Samsung - 27" Odyssey G4 (G40H) Fast IPS FHD 300Hz 1ms AMD FreeSync Prem Gaming Monitor with HDR 10 (DisplayPort, HDMI) - Black

Monitor quality keeps improving, unfortunately my wife's eyesight is going the other way.  Besides size, I'd not considered them helping people with eyesight problems.  I recently saw that the new Samsung monitors had a new and improved Matte finish. I've had matte finishes on other notebook's/monitors, but they had a negative effect on the quality of viewing.  My wife's vision problem is exacerbated by screen reflections.  My hope was a screen with an improved matte finish will be easier for her to view, and a 27" will be a big step up from her notebook.  Unpacking and setup of the monitor was very extremely easy.  One built in screw attached the monitor arm to the monitor base.  The Monitor arm is built so that the monitor can be viewed in either portrait or landscape orientation (yea) with a reasonable amount of tilt.  The G4 monitor has a HDMI and a Displayport connector, as well as power in and audio out (headphones or for powered speakers). It has a 100mm VESA mount on the back.  To test it I hooked up to one of my notebooks.  Once plugged in I connected the HDMI Cable to the notebook and monitor, it promptly displayed the notebook's screen on the G4 monitor.  By default the G4 was a little dim and colors were not quite right.  I used the on/off - Joystick on the lower left of the back side of the monitor to go into the set up menu. I increased the brightness, contrast and sharpness to pretty much match the display of my notebook.  The monitor on stand is 16" tall, and is 24" wide. With a stand it's 9.5" deep and weighs 9.9 lbs.  The stand does allow height adjustment and allows you to use the monitor in portrait mode.  It has a very small bezel so two could be used together without much distraction.  It supports full HD (‎1920x1080) with AMD FreeSync, and claims to have 1ms response time with up to a 300 hz refresh rate.  It includes both a HDMI cable and a DisplayPort cable. Once I made the color adjustments I found the color was very pleasing.  And the matte finish is remarkable.  NO reflections, you get close to the screen and look in any direction you get true colors without any reflections, it's very immersive when you lean in.  To me it is a great example of how much monitors have improved and continue to improve.   This is strictly a 1920x1080 HD monitor, not a 2K or 4K display.  It does support HDR10 (extended blackness, mostly having to do with video), yet its blacks are quite deep and its colors quite consistent. And running with either the 100hz or 300hz refresh rate there is absolutely no flicker. It supports 3 levels of Eye Saver (low, high and off) mode which reduces potentially harmful blue light emissions. I thoroughly enjoyed watching videos on this display.  It has multiple gaming modes which adjust up the brightness and it sharpens the contrast settings automatically. It also has a Response Time Settings and auto sync to prevent tearing when gamings fast moving images (seemed pretty effective in Asphalt Jungle and Turismo 7). In normal PC mode the game mode setting improves screen readability from a distance, the text is sharper/cleaner.  But for movie viewing it hurt dark images significantly.  I don't recommend game mode for video viewing or video editing, all dark areas are blown out.    This is not the highest performing monitor you can purchase (but you know that), but for its price you get a very high quality product.  It makes a great extension monitor. And my wife absolutely loves it.  The lack of reflections is great for her vision issues.  The audio quality was MUCH better than I expected (but no built in speakers).  The quality is very good. The colors are nearly perfect, when I compared my notebook (w/OLED Display) to this monitor. The monitor does great with gaming but still only Full HD; and does not have the sharpness of an OLED screen, but it may be the best IPS screen I've ever seen. It also seems like a great monitor for Image Editing or graphics work (except for the lack of 2K/4K resolution). But I do like this monitor a lot, for day to day computer use it's excellent. I think it will be perfect for my wife.

It’s 2026 and we have more monitor (and PC solutions) than ever before, while prices have continued to fall (well, all but HDDs and RAM which have reversed during this AI data center explosion). Fortunately most of those servers are headless and not requiring dedicated monitors, which is a benefit to we consumers. Today we’re looking at the Samsung Odyssey G4 27-inch speed demon of a monitor, featuring a 300 Hz scanning rate, with 1 millisecond response, but less resolution than discriminating users may demand. If you play FPS and quick response games you’ll likely love this monster of a monitor. Albeit caveat emptor, this 300 Hz speed comes at a cost of resolution, featuring just 1920x1080p max resolution. If i had my druthers I’d likely have selected a 1440p 240 Hz screen, though my usage is not just gaming, but also general purpose, work, security, etc. When gaming speed matters, it is very noticeable of the refresh rate over 60 Hz (duh?), 120 Hz, 144 Hz, and 165 Hz monitors, supposedly even newer 240 Hz monitors though i could not tell a difference from my primary monitor over DisplayPort 1.2, rightfully so as the HDMI 2.0 input has max refresh of 240Hz. Don’t get me wrong, i remain mostly impressed by this monitor, however i personally feel a 1440p w 240 Hz refresh or ultrawide monitor rate might appease more than just hardcore FPS speed prioritized customers. PROS +simple assembly +HDR 10 support +300Hz refresh rate (DP 1.2) +240Hz refresh rate (HDMI 2.0) +super fast 1ms response rate +anti-glare display screen +included DisplayPort cable +Nvidia G-Sync / AMD FreeSync +IPS panel = excellent wide-screen viewing +both HDMI and DisplayPort inputs (no USB-C though) +makes a great 2nd screen CONS -lack of 4k -no HDMI 2.1 -limited pixel density -slight backlight bleed -only 1920x1080 resolution -needs HDMI dongle on a Mac -no on- board speakers, audio out -on single display not the primary imho -less Cinematic than a deeper black VA panel CONCLUSION While there are several valid use-cases for a low-cost, ultra fast monitor sure to appease speed freaks, I feel the lack of resolution is a major drawback, and recommend a pre versatile product. RECOMMEND - look for Samsung 1440p or 1600p ultrawide res with 240 Hz refresh rate imho if you want to extent the longevity and prevent a 3-5 year paper weight taking up space.

In a time when it can cost more than a grand (or two) for a video card that pushes 4K or more WELL, it was actually a treat to spin up a few AAA titles at 1080p on the Odyssey G4 and top out at 300 fps. It was a little difficult to drop down from my 1600p ultrawide at first, but the truth of the matter is that the G4 actually had a nice enough picture, especially with games having good HDR implementation, that I could see sticking with the 27” G4 if I didn’t have a larger screen already dedicated to gaming. The spec sheet on this monitor looks impressive on the specs that matter: 300Hz refresh, FreeSync Premium, 1ms response time, and HDR10. The screen has a matte finish, so you don’t get a lot of distracting reflections from bright room lights, and the IPS panel means off-angle viewing is still very clear. There’s a black-level “equalizer” that bumps up shadow detail (to spot those monster-spawn points in dark corners) without completely overblowing the picture. Several differently shaped aimpoint overlays are available to improve center-shot accuracy. Like most monitors, you get a handful of gimmicky color modes supposedly optimized for different types of games (RTS, FPS, Sports, etc.) as well as low and high “eye saver” settings (typical blue-light reduction with ultra-warm orange-ish whites), another setting for graphic design (which I suppose is optimized for RGB accuracy), and one for “entertainment.” There is also a custom setting that allows you to dial in a number of standard picture controls (brightness, contrast, tint, saturation, sharpness) as well as some slightly more advanced adjustments like gamma, white balance, shadow detail (which is, frustratingly, a different adjustment than the black equalizer). Basic performance specs indicate a 1000:1 contrast ratio and typical 300 cd/m2 operating brightness. The numbers are…fine…on their own, and will serve you well in a bright room, but they aren’t anything impressive enough to really make your jaw drop. Assembly takes all of 30 seconds: toolless attachment of the single support column via single thumbscrew to the (thankfully) smallish base, then snap the screen onto the mounting points and you’re done. There are standard VESA mount points as well for those of you using a display arm or other mount. A small plastic band near the bottom of the stand provides for a sliver of cable management, and the stand allows enough vertical movement to put the screen in portrait mode in either left or right orientation. There is a USB port at the back, but it’s only for servicing the panel, not for multimedia display or moving data around on a thumb drive. What you DON’T get is a lot of anything else--the tradeoff you pay for getting some of those enviable monitor stats at such a reasonable price. There are only two inputs, DP (1.2) and HDMI (2.0); DP supports 300Hz output while HDMI will push 240Hz max. There aren’t any speakers, though there is a headphone jack in the back. There is a six-stage gamma adjustment, but no indication as to the value of each setting. Similarly, there are color temperature settings, but nothing to indicate how close or far each one is to the 6500K neutral. The panel does support HDR10 display though it does not appear to be HDR certified, and I did not see any evidence that the panel supports 10-bit color. There is also a response time adjustment in the monitor’s menu; but, like the gamma and color temperature settings, there is no direct indication what the response time adjustments (standard, faster, and extreme) correspond to in terms of literal panel timing. I’m guessing the highly touted 1ms response time is activated only under the extreme mode. FWIW, I didn’t see any visible glitching running the panel at the extreme setting, but the tradeoff is that you have to turn off adaptive sync to make any timing adjustments, and then there isn’t any indication of just what the response time is left running at (3ms? 5ms?). Despite sounding a little harsh, the G4 actually produced a stellar image, especially in games that have native support for the expanded HDR colorspace. I was more than pleased with the deep, glowing neon hues and over-saturated colors in Horizon Forbidden West (non-HDR) and the incredibly realistic, gritty feeling of the dingy cityscape in Dying Light – The Beast (native HDR). The G4 does not carry G-Sync certification, but my RTX 4090 rig recognized the panel’s G-Sync compatibility immediately and the action was sublimely smooth. Backlight bleed was minimal, confined to just a bit of bright bloom primarily in the upper right corner, but during normal use it wasn’t intrusive enough to be noticeable. Still, it’s a fast IPS panel at a reasonable price point so you aren’t going to see OLED-level inky blacks. The only real COMPLAINT I have about the G4 is actually a design issue that frankly drove me nuts. The 4-way joystick/menu button is hidden at the back of the monitor…not on the side, not at the bottom, not at a convenient edge, but far enough in the back that it was a struggle to find it every single time. I suppose once you get the settings dialed in to your liking you might not need to access the controls very often, but fiddling blind with a rear-mounted control is already irritating enough…putting the control it in a place that isn’t easy or intuitive to locate was frustrating for no good reason. Similarly, the headphone jack is also WAY in the back which may make for even more frustration if you are someone who routinely switches between headphones and external speakers. So where does that leave the G4 in the VERY crowded PC gaming monitor market? It does its job well and hits the high points of fast response time, adaptive sync up to 300Hz, HDR support, but it does fall a little short in terms of some usability issues, and some run-of-the-mill specs for brightness and contrast. Still, the monitor carries a reasonable price tag, especially on sale, and for the money, will provide a very pleasing picture with a few high-horsepower gaming capabilities thrown in for good measure.