Samsung Odyssey G65B 32" QHD 240Hz FreeSync Curved Gaming Monitor

Before I get into the meat of the review, one thing as a bit of a level-set here. First, I work in IT in the corporate world and have for over 15 years - so combined with gaming and PC building being a hobby of mine, I spend over 10 hours a day using screens of various types, sizes and shapes. While I'm not a graphic designer or artist that uses color accurate displays, I definitely know my way around a screen and what makes a good one. And this, my friends, this is a good one. First off, what you buy a screen for - the picture. Samsung gets this part spot on - a quality panel with great brightness, a high refresh rate and good viewing angles as well as deep, rich colors makes this a beauty to view. The "QHD" (2560x1440) resolution is the sweet spot in my mind for ... MoreBefore I get into the meat of the review, one thing as a bit of a level-set here. First, I work in IT in the corporate world and have for over 15 years - so combined with gaming and PC building being a hobby of mine, I spend over 10 hours a day using screens of various types, sizes and shapes. While I'm not a graphic designer or artist that uses color accurate displays, I definitely know my way around a screen and what makes a good one. And this, my friends, this is a good one. First off, what you buy a screen for - the picture. Samsung gets this part spot on - a quality panel with great brightness, a high refresh rate and good viewing angles as well as deep, rich colors makes this a beauty to view. The "QHD" (2560x1440) resolution is the sweet spot in my mind for computer monitors in the 27-28" class - 1080p starts to look a bit grainy since you sit closer to a monitor than you would a TV, but 4K doesn't have as many benefits at this size since then the pixels get super small and most people would turn up the "scale" anyhow meaning you lose the benefits you're paying for. I'm rather ambivalent on the curve here - I think curve tends to help more on the ultra and super-ultra wide screens than more normal aspect ratios, but it doesn't hurt. There's also HDR, "Game" modes with adaptive refresh rates (FreeSync here, not GSync...officially, though I was able to get it to work "unofficially") and a ton of settings so you can tweak to your hearts content. The stand is sturdy and features a LOT of adjustability and you can VESA (wall or arm) mount the screen if you want, though note the weight as this isn't a light monitor. Connectivity is good with 2x HDMI and 1x full-sized DisplayPort. The monitor can also act as a hub if you connect the included USB cable from your computer to the monitor, splitting it into ethernet and 2 more USB-A ports. This is nice if you use a laptop, you can just plug in USB-A and HDMI and off you go. That said, in this day and age, it would have been nice to see a USB-C connector there instead so you could get power, display and data all over one cable to your laptop instead of needing three cables for those three types of signals, but it's not bad. The monitor actually does double duty as a TV as well with an included remote, built-in speakers and Samsung's smart TV software so you can stream from many internet video sources - Hulu, Netflix, Prime, and so on - right through the monitor without anything extra (it has built in Wi-Fi - and you can also connect external wired or Bluetooth speakers if you wish, though the built-in speakers don't sound bad - they're better than my laptop). This works really well and I can definitely see using this to watch videos/movies in my office. You can also do a split screen / picture in picture with the Samsung TV Plus or two inputs (it doesn't seem that you can do Hulu in a split screen with the built-in app...but I suppose if you have Hulu and you're using a computer attached, you could just create your own PiP with a small window). Technically, you can also use this monitor for light office work without even having a computer - it has a built-in web browser and you can browse to online document editing services like Microsoft 365 and Google Docs - but it's not the snappiest thing in the world. It's fine for making a super quick edit or (better) viewing a PowerPoint, but I wouldn't want to work on it for any sustained length of time. But hey - how many monitors can let you work without even HAVING a PC attached? (You do need some sort of keyboard / mouse attached via USB for that functionality). There are also LED lights at the bottom of the monitor - they aren't bright (more like accent lighting) but I like them and there are lots of options to configure them - and they default to "off" if you don't want them. All in all, this is an amazing monitor with great build quality, great features and a whole lot of flexibility and usability. It's not cheap, but in this case, you get what you pay for. Definitely recommended if you're in the market for a high-end 27" QHD.

Samsung has packed this monitor with tons of smart display features, plenty of inputs, a versatile stand that allows 90 degrees of rotation, and, most importantly, a high quality panel which combines the deep blacks and high contrast VA panels are known for with excellent refresh rates. The gentle curve of the screen takes a bit of getting used to, especially for productivity tasks, but after adjusting I find it’s great to use for everything from high frame rate gaming to 4 hour work sessions. I’ve been using this for about an 80/20 mix of home office work and gaming and it has excelled at both. The display is sharp, contrast is superb (not as good as OLED but outstanding for LCD), color rendition reasonably accurate, and the 1440p resolution keeps things clean and ... MoreSamsung has packed this monitor with tons of smart display features, plenty of inputs, a versatile stand that allows 90 degrees of rotation, and, most importantly, a high quality panel which combines the deep blacks and high contrast VA panels are known for with excellent refresh rates. The gentle curve of the screen takes a bit of getting used to, especially for productivity tasks, but after adjusting I find it’s great to use for everything from high frame rate gaming to 4 hour work sessions. I’ve been using this for about an 80/20 mix of home office work and gaming and it has excelled at both. The display is sharp, contrast is superb (not as good as OLED but outstanding for LCD), color rendition reasonably accurate, and the 1440p resolution keeps things clean and easy to read, even for legacy Windows apps which don’t always scale well on 4K or other high density displays. In games, the fast response time, high refresh rate, and support for variable refresh rates make for a very smooth experience. I’ve tried high FPS shooters like Halo Infinite and slower paced games like Uncharted and all of them have rendered superbly without tearing or ghosting. HDR worked reasonably well for games which supported it. VA panels don’t usually switch as fast as some other technologies, but Samsung has done a great job overcoming this. The coating on the display also does a good job controlling reflections, providing the full benefit of those nice deep blacks. I have windows behind me when using my PC and the reflections are very manageable. The monitor is also a very capable smart display, with built-in apps for YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and others, along with excellent wireless screen mirroring and superb Samsung DEX support. There’s even a built-in option to stream Xbox cloud games and directly connect a gamepad. The remote is easy to use and the built-in apps work fine with snappy responses, but I’ve found I prefer to just play content from the connected computer. Connectivity is extensive, with 2 HDMI ports, DisplayPort, headphone audio out, and an actual Ethernet jack. USB ports are provided both for connecting devices like keyboards and gamepads, and for connecting to a PC to act as a USB hub. In my experience, the main negative of this display is that it exhibits some flicker at lower refresh rates. Setting the rate to 120Hz completely resolves the flicker and provides a smoother experience, but not all devices are capable of these high rates in all modes. Depending on view angle, the very bottom of the display (say the bottom 10% of the task bar) also sometimes isn’t as evenly backlit as the rest. The other minor negative is the external power brick, but that’s really just a one time issue during setup. Overall this display combines incredible versatility and app support with a very solid display panel. If you want/need these features, it’s a great option. If all you want is a high quality panel with support for fast refresh rates and VRR, this will fit the bill but the extra features may be overkill. Either way, you should be pleased with the visuals. Pros: - Excellent sharp VA panel combines deep blacks and fast 1ms response time - Super for gaming, very good for productivity if you don’t mind the curve - Excellent stand enables easy adjustment and rotation - Plenty of inputs and support for high end HDMI features like VRR - Broad support for apps and screen mirroring - Works as a USB hub - Good remote and responsive UI Cons: - Some flicker at lower refresh rates - Backlight very even except very bottom 1-2% of screen depending on view angle - Smart display features might be overkill for some

The monitor as strictly a monitor is a very good monitor and connects to my MacBook Pro both wirelessly and via hdmi without issue. There are many video settings and options for calibration with my MacBook Pro.. The Streaming options are wonderful and rich with Samsung TV. Features not tested:or only limitedly - SamsungDex and the web apps for Microsoft. I have O365 on my MacBook. However, in my opinion, you need to seriously know the limitations that I encountered that could affect your use and expectations. The biggest fault is poor/missing/inaccurate documentation and a support team equipped to answer straight forward questions. (See below for my customer support / sales support exchange in attempting to use this monitor for which I purchased it — video calls ... MoreThe monitor as strictly a monitor is a very good monitor and connects to my MacBook Pro both wirelessly and via hdmi without issue. There are many video settings and options for calibration with my MacBook Pro.. The Streaming options are wonderful and rich with Samsung TV. Features not tested:or only limitedly - SamsungDex and the web apps for Microsoft. I have O365 on my MacBook. However, in my opinion, you need to seriously know the limitations that I encountered that could affect your use and expectations. The biggest fault is poor/missing/inaccurate documentation and a support team equipped to answer straight forward questions. (See below for my customer support / sales support exchange in attempting to use this monitor for which I purchased it — video calls with zoom and Messenger. Ultimately, having to connect the camera to my MacBook and the MacBook to the monitor via hdmi. These are my findings. If there are ways around these short comings, I was unable to find Google articles or support documents - either missing or failed worked to make them work. ——1) I think the smart features are A) missing important apps that most customers would need: Facebook, Messenger, and Zoom (note you can access via the internet browser but the browser will not allow access to a webcam!) B) half-baked, poorly documented and customer sales support is woefully uninformed a) I tried to follow the instructions to setup a Google Meet, but every set of instructions I followed did not allow me to setup a new Google Meet account on my iPhone and/or iPad.. This would likely be a call to support, but it is not Google Meet I really want to use. Everyone I am meeting with uses Zoom or Messenger Video Calls. B) The mobility app refuses to allow me to fully connect from my iPhone and iPad. They are all on the same Wi-Fi network but they fail to display the screens. I had to purchase screen mirroring apps to display my iPhone and iPad screens on the monitor wirelessly or use a hdmi cable. C) No way to download apps via an App Store Video WebCam Experience: I knew from reading Amazon q&a that the camera wasn’t included, but I waited until I received and setup the monitor before selecting one. Also note that in all of the manuals there is nothing that mentions which cameras are supported and which are not. Nor does it mention that there are only 2 ways / apps that even use the camera. Upon receiving my webcam, I plugged it in and couldn’t get it to recognize that I plugged it in and selected the connect a device - web camera. It instead displayed a message “connect a supported web camera…and listed several Logitech 9xx & StreamCam models and 2 Samsung models. And referred to a document on the web that listed supported cameras. The instructions on the monitor are not current and point you to missing documentation on the web. I called support to see what I must be misunderstanding. The support agent that answered is the only person from whom I received any real support. She confirmed it was missing and said that this isn’t a support call but customer sales support, gave me the number to call. Ultimately, I ended up returning my camera because I could not get anyone to confirm whether it was supported or not…after 2 hours of being passed from one team to another 5 in all and the last one was to pass me to the correct team…15 minutes later my call was dropped. After ordering and receiving the Logitech StreamCam, I tried to connect and use the supported Webcam, but I got the same screen instructing me to plug it etc. But this time, I decided to try differently. I went further and discovered I could get it to activate if I wanted to see myself alongside a video ie exercise see&do. This established the webcam is recognized and works under this scenario. But not very helpful for video calling. Ultimately to use webcam for Zoom or Messenger I had to connect it to my MacBook Pro and the MacBook Pro to the monitor. It limits where and how I use this feature.