Samsung C49G95T/Odyssey G9 Review: 5120×1440 240Hz 1ms FreeSync HDR Curved Gaming Monitor

The Samsung C49G95T (Odyssey G9) offers an incredibly immersive viewing experience thanks to its huge 49″ 5120×1440 curved screen that’s based on a VA panel with a high contrast ratio, high peak brightness, and wide color gamut.

What’s more, it delivers a responsive gaming performance due to its quick 1ms GtG response time speed, 240Hz refresh rate, and certified G-SYNC compatibility.

Image Quality

The Samsung Odyssey G9 is based on a 48.8″ VA panel with a 5120×1440 Dual Quad HD resolution, which results in roughly 109 pixels per inch. Basically, you get two 27″ 1440p monitors side by side, without the bezels in between.

Such high pixel density provides you with sharp text and details as well as plenty of screen space without any scaling necessary!

The extra horizontal screen space of the 32:9 super-ultrawide aspect ratio is also very useful for productivity work, video editing, and gaming, but not all games support this format natively.

Luckily, in most newer games, the 32:9 format is supported. In some games, you may need to tweak the FOV (Field of View) setting to your liking.

In unsupported games, you can just play with the regular 16:9 or 21:9 format and have black bars at the sides of the picture – or you can choose to stretch out or cut/zoom in the image to fill the screen.

Moving on, the Samsung C49G95T monitor features a QDEF (quantum dot enhanced film) layer, which is responsible for its wide color gamut and strong peak brightness.

It’s factory-calibrated and covers 95% of the DCI-P3 color space (125% sRGB, 92% Adobe RGB) with 10-bit color depth support for 1.07 billion colors.

Further, the peak brightness of 420-nits can jump up to 1,000-nits when watching HDR content, which in combination with the excellent static contrast ratio of 2,500:1, results in striking highlights and vivid details in shadows.

The monitor also supports local dimming, but since there are only ten dimming zones spread across its gigantic 49″ sized screen, it’s not particularly effective.

Of course, if the Samsung G9 had a full-array local dimming solution, it would also be significantly more expensive.

Regardless, HDR content gets a notable boost in picture quality thanks to the monitor’s good static contrast ratio, high brightness, and wide color gamut.

Performance

Samsung’s Odyssey G7 and G9 monitors are the first VA-panel displays with a quoted 1ms GtG (gray to gray pixel transition) response time speed.

This measure doesn’t represent an average GtG performance, but rather the fastest possible transition of one gray shade into another under specific testing conditions, so some smearing behind fast-moving objects will be noticeable.

However, it’s only noticeable with fast-moving objects in really dark scenes – if you’re deliberately looking for it.

So, you won’t be bothered by it unless you’re a professional FPS gamer, in which case you should be getting a smaller and faster display anyway.

There are three response time overdrive modes: Standard, Faster, and Fastest.

We recommend sticking with the Faster mode as Fastest can introduce some pixel overshoot i.e., inverse ghosting.

Unlike the Odyssey G7 models, the Samsung C49G95T doesn’t support Motion Blur Reduction, which could further decrease ghosting at the cost of picture brightness and variable refresh rate, but it’s not necessary either.

At 240Hz, input lag amounts to only ~3ms, which results in imperceptible delay between your actions and the result on the screen.

The Adaptive-Sync technology is supported, which provides a variable refresh rate (VRR) for compatible graphics cards.

Both AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatible certifications are present while the VRR range amounts to 60-240Hz. As long as your frame rate is within this range, VRR will remove tearing and stuttering.

While FreeSync/G-SYNC is enabled, you cannot change the response time overdrive mode, but the pixel transition performance is consistent across the entire refresh rate range.

At higher frame rates (220 – 240FPS), pixel overshoot becomes noticeable, so if it bothers you, we recommend simply capping your frame rate to ~220FPS or reducing the refresh rate.

Related:What Is Overdrive On A Monitor And How Do You Turn It On And Off?

While there was no FreeSync brightness flickering on our unit, this is a common issue for VA panel gaming monitors, and other units may be affected by it. In case you get a unit with brightness flickering, make sure you have at least the 1008.1 firmware installed and check the VRR Control option in the OSD menu.

Some users report that the VRR Control option replaces brightness flickering with micro-stuttering, though it doesn’t seem to affect every unit – a lot of users might not be bothered by it either.

Features

To access and navigate the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu of the Samsung G9, you can use the joystick placed beneath the bottom bezel of the screen. The menu is user-friendly and offers plenty of useful features.

For gaming, there are standard game-enhancing utilities such as Virtual Aim Point (custom crosshairs) and Black Equalizer (improves visibility in darker games).

You’ll also find various pre-calibrated picture modes, including FPS, RTS, RPG, AOC, sRGB, and High Bright (for maximum brightness).

The Picture in Picture (PiP) and Picture by Picture (PbP) modes are supported as well.

However, you can’t use FreeSync/G-SYNC or HDR in the PbP mode, and you’ll be limited to 120Hz if you have the 1006.2 firmware or newer.

Other features include standard picture adjustment tools such as brightness/contrast, sharpness, color temperature, gamma (three modes), etc. The backlight is flicker-free, and there’s a low-blue light filter (Reader Mode).

Note that you cannot enable local dimming for SDR content. You can either disable it completely or set it to ‘Auto’ which will enable local dimming whenever HDR content is detected.

Considering that there are only 10 dimming zones, this isn’t a big issue really.

We also recommend leaving the Dynamic Brightness option at ‘Off.’ These features automatically adjust the screen brightness according to the content on the screen, which can cause brightness fluctuations.

Design & Connectivity

The Samsung C49G95T boasts a futuristic design with a glossy white chassis, robust build, and decent ergonomics, including up to 120mm height adjustment, -5°/15° tilt, +/- 15° swivel, and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility.

At the back of the monitor, there’s the Infinity Core RGB lighting, which you can customize with five different effects (rainbow, pulse, static, etc.) and 52 different colors. There’s also a headset hanger at the top of the stand.

The screen has a matte anti-glare screen coating, which eliminates reflections while the aggressive 1000R curvature matches the curvature of the human eye for a more immersive viewing and gaming experience.

Connectivity options include two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs, HDMI 2.0 (max 60Hz at 5120×1440 or 120Hz at 3840×1080), a headphone jack, and a dual-USB 3.0 hub.

To set the monitor to 240Hz, you’ll first need to set it to 240Hz in the OSD menu. However, to get 240Hz at 5120×1440, you’ll need a GPU that supports DisplayPort 1.4 with DSC.

DSC, or Display Stream Compression, is supported on AMD’s RX 5xxx series and NVIDIA GTX 16-series and RTX 20-series (or newer) graphics cards.

Without DSC, you’ll be limited to 120Hz at 5120×1440 8-bit color and 100Hz at 5120×1440 10-bit color.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Samsung Odyssey C49G95T goes for ~$1,300, though it can be found for around $900, which is good value for money if you’re interested in this form factor.

There’s also the Samsung Odyssey G95C S49GG95 model with a darker design.

Other displays worth considering at this price range include LG’s 48″ C3 OLED TV, the 42″ LG C2 TV, the Dell AW3423DWF and the Samsung Neo G7 – all of which offer better HDR image quality.

There’s also the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, which is similar to the G9 but has a 2048-zone mini LED FALD backlight for significantly better HDR image quality. It can be found on sale for ~$1300.

Finally, you should consider the Samsung OLED G9 with a 49″ 5120×1440 240Hz QD-OLED panel that can be found for ~$1,200.

To learn more about monitors and ensure you’re getting the model most suited for your personal preference, visit our comprehensive and always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide.

Conclusion

The Samsung Odyssey G9 offers an incredible viewing and gaming experience thanks to its gigantic screen size with a steep 1000R curvature.

At the same time, the high peak brightness, contrast ratio, and pixel density combined with wide color gamut make for vivid highlights, deep blacks, crisp details, and vibrant colors.

Furthermore, its quick response time, 240Hz refresh rate, low input lag, and G-SYNC compatibility ensure buttery-smooth performance.

However, the mini LED and OLED panels are only slightly more expensive nowadays, so you should consider investing in them instead.

Specifications

Screen Size	48.8-inch
Screen Curvature	1000R
Resolution	5120×1440 (DQHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	32:9 (Super-UltraWide)
Refresh Rate	240Hz
Response Time	1ms (GtG)
Adaptive Sync	FreeSync Premium Pro (60Hz-240Hz) G-SYNC Compatible (60Hz-240Hz)
Ports	2x DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0
Other Ports	2x USB 3.0, Headphone Jack
Brightness	420 cd/m2
Brightness (HDR)	1000 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio	2500:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC) 95% DCI-P3
HDR	VESA DisplayHDR 1000
Local Dimming	Edge-lit 10 zones
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)