Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 G81SF

Samsung has always been good at making stylish, no-nonsense products. Their latest generation of QD-OLED panels for gaming has hit the market and, as usual, it offers 0.03 ms and 240 Hz, but also a PPI of 166 on the 27" version we're testing, plus TrueBlack 400, and a brightness of 250 nits, with 1000 nits peak. It's still a little on the dim side, but you quickly get used to it. I've used it in full daylight, with sunlight shining directly on the screen, and although the 4K resolution produces small letters, it works well. I hardly miss getting my eyeballs "sunburnt" anymore, like I did with my old monitor.

The design is relatively standard and it looks like an office monitor. There's limited RGB and everything is silver and black. A bit boring, but that's okay. Personally, I would have preferred a little less silver/metal and a little more black. For a "gamer monitor," it's extremely understated in its design and might as well be sitting in your grandad's home office. The back is designed for quick and easy access to all connections, but here Samsung chooses a cardinal sin; using an external power supply. This is probably by design to keep the screen extremely slim, but it doesn't help much when there's a big black lump on the floor taking up space.

There's no KVM switch, smart TV features, or the like, but there is still a headphone jack and a small USB hub. We shouldn't be doing that still, as frankly it's a waste of space and money. If you can afford such an expensive monitor, you can also afford a decent computer and accessories.

HDR10+ is supported and DCI-P3 is around 99%. More importantly: It has an extremely good anti-glare film, and yes, that too was tested in direct sunlight. Speaking of light, there's obviously RGB, but it's at the back and very subtle. Personally, I don't understand adding RGB light, which generates heat, to a panel type that is notorious for heat issues.

The price is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It's around £1,100. Samsung makes the panel itself, and yet this 27" costs much more than similar products, even those with a larger screen area. And when it comes to prices, you have to be careful because there are several retailers who are not afraid to raise the price too. However, it's worth noting that DisplayPort 2.1 is not offered, which means you can't utilise the full 10-bit image uncompressed. I think you're entitled to that when you buy one of the most expensive 27" 4K OLED monitors on the market right now.

Modern OLED displays get hot - really hot - which is why there's also a heat pipe-based system that releases coolant as needed. It's not very well described, to say the least, because from what I can find out, it's really just an evaporation chamber. In addition, automatic brightness reduction is often used, especially for logos and other static images, as well as pixel-cleaning and the like.

The colours are really good, and the contrast is even better when combined with deep blacks. 240 Hz/0.03 ms gives a completely fluid image regardless of use, but it was good that I had access to a powerful graphics card. It definitely delivers one of the best images you can buy right now, but you would expect as much for the price that you pay for it. Would I buy this monitor if I had the money? Maybe... or maybe instead the 32" bigger brother. But that would be a luxury choice.