High contrast. TN response times. No VA ghosting. Bright & vibrant. Immersive size & design.
I was really torn about moving away from my LG 27GL850-B IPS panel. Even moreso about potentially moving to a VA panel. But the extremely poor contrast of the (otherwise highly rated) LG, plus distracting backlight glow in one corner, tipped me over the edge.
There are lots of horror stories about VA panels - with good reason - and also quality control concers (flickering / stuttering / visible scanlines) with the Odyssey series. Thankfully Samsung have knocked this VA display out of the park and most of the model-specific issues have seemingly been ironed out by firmware updates.
The response times are quick - matching and even beating out some TN panels. The contrast is as good as you should expect from a VA panel and motion handling is great! The ghosting and smearing concerns of lesser VAs is practically nonexistent here. At least, I haven't noticed it in the games I've played so far (Dead by Daylight for some dark moody testing, F1 2020 for some fast-paced motion, and a few other things like Battlefield V, Fortnite, Satisfactory, Disco Elysium - it all looks *great*). I've got lucky with the backlight bleed as it's a really uniform panel.
It's a bright and pretty vibrant panel. Good post-calibration colorimeter results even if it's obviously not an IPS. I've got the 32" and the curve may be disracting when just on the desktop and browsing (and I wouldn't recommend for important media work) but I've really come to appreciate both the curve and the extra screen size for gaming. You may be more sensitive to the loss of PPI on the desktop at this size - but it's a non-issue for gaming. This is a gaming monitor first and foremost and it ticks all the boxes in a way VA panels especially haven't in the past.
Rumour has it the 2021 refreshed line will be ditching VA for IPS and if true it would be a shame Samsung won't continue to offer both options because they've really nailed it here. I'll be keeping the LG for media work so I won't make an either/or recommendation but as a primary display for gaming the G7 32" comes highly recommended!
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned