Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF

Introduction

The Samsung Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF is a very special gaming monitor.

It’s the first OLED gaming monitor to feature a zanily high 500Hz refresh rate for some of the sharpest and silkiest motion handling you’ll find on any gaming screen, making it especially ideal for competitive gamers.

Of course, we have seen high refresh rate OLED screens before, such as the LG UltraGear Dual-Mode 4K OLED (32GS95UE-B), which offered a choice between 4K 240Hz and 1080p 480Hz, but this Samsung one opts for a 1440p resolution instead for more detail than Full HD.

At £799/$999.99, the Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF’s 500Hz powers don’t come cheap, especially when 27-inch and 32-inch 4K OLED screens such as the Alienware AW2725Q and Asus ROG Strix XG27UCDMG that have this Samsung one beat on resolution.

Nonetheless, I’ve been testing this Samsung panel for the last week or so to see if it’s one of the best gaming monitors out there.

Design

• Modern, stylish chassis
• Lots of stand adjustment
• Competent port selection

The Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF carries a similarly modern and minimalistic look to Samsung’s other Odyssey monitors, with a mainly silver frame that extends from the base up to the main unit. Samsung’s monitors have typically exuded a premium and classy finish, and this one is no different.

Assembly is nice and simple, with both the base and the main stand clipping into place on the back of the panel for a secure fit. No tools are needed, so it’s easy to be up and running in a matter of moments. As with other Samsung Odyssey monitors, the hexagonal base of the stand is flat, as opposed to having V-shaped legs, making it easier to stand things on it if you need to for the sake of maximising desk space – in my case, it’s my Sonos Beam soundbar.

This Samsung screen comes with its own power brick – a sizeable 140W unit – that you’ll need to find space for alongside the unit itself. Nonetheless, being a more compact 27-inch screen means it won’t take up too much space on your desk, and is a good screen size for work and play.

The Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF brings strong adjustment options to the party too, offering good scope for height adjustment, tilt, and swivel. If you also want to put this panel into a portrait orientation, then you can do so with ease.

The port selection here is identical to the Samsung Odyssey S27FG810S 4K model (whose chassis also seems eerily similar), with a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports and a DisplayPort 1.4 port, plus a two-port USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 hub that’s powered through the USB-B downstream port. It’s a decent selection, although for a monitor at this price, I’m shocked not to find a USB-C port with high-wattage power delivery and display powers.

Image Quality

• Immense motion handling
• Sublime contrast, black level and colour accuracy
• Solid, if unremarkable, brightness

Samsung has opted for a tried-and-tested resolution and screen-size combo to pair with the zanily high refresh rate on offer, going for a 27-inch 1440p, or 2560×1440, resolution option. This section of the market is quite crowded as it is, and it is possible to get some great options in this space quite affordably, not least other OLED choices such as the AOC Agon Pro AG276QZD that wowed us previously.

The big thing with the Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF though is that 500Hz refresh rate. Normally, these OLED screens can come with 240Hz refresh rate options, and they’re already silky smooth and responsive. I use a 240Hz screen every day as it is – the Philips Evnia 32M2N8900 – but I must admit that the difference between 240Hz and 500Hz was more noticeable than I thought.

The motion handling of this screen in the competitive titles where you’re likely to feel the benefit of such a high refresh rate, including my usual testing grounds in Counter Strike 2, is the best I’ve experienced on any monitor. It’s uncanny how crisp and smooth on-screen action feels, combined with some excellent clarity.

A lot of this is down to the way that refresh rate works. A 500Hz screen means 500 frames are displayed per second, working out to a frame time of just two milliseconds. For reference, a 144Hz screen has 6.9ms of frame time, while a 240Hz screen has 4.1ms. I am simplifying things a little, but with such a low frame time, the input latency on-screen is severely reduced, meaning the time between a mouse movement or key actuation and it appearing on-screen is much faster.

Of course, the perceivable difference in input latency is subjective to who is using the panel, but in my estimation, the Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF is easily the most responsive monitor I’ve used. The jump from 240Hz to 500Hz is noticeable, although if you already have a 360Hz monitor, for instance, then you may feel less of a benefit. Indeed, you also need a PC capable of running those competitive titles at such high frame rates to benefit the most.

Combine this with a crisp and sharp OLED screen, which my colorimeter measured as having the signature inky blacks and sublime contrast with results of 0.01 and 21160:1, and you’ve got a genuinely sublime 1440p gaming screen.

Moreover, its colour accuracy is excellent, with perfect 100% coverage of the sRGB gamut alongside 99% DCI-P3 and 93% Adobe RGB. This helps the Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF to be especially well-suited to both productivity and increasingly specialist workloads, such as photo or video editing, if you want to engage in that sort of thing across such a large panel.

VRR support is plentiful, with this Samsung screen supporting AMD FreeSync Premium Pro and is Nvidia G-Sync-compatible. This means that whatever GPU you’re using, you won’t experience any screen tearing or juddering for a smooth experience. HDR support comes with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 and even HDR10+ For Gaming, as opposed to the more advanced Dolby Vision found on rival screens.

As is typical with OLEDs, the only area where this screen isn’t as vibrant is with its peak SDR brightness against Mini LED and some high-end IPS options. My colorimeter measured a peak of 304.7 nits of brightness, which is right in line with Samsung’s claimed 300 nit peak. As for HDR brightness, Samsung says it can go as high as 1000 nits in supported content in a 3% window for impactful highlights.

Software and Features

• More basic OSD than anticipated
• No speakers

The Odyssey OLED G6 G60SF’s OSD is accessible with an offset-placed joystick on the rear of the panel, the same as with some of Samsung’s other screens. It’s reasonably feature-rich with different picture modes, on-screen crosshair and options for controlling the ring of ambient lighting on the back that adds some atmosphere and a splash of colour in a similar vein to other screens.

For a monitor at this price, I felt it seemed a little basic, especially against other Samsung screens that come with its TizenOS operating system, more designed for smart TVs and add more multimedia features to the party.

There aren’t any speakers here to judge, which is becoming more common with gaming monitors across the board, not just more affordable ones. If you’ve got separates or a soundbar already, then this isn’t an issue, although if you lack the desk space for speakers, then internal ones would have been useful for some.

Should you buy it?

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