CES 2017 | Samsung makes questionable step into gaming with Odyssey notebooks

Speaking to the strength of the PC gaming market, now even Samsung is getting in the game with its new Odyssey line of notebooks. The Odyssey packs Kaby Lake 45W CPUs, Pascal graphics, and is available in 17.3 and 15.6-inch models.

According to Samsung, the Odyssey caters specifically to gamers—and this is evidenced by its derivative design. With a red keyboard backlight and large red glowing emblem on the back of the lid, the black Odyssey looks essentially like every notebook marketed at gamers from the last 5 years. The Odyssey checks off your average gaming notebook flair: a multi-color LED-backlit keyboard (in the higher-end model only), gaudy plastic and lights around the trackpad, and a big glowing logo on the back. The white variant of the Odyssey does does change the gamer-aesthetic up a bit, however.

The 15.6 and 17.3-inch models both have matte IPS panels at FHD resolution, and 280 and 300 nits of brightness, respectively. The 15.6-inch model will have Nvidia's lowest end 10-series GPU, the GTX 1050, while the larger laptop's GPU is yet to be announced. With plastic construction and middling specs, it's clear Samsung is aiming at the lower-end of the market. However, the US$1199 starting price is already significantly higher than its competitors'.

The full specs from Samsung's are available under "Show Press Release".