Review on 🖥️ SAMSUNG 49" LC49G95TSSNXZA Odyssey FreeSync Monitor with 5120x1440p, 240Hz, Curved Ultrawide Screen, LED, HD by David Cruz

This monitor is a good SDR monitor with a very good response time for an LCD panel. Good contrast for an LCD panel and a very high refresh rate for the given resolution. At 240 Hz and twice the resolution of 2560 x 1440, this monitor is the monitor with the highest effective bandwidth. And the response time is among the best among LCD monitors. And although VA is often criticized as a black spot, Samsung has completely solved this problem. Well, you'll notice I've said "for an LCD panel" a few times, and that's because for the money into the 2020s I'd be a lot better off if this monitor was OLED. I have it alongside an LG B9 OLED TV and it's a shame for the picture quality of this monitor. Suddenly the contrast that seemed good on an LCD monitor became crap (especially in HDR mode, which I'll get to later). Now I understand that Samsung is simply not able to mass produce large OLED displays due to poor performance on large RGB OLEDs panels. But that doesn't change the fact that LCD looks like an old technology at the moment and OLED is now the best of recent years on bigger WOLED TVs and smaller RGB screens. So I understand there's no way Samsung could have released it as OLED, so let's move on to what they could and should have done to make this monitor what it can be for a very expensive LCD monitor : Performance HDR is a bit of a joke for low APL (Medium Picture Level) scenes suddenly decent contrast becomes awful and everything looks washed out when you enable HDR (contrast ratio changes from 2000:1 to 500:1) so HDR is usable at all. You only need to display high APL content where there are no dark scenes. And while there's content that fits the bill (like games like the last two Assassin's Creed that have really bright exterior scenes and look great on them), most content has darker scenes, and for that type of content the SDR mode does see looks better than HDR mode, and it's a damn shame. The reason for this poor performance of HDR is simple: it offers a very, very bright backlight, but with very few zones, so the panel is overloaded, so a very high light output increases the contrast. 10 zones seems a little cheap given the monitor's MSRP and is the main reason HDR performance is so poor (not to say it would be 'amazing' even with 1000 zones, but at least it could be used ). But at least Samsung made sense to turn on a lower-brightness HDR mode (local dimming disabled) that lowers the output brightness significantly and makes HDR more usable for darker content, but I wouldn't do it. Don't call it a major improvisation and you'll just be sacrificing peak brightness for slightly better contrast. So HDR is bad most of the time, but it can be used for high APL content and looks good in very bright scenes. And speaking of the backlight, I have to report that I was pleasantly surprised by the screen's consistent performance. For such a large display, the absence of the "dirty screen effect" that is very common with LCD panels is very impressive on my device. This is the most consistent screen I've ever seen on an LCD monitor. Now let's talk about the form factor which is the main reason this thing exists and that's where this monitor comes into its own: the monitor will dominate your setup. It will be by far the most visible object in the room you place it in and correct in every way. : Your brain will adjust to the curve and the curve will feel very natural. When you look at the flat panel directly after using this monitor for a long time, the flat panel seems to curve outward! Just like those CRT monitors from the 90's (brains are mysterious objects). As big as this monitor is, the vertical real estate now feels a little reduced for its size. I think this monitor would be even better if it were 2x 16:10 monitors instead of 2x 16:9. Anyway, I'll just add a TL section for pros and cons; DR because I could talk a lot about this monitor. bigger and the test is getting too long: THE GOOD: - The size and form factor of the monitor will dominate your setup in every way. - Good contrast for an LCD monitor without the usual disadvantages of a VA panel. - Incredible response time for an LCD panel. - Double the resolution of 2560 x 1440 @ 240Hz is stunning, and the fact that most games always run below 240Hz ensures you don't even have to worry about V-Sync being enabled. less than 240 frames per second in most cases. THE BAD: - HDR mode reduces contrast because it only has 10 local dimming zones. - Color space, while significantly wider than sRGB in HDR mode, isn't quite where it should be for a quantum dot panel, but better than sRGB at least. levions for the same money! - Understand that while this monitor is very large, you want it to be more vertical. (A 2x 16:10 display instead of 2 16:9 displays would be even better IMO, or just post a dual 30" 16:9 version.) One last thought before I wrap this up and rate the explanation : In a vacuum where OLED displays didn't exist, the price of this monitor would be much easier to justify. But we don't live in that world, and we're well into the 2020s now. sooner rather than later because the LCD is long outdated, this is the last LCD I ever bought. LCD monitor. And as good as an LCD panel is (it's VERY good for an LCD!), it just doesn't measure up to an OLED display. If it was cheaper, or at least had more local dimming zones, I wouldn't have had issues with the price. I'll just leave you with the fact that while the VA panel does a lot to make it one of the best LCD panels out there (good contrast and best-in-class response times), OLED is still better and I do that can not ignore .