows, for example. The EOTF also follows the target perfectly until there's a sharp roll-off at the peak brightness, so it displays content the way the creator intended, and the sharp roll-off means it doesn't do any tone mapping on its own. These results are in Game Mode in the 'Standard' Picture Mode with Brightness at its max of '50', HDR Tone Mapping set to 'Static', and Game HDR on 'Basic'. As explained in SDR Brightness, the Peak Brightness setting is only available to use in HDR, which we did for our testing.

The Real Scene measurement is done with a Blu-ray with a 32:9 image so that it fills out the entire screen, but it gets brighter with a 16:9 aspect ratio as it reaches 603 cd/m². The other tested windows are displayed from a PC with an NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics card, but we expect the brightness to remain the same even with an AMD graphics card. The brightness may be lower when using Windows HDR, but that's a limitation of Windows HDR and not the monitor itself.

The EOTF performs differently with different settings. We tested it with Game HDR set to 'Basic', but it overbrightens the image with it set to 'Advanced', meaning it doesn't display content the way the creator intended, as you can see here. However, using Game HDR locks the Picture Mode to 'Standard', so you would need to deactivate it to use other modes. We also measured the EOTF with it disabled in other modes, as shown below. However, using Game HDR on 'Basic' results in the best EOTF, and it also results in the highest luminosity.

• Custom
• Standard
• Original

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has fantastic gray uniformity. The screen looks uniform throughout, even when you have a solid bright color across the screen. However, like any OLED, it has thin vertical lines in dark scenes, but they're hard to notice unless you really look for them.

Thanks to its OLED panel, the Samsung G95SC has perfect black uniformity, as there's no blooming around bright objects.

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB color space is impressive. Setting Color Space to 'Auto' locks colors well to the sRGB color space, although some reds are still oversaturated. However, you still have access to other picture settings, which is convenient, and the 'Native' setting results in a more oversaturated image. Besides that, there are some minor inaccuracies with brighter whites, and gamma doesn't follow the sRGB curve well, as most scenes are too dark.

The Samsung G95SC has fantastic accuracy after calibration. We had issues calibrating it with CalMan, which is the program we normally use to calibrate monitors, so instead, we had to use the monitor's two-point calibration system with Color Space set to 'Auto', and we don't suggest people using our ICC profile because of this. The accuracy is far from perfect, but most inaccuracies are minor. It has an internal Smart Calibration feature, but we didn't use it.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It has near-perfect coverage in both sRGB and Adobe RGB but oversaturates colors in each color space.

The HDR color gamut is fantastic. It has near-perfect coverage of the commonly-used DCI-P3 color space and tone maps very well with it too, but magentas and greens are oversaturated. It's also great with the wider Rec. 2020 color space but doesn't cover it entirely.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has a remarkable HDR color volume. Thanks to its QD-OLED panel, it displays colors as bright as pure white and doesn't have issues displaying dark colors.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has a remarkable horizontal viewing angle. While it technically isn't perfect, you won't have any issues when sitting in front of the monitor and looking at the sides as the curve brings the edges more within your field of vision or if someone is looking at the monitor from a wide angle.

The text clarity is decent. While the pixels have a different shape than smaller QD-OLEDs like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8/G85SB S34BG85, the same issues with color fringing occur. This is because programs aren't designed to render text with the triangular RGB subpixel layout, which causes text to look worse than some LED-backlit monitors like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9/G95NA S49AG95. Of course, not everyone notices these issues, so it may not even be a problem for you, and you can read about our own subjective impressions of using a QD-OLED monitor here.

These photos are in Windows 10, and you can also see it in Windows 11 with ClearType on and with ClearType off. However, if the text issues bother you, you can try using the free Better ClearType Tuner. With Font Antialiasing set to 'Grayscale' and Contrast on '1000', the text clarity is much better, as you can see here in Windows 11.

Due to the triangular subpixel layout, there's also color fringing around windows. You'll see a thin green line at the top of every window and a thin red line at the bottom of every window. This also happens when you have black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, but not with the black bars on the edges, which is useful as most content won't have black bars at the top and bottom with a 32:9 display anyway.

The direct reflection handling is decent. As it has a glossy coating, light bounces off like a mirror, but the screen still absorbs most light. It also stretches the reflections across the screen, mainly due to its size and curvature.

The black levels raise noticeably on this monitor, and they look purple in bright rooms. This is because QD-OLEDs like this one lack a polarizer, and you need to use it in a dark room to get perfect black levels.

There isn't a lot of reflected light with this monitor. However, any remaining reflections are warped, which may be a problem in a really bright room.

The gradient handling is fantastic. Besides some minor banding in darker shades, you won't have any issues with banding.

You need to enable Game Mode to use the 240Hz refresh rate; otherwise, it's limited to 120Hz. You also need to make sure your graphics card supports Display Stream Compression (DSC) to reach its max refresh rate, which any NVIDIA 16 Series or AMD RX 5000 Series and newer graphics card supports.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 supports all three common types of VRR formats, including HDMI Forum VRR. We didn't experience any issues with VRR, and the monitor performed the same even with it off.

The Samsung OLED G9 has outstanding motion handling across its entire refresh rate range with VRR enabled. CAD remains low throughout, and there's minimal blur with fast-moving objects.

The refresh rate compliance is outstanding. As it has a near-instantaneous response time, it can keep up with fast frame rates really well, and it makes full color transitions before drawing the next frame.

The CAD at the maximum refresh rate is outstanding. It displays fast-moving objects as intended and motion is extremely sharp.

The CAD at 120Hz is outstanding. Pixels transition to their target RGB level almost instantly, so there isn't any blur trail or noticeable inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is outstanding. Pixels transition colors almost perfectly, and any noticeable blur is persistent.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has an optional black frame insertion feature, otherwise known as backlight strobing, but it's limited in its use. You can only use it with 4k @ 60Hz signals with VRR and Game Mode both disabled, and you need to have the input label set to 'Game Console'. You would also need to change the aspect ratio to 16:9 to not have a stretched image. Also, the image is dim, which is why it's hard to see some details in the pursuit photo. You can see an overexposed version of it here.

The Samsung OLED G9 has visible VRR flicker with changing frame rates, and it's especially noticeable in dark scenes and in dark shadows of bright scenes. This can be distracting while gaming, but it's common with most OLEDs, and it isn't so much of an issue with consistent frame rates.

The backlight isn't technically flicker-free because it has a slight dip in brightness corresponding to the 240Hz refresh rate.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has low input lag for a responsive feel. While it increases a bit more than expected at 60Hz, it's still low enough that you won't notice any delay while gaming. These results are in Game Mode with the input label set to 'PC', except for the BFI input lag, which is with Game Mode disabled and the input label set to 'Game Console'. Disabling Game Mode causes the input lag to increase, but by keeping it on with the input label set to 'Game Console', the input lag remains the same as in 'PC' mode with other signals.

The 49-inch, 5120x1440 display is the equivalent of placing two 27-inch, 1440p displays side by side, which means you get plenty of screen space to use.

The PS5 works well with this monitor, but even though it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, it still doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz. It's also important to know that the console doesn't support ultrawide gaming, so there will be black bars on the sides. The monitor recognizes when you connect a PS5 and changes the input label to 'PlayStation 5'.

The Samsung G95SC works well with the Xbox Series X|S but doesn't support 4k @ 120Hz. You must also enable the console's HDMI override setting for 1440p @ 60Hz to work, which disables VRR. Besides that, the monitor recognizes when you power on the console and automatically changes the input label. However, because the Xbox doesn't support ultrawide gaming, you'll see black bars at the sides. Also, the console doesn't support HDR with 1080p or 1440p signals, so this isn't a limitation of the monitor.

Both HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, as you can see here. However, if you want an ultrawide monitor with DisplayPort 2.1 bandwidth, look into the LG 45GX950A-B.

While the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has three USB-C ports, all are used for data transfer, and none support DisplayPort Alt Mode. The bottom USB-C port can be used as an upstream port, so you need to connect it to your PC if you want to use the other USB-C ports for peripherals like your mouse or keyboard.

The Samsung G95SC works well with macOS using the DisplayPort connection with a USB-C adapter. The resolutions you can display depend on your computer, as the results vary with different MacBooks. With a 14-inch M1 MacBook Pro (2021) and a 15-inch M2 MacBook Air (2023), you get various resolutions up to 5120x1440 @ 120Hz with both VRR and HDR and there aren't any issues. You can only get the max resolution and 240Hz refresh rate with VRR on a 14-inch M2 Pro MacBook Pro (2023), as you can see here, so you need the power of at least the M2 Pro chip to reach the max refresh rate. The resolution and refresh rate over HDMI is also limited to 2560x1440 @ 60Hz without VRR with the M1 MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, windows don't return to their original position if you use a MacBook and close the lid, but they do if the computer goes to sleep.

As explained in Text Clarity, computer programs don't render text well with its triangular RGB subpixel layout, leading to color fringing and text clarity issues. That's the case with macOS, as you can see with font size 11 here and with font size 13 here.

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 has a ton of extra features to improve the user experience. It comes with the Tizen smart platform built-in, allowing you to stream content directly from the built-in apps. It's the same smart platform as Samsung TVs, which you can read more about in the Samsung QN90C/QN90CD QLED review here. It also has built-in speakers, and while they sound decent for monitor speakers, it's still best to get a soundbar or external speakers for the best sound possible. While it has multiple USB-C ports, it doesn't have a KVM switch because none of the ports support DisplayPort Alt Mode, so they can't simultaneously do video and data transfer. Lastly, it has a Multi-View feature, and unlike other Samsung monitors, you can view images from two sources simultaneously, making it a Picture-by-Picture mode.

The monitor has other gaming features, including:

• Core Lighting: Controls the RGB lighting at the back of the monitor.
• Game HDR: Setting used to increase the image brightness in HDR, as explained in the HDR Brightness section. There's also an HDR Tone Mapping setting that allows you to adjust the image to your liking.
• Game Mode: You need to enable this for the lowest input lag possible.
• Ultrawide Game View: You can choose the aspect ratio of the image, including 16:9.
• Virtual Aim Point: Inserts a virtual crosshair that your games' anti-cheat tools won't detect.

As OLEDs are prone to permanent burn-in when exposed to the same static elements over time, this monitor has a few settings to help reduce that. It has Pixel Shift to move pixels slowly over time so that they don't have burn-in, and it has an Adjust Logo Brightness setting that dims static logos. Unlike other OLEDs, it doesn't have a setting to manually run the pixel refresh, but a prompt to start it still appears after every four hours of usage. The warranty regarding burn-in also changes between regions.

The menu uses the same Tizen OS layout as Samsung TVs; you can learn more about the settings here.