Samsung - 34” Odyssey G5 1000R Curved 1ms 165Hz QHD FreeSync Prem Gaming Monitor - Black

First thing I would like to start of with saying is the CURVE is must, I personally love it! With every other post I could find over this monitor, in which there are not many out yet. People considered this a huge turnoff. I honestly think it makes it easy on the eyes causing less strain as to perhaps a non-curve ultrawide. Again this is my first UW so what do I know as this is my personal opinion but the 1000R curved screen feels right. The previous monitor I had was a 2560x1440p 144hz 1ms. The difference is noticeable since this has a fresh rate of 165hz but nothing that is as exciting if one was to upgrade from a 60hz monitor. I do notice quite a bit of ghosting while dragging dark applications back and forth from one side to the other side of the monitor. This still has me on weather or not I should keep the monitor. In hope that samsung perhaps releases an update here soon to address this issue. Is this even possible to release a fix in terms of causing less ghosting? Playing games expect some of the cutscenes or menus to be cropped out. This is common as these developers do no keep us in mind :3. Although I barely noticed after an hour gaming session on Cold War but was brought back a few times into noticing it after matches ended and the game went back to the menu screen. The monitor has inbuilt menu with features that allow you to change a few things Refresh Rate: Adjust the rate in which the monitor updates with new images each second. The options given are 60Hz, 100Hz, and 165Hz. Black Equalizer: This gives the user the option to adjust the brightness of the dark areas. The values given from 1-20, The closer the value is 1 the brighter the backlight will be. Response Time: This accelerates the panel response rate to make video appear more vivid and natural. The options given here are as followed Standard, Faster, Fastest, and Fastest (MBR). MBR stands for *Motion Blur Reduction in which reduces blur by controlling LED behavior. I myself have left this to Fastest. The Fastest (MBR) dims your monitor and is not as appealing due to brightness being brought down to near pitch dark. I would assume this is meant for those who like to play in the dark? I have not tinkered with this feature much. FreeSync: This features disables and thus controls the Refresh Rate, Response Time, Low Input Lag, and Screen Size. Again I have not tinkered with this and personally have kept it off as I would like to control the features list above myself. Low Input Lag: This minimizes input lag for fast reactions by reducing the video processing time. Virtual Aim Point: This has a digital crosshair right in the center of your screen. This gives you a choice between 6 different crosshairs. varying in 2 sizes (Small & Medium) and 3 different colors (Red, Cyan, & White) Screen Size: You can select screen size and ratio. options given are Auto, Wide, 17"(4:3), 19"(4:3), 19" Wide(16:10), 21.5 Wide(16:9), 22" Wide(16:10) 23" Wide(16:9), 27" Wide(16:9), & 29" Wide (21:9). There also happens to be a picture category with subcategories to control and choose the liking of inbuilt preset Picture Modes. Other in depth features that can be changed are the Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, Black Level, Eye Saver Mode, & Screen Adjustment. Although with all these features I am able to control. I still have mixed feelings over the picture quality of the monitor. It seems no matter what tinkering I do to try to get less of a ghosting, the colors which seem a little dull with not much life to it, the saturation playing a big part as to if I want to see a blur and then all of a sudden with the switch of a value everything looks garish and unnatural. I am going to give it a few more days till my brain and eyes adjust to this new monitor to see what my motives are, but so far the most important part of a monitor is a let down with day to day tasks. While playing video games there is not much difference from what I could tell.

While gamers may rejoice, if you work with spreadsheets you might also rejoice! Originally purchased to play some games in ultra-wide mode and do some work, ive actually been more pleased using it for spreadsheet work! Who know having such a wide screen would be such a delight. I did find this on sale, which made the decision that much easier to pull the trigger on making the purchase. If you find it on sale and were on the fence - hop off and make the move!!

The monitor itself is great for both gaming and productivity - I use it for both work and entertainment and, once it turns on, it performs equally well in both environments. The turning on, however, is a bit of a problem for when it’s connected to my MacBook Pro. I have a dual setup and it works great when it’s connected to my Windows PC but it doesn’t always turn on right away when I switch it back to my MacBook Pro. I either have to wait for a while for it to turn on or unplug it and plug it back in again to make it come on. It’s a bit of an inconvenience but, considering it’s low price, I’m still fairly happy with my purchase.