Samsung unveils OLED gaming monitors in big and speedy flavors

Samsung usually makes headlines with its Odyssey gaming monitors by being ridiculously, humongously ginormous. They’re big, is what I’m saying. But the latest two bring its celebrated OLED panels to more conventional form factors. You can go big (but not too big) with a 32-inch 4K screen, or speedy with a 27-inch one.

The Odyssey G80SD is the one you want if you’re interested in showing off your expensive graphics card’s chutzpah, with a 32-inch, 3840×2160 panel. And with the same built-in streaming tech as Samsung’s smart TV line, you can do it even if your gaming PC isn’t in the room. At 240Hz and .03ms response time, it’s fast, but not so fast that it’ll turn heads among the esports crowd. With DisplayPort and double HDMI, but no USB-C video (though there is a 2-port hub), we might hope that it isn’t too pricey. Maybe.

The Samsung Odyssey G60SD is the speedier of the two, with a downgraded 27-inch, 1440p panel but 360Hz of refresh. It dispenses with the smart tech and built-in speakers, so it’s definitely the more PC-focused offering here, though both of them come with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro certification (no word on Nvidia’s G-Sync). The smaller Odyssey has the same ports.

Both monitors come with flat, “glare-free” panels, which should help, since their brightness is a little underwhelming at just 250 nits. They also include Samsung OLED Safeguard+, a “proprietary burn-in protection technology” that uses a pulsating heat pipe combined with a new evaporative coolant system and brightness reduction for static images.

It all sounds very impressive…but there’s no word on any kind of multi-year enhancement to the warranty, which I think I’d prefer. Samsung didn’t mention release dates or prices, but both monitors are labeled as “2024 models,” so presumably they’ll be available before the end of the year.