Samsung’s Odyssey OLED 49 arrives cheaper than expected
Samsung's Odyssey OLED 49 is still one of the most expensive gaming monitors you can buy, but it's actually cheaper than the monitor it's replacing.
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Samsung’s much-anticipated Odyssey OLED 49 finally has a price — a week after reservations opened with no price in sight. The monitor is available to preorder now for $2,200. That’s pricey, even for what could be one of the best gaming monitors on the market, but it’s cheaper than the monitor it’s replacing.
The Odyssey Neo G9 launched with a list price of $2,300, so the Odyssey OLED 49 is actually $100 cheaper. It’s tough to say if Samsung will maintain that list price for long, though — after all, the Neo G9 now sells for closer to $1,700, and the Odyssey OLED 49 is still expensive no matter how you slice it.
To ease the cost a bit, Samsung is offering a $250 discount to anyone who preorders the monitor between June 12 and 25. Samsung hasn’t said when the monitor will actually release, but it should come shortly after that preorder window.
The Odyssey OLED G9 isn’t Samsung’s first OLED monitor, but it is the first 49-inch OLED display we’ve seen. It comes with a 32:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 5,120 x 1,440. Essentially, it’s two 27-inch 1440p monitor side by side, just without a bezel in the middle.
Similar to the Neo G9, this one will come with a 240Hz refresh rate, along with support for VESA’s Adaptive Sync. That means you’ll be able to use variable refresh rate with both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards.
It has a few advantages as well. The Odyssey OLED G9 supports Samsung Game Hub, allowing you to stream games from GeForce Now, Xbox Game Pass, and other services directly from the monitor. It also comes with a slew of smart TV apps in the vein of Samsung’s M8 Smart Monitor, so you can stream content from YouTube, Netflix, and other apps without connecting anything to the monitor.
The big boost for the display, though, is OLED. As we’ve see with displays like the Asus ROG PG27AQDM, OLED not only provides excellent color and HDR, but also very low response times. Combined with the fast refresh rate, that should make it a solid choice for even competitive games. To that end, Samsung has certified the HDR on the monitor with VESA’s DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400.
Although the Odyssey OLED 49 comes in cheaper than expected, it might be best to hold off on it. Samsung’s recent Odyssey OLED 34 has already been discounted by $400, and the Odyssey OLED 49 will likely see similar discounts shortly after it launches.
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Samsung wants you to reserve the Odyssey OLED G9 — without knowing the price I love my OLED gaming monitor, but I feel like it’s gaslighting me Samsung’s first QD-OLED gaming monitor might be dead on arrival Gaming monitors have been lying to us, and it’s time they stopped 8K gaming monitors: here’s why you shouldn’t expect them in 2023
Jacob Roach is a writer covering computing and gaming at Digital Trends. After realizing Crysis wouldn't run on a laptop, he…
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