Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 34" 175Hz UWQHD OLED Curved Gaming Monitor

Love it as a monitor, looks amazing with all the games I've played so far, smooth, bright, fast, text can be a little difficult to read because of the QD layout but doesn't bother me much.For the price i didn't expect the monitor firmware to be bugged, when the monitor is in standby mode and you wake the pc first, the monitor will not detect a display input, have to turn the monitor on first, then wake the pc. I tried to fix this by unplugging the power from the back of the monitor and plugging it back in which was a mistake, for some reason the resolution defaulted to 1024x768 (Max res) and identified the monitor as an Acer S271HL... Power cycling the monitor fixed it but was weird...The remote is better than a nipple in my opinion, but I wish it didn't have TV ... MoreLove it as a monitor, looks amazing with all the games I've played so far, smooth, bright, fast, text can be a little difficult to read because of the QD layout but doesn't bother me much.For the price i didn't expect the monitor firmware to be bugged, when the monitor is in standby mode and you wake the pc first, the monitor will not detect a display input, have to turn the monitor on first, then wake the pc. I tried to fix this by unplugging the power from the back of the monitor and plugging it back in which was a mistake, for some reason the resolution defaulted to 1024x768 (Max res) and identified the monitor as an Acer S271HL... Power cycling the monitor fixed it but was weird...The remote is better than a nipple in my opinion, but I wish it didn't have TV style buttons like play/pause, up/down volume, samsung TV plus, netflix, prime and Disney+ buttons, channel changing button? And mic/voice assistant button (seems to only support siri & bixby).Would be so much better without all the smart TV stuff, that is not what this product is.The single hdmi & displayport inputs are micro variants, and only comes with a micro dp to dp cable, no hdmi cable.But it's a damn good gaming monitor.

Picture is amazing as you'd expect from an OLED. Great size and clearly a high quality product (with equally high price tag!).There are some software issues to be ironed out and I have experienced problems with it crashing entire system when waking PC from sleep. This is a known and documented issue but has not as yet been resolved. It hard lock PC forcing hard reset at times. There are some solutions but all sub optimal and it's not something I've ever known a monitor to do. Hopefully will be resolved and not a deal breaker for me but yeah a bit poor considering everything else about monitor and it's high cost.

5 out of 5 stars selected. Product is Excellent.

the good picture and sounds。but I am not very good at operating

Amazing Display

Bought this the day it was released in Australia, Absolutely love the display, Unfortunately huge let down over how buggy the UI is, constantly lags and stutters when i'm navigating the menu. The actual home screen is a cluttered mess with no real way of customizing it in a way that works well, switching inputs is a chore using the remote control unless you use the button behind the monitor.Now all this, is fine, not a deal breaker for me, what is a deal breaker and shouldn't be a problem at all at the price range of this monitor is if you are using display port (what I use for my PC) very often, im talking every 15-30 minutes if lucky an hour or 2, there is a tv static line across the far bottom of the screen that just keeps on going until I switch the refresh ... MoreBought this the day it was released in Australia, Absolutely love the display, Unfortunately huge let down over how buggy the UI is, constantly lags and stutters when i'm navigating the menu. The actual home screen is a cluttered mess with no real way of customizing it in a way that works well, switching inputs is a chore using the remote control unless you use the button behind the monitor.Now all this, is fine, not a deal breaker for me, what is a deal breaker and shouldn't be a problem at all at the price range of this monitor is if you are using display port (what I use for my PC) very often, im talking every 15-30 minutes if lucky an hour or 2, there is a tv static line across the far bottom of the screen that just keeps on going until I switch the refresh rate down and back to 175hz, or turn game mode off and back on again or switch resolution. Why this is a problem in a $2000 monitor, baffles me.Unfortunately this has been a common occurrence to not just me, but many people who bought this monitor yet I have yet to see any acknowledgment from samsung about a possible fix or simply to let us know, they know about it and are working on it.

Excellent Quality

Beautiful, was worried about burn in, still a bit nervous long term but overall very happy. Looks amazing compared to my previous 34 inch Alienware ultra wide IPS display. Time will tell if it has any issues.

G8 OLED

I've owned this for a little over 1 month now and it's been a HUGE upgrade from my old monitor.I love it's sleek design and it's an OLED so the picture is fantastic.It's not without it's flaws though. Namely, the volume goes up by 1 randomly every so often, which is only a very minor problem.My monitor's main problem, and i've read that it's not uncommon for this monitor, is that it occasionally has a multicolored flashing line about 1 pixel high right across the very bottom of the screen. I've thought about returning the monitor because of this. I've read what is ultimately confusing reasons as to why this happens. Some say it's the cable used, some say it's the monitor, some say it's a problem with Windows HDR. Because it uses mini DP/HDMI ports i don't have ... MoreI've owned this for a little over 1 month now and it's been a HUGE upgrade from my old monitor.I love it's sleek design and it's an OLED so the picture is fantastic.It's not without it's flaws though. Namely, the volume goes up by 1 randomly every so often, which is only a very minor problem.My monitor's main problem, and i've read that it's not uncommon for this monitor, is that it occasionally has a multicolored flashing line about 1 pixel high right across the very bottom of the screen. I've thought about returning the monitor because of this. I've read what is ultimately confusing reasons as to why this happens. Some say it's the cable used, some say it's the monitor, some say it's a problem with Windows HDR. Because it uses mini DP/HDMI ports i don't have spare cables to test the cable, and if it's a Windows HDR problem getting another monitor won't fix it, so i'm just keeping the monitor. Hopefully there will be an update, either to the monitors firmware, or to Windows, that will fix the problem. It's doesn't happen very often and re-plugging the cable used fixes it. Inconvienient and disappointing to be sure, for me it's not a deal breaker though.

Great monitor but with room for improvement

The monitor in itself is great. Although looks are subjective, it's probably one of the better designed OLED monitors out there, looks much sleeker and more "professional" than other gaming centric monitors. The included remote is actually pretty nice to use instead of having to reach around to the back/bottom and use the joystick. Build quality feels superb with super thin bezels, nothing to complain about.Like any other OLED, the picture quality is insane, especially if you're jumping from a non HDR / non FALD. Blacks are actually black and even though it's cliche and has been thrown around by every reviewer at this point, the inky blacks do actually make a drastic difference in day to day media consumption. The colours are extremely vivid, rich and almost look ... MoreThe monitor in itself is great. Although looks are subjective, it's probably one of the better designed OLED monitors out there, looks much sleeker and more "professional" than other gaming centric monitors. The included remote is actually pretty nice to use instead of having to reach around to the back/bottom and use the joystick. Build quality feels superb with super thin bezels, nothing to complain about.Like any other OLED, the picture quality is insane, especially if you're jumping from a non HDR / non FALD. Blacks are actually black and even though it's cliche and has been thrown around by every reviewer at this point, the inky blacks do actually make a drastic difference in day to day media consumption. The colours are extremely vivid, rich and almost look "3D", it's hard to describe unless you see it in person. It can also be very accurate if need it to be with a bit of calibration using the right tools, however if you actually need for it to be very accurate (for content creation, work etc) you probably already have the tools at hand and know what to do. For most people however it is great right out of the box and needs very little if any at all tinkering with the settings. Movies feel great and some games feel entirely new if they have proper HDR implementation that you have not been able to utilise before. The 175Hz refresh rate also allows for buttery smooth gameplay paired with the great colours, so no doubt that it will be a great gaming experience. It is an ultrawide 21:9 display though, so if you mainly play competetive games like Val/Siege/CS it may be better to get a 16:9 240Hz OLED display. (Will get back to why this is important in a bit).Even though reviews always point out the low brightness of OLEDs compared to VA/IPS panels, I have found it to be a neglible issue, although ideally you'd want to play in a dark or dimly lit room. I found the reflections to be very good in a bright room but like I said ideally this monitor is used in dark/dim rooms. I also found the text clarity to be perfectly usable despite all the reviews, although you do kind of notice it at first. My reaction was "Oh, it does kind of look a little blurry" before I entirely forgot about it until writing this review. I code and spend a fair amount of time on terminals and VSCode and I found it to be perfectly fine during the time I did use it for coding. If anything, I'd prefer using it over my older ultrawide because of the USB-C port with charging abilities that works great with my MacBook. However if you're anything more than 40% work and 60% game, I'd strongly strongly suggest a good HDR LCD panel instead (will also get back to this in a bit).Speaking of ports, I will mention that going with mini-DP and micro-HDMI was an odd choice and I would've appreciated a longer included cable. The one provided is barely enough to reach from the monitor to the PC if they're right next to each other. If you have your PC anything more than 15-20cm away from your monitor and you want to route the cables underneath your desk with proper cable management, get ready to buy another longer cable. For a monitor this size that is primarily designed for use with a computer/laptop, it should really be using full sized standard ports but I'm sure there are variables that I am not aware of that may complicate these things.This brings me to my biggest gripe with this monitor so far - the firmware is very much less than ideal and the quality control has room for improvement. Even after all these months after launch, many of the issues that existed with it day 1 still linger on despite firmware updates. The smart TV feature in theory sounds great, and was something I was looking forward to but have not at all managed to get it to work. Netflix and Disney+ run movies with black bars on either side despite being the native 21:9 aspect ratio. Samsung knows about this and has a workaround called zoom-to-fit. As the name suggests, it is supposed to zoom in the content to fit the entire screen. Only problem is that me, along with many others have not actually managed to get it to work, the option is simply not available. Some have managed to get it to work, some haven't on identical firmware versions. It's almost feels entirely random. That is the least of it's issues though. I have lucky enough to avoid the more serious ones but I know people that have had them. Some major ones include random vertical and horizontal lines/artifacts neard the edges of the monitor, with fixes also seemingly as random ranging from simply powering off and on the monitor to running full blown panel refreshes (which should be reserved for after extremely extended use of the monitor as it does affect the overall lifespan of the panel) or even RMA'ing it, which in itself is another hassle. Funnily enough one of the displays I went to check out in person before buying this monitor (at one of the larger official retailers for this monitor) actually was in the middle of displaying said artifact. Other issues include randomly flashing mute symbol (even if the monitor is not on mute), the monitor randomly increasing the volume of its built in speakers and the very problematic sleep function where the monitor refuses to wake up from it's auto sleep feature unless you restart your PC. It even encounters problems with the PC's monitor sleep feature and sometimes can't recognise when the PC is active again despite the other monitors being perfectly fine and coming back online. What's even worse is that it seems entirely random as to which issues your particular unit will encounter - you can only pray that you get one that has minor issues instead of the major ones. However the silver lining to all of this is it can be fixed in the future as this is all software related issues, assuming Samsung actually does deliver on decent firwmare.The next set of cons is inherent to the OLED panel and it would be unjust to penalise this monitor for it, but it is important to keep in mind and know. Firstly the elephant in the room, OLED burn-in. It's real and it most likely will happen unless you are aware of it actively trying to dodge it. This monitor is only a few months old so there are no reports of burn in just yet, but look at long term reviews of other monitors which uses the same panel and you'll see plenty of burn-in related issues. If you do want this monitor to last as long as a traditional LCD display (atleast 3-4+ years) you need to baby it and almost use it as a secondary display, which is what I am currently doing. You ideally want to hide the taskbar of your desktop, use dark mode on everything you can and lower the brightness when not consuming media to reduce wear. You need to watch out for static objects in games aswell such as HUDs, minimaps and UI as they can cause burn in over extended periods of play. Same goes for 16:9 content which I mentioned earlier. As OLED can turn off individual pixels, displaying 16:9 content for extremely long periods of time can cause uneven wear on the monitor leaving you with uniformity issues as the 16:9 part of the monitor gets degraded after use whereas the edges remain less worn. Same goes for productivity use - If you have a lot of static objects such as those found in workstation applications, you can expect it to burn in over time. It is also important to mention that burn in is cumilitive. It does not matter if you display something for 8 hours then turn off the monitor for 16 hours, it does not "heal" the display. Your best bet is to just minimise the amount of static objects on display and try your best to avoid using it for work related tasks. This is something you cannot avoid and after all this is an early adopter product as OLED technology is practically brand new in the PC space. It is also important to mention that it is not explicitly mentioned whether or not OLED burn-in is covered under warranty like many of it's competitors. Whether all these trade offs are worth it for the best visual experience on the market as of now is dependant on each individual.Overall, this is a great monitor but with poor software implementation. It has the potential to be the best OLED monitor on the market but is held back by its software which will hopefully improve in the future as it does have firmware update support. This is however at the end of the day a first generation product and to have this thing last you need to be familiar with OLED technology and it's downsides with PC use. No doubt however if you are currently after the best HDR / Media consumption monitor this is definitely on the shortlist. I would also suggest waiting for a sale or getting it with some form of promotion as I do believe it is a medicore value at it's MSRP, especially given the issues with software. Should they fix the software, this monitor would be an easy 5/5 stars and of the best monitors that I have owned.

Last Samsung product I'm buying.

I would not recommend this monitor to anyone. This is the first and last Samsung product I will ever buy.Let me start with the positives:- the screen looks great!- I love the aesthetic of the stand.Now for the negatives:- As mentioned by another reviewer, a static-looking bar appears along the bottom randomly. It was a big issue at first but then I conceded, lowered my refresh rate and disabled HDR and it seemed to go away. For a $2000 monitor, this is unacceptable.- Randomly (sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days) the volume increases by one. Firstly, why would I spend $2000 on a monitor and use the built-in speakers anyway? If my setup is that expensive I have my own. Secondly, it wouldn't bother me because I do use my speakers and the volume ... MoreI would not recommend this monitor to anyone. This is the first and last Samsung product I will ever buy.Let me start with the positives:- the screen looks great!- I love the aesthetic of the stand.Now for the negatives:- As mentioned by another reviewer, a static-looking bar appears along the bottom randomly. It was a big issue at first but then I conceded, lowered my refresh rate and disabled HDR and it seemed to go away. For a $2000 monitor, this is unacceptable.- Randomly (sometimes minutes, sometimes hours, sometimes days) the volume increases by one. Firstly, why would I spend $2000 on a monitor and use the built-in speakers anyway? If my setup is that expensive I have my own. Secondly, it wouldn't bother me because I do use my speakers and the volume change wouldn't affect me, but the volume indicator on the screen is massive and very distracting. Again, for a $2000 monitor, this is unacceptable.- The inputs are stupid. Why not have normal-sized connectors so I can use my good-quality cables?- The menu is a cluttered mess and it makes selecting different inputs a nightmare. If I just had one decide connected it would be easy enough to ignore, but sometimes I switch between my laptop using USB-C and my desktop using DisplayPort.- Changing any settings on the monitor takes far too long compared to any other monitor.This one isn't an objective negative, but subjectively I think was an awful decision by Samsung:- This is a monitor, not a TV. Why add all the bloat of the 'smart' features that just get in the way? (I still gave 2/5 for features because I'm sure they're useful for someone).Overall this monitor could have been something amazing. But clearly, it hadn't been QA tested for bugs, UI or UX which is incredibly disappointing for a $2000 monitor from a brand like Samsung which is meant to be a leader in this industry.

No quality control

Let me set the preface by saying that it all started with logistics, was told that delivery was supposed to be on the 18/04 yet wasn't delivered because the unit wasn't in the delivery van, I got the unit on the 24/04. When the unit finally arrived, I had to order Micro HDMI cables to HDMI which is fine, I should've done my research, the cables arrived on the 27/04 and I used it for the first time and realised there's a very subtle vertical line running through the monitor, very similar to a burn-in , I tried it with the laptop connected and also independently as a smart tv/monitor, the line is still visible. I called up Samsung and was told to take it to a repair centre, instead of an exchange they requested me to drive 20 minutes to a repair centre, so that's what ... MoreLet me set the preface by saying that it all started with logistics, was told that delivery was supposed to be on the 18/04 yet wasn't delivered because the unit wasn't in the delivery van, I got the unit on the 24/04. When the unit finally arrived, I had to order Micro HDMI cables to HDMI which is fine, I should've done my research, the cables arrived on the 27/04 and I used it for the first time and realised there's a very subtle vertical line running through the monitor, very similar to a burn-in , I tried it with the laptop connected and also independently as a smart tv/monitor, the line is still visible. I called up Samsung and was told to take it to a repair centre, instead of an exchange they requested me to drive 20 minutes to a repair centre, so that's what I did, was told that there would be a response in 2-3 business days, I had to call the repair centre on the 04/05 and was told by them to call Samsung instead,, so I called Samsung right away and was told that a case manager would call me. Here we are on the 5/05 instead of a call I get an email from Samsung stating that there is indeed a fault with the unit and the only solution is for me to get a refund and I have to complete forms and they'll come and pick up my unit (which is not with me, it's at the repair centre) and the whole refund process will take 21 -30 business days to complete and the absurdity goes further, I paid a discounted price because of work and now if I was to place a new order for the same monitor it will now cost me an additional $180.10 - so for all the trouble that I went through, Samsung will charge me an extra $180 for the inconvenience. I have so many Samsung products and still believe in their quality, but when it goes wrong expect to deal with the worst service you can imagine. I have Samsung products ranging from TV, bespoke vacuum, mobile phone, air purifier to their dryer and honestly never again, even though I get substantial discount from their partnership program I can tell you it's not worth the trouble.

Tired and hungry

Honestly I'm not happy. Worst tooth brush I have ever used.