The very ugly Samsung Odyssey Z is now shipping for $1800 to compete against the Razer Blade 15

First unveiled in April alongside Intel's Coffee Lake-H series, the Samsung Odyssey Z gaming laptop made a brief but lasting impression for its distinctive design. The upfront keyboard, thick bezels, matte gray color scheme, and brushed aluminum outer lid all looked out of this world for perhaps all the wrong reasons. Nonetheless, Samsung appears to be doubling down on gaming laptops for this ultra-thin version of last year's budget Odyssey 15.

Core specifications include:

• Core i7-8750H CPU
• 15.6-inch FHD display
• 16 GB DDR4 RAM (2x SODIMM)
• GeForce GTX 1060 GPU w/ 6 GB GDDR5 VRAM
• 256 GB SSD
• 1.5 W x 2 speakers
• 2x USB 3.0, 1x USB 2.0, 1x USB Type-C 3.1 w/ mDP support, 3.5 mm audio
• 54 Wh battery
• 14.79" x 10.04" x 0.70"
• 5.29 lbs
• 180 W AC adapter

From our short hands-on time with a pre-production unit, we noticed a relatively flimsy lid and a poor keyboard with spongy feedback that feels a lot like the keys on the original Asus Zephyrus GX501. We're hopeful that Samsung has addressed some of these concerns for the final production unit.

Samsung is asking $1800 USD for the Odyssey Z or $100 less than the current retail price of the Razer Blade 15. Needless to say, it will likely be a tough sell for Samsung as the latter includes a host of features not found on the Odyssey Z like per-key RGB lighting, Thunderbolt 3, 144 Hz display refresh rate, and thinner bezels. One important advantage for Samsung, however, is that its notebook utilizes a standard GTX 1060 instead of a GTX 1060 Max-Q for about 10 to 15 percent more graphics power. We'll just have to wait for a full proper review to see how the rest of the system holds up.

Source(s)