There are some monitors that force you to involuntarily pucker your lips and utter a silent “ooh.” That normally happens long after you fit the base and arm into the display and turn it on for the first time. When unboxing the 40-inch 4K Samsung Odyssey G7, I found I was much more excited by the promise of its fine black exterior and RGB ring light, not to mention its massive frame and sweeping 1,000R curve. But actually looking at it with the lights on shocked me with a sense of disappointment. Disappointment turns into acceptance, and acceptance inevitably becomes boredom.
I first laid eyes on the Odyssey G75F (model number LS40FG75DENXZA) earlier this year. It was an odd middle child between the 27-inch OLED Odyssey G6 with its blistering 360Hz refresh rate and the 27-inch OLED Odyssey G8 with its 4K, 240Hz panel (2025 was filled to the brim with this type of monitor). The Odyssey G7 offers something much different: a 40-inch curved screen with a fast 180Hz refresh rate (a rarity for ultrawide monitors). The only thing is, it doesn’t come with OLED but with a VA panel. Compared to organic light-emitting diode—a screen type that uses self-emissive colors to generate better contrast and deeper blacks—VA is closer to traditional LCD. The acronym stands for vertical alignment, which relates to the crystals inside the liquid crystal display. This type of display offers better contrast than other forms of LCD. This monitor is also solid with its 140 ppi (pixels per inch) density, meaning it can offer a relatively crisp image despite its size.
Samsung Odyssey G7
While it may lack the prestine picture of OLED, Samsung’s Odyssey G7 is still a big and engrossing 40-inch gaming monitor. Just don’t use it near any open windows.
- Easy to set up
- Good picture quality in the right conditions
- Wide swivel and tilt range for 40-inches
- Good for multitasking
- Fun RGB ring lighting
- Screen quality dips near light
- Low brightness
- Annoying cable management
- Limited HDMI ports
There are some consumers who prefer LCD technology to OLED. I’m not here to debate the merits of higher-brightness LCDs versus typically lower-brightness, more energy-dependent OLED. However, you’re better off determining whether the contrast is worth it for the price. The Odyssey G7 retails for $1,200. However, Samsung routinely discounts it to around $750 (and sometimes Amazon has it for even less). Samsung’s Odyssey monitors—and its TVs for that matter—are usually more expensive than most other brands with the same technology. For any price, there are still trade-offs aplenty.
Large and in charge
The 40-inch Samsung Odyssey G7 is the kind of monitor that will consume smaller desks. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
You’re mainly looking at this monitor for its size. A 40-inch screen is nothing to laugh at. On our office gaming desk we set up for testing PCs, its wingspan manages to nearly consume the table from port to starboard. Its 1,000R curve is far more dramatic than other, smaller 1800R curved monitors. A 34-inch Philips Evnia QD-OLED and the 32-inch Alienware AW3225QF won’t feel nearly as immersive as the Odyssey G7. None of these monitors reach the scale of the utterly massive 57-inch Odyssey Neo G9, but what does?
The curve nearly captures your eyes in its embrace. For gamers, it’s a truly different experience than if you’re used to flatter displays. The 4K monitor actually reaches a wider 5,120 x 2,160 resolution (sometimes called WUHD) than the typical 4K size of 3,840 x 2,160 (UHD). The Odyssey G7 sports a 21:9 aspect ratio supported by some, but not all games. It’s a similar story for streaming content as well. Some movies and shows on your favored streaming platform may support the ultrawide aspect ratio, but others won’t.
Two HDMI isn’t that much considering the size of this monitor. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
As much as choosing your content may be confusing, setting up the Odyssey G7 is a straightforward affair. You stick the flat base into the monitor stand, screw it in, then shove the monitor arm into the awaiting socket. And voila, you’re ready to play. The monitor only comes with two HDMI 2.1 and a single DisplayPort 1.4 input. There are an additional two USB-A 3.2 ports and a headphone jack. Still, I’d hardly call that port-rich for the size of this monitor.
For some odd reason, Samsung doesn’t make managing your cables too easy. There’s a single rubber strap across the back of the monitor stand that Samsung expects to contain all your miscellaneous cables. I would have preferred some more permanent loop that could hold fmore cables without straining. If you’re keen to keep a tidy desk, you’ll have to think of some inventive cable management to keep the snakes in their cage.
Despite my hangups with the Odyssey G7’s port selection and cable management, the monitor itself is a looker. That fun, circular light strip on the monitor’s rear panel can be programmed with a few preset patterns, but it’s mainly there to offer some background glow to the wall behind it. That little bit of attention to detail is consistent with Odyssey monitors, though I would have still enjoyed some speakers on the G7. The sound quality on a monitor likely won’t shiver my spine with bass, but I enjoy speakers being there in a pinch.
The Odyssey G7 is certified VESA DisplayHDR 600, though it only claims a 90% color range with a 3,000:1 contrast ratio. The one issue you’ll run into with compatibility is Samsung’s screens don’t support Dolby Vision. They instead use Samsung’s own HDR10+ gaming standard. Some noteworthy games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 will use HDR10+. Everything else will stick with the bog-standard HDR10.
I hope you don’t mind glare
You’ll find some streaming content supports the 21:9 aspect ratio, and it will look glorious. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
The VA panel Samsung chose for the Odyssey G7 isn’t the prettiest you can get, nor is it the brightest. Its stated typical brightness sits at around 350 nits. With the sunlight beaming in from a nearby window, the picture quality on Samsung’s monitor took a hit. In a dark, dank gamer basement with the blinds closed and the only light being soft RGB, the Odyssey G7 will hit its stride. In other environments, the monitor may look a little cheap despite its size.
I kept staring at the screen, wondering if what I was looking at is the kind of quality I really want from a big, expensive monitor. Like most LCD displays, the Odyssey G7 has a 1ms response time, dictating how fast a screen can change a pixel from one color to another. OLED normally has a faster response time, though it will be a little more dim depending on the quality of the display. The G7’s panel offers the worst of both worlds.
A single four-way rocker accounts for all the monitor’s controls. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
What actually matters is what the content eventually looks like, and in that regard it’s a much better experience. In peak conditions, the black levels avoid the problems on other monitors that make dark tones look gray. A game like Hollow Knight: Silksong supports the 21:9 aspect ratio and looks very nice once you can see so much of your surroundings. The contrast may not be as strong as some may wish, but it certainly doesn’t look bad either.
Depending on your game, you may need to do some adjustments to make it playable. A title like Total War: Warhammer III supports the WUHD resolution, but it requires you to manually scale the UI and text size so it’s manageable. Cyberpunk 2077 looks extra immersive in this 40-inch size. You just need to make sure your PC is beefy enough to play games at this size. Also, you need to remember that consoles like the PlayStation 5 don’t naturally support ultrawide aspect ratios. They merely stretch a 4K image to fit the screen.
A more dramatic curve helps enable better immersion in games. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
The big issue with the screen is the fact that it is prone to glare. It’s not so much reflective, as any ambient light tends to diffuse over the surface and mar any of those clear visuals you were hoping for. With the shades drawn down and the lights turned low, games finally looked their best.
More ways to multitask
Picture-in-picture mode will let you display up to two inputs at once. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
Sure, having a 40-inch display will naturally let you shove as many apps on it at once. That’s the benefit of a large screen, although I find the problem with excess is how quickly it may fill up. I have a tendency to leave a lot of tabs open, and even when I push those to the background, I suddenly find I’m still in need of another screen, whether it’s a laptop display or another monitor I can stack vertically next to my device.
The Odyssey G7 does allow swivel and tilt to a surprising degree. You can push the monitor up from -5 to 20 degrees and swing it around another 20 degrees to the left and right. No, sorry, you’re not going to twist this display vertically unless you create a creative mount for your wall. The screen is relatively versatile, and that’s important since you really want to sit in the center of any curved display to maximize the effect.
It may seem like a multitasker’s dream, but you’ll find you can quickly run out of space. © Raymond Wong / Gizmodo
If you’re looking for even more multitasking, the Samsung Odyssey G7 also allows for a picture-in-picture mode that will allows input from two separate devices. I tried this out with a PlayStation 5 and PC at once. You can either have each image squished side by side, though I much preferred the option to stick one screen in the corner and leave the rest to the other connected device. If, for some reason, you want to have your PC’s Discord chat up on the same screen as your game, this is an option. I would still much rather keep a laptop or tablet handy nearby, but I don’t mind having options.
What’s left is a monitor that will certainly work well for some gamers and creators who prefer to live in the dark. In the right environment, the picture quality is good enough that I wasn’t always pining for something more. But as soon as a little light hit the screen, I could sense a feeling of annoyance twitching behind my eye. I have been spoiled by the number of OLED displays from this year, as the screen technology has become much more prevalent—and cheaper—in recent years. This is a monitor for people who prefer the screen shape and the screen type. If you can nab the Odyssey G7 for a cheaper price—maybe half what a 45-inch LG 5K2K Ultragear would cost you—then you’ll have a great time being absolutely consumed by your monitor.
