Samsung Odyssey G8 price announced: preorder the ultrawide monitor before the release date
At $1,499, the Odyssey G8 OLED price ain't cheap, but this Samsung gaming monitor should look incredible
➡️The Shortcut Skinny: QD-OLED in ultrawide
🖥️ Samsung Odyssey G8 is now available for preorder, ships February 23
💰 The Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED price is $1,499.99 – a tough pill to swallow
👽 Alienware’s 34-inch QD-OLED ultrawide gaming monitor is $400 cheaper
🕹️ Odyssey G8 has better ports and built-in, console-free cloud gaming
Samsung finally released its first OLED TV, the Samsung S95B, to much acclaim last year, and now it’s announced the Samsung Odyssey G8 price and opened up preorders, with a February 23 release date. At $1,499, its first OLED curved gaming monitor, a 34-inch ultrawide WQHD display with a 175Hz refresh rate, won’t be cheap, but it will probably be one of the best gaming monitors you can buy.
Samsung’s display is more than just a normal OLED: it uses a newer technology called Quantum Dot OLED (QD-OLED), which can get brighter without washing out, and is generally understood to be more color-accurate than traditional OLED panels.
Odyssey G8 vs Alienware AW3423DWF
Samsung has a problem, though. The Alienware AW3423DWF QD-OLED monitor is very similar. Both monitors feature a 34-inch display with 3440 x 1440 resolution, 250-nit brightness (Alienware quotes a 1,000-nit peak brightness, while Samsung doesn’t list this spec), low response time (0.03ms for the Odyssey G8 and 0.01ms for the Alienware display) and 1,800R curvature. The Odyssey G8 has a slightly higher refresh rate of 175Hz to Alienware’s 165Hz.
The trouble for Samsung is Alienware’s ultrawide is available for just $1,099.99 – that’s $400 less than the Odyssey G8 OLED for what’s likely to be such close performance as to be negligible. That means the Odyssey G8 has to make up for it in other ways – whether it does depends on your needs, but either would work great paired with the best GPUs and best gaming PC, which may be all that matters, for some.
Samsung Smart TV and Gaming Hub support
The Odyssey G8 has better port selection (HDMI 2.1 instead of HDMI 2.0), no fans (so it’ll be quiet) and it offers up to 65-watt charging via USB-C. Also, like Samsung’s smart monitors and the new Odyssey OLEDs coming later this year, it comes equipped with Samsung’s Smart TV platform, which allows the Odyssey G8 to pull double duty as a smart TV.
It’s also basically a Samsung Gaming Hub TV, making it a dedicated Xbox Cloud Gaming display for those with access to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (other game streaming services are supported as well, such as Amazon Luna and Nvidia GeForce Now) – no console required. Just grab one of the best Xbox Series X controllers and you’re ready to play some of the best Xbox Series X games.
Samsung Odyssey G8: a gaming powerhouse
One thing is for sure: the Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED will be a beast for gaming in a more space-constrained setup. It’s possible the streaming capability and some of its other features will make the $400 premium worth it for some – particularly those who don’t already own an Xbox Series X – while gamers with more room to spare might see the behemoth 57-inch Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 top their wish list along with the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9, both massive 240Hz gaming monitors that were part of this year’s Samsung CES announcements and are due out later this year.
Via The Verge