Samsung OLED G8 review: This monitor is also a TV, for better or worse

The plethora of OLED has made comparisons a bit dull. Most use the same OLED panels, and have similar features, so the verdict often comes down to price. Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G8 is an exception, however, as it delivers an OLED panel alongside Smart TV functionality that includes built-in apps, a remote control, and much more. These features make the monitor more versatile, but could annoy PC enthusiasts who just want a monitor to act like a monitor.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (G80SD) specs and features

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8’s specifications are typical for a high-end OLED monitor. It offers 4K resolution, a refresh rate of up to 240Hz, and a QD-OLED panel that provides an exceptional color gamut. It also supports Adaptive Sync and HDR.

• Display size: 32-inch 16:9 aspect ratio
• Native resolution: 3840×2160
• Panel type: Samsung QD-OLED
• Refresh rate: Up to 240Hz
• Adaptive Sync: AMD FreeSync, Nvidia G-Sync Compatible
• HDR: HDR10+ Gaming
• Ports: 2x HDMI 2.1, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-A 3.0
• Wireless Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6E
• VESA mount: 100x100mm
• Speakers: Yes
• Price: $1,299.99 MSRP ($1,099 typical)

However, one specification stands out as unusual: The monitor includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. These features are required for its built-in Smart TV functionality, which includes support for streaming apps like Netflix. It can also be used for cloud gaming on services like Xbox Cloud Play and Amazon Luna.

Pricing is similar to Samsung’s competitors. The LG Ultragear 32GS95UE-B is $1,399.99 at MSRP, which is $100 more, while the Alienware AW3225QF has an MSRP of $1,199.99, which is less than the Samsung.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best monitors to learn about competing products.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 design

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 has a surprisingly elegant, even stately design. It’s covered in dark silver-gray materials, which strike a professional and reserved tone. However, the monitor still includes an RGB LED lighting ring on the back of the display, which can add some flair to your setup (it was off by default). The Odyssey should fit in anywhere you want to use it, whether that’s at a PC gaming desk, a home office, or a guest room.

Build quality is a perk. Like other recent Odyssey OLED monitors, it has a metal panel design, which feels far more premium and rigid than the plastic panels that are common even among high-end monitors. Of course, a monitor is not frequently touched or moved, so this durability probably isn’t going to make it last any longer than it would otherwise. Still, the use of metal provides a luxurious feel that beats even the best alternatives, like the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B and Alienware AW3225QF.

An ergonomic stand is included and offers adjustments for height, tilt, swivel, and the ability to rotate 90 degrees for use in portrait orientation. This is a good range of adjustment for a 32-inch gaming monitor. The stand feels sturdy and thankfully uses a compact, flat base. While the 32-inch monitor panel is, of course, quite large, the monitor doesn’t take up excessive room on a desk. That said, a 100x100mm VESA mount is available if you want to use the monitor with a third-party stand or arm.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 features and menus

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 isn’t like most monitors. Though it’s technically not a TV because it lacks a TV tuner, it functions much like any other Samsung Smart TV. It even runs Samsung’s Tizen OS and offers features typically found only on TVs, such as an image processor that enhances motion clarity in sports content.

Because of these features, setting up the Odyssey involves several steps, including connecting to Wi-Fi and selecting the smart apps you want to use. This is likely to frustrate PC gamers who prefer a plug-and-play experience. However, I didn’t find the process difficult, and it took about five minutes to complete.

Once set up, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 can be used like a Smart TV, providing access to popular apps like Netflix and Hulu, as well as bundled access to a variety of public television channels (though most of these channels aren’t particularly interesting). If you’re only using the Odyssey as a monitor, these features may not matter to you. However, if you’re looking for a multipurpose display for a studio apartment, entertainment room, or bedroom, these features are quite useful, effectively turning the Odyssey into a 32-inch Smart TV.

You can even use the Odyssey to play games without any device connected, as it includes a Wi-Fi connection and has support for game streaming services like Amazon Luna and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Bluetooth is supported as well, and you can pair Bluetooth-capable controllers with the display.

The monitor ships with a remote control, too, which can be used to adjust the volume, access Smart TV apps, and change monitor settings. Personally, I love monitors that come with remote controls — they’re much easier to use than the joysticks most monitors have on their bezel (though the Samsung also has a joystick as a back-up menu control).

There’s more. Samsung also provides a decent Windows app for adjusting monitor settings. While most competitors offer similar apps, only a handful — primarily LG and BenQ gaming and entertainment displays — also have a remote.

If you don’t want to use the Smart TV features, you can mostly ignore them, though they never completely disappear and can at times prove confusing. I more than once accidentally found myself launched into the monitor’s home screen, which immediately began blaring a low-budget reality TV show from one of the included free channels. It doesn’t help that Samsung’s manual offers little explanation of what the monitor’s many features accomplish.

Getting back to basics: Samsung Odyssey OLED G8’s menus provide the usual range of image quality adjustments. There are options to adjust color saturation, color temperature, color gamut, and gamma, as well as gaming features like an on-screen crosshair and a dark equalizer to enhance shadow detail in dark games. My one nitpick is with the color temperature settings, where Samsung uses vague labels like “warm” and “cool” instead of more precise numerical presets. Still, the Odyssey offers more image quality options overall than most gaming monitors.

If you’re looking for a multipurpose display for a studio apartment, entertainment room, or bedroom, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8’s features are quite useful.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 connectivity

Flip the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 around, and you’ll find a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports as well as a single DisplayPort 1.4. All of these inputs can handle the monitor’s 4K resolution at its maximum refresh rate of 240Hz. I would’ve liked one additional video input, but the three is likely fine for most people. You can connect a computer over DisplayPort alongside an Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5.

One of the HDMI ports supports an Audio Return Channel (ARC). This is a handy feature that makes the Odyssey easier to use alongside home theater equipment that also supports ARC, like soundbars, as it eliminates the need for a separate audio cable. Most monitors don’t support ARC, though a few — like the Alienware AW3225QF — do.

The monitor also offers some USB connectivity, but only in the form of two USB-A ports, driven by a USB-B upstream port. Unfortunately, USB-C is not available, which is a downside since USB-C is a convenient way to connect a laptop. To be fair, though, most of Samsung’s closest competitors — including the LG UltraGear 32GS95UE-B and Alienware AW3225QF — also lack USB-C.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 speakers

Samsung boasts about the Odyssey OLED’s built-in speaker system, claiming it will “take gaming to the next level.” Unfortunately, the monitor doesn’t live up to this promise. While the speakers are loud, they produce a muddy, harsh, and metallic sound quality that makes listening to music genuinely unpleasant. The audio improves somewhat at moderate volumes, but it’s still nothing special.

Most of Samsung’s competitors offer even worse speakers or omit them entirely. A notable exception is LG’s Ultragear 32GS95UB-E, which features a “pixel sound” speaker system that vibrates the display panel itself. It’s good enough that some users might be content using it instead of external speakers.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 SDR image quality

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 has (surprise!) a Samsung QD-OLED panel. This is a known quantity at this point, as PCWorld has reviewed more than a dozen QD-OLED monitors in the past year, and all deliver excellent SDR image quality with a few notable downsides.

Brightness is among those downsides, and the Odyssey is an especially poor performer in this area. Its maximum sustained SDR brightness of only 206 nits is lower even for an OLED monitor: Most alternatives hit about 250 nits.

With a brightness of 206 nits, the Odyssey is adequate for most situations, especially if the monitor is used in a room with blinds, curtains, or other forms of light control. At higher brightness settings, it may even appear quite bright in this situation.

However, if you plan to use the monitor in a space with little or no light control, such as near bright windows, it could be an issue. That’s unfortunate, as the Odyssey includes Smart TV features and could be a great option for use as a small TV in a studio apartment. In that case, though, its limited brightness could be a drawback.

Contrast, on the other hand, is a strong point of the Odyssey, as it offers an effectively infinite contrast ratio. This is achieved through the panel’s ability to reach a luminance of zero nits when displaying dark images, providing an immersive, lifelike, and striking picture quality that’s far superior to less expensive monitors using conventional LED backlights.

However, readers with strong opinions about OLED panels should be warned that this monitor uses an aggressive matte coating to reduce glare and reflections. It’s effective at providing a legible, almost paper-like image, but also dampens the perceived contrast, especially in brightly lit environments.

This is a matter of personal preference. I tend to favor matte coatings over glossy ones for computer monitors. However, I know some people have strong preferences in the opposite direction.

Color gamut is a traditional strength of QD-OLED monitors, thanks to the “QD” (Quantum Dots) panel technology, which significantly expands the range of colors the display can produce.

The Samsung Odyssey is no exception, offering a very wide color gamut comparable to other QD-OLED monitors and superior to monitors using LG’s WOLED panel.

A wide color gamut results in vivid, vibrant, and saturated colors in games and movies, but it’s also great for content creation, as it allows you to see a broader range of colors than what is typically possible with less capable monitors.

Surprisingly, Samsung’s color accuracy was somewhat lacking, at least at its default settings. While the monitor’s color will generally look realistic, it’s not as precise as some competitors. Gamers likely won’t notice any issues, but content creators may want to manually adjust the monitor’s settings or use calibration software for more accurate results.

On a positive note, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 performed well in gamma and color temperature tests. It achieved a nearly perfect gamma curve of 2.2, which is impressive, as many OLED monitors tend to slightly miss the mark, often producing a gamma of 2.3, which makes images appear a bit darker than they should. The Odyssey also had a default color temperature of 6800K, which is only slightly cooler than our target of 6500K.

Also, as mentioned, the monitor offers multiple gamma and color temperature settings. It’s easy to adjust both to suit your needs and preferences.

The monitor’s 4K resolution contributes to excellent sharpness. While QD-OLED monitors can suffer from subpixel rendering issues, which cause pixelation and aliasing around small fonts and some high-contrast edges, 4K resolution mitigates this problem. You might still notice it if you lean in when viewing small fonts in a spreadsheet, but it’s not a frequent concern, and the monitor’s image looks razor sharp.

Overall, the Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED delivers great image quality. While it underperforms in brightness and color accuracy, it excels in gamma and color temperature and generally matches the impressive image quality of other 32-inch OLED monitors. It’s an especially good option for people who want a multi-purpose OLED display, as the Odyssey has the color gamut, sharpness, and image quality options necessary to work well for both PC games and Photoshop.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 HDR image quality

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 supports HDR10+ but, unlike most competitors, the monitor’s marketing doesn’t claim any level of VESA DisplayHDR Certification. That seems foreboding, but the Odyssey OLED G8 performs fairly well for a QD-OLED monitor — after a bit of trial-and-error.

I measured a maximum sustained brightness of 779 nits in a 10 percent window, meaning just 10 percent of the display was lit by an HDR image, with the rest of the display completely dark. This is a good level of brightness for a QD-OLED monitor and shows the Odyssey can deliver bright, punchy highlights. A flash of lightning or an exploding car will look gorgeous on this monitor.

However, the Odyssey’s HDR brightness dipped quickly as a larger portion of the display was lit. As a result, scenes that demand a high level of luminance across the entire display can look dull and dim. LG’s WOLED panel, found in the Asus ROG Swift PG32UCDP and LG Utlragear 32GS95UE-B, has a notable advantage here.

I also had to tease out the Odyssey’s performance. It has several HDR settings and, at default, its brightness was rather low: just 337 nits in a 10 percent window. You’ll need to use the monitor’s Peak Brightness mode, as well as its Active tone mapping mode, to achieve the best brightness results.

Still, the monitor’s overall HDR performance is good for an OLED display and will typically deliver a bright, punchy image in HDR content. However, I’d recommend an LG WOLED over the Odyssey monitor if you plan to use HDR more often than not.

Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 motion performance

Samsung’s Odyssey OLED G8 offers a refresh rate of up to 240Hz at 4K resolution. That’s an excellent refresh rate for a 4K monitor, though also typical for an OLED display: Many 32-inch 4K OLED competitors have the same refresh rate.

Motion clarity is excellent at 240Hz. The monitor’s high refresh rate, paired with OLED’s low pixel response times, keeps motion blur to a minimum. Fast moving objects are easy to see and the silhouettes of distant enemies will stand out on the horizon. It’s not perfect: Small fonts can still be impossible to read at speed, for example. Still, motion clarity is great and only defeated by alternatives with even higher refresh rates, like the Alienware AW2725QF.

Adaptive sync is supported, as well, though here the monitor runs into a few issues. First up: Samsung’s marketing is unclear. The monitor is prominently sold as G-Sync Compatible. However, the monitor’s menu system lists support for AMD FreeSync, with no mention of Nvidia’s G-Sync. This isn’t a huge concern because, in my testing, the monitor worked with both AMD and Nvidia hardware. Still, it’s an odd oversight.

I also experienced an infrequent but notable bug when using Adaptive Sync. The monitor would sometimes display a garbled line of digital static at the bottom edge of the display when Adaptive Sync was turned on. Flipping the mode on and off, or rebooting my PC, could fix it, though it could take several tries. This is not a new problem for Samsung: A look at Reddit shows occasional user complaints of a similar issue with older Odyssey monitors.

Should you buy the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8?

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 is yet another excellent 32-inch QD-OLED monitor. It delivers a vibrant, saturated, and immersive image alongside excellent motion clarity. However, the monitor’s defining feature is actually its software, which includes Samsung’s Tizen OS and a buffet of Smart TV features that make the OLED G8 useful in situations where you’d otherwise want to buy a small television. The monitor’s overall image quality doesn’t stand out from the competition though, and its software features might annoy PC users who just want a monitor to act like a monitor. I recommend the Odyssey OLED G8 if you need a versatile display that will be used to watch movies and streaming TV as often as it’s used to play games or for productivity.

Author: Matthew S. Smith