The brand new god of gaming displays has arrived – however is it truly sensible?
The Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming monitor is by far probably the most audacious arrivals we’ve had within the WePC testing studio in a while.
The behemoth gaming monitor is being described by Samsung as the right gaming theatre – perfect for severe gaming, productiveness, and streaming. At its core, the Samsung Ark comes outfitted with a large 55-inch UHD 4K show, 165Hz refresh charge, and all of the gaming options you might shake a stick at.
It additionally options quite a lot of HDMI 2.1 ports too (no DisplayPorts), that means the Ark will assist next-gen console gaming at 120Hz – alongside Quantum HDR 2000 and mini LED backlight know-how (boasting 1,056 native dimming zones).
On the floor, this looks as if the type of weird monitor {that a} youngster would assume up when excessive on pure show euphoria. However that isn’t the case.
This monitor is alleged to have real-world use instances – and we’ve spent the previous few days making an attempt to determine precisely what these are.
On this information, we’ll be reviewing the Samsung Odyssey Ark monitor in full – testing the show for coloration accuracy, gaming efficiency, construct high quality, and total performance – placing a few of the panel’s primary options and shopping for factors to the check.
So, will the Samsung Odyssey Ark ignite our visible senses? Or will or not it’s topped probably the most pointless monitor of 2022?
Let’s discover out.
Samsung Odyssey Ark specs
Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming monitor
Display screen measurement
55″ show
Execs
- 55-inch 1000R curve
- 165Hz refresh charge
- Unbelievable picture high quality
- Spectacular speaker system
- Absolutely helps next-gen consoles
- Quantum HDR 2000 certification
- Mini LED backlight know-how (1,056 zones)
Cons
- Extremely costly
- Heavy design that’s arduous to maneuver
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What’s In The Field
The Samsung Odyssey Ark arrives in an enormous field that showcases a few of the panel’s primary options and a few advertising materials on the outside.
Inside, the monitor is packaged in a TV-esque orientation – stood up subsequent to the stand. Customers would require one other particular person to assemble this monitor because it weighs 100lbs (41.5KG).
Building of this monitor does require a screwdriver to safe the stand into the rear of the panel. Moreover, the bottom of the stand has 4 screws that have to be tightened as effectively.
General, this can be a fairly troublesome monitor to assemble – primarily attributable to its sheer weight.
Alongside the panel and the stand, customers will discover the next gadgets:
Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming monitor
Display screen measurement
55″ show
Design And Options
With specs out the best way, let’s take a better have a look at the construct high quality, design, and mechanical options the Samsung Odyssey Ark comes outfitted with.
Aesthetic design
The Samsung Ark is by far one of many greatest displays we’ve examined – however that’s not what makes this factor so uncommon. It’s the truth that this 55-inch monitor will be rotated right into a portrait orientation, making it look (and really feel) completely gigantic, and, actually a bit intimidating.
The swooping 1000R curve appears to go on ceaselessly – accompanied by super-thin bezels on all 4 sides that assist obtain a trendy and premium profile. That very same curve additionally creates the idea for the extremely immersive viewing expertise that makes up the crux of its USP. This makes it bespoke for taking part in Xbox or watching motion pictures (one thing we’ll talk about in additional element shortly).
The bottom of this monitor is totally large and weighs greater than the show itself. It options a big sq. footprint that, regardless of its measurement, does truly work with the monitor’s futuristic styling.
The “neck” of the stand can be large, that includes a brushed aluminum end that matches in properly with the remainder of the monitor’s aesthetic theme. The truth is, the stand itself resembles the monolith from 2001: A House Odyssey, caught to what seems like an enormous curved fragment of some sort of huge spacecraft. There’s not loads occurring when it comes to particulars, however there’s a complete lot of floor space to um, admire.
Extra brushed aluminum plastic has been used on the rear of the panel, with two massive LED lighting zones on the highest and backside (relying on what orientation you’re utilizing it in). All lighting will be altered inside the monitor’s OSD.
Construct High quality
The Samsung Ark weighs in at a powerful 100lbs (41.5KG) – that means construct high quality needs to be of the utmost significance. Fortunately, it looks as if Samsung has prioritized construct supplies and development within the manufacturing means of this monitor.
Upon unboxing, we will confidently say that this monitor feels completely rock stable. The stand by itself weighs nearly 50lbs of pure metallic, that means that maneuvering the panel round will be nearly unattainable. That stated, the stand needs to be this sturdy simply to take care of some stage of stability.
The show itself clips into the again of the stand by way of a toolless design, with two screws obtainable for securing it in place. As soon as secured, the monitor does expertise a bit little bit of wobble however nothing that’s too offputting.
Having stated that, any wobble by any means while you’re sitting in entrance of this monitor can really feel extremely intimidating – particularly when it’s within the portrait orientation.
All fittings and fixtures on the rear of the panel additionally really feel extremely well-finished, with the Samsung “One Join” field additionally offering a stage of luxurious that you simply don’t usually get with generic energy bricks.
In the end, it seems like Samsung has taken the required steps in the course of the manufacturing course of to make sure this monitor is secure throughout utilization.
Panel Coating
Like many fashionable displays, the Samsung Odyssey Ark options an anti-glare matte coating that helps to mitigate and take up pure mild to scale back reflective artifacts.
The coating does a positive job at absorbing mild reflections, nonetheless, attributable to its large curved nature, there are nonetheless blooms of reflectivity throughout utilization.
Moreover, with the Samsung Ark providing panorama and portrait modes, it can possible choose up a tonne of fingerprints throughout utilization.
Bezels
Regardless of its large measurement, the Ark nonetheless comes with extremely small bezels that assist so as to add to the immersion when gaming, or throughout normal content material consumption.
The highest and aspect bezels measure in at an extremely respectable 9mm whereas the underside bezel encompasses a bigger 12mm bezel (nonetheless a lot smaller than a lot of at this time’s gaming displays).
Stand
The monolithic characteristic that Samsung has referred to as a stand is each sturdy and versatile.
One of many primary options of this panel is its capacity to make the most of each panorama and portrait modes – with automated mode adjustments enabling between rotations.
Apart from full 90-degree pivot performance, the stand additionally options tilt and top adjustment too.
Under are the total changes obtainable with this explicit panel:
Panorama mode:
- Ahead Tilt – 10 levels
- Backward Tilt – 10 levels
- Left Swivel – Unavailable
- Proper Swivel – Unavailable
- Pivot – 90 levels
- Peak – 270mm
Portrait mode:
- Ahead Tilt – 13 levels
- Backward Tilt – 10 levels
- Left Swivel – Unavailable
- Proper Swivel – Unavailable
- Pivot – 90 levels
- Peak – 30mm
Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming monitor
Display screen measurement
55″ show
Inputs
In contrast to smaller gaming displays, the Samsung Ark makes use of an enter dock that isn’t bodily connected to the monitor itself.
The dock has been coine d the “One Join” and acts as the principle enter supply and the facility brick – connecting to the facility and your distinctive units.
The enter dock options 4 x HDMI 2.1 ports (considered one of which helps eARC), a 3.5mm EX-Hyperlink headphone jack, Ethernet port, and optical enter – that means you’ll have the ability to hook up 4 units concurrently, alongside a soundbar too.
The Samsung Ark additionally affords sufficient bandwidth to assist 4K gameplay at 165Hz – by way of any of the obtainable HDMI 2.1 ports obtainable.
Sadly, no DisplayPort cable is accessible on the Ark.
OSD
Customers can management the OSD with the distant or the futurstic-looking Ark dial that’s distinctive to this panel.
Regardless of this show being classed as a gaming monitor, the OSD actually seems extra like one thing you’d see on a TV. That stated, it nonetheless options all of the related image and coloration enhancements you’d count on from a gaming show.
Alongside this, customers may fine-tune the audible expertise of this monitor – with {custom} presets obtainable for a extra rounded sound.
A complete recreation menu (referred to as the Recreation Bar) has additionally been added to this show, permitting you to customise the pixel response time, VRR, facet ratio, and different settings of the Samsung Ark’s gaming efficiency.
Moreover, Microsoft’s Xbox Recreation Go is constructed into the show itself, that means you’ll have the ability to entry your total Xbox library by the Samsung Ark.
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Let’s not neglect the multi-view performance both. Samsung has added this characteristic to permit customers to separate the show into 4 separate sources.
Whereas this sounds nice on the floor, the choices are restricted for this characteristic – with just one HDMI enter obtainable at a time. Which means you won’t be able to separate your display screen into three or 4 segments and use two HDMI inputs on the identical time.
Proper now, the Multi-View characteristic appears a bit pointless – particularly while you consider Window’s personal snapping software.
Samsung Ark Dial
The Ark comes with a distant management – the identical used on Samsung TVs – and a cool wanting dial for OSD navigation.
The Dial will probably be most individuals’s favoured possibility for navigating the varied menus, providing a hyper-futuristic really feel to this already distinctive wanting panel.
Use the dial to scroll by menus with ease. It additionally options directional buttons contained in the dial to let you flick by menus in a extra generic method.
Samsung Ark Audible efficiency
Probably the greatest options – in my eyes – that the Samsung Ark comes outfitted with is its sound system. That’s proper, I did name it a sound system and for good cause.
The Ark options 4 primary audio system (situated on every of the corners) alongside two highly effective subwoofers discovered within the centre of the panel. All six audio system work collectively to create an extremely highly effective audible expertise which affords glorious treble and bass.
Infact, the Ark is by far the loudest panel we’ve examined – providing up loads of bass and depth within the mids. Moreover, the improved sound dome know-how intelligently tailors the sound to your setting or viewing materials – creating the right sound whether or not you’re gaming or watching a film.
Colour Accuracy & Image High quality
We like to check each monitor we assessment for coloration replica to see how it will carry out in color-sensitive conditions. In response to Samsung’s web site, the Ark is rated for a large coloration gamut (95% DCI-P3) which suggests each accuracy and HDR efficiency needs to be comparatively first rate.
Like all the time, we began off the colour accuracy testing part of this assessment by loading up our colorimeter and operating a check proper out of the field.
Under are the outcomes.
Out of the field, the Samsung Ark is ready to a “graphic” coloration preset – meant for graphic designer or a extra lifelike coloration expertise.
As you’ll be able to see from the outcomes above, the Samsung Ark featured a 7110K white level and low 0.03 cd/m2 black depth – pretty typical for VA panels. Extra spectacular, nonetheless, was the 1.2 common delta proper out of the field – a rating you seldom come throughout from out of the field settings. Brightness was additionally set to a cushty viewing stage, coming in at 102 cd/m2. Gamma learn 2.22.
We rapidly moved onto the Leisure mode and, as anticipated, the Ark grew to become a lot much less correct. The leisure mode is custom-designed for motion pictures and TV reveals, that means colours have been enhanced to come out of the display screen. You’ll be able to clearly see this when viewing the common deltaE rating of the preset, which sat at a 4.25 common throughout a smaller spectrum of colours. Brightness was additionally elevated exponentially, now sitting at 671cd/m2.
Lastly, we examined the Recreation mode to see how correct it was. As you’ll be able to think about, just like the leisure mode, gaming mode wasn’t almost as correct as we’d like. That being stated, when enabled, video games do look unbelievable and wealthy – simply not as correct as you may like.
We wasted no time and thru the Ark by a like calibration to see how correct it might turn out to be. At this stage, it’s value pertaining to the truth that the Ark has a built-in calibrator that lets you alter the colour to your precise wants.
For greatest outcomes, we left the sRGB values at 8/-2/1
Utilizing the calibration software resulted in a big uplift in total coloration accuracy. As you’ll be able to see from the outcomes above, white stability was way more lifelike now, scoring 6579K. Black depth did enhance barely, however nothing overly problematic. Most spectacular, nonetheless, was the 0.4 common deltaE which we now recorded – making the Ark a superbly possible possibility for modifying video and pictures inside the sRGB spectrum.
Panel Uniformity
Panel uniformity is a check we run to examine how uniform the luminance and colours are throughout everything of the display screen. Throughout this check, the middle sq. is used because the reference area. Each different sq. is then examined to see how far it differentiates from the reference.
In a super world, we wish each sq. to be inexperienced, that means it hasn’t damaged the differential threshold – one thing we will set initially of the check.
Observe: outcomes will differ from panel to panel.
There was a small variance within the backside left-hand nook of the monitor, nonetheless, that’s to be anticipated from a VA curved panel.
Viewing Angles
Like most VA panels, the Samsung Odyssey Ark displayed fairly poor viewing angles total. The viewing expertise of the Ark was distinctive when dealing with it straight on, nonetheless, viewing it from over 40 levels did end in some fairly aggressive coloration shift.
Colour Gamut
DISCLAIMER: The check outcomes under are primarily based on preliminary findings and, on the floor, appear a lot decrease than what is anticipated from the know-how used on this panel.
We are going to proceed to do coloration checks on the monitor till we’re glad with the outcomes. We’re additionally reaching out to Samsung to see whether or not the under outcomes are anticipated.
As a part of the calibration course of, the DisplayCal will give an correct measurement of the colour gamut the monitor can present. Under are the outcomes of the colour gamut check:
As you’ll be able to see from the graph above, the Samsung Odyssey Ark didn’t fairly stay as much as its 95% DCI-P3 coloration gamut. As an alternative, it produced a reasonably lackluister 73.4% – far lower than different displays using the identical Mini LED Quantum backlight know-how.
We recorded a 94.3% sRGB gamut protection which, once more, is way lower than you may count on from this know-how.
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Above we’ve included the bodily graphs for every coloration area, showcasing the precise protection we recorded within the DCI-P3 and sRGB coloration spectrums.
Most And Minimal Brightness
We ended the colour accuracy and film high quality testing by checking the utmost brightness, minimal brightness, and 120 candelas stage on this panel. The outcomes are under:
| Brightness | Candelas |
|---|---|
| 100 Brightness | 680.32cd/m2 |
| 0 Brightness | 75.26cd/m2 |
| 4 Brightness | 120 cd/m² |
Due to the know-how used inside the Samsung Ark, we had been in a position to document nearly 700 nits of peak brightness when in regular SDR mode.
This is without doubt one of the highest peak brightness outcomes we’ve seen, producing an extremely vibrant picture.
Samsung Odyssey Ark gaming efficiency
With coloration accuracy and panel uniformity out of the best way, it’s time to place the Samsung Odyssey Ark by quite a lot of completely different gaming and response time checks to see the way it stacks up in gaming situations. Like all the time, we’ll be testing the monitor throughout a wide range of video games to get a larger understanding of how this monitor performs total.
For this portion of the testing, we enabled VRR and set the refresh charge to its max 165Hz.
On this event, we didn’t hearth up CS:GO – not but anyway – however as an alternative enabled the monitor’s HDR to play some immersive-based single-player titles. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was the primary recreation we performed and boy did the Ark impress.
The 1000R curve was arguably a very powerful facet of the panel, making a tonne of immersion to the viewing expertise. Higher but, sticking with Samsung’s beneficial 80cm viewing distance, I by no means felt like I used to be taking a look at a curved picture. As an alternative, it felt like I used to be viewing an enhanced model of the digital world that saved wrapping across the periphery of my imaginative and prescient – a really distinctive viewing expertise.
General, the HDR efficiency of the show was good, nonetheless, evaluating it to different high-performance HDR panels didn’t actually end in an enormous distinction. This was a bit disappointing when you think about the Samsung Ark is rated for 2000 nits of peak brightness in HDR.
That’s to not say the Ark didn’t produce a stunningly vibrant visible – as a result of it did – it simply wasn’t as dazzling as I assumed it may be. Having stated that, it nonetheless provided up a way more lifelike and life-like coloration expertise when in comparison with different gaming displays that don’t characteristic high-end HDR.
Enjoying SOTTR was a really gratifying and distinctive expertise on the Samsung Ark. Its large display screen measurement paired with a 1000R curve and glorious colours actually did present an distinctive viewing expertise.
We wasted no time and loaded up CS:GO to get a style of simply how responsive this 165Hz 1ms VA panel was. Enjoying CS:GO did produce a easy, fluid gaming expertise. Image readability and picture sharpness of fast-moving pictures had been fairly spectacular contemplating its large measurement. Moreover, with the Ark being a VA panel, you’d count on it to characteristic some visible artifacts similar to ghosting and smearing – however that wasn’t the case.
Higher but, the Samsung Odyssey Ark options a picture resizing software (Flex Transfer Display screen) that lets you flip your 55-inch monitor right into a smaller, extra tailor-made measurement. Enjoying CS:GO was loopy on the 55-inch show, nonetheless, altering it to a extra optimized 27-inch display screen truly felt very playable. Moreover, by resizing to a smaller display screen, you aren’t burdened by ugly black bars. Samsung makes use of a firey embers background that feels way more premium.
Remaining Ideas
So, there you have got it, our complete assessment of the Samsung Odyssey Ark – the world’s first 55-inch 1000R curved gaming monitor. Regardless of its geniune draw, the query nonetheless stays as as to whether or not this can be a possible monitor for dwelling use. And sadly, I don’t assume it’s.
Firstly, let’s begin with the positives. The Samsung Ark is a brilliant cool, futuristic wanting monitor that enhance the aesthetic prowess of any gaming setup on the market. It’s large scooping 1000R curve pairs properly with the massive 55-inch show to create a starship vibe that’s not like something available on the market at this time.
Appears apart, the Ark additionally performs to a reasonably excessive stage as effectively. It affords an honest sRGB preset proper out of the field for coloration correct work, alongside first rate fluidity when enjoying each single-player and extra aggressive titles.
Having stated that, we will’t ignore the elephant within the room – and that’s the sheer measurement (and worth) of this behemoth monitor. At 55-inches, it is just too large for most individuals’s residing area. Even within the WePC testing studio, the Ark was an actual ache to maneuver from desk to desk.
Moreover, with a price ticket that at the moment sits at round £2,500 ($3,500), it can far exceed most peoples budgets.
Whereas this may be an extremely cool gaming monitor, it actually falls into the luxurious showoff class – with just a few fortunate people truly having the financial institution to justify its buy.
