Review on SAMSUNG Odyssey Ultrawide Adjustable LC49RG90SSNXZA Swivel Adjustment, USB Hub, Adaptive Sync, Height Adjustment, by Gary Thornton

Updated Review - This item was received almost 2 months later than promised. Updated Review - The DisplayPort product is not working and Samsung support is unwilling to resolve the issue as the item is misclassified in their system and they told me to contact Revain for a replacement. Revain refuses to replace. DESIGN - 3/5 The monitor is super curved and I love it. It's not like those useless "curves" where it's not actually curved. It is definitely more curved than it appears in the photos. It's one of the reasons it looks so thick on stock photos, but this monitor is still very chunky. The frame is fairly large, and the stand is large for a reason. I have a heavier TV with a smaller stand than this - there is absolutely no reason they had to force the stand to take up so much space. It's almost impossible to put the monitor back that far and ensure you have a fairly large desk. Now I have it on my dining table (quite large), and it takes up most of it, not just in length but in depth. The back of the stand is pretty cool with a backlight, the stand is pretty solid and the anti-glare works just like other monitors. But I honestly think it should have been a little less cumbersome. PICTURE QUALITY - 3/5 This is where I started to get frustrated. The picture quality isn't really like "QLED". I have an LG OLED TV and also saw Samsung QLED TVs at the show. It's actually not as bright as they say, or at least doesn't look like 600 nits. I may have misread that number somewhere - Samsung finally updated their website to show 350 nits. It's important to note that their QLED TVs are over 1000 nits, so I'm not sure why they call it QLED. They clearly aren't as good as OLED, but this is a lot closer to a TN monitor than their QLED TVs. Everything looks blurry. I mean, it's not bad compared to other "regular" monitors, but it's pretty bad compared to everything in this price range: OLED TVs, QLEDs, and OLED TVs. The viewing angle isn't very good either. If you get too close to the monitor (which you have to do since the stand is so big), the viewing angles can be a bit disturbing, especially with the anti-glare coating. Before that I had a curved IPS monitor from LG which I returned due to fogged up backlight. There doesn't seem to be anything special about this monitor, but the picture quality on LG I'd say was better. Also, you can actually notice lower ppi if you're forced to approach this monitor from behind the stand, as mentioned earlier. The monitor comes with a wall mount bracket so you can try it out. PICTURE AFTER ADJUSTMENT - 4.5/5 Once you can play around with the settings, you'll be able to get more out of this monitor. You can put it in high brightness mode, where it definitely looks like the 350 nits they're currently advertising on their website. However, once you set it up, it's no longer a "gaming" monitor. Again, it's nice to be able to use the multi-mode buttons to switch between them depending on what you're watching. However, when Samsung displays HDR and high brightness in a game, it's still misleading. In fact, you wouldn't lower the in-game settings to get better image quality. Still not as good as my OLED TV but maybe a bit brighter on average as OLED TVs automatically dim depending on what you're watching. QUALITY CONTROL - 2/5. Noticed a dead pixel on the screen. Really a shame when you're really paying for a panel. Due to the shipping method, a screw was also missing on delivery, which I will discuss later. There were also scratches all over the back of the screen due to the way it was delivered. A little backlight on the corner, not so bad. None of that is acceptable when they're charging $1,500 for a panel. DISPLAY CONFIGURATIONS - 4/5 This monitor runs pretty well at 144Hz and the response time seems good. With a GTX 1080 at this resolution, I can get 144 fps or more in CSGO. Other games rather not. There are different response time modes, and for the "fastest" which I believe is 1ms, the brightness is reduced, which sucks. There's an eye-friendly mode that's great to have on the displays, as are my other new displays, but this one is extreme. This is definitely easy on the eyes, but washes everything around it a lot and also greatly reduces the brightness. I definitely can't use this mode so I'll have to stick with f.lux to fix it. There's also a mode to toggle the LED backlight on and off, but it doesn't do anything. It may be important to note that it is disabled by default. So for gaming you obviously want the fastest response and the best "game" settings, but when you're not gaming you probably need higher brightness. What I really like about this monitor is that it has 3 dedicated physical buttons for different "modes" so you can quickly switch between different settings. I wish all displays did this. FORM FACTOR - 4/5. This is the perfect resolution for multitasking. Everything is easy to organize and everything is in sight. I used to use 4K TVs (and still do) to open multiple windows. I'd say it's not as nice when the windows pop up higher at 4K resolution, so it's basically 4K cut in half where you need it. The screen comfortably accommodates 3 windows. Ever had two monitors and had an uncomfortably small resolution for 2 windows on both screens? Well that's the ideal resolution for 3 windows instead of 4 with scrollbars at the bottom. However, since this is a GAMING monitor, it is important to note that many games do not support this resolution, making it useless. For example, CSGO only stretches the edges so you don't really get any extra space, and it just looks bad in the corners when you look at it. Overwatch doesn't support it at all. If you then play borderless, you cannot use corners. However, if you play in windowed mode because the height is 1080 pixels, you're wasting space in the taskbar and at the top of the window, so you can't play in 1080p resolution. It would be really cool if they made it a little "higher" and increased the resolution while keeping the same pixels per inch. So something like 1200 pixels high and 50 inches or so diagonally. SHIPPING, FEATURES AND PRICING - 1/5 I bought this straight after it was made available for pre-order on Revain. Looks like Revain sold more than that. Actually I ordered from Samsung and Samsung delayed the launch. Delivery was then postponed from July to August. I had to order directly from Samsung. 55" curved QLED cut in half. Samsung is definitely raising the price of this phone, although the response time is better than a TV. Now, I'm not complaining specifically about the price, I'm complaining about the lack of features for such a price. Samsung has opted for cheaper FreeSync over G-Sync, and those who can afford it probably have an Nvidia GTX 1080 or higher, otherwise you won't even be able to use 144Hz in most modern games, so why choose AMD when the new ones Graphics cards are not even on the market yet? Also, on the Revain and Samsung websites, many specifications are missing. When I received the product, it was sent in a single copy, and there were already scratches on the back of the monitor. They also leave screws dangling from the monitor stand so a screw was missing when the monitor was delivered Finally it is extremely difficult to get it out of the box come if you are just one person although it can be managed but love how they organized the box from top to bottom. DEFECTS - 0/5 This monitor has a bright dead pixel. Samsung policy is to only replace them if you contact them within 7 days, but that's not enough time to notice and not enough time to contact their support for an RMA since the product is not even properly listed on their RMA portal. because it is a new product. In fact, it means they can't help you. Adding to this problem, DisplayPort stopped working after about a week. Therefore it is no longer possible to use 144 Hz with my monitor. SUPPORT - 0/5 I've been trying to contact Samsung for weeks. Use of chat, email and calls. Initially, this monitor wasn't even on their website. Consumer service says this is a business product which is not a guarantee but they have assured me that any monitor over 34" is a business product. According to Business Support, it is a consumer product. If you call them, you'll end up in an endless loop because Samsung didn't properly incorporate this into their system, and it's been a few months after the product's release. You can't request a service/RMA because you can't select a model # that doesn't exist, nor does the serial number lookup work. OVERALL - 2/5 Overall this is a decent monitor considering all things and pretending you didn't pay $1500 for it. I've got loads of money, desk space and a separate OLED - a TV for watching movies and everything else, so I'm fine with that and will probably keep it as it's the only monitor currently with such an ultrawide screen.