Samsung has released an OLED monster into this world, and you can buy one for yourself starting today. The 49-inch OLED curved gaming monitor, dubbed the Odyssey OLED G9, is priced at $2,199.99 at retailers such as Best Buy, Amazonand from Samsung yourself. It debuted in January at CES 2023.
The Odyssey OLED G9 isn’t the first OLED gaming monitor, but Samsung claims it’s the world’s first 49-inch model. That size and its ultra-wide aspect ratio help it stand out in ways you love or want to avoid. Most monitors have a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio panel, but this one is essentially double-wide with a 32:9 aspect ratio (5,120 x 1,440 resolution); it’s like two QHD monitors merged side by side.
As for why you’d want this kind of ultra-wide resolution, there’s a growing number of PC games that support this natively, either at launch or patched at a later date. Plus, using Windows works just fine, and being able to orient two full-sized screens (or several smaller ones) side by side can be a great benefit.
On the other side of the coin are some popular games (Elder ring, for example) do not include ultra-wide support. You’ll instead have to watch the 16:9 aspect ratio version with huge vertical bars on either side of the image. If you’re a console gamer, this is all you’ll see, as the PS5 and Xbox Series X don’t support aspect ratios wider than 16:9. These may not be deal breakers for you, but you deserve to know the little things when the monitor in question costs this a lot of.
The Odyssey OLED G9 supports a refresh rate of up to 240 Hz and has multiple routes for video connectivity, including HDMI 2.1, Micro HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4. It can keep you entertained even without a console or PC connected, as Samsung’s Gaming Hub has built-in game streaming services such as the Xbox app and Nvidia GeForce Now. All you need then is a controller.