Samsung's monitors for CES 2025

After LG, Samsung is the second major display manufacturer to present its line-up for CES 2025. The most important innovation is a 27-inch gaming OLED with a pixel density of 165 pixels per inch (ppi). A second 27-inch display comes with less resolution, but with a high frame rate of 500 hertz. And for the first time, the South Koreans are also using a QD OLED panel in a 32-inch office device.

As always with Samsung, the product names cause confusion because the manufacturer mixes a salad of simplified and exact model names. For example, one of the new products is called "Odyssey OLED G8". However, there is already one. Samsung must therefore add the exact designation in brackets: G81SF. I will use the latter in the following.

Odyssey G81SF, Odyssey G60SF, Odyssey G90XF

The maximum pixel density for OLED monitors used to be around 140 ppi. The 27-inch Samsung Odyssey OLED G81SF with a UHD resolution (3840 × 2160 pixels) pushes this limit to 165 ppi for the first time. This ensures a sharper picture in combination with the perfect black levels that we have come to expect from OLED.

The remaining specifications: a frame rate of 240 hertz, 0.03 milliseconds response time, support for Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Samsung has also opted for a matt coating. There is no information on connections yet.

The Odyssey G60SF is also a 27-inch model, but focusses on a higher frame rate. Here, the resolution is a standard 2560 × 1440 pixels, but the monitor can display 500 images per second. This puts the QD OLED panel slightly above its WOLED counterpart from LG with 480 hertz. The old G6 from Samsung "only" achieved 360 hertz.

As the third monitor with a 27-inch screen diagonal, the South Korean manufacturer is once again showing the 3D model Odyssey G90XF at CES 2025. The screen uses lenticular lenses to display different images for the right and left eye. This creates a 3D effect without glasses. Samsung already showed the technology as a concept a year ago and presented it again at Gamescom in August. At that time, it was still in a 37-inch version. This has now apparently been cancelled.

Smart Monitor M90SF, ViewFinity S80UD

In addition to the gaming monitors, there are also two for the office. The Smart Monitor M9 has a modern design with very thin screen edges and rounded corners. It presumably has the same QD OLED panel with a 32-inch diagonal as the Odyssey OLED G8, which I have already tested - with a slightly reduced frame rate of 165 hertz

Unfortunately, Samsung is also taking over the Tizen operating system from its gaming brother. According to the press release, a new feature is an "AI image optimiser that analyses input signals and automatically adjusts the display settings". In games, the AI even recognises the genre of the game and optimises the picture settings accordingly. "AI upscaling" can also better enlarge low-resolution images to 4K. How useful this AI washing will be in everyday life remains to be seen.

The last monitor is a 37-inch monitor in 16:9 format with UHD resolution. The ViewFinity S80UD is the only new model that does not have an OLED panel, but is instead based on conventional LCD technology. Samsung is yet to provide further technical details - as well as information on prices and availability for all monitors.