What just happened? Samsung has announced the successor to its 49-inch Odyssey G9 gaming monitor: the Odyssey Neo G9. As previously rumored, the next Odyssey features a Mini LED backlit panel and can hit an amazing 2,000 nits of brightness.
The Odyssey G9 is one of our favorite monitors, earning a score of 90 in our December review, where we praised its 5120 x 1440 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, and good color performance for a VA panel.
The Odyssey Neo G9 follow-up shares some of its predecessor's specs---49 inches, 5120 x 1440 resolution (32:9), 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms (GtG) response time, 1000R curvature---but it also offers some significant improvements.
The main change is the addition of Samsung's Quantum Mini LED technology. The OLED-like tech is finding its way into more TVs, monitors, and laptops and is one of the big selling points of the latest iPad Pro 12.9-inch. The Odyssey Neo G9 also increases the local dimming zones to 2,048 from the G9's ten and supports HDR 10 Plus.
"The Odyssey Neo G9 utilizes the same Mini LED technology built into Samsung's latest Neo QLED lineup," writes Samsung. "This next-generation display technology is enabled by a new light source, Quantum Mini LED. At 1/40 the height of a conventional LED,1 the Quantum Mini LED has incredibly thin micro layers filled with many more LEDs."
Another enticing feature is the monitor's peak brightness of 2,000 nits, which should make HDR content look fantastic and let users play in even the brightest of rooms without worrying about glare. A previous report claimed the Odyssey Neo G9 would be VESA DisplayHDR2000 certified, but VESA later said such a thing doesn't exist, at least not yet.
Elsewhere, there's a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, one Display Port 1.4, two HDMI 2.1, two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone jack, and support for AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and variable refresh rate (VRR). There's also the CoreSync feature that can sync the monitor's rear-facing light with the on-screen action.
As you might imagine, the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 is not a cheap monitor. At $2,499, it's almost $1,000 more than the previous model. Preorders start on Thursday, July 29, with global shipping set for August 9.