Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 review - All-round gaming monitor takes the bend

At first glance, the Odyssey G7 Neo comes in a plain, matte black case and only upon closer inspection does one clearly recognize the designers' target group. The two RGB lights located at the bottom edge of the screen and the colorful plastic ring on the back of the housing are eye-catching.

While a display of this size and especially with such a pronounced curvature does not necessarily seem subtle, the G7 Neo can also pack itself on the desk without a guilty conscience as a casual gamer. The back of the case, which is of course much more in focus due to the curved panel, also comes in black plastic and is subtle with some discreet design elements.

The monitor stand is quite expansive according to the display diagonal, but it also does without additional visual accents.

Before we take a look at the Odyssey Neo G7 in everyday gaming (and creator) use, we first measured the VA panel parameters. While the average SDR brightness of around 335 nits is quite close to the 350 nits claimed by the manufacturer, and the contrast is also impressive thanks to the panel technology and the mini-LED backlight, the HDR performance of the gaming monitor falls a bit short of expectations.

We were able to measure 440 nits on a white surface over 50% of the screen's diagonal and still a quite solid 796 nits at 10%, while Samsung talks about "Quantum HDR 2000" on its website. So this seems to be more marketing talk for the Quantum Layer for better color reproduction rather than a specification for maximum brightness.
Although the monitor's general brightness performance is okay - after all, desktop monitors do not depend on the additional flexibility in changing light conditions like notebooks, for example - the competition does not sleep and advertises maximum brightness far beyond 1000 nits.

Now that we have dealt with the technical aspects, the question remains how the monitor performs in gaming and all other classic monitor applications.
One thing in advance: While VA panels enjoy the advantage of a much higher contrast range compared to standard IPS displays, this is at the expense of color separation, especially in dark image areas. The screen content simply does not look as differentiated as on IPS panels, or even the OLED competition. However, this is quite a subjective perception, and you should decide for yourself whether it is a drawback.

Apart from that, the Odyssey knows how to please in many genres. Fast shooters benefit from the high refresh rate and short response times (assuming a potent graphics card), and especially story games in HDR are displayed with a lot of detail due to the high resolution.
All games shine due to the enormous contrast range, and even if the maximum brightness may not be quite convincing in larger bright areas, highlights, explosions and effects are impressively displayed.
As with all mini-LED monitors, blooming (an over-radiation of smaller light sources into neighbouring image areas) is definitely an issue, but with well over 1000 dimming zones, the effect is only very weakly pronounced on the Neo G7 and doesn't interfere with the gameplay at all.
The strong curvature is also quickly forgotten in the heat of the moment, and you actually have more of a feeling of being in the game than just sitting in front of it!

If you leave the dimming zones in "Auto" mode, the backlight on the desktop behaves like a classic single-zone variant and thus halos around menus or at sharp contrast edges aren't an issue here either.
We can only conditionally recommend the Neo G7 for content creators, despite the good color reproduction. Especially for photos, the aforementioned problem of contrast reproduction in VA panels prevents professional use. For color-critical applications, you should therefore rely on a second monitor with IPS or OLED illumination.

Of course, a 32-inch monitor with 4K resolution and all the features and specialties that the Odyssey Neo G7 has to offer is not a budget product. While the list price is well over the 1,000 euro mark, the Samsung monitor is now available for much less in stores.

As an entry-level premium mini-LED monitor, you can't go far wrong with the Neo G7 for the ultimate gaming experience.

For just over 900 Euros, you get absolutely up-to-date technology, which hardly has any weaknesses except for the peculiarities of the VA panel and the somewhat wobbly stand. Considering that a model of this class also requires a correspondingly potent and thus expensive system, the inclined user will probably be more willing to dig a little deeper into his pocket for the monitor.