4.0 out of 5 stars
A nearly perfect gaming monitor
Reviewed in Canada on 8 November 2020
The 32" Samsung Odyssey G7 Gaming monitor is nearly - but not quite - a perfect curved gaming monitor.
First, the obvious: if you don't want curved gaming monitor, look elsewhere. This is a very curvy monitory, and the first thing anyone will notice is the 1000R curve. In my particular use case, I have three 32" 1440p (side by side), and curved screens are very much appreciated, because first, it reduces the total horizontal distance the 3 screens occupy, and second, the edges of the left and right screens become much closer without having a harsh angle where the bookend monitors join the center screen.
If you're looking for one or more curved 1440p, 32" gaming monitor with G-Sync for that 2080ti or RTX 3070+ card, the pool of available screens is limited anyways. Attached to an Alienware Ryzen edition with a 3950x and 2080ti, I did not experience some of the problems that other people have encountered. Gaming performance was exactly what I expected, though to be totally honest, it was not a lot a lot different than the 1440p 144Hz Samsung monitor with 1800R curvature that cost much less.
There are some neat gaming features that were not present in my last Samsung: you can overlay (force display ) a targeting reticle in blue, red, or white, and you can even adjust the centre point in all 4 directions (to compenstate for status bars and the like), which is very cool. The out of the box colours were slightly different than my other monitors, though there is plenty of calibration control. In terms of tearing and such, I saw none. It's a fantastic gaming display.
For "creator" purposes - the some colours sometime display with a faint pixel grid, which I find annoying. It does not appear for every colour, but it is noticeable to me, for example, on the stock Windows 10 background with the Windows logo (enough so that it prompted me to change the background). I do not notice it at all when either playing games or doing real work, and as I use the G7 more, I noticed this less.
There some rather annoying things. Like other Samsung monitors, when connected by DisplayPort (which is the only way you get 240Hz, ), in sleep mode, all of the windows get moved to monitor 1. You can always use a DP to HDM cable, which will get rid of this problem, but then you're left with 144Hz, and for that, you can save a bundle of money.
I found the USB hub unusable because every time the monitor is in sleep mode and powers back up, USB un-detects (on sleep)/re-detects (on wake). This should not be the behaviour of a USB hub built into a monitor. Also, the back plate to hide the wires has a coutout that makes you bend the cables in an awkward way. I ended up leaving it off, since my monitor backs onto a wall anyhow, but if you wanted to show it off for the LED lighting, this could be a bit of a pain. Personally, I find LEDs on monitors gimicky, especially the front ones, since it is, after all, a screen. However, blessedly, you can turn it all off. Finally, the G7 comes has a humongous power brick. What's worse, though it uses a standard cable to go to the wall, the cable to the screen is fixed, and not very long. I ended up having to put the power brick on my desk, which is obviously not ideal.
Finally, obviously, the price is extraordinarily high - which I suppose, it can be, because there isn't a lot of competition and this is pretty niche.
In conclusion - if you're looking for a strongly curved, high-end gaming monitor, and price isn't much of an issue, this is pretty awesome. It's not perfect, but nothing really is, and the Samsung Odyssey G7 is certainly one of the finest gaming monitors I've had.
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