Samsung Odyssey G5 review: Budget 1440p 165Hz gaming monitor

The Samsung Odyssey LS32AG550 is the latest refresh of the hugely popular G5. The new version of the 2020 G5 features a similarly impressive VA panel and 1000R curved 32 inch display. However, with a faster refresh rate, higher peak brightness, and a tonne of additional gaming-tailored features, there’s plenty to like about this new refresh.

Like always, we’ll be putting the Samsung Odyssey G5 through its paces to see how it stacks up in build quality, gaming performance, color accuracy, build quality, and overall value for money. We’ll be running all the usual tests to see how it handles motion blur, viewing angles, editing, and everyday use.

So, is the Samsung Odyssey G5 all it’s cracked up to be? Let’s find out.

Samsung Odyssey G5: Specifications

What's in the box & construction

Like always, the Samsung Odyssey G5 32 inch comes in a fairly basic box that showcases only limited marketing material on the exterior. It does, however, showcase some of the panel’s key features, including size, refresh rates, and adaptive sync support.

Inside, the monitor sits between two large pieces of styrofoam protective padding. The monitor is not assembled in the box, meaning some light assembly is required. Luckily, the G5 doesn’t require tools – however, it does require a little bit of force to push the base into the main body of the monitor.

Alongside the monitor and the stand, the following items can be found inside the box:

• Samsung Odyssey G5
• Stand
• Powerpack
• DisplayPort
• User manual
• Warranty

Design

With specifications out the way, let’s take a closer look at the build quality, design, and mechanical features the Samsung G5 comes equipped with.

Aesthetics

From a design standpoint, there are no differences to be found when comparing this to the original Samsung Odyssey G5. The latest refresh still features the futuristic stylings of its predecessor, including a sleek 1000R curved panel, thin bezels (said to be borderless), and a wide V-shaped stand. The monitor features a predominantly black color theme that is offset by a silver Samsung logo. To some people’s disappointment, the new G5 doesn’t feature the centerpiece vortex RGB zone found on both the Samsung G7 and G9 models.

The bottom bezel is very similar in shape to the Odyssey G7, however, the G5 doesn’t offer the same triangular RGB zones. The wide V-shaped stand is fairly simple but does offer a cable management solution – something we’ll touch upon shortly. The rear of the monitor has been equipped with a textured striped finish that is fairly unique.

All inputs can be found at the rear of the panel, alongside VESA mounting holes and a thin grill for general panel cooling.

Build Quality

As you’d expect from an entry-level monitor, the G5 doesn’t feature the best build quality on the market. For a start, the G5 is made almost entirely from plastic – giving the display a fairly flimsy feel that is riddled with wobble. The stand fixes into the main body of the monitor but doesn’t feel robust in the slightest.

On a more positive note, the monitor itself does actually feel quite sturdy. During the testing process, I didn’t experience any major creaks or flexibility. The panel also features a matte anti-glare coating that is much more resistant than glass. The major seams of the monitor look to be well finished with no gaps for particle matter to build up. Furthermore, all buttons and inputs feel purposeful – something that often isn’t the case with lower-priced monitors.

Panel Coating

As we just mentioned, the Samsung G5 features an anti-glare matte coating with 3H hardness. Many modern displays utilize this particular coating, offering excellent light and reflection mitigation. That being said, due to the curved nature of the display, fingerprints can be quite problematic.

Luckily, cleaning the monitor is fairly easy – meaning you can keep it looking pristine with little effort.

Bezels

As for bezels, the G5 features a near-boarderless design that is great for increasing the feeling of general immersion when gaming or watching content. The top bezel is slightly smaller than the side and bottom bezels, measuring in at around 11mm. The side bezels measure 13mm while the bottom bezel offers a much larger 28mm profile.

That said, the bottom bezel does display some Samsung branding and triangular design features.

Stand

As far as stand ergonomics go, the Odyssey G5 doesn’t offer a great deal. With no height, swivel, or pivot functionality, the G5 only features tilt adjustability.

For this reason, we recommend using a VESA mount for this monitor – especially if you need to maneuver it for different situations. The G5 supports a 75 x 75mm VESA mount.

Inputs

While the G5 doesn’t offer a great deal in terms of inputs, it still brings enough functionality for several devices. Users can expect 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x USB 3.0, and a 3.5 mm audio input.

OSD

The OSD, or on screen display, for the G5 is extremely easy to use and self-intuitive. You can navigate through the various OSD menus by using the joystick found underneath the bottom bezel (underneath the Samsung log). The menus are extremely easy to navigate and options are plentiful.

As for gaming, all the usual suspects can be found – including response time tweaks, MBR, refresh rates, adaptive sync technology, low input lag mode, and black equalizer. You can also have a number of different profile presets to choose from which alter the monitor’s settings according to the type of content you’re viewing.

Users will also be able to fully adjust the color of the monitor, with options for RGB tweaking, brightness, contrast, and sharpness available.

Below are the main features of the Samsung Odyssey G5 (LS32AG550):

• AMD FreeSync Premium
• Auto Source Switchj
• Black Equalizer
• Flicker-free technology
• Game modes
• Eco saving plus
• Eye saver mode
• Low blue light
• NVIDIA G-Sync compatible
• Off Timer Plus
• Refresh rate optimizer
• Super Arena Gaming UX
• Ultrawide game view

Color Accuracy & Picture Quality

Great colors and excellent picture quality are two of the most important factors that help create immersion when playing games or watching movies. Like all major display manufacturers, Samsung tries to provide the best color via a number of different presets found in the OSD. We’ll be testing each for color accuracy in this section – followed by panel uniformity tests, a peak brightness test, and gamut volume measurements as well.

Here are the results for the Samsung Odyssey G5:

Like always, we started off the color accuracy testing portion of this review by loading up our colorimeter and running a test right out of the box. Below are the results:

The Samsung G5 offered OK colors out of the box. As you can see from the graph above, the “Custom” out the box settings (seems counter-intuitive, but oh well) offered a 6120K white point, low 0.05 black depth, and acceptable 2414:1 contrast ratio. The average deltaE was the lowest recorded from the presets tested – scoring an impressive 1.96.  Gamma was also close to the ideal 2.2.

I tested the “Dynamic Contrast” preset next and the results were pretty similar. The only real difference that I found was that the effective gamma had gone up quite a lot – now resulting in a 2.44 score. White point, black depth, and contrast ratio were all basically identical. That said, we did lose out on some color accuracy, now resulting in a 2.27 score.

The last preset we tested was “FPS” – not expecting a great deal of accuracy. To my surprise, white point was the best of the bunch, with black depth scoring equally to the previous two presets. A contrast ratio of 2378:1 was measured and 2.24 gamma. Average DeltaE was the worst of the lot at 2.34.

We wasted no time and decided to calibrate the monitor to see just how accurate we could make it. For the best accuracy, we used the following RGB values 45/45/50.

Here are the results:

After calibration, the accuracy of the Odyssey G5 was much greater. It now saw a near-perfect 6525K white point, low 0.04 black depth, and 2.21 gamma. Unfortunately, by calibrating the panel we did lose out on some of the inky VA contrast – now sitting at 2228:1. Most impressive, however, was the 0.23 Average DeltaE

Panel Uniformity

Panel uniformity is a test we run to check how uniform the luminance and colors are across the entirety of the screen. During this test, the center square is used as the reference space. Every other square is then tested to see how far it differentiates from the reference.

In an ideal world, we want every square to be green, meaning it hasn’t broken the differential threshold – something we can set at the start of the test.

Note: results will differ from panel to panel.

Looking at the panel uniformity of the Odyssey G5, we were pleasantly surprised by the number of green scores segments it produced. Like most monitors, there were some problematic regions in the corners of the panel, however, that was to be expected. For the majority of the screen, a recommended tolerance passed score was achieved.

Viewing Angles

Color Gamut

As part of the calibration process, the DisplayCal will give an accurate measurement of the color gamut the monitor can provide. Below are the results of the color gamut test:

Samsung doesn’t publish any details regarding the color gamut of this monitor – and I’m not surprised. It only just managed to produce 100% sRGB coverage (equivalent to 71% Adobe RGB or 73% DCI-P3). In terms of coverage, that roughly works out to 96.2% sRGB coverage, 70% Adobe RGB, and 73.1% DCI-P3.

Looking at the physical gamut graph, you’re able to see where the Samsung G5 gamut falls short in the three respective spectrums. Overall, while the colors aren’t terrible, they’re not exactly spectacular either – but that’s to be expected from a monitor of this price point.

Maximum And Minimum Brightness

We ended the color accuracy and picture quality testing by checking the maximum brightness, minimum brightness, and 120 candelas points on this panel. For this particular test, we used a 30-40% window size.

The results are below:

Brightness	Candelas
100% Brightness	248.69cd/m²
0% Brightness	49.91cd/m²
31 Brightness	120 cd/m²

Samsung Odyssey G5: Gaming performance & response

With color accuracy out of the way, it’s time to put the Samsung Odyssey G5 through a number of different gaming scenarios to see how it stacks up in pixel response, input lag, and overall responsiveness. 

Being a curved monitor, it’ll be interesting to see how this monitor stacks up in different gaming scenarios.

Competitive gaming

Like always, I started off by loading our favourite game, CS:GO. While this isn’t everyone’s cup of hot brown, it is a competitive title with fast-moving images – meaning we should get an excellent idea of the G5’s responsiveness.

I loaded up some deathmatch and used the monitor for around 45 minutes. While it wasn’t completely apparent, there was some smearing around edges – especially when dark shapes contrasted on lighter backgrounds. Most of the gaming felt fairly responsive, however, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as 240Hz/360Hz alternatives.

General gaming

After playing a couple of competitive titles, we decided to load up a few less-challenging games to get a feel for general immersion, picture quality, and HDR performance. I started off by playing Shadow of the Tomb and it looked pretty good. Colors seemed OK and there was no visible smearing. That said, there was some fairly obvious haloing when brighter objects contrasted on darker backgrounds. A cave scene where the main character carries a flaming torch would result in particularly bad haloing. It was pretty obvious this would be the case though, especially after viewing the backlight bleed test.

The G5 does in fact support HDR10 content, however, with poor peak brightness, there was no real benefit to using this. The maximum brightness of the monitor was around 300 nits, resulting in a fairly weak HDR experience. This was experienced across both gaming and content consumption scenarios.

Content consumption

Speaking of content consumption, the G5 provided a pretty good visual experience thanks to its curve and above-average contrast ratio. The inky blacks of the VA panel helped to provide good levels of immersion and depth. That said, the backlight was slightly problematic on this panel, producing quite a lot of bleed around the corners of the panel.

Ultimately, the visual experience in both games and every content was OK. It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t terrible either. That being said, if you’re looking for the best visual experience possible, you’ll probably want to opt for a IPS alternative. That said, as far as VA panels go, you can’t argue with the G5 too much – especially at this price point.

 

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it, our comprehensive review of the Samsung Odyssey G5 (LS32AG550) – the latest refresh of their hugely popular G5. The only question left to answer is, does this monitor showcase good value for money? And it’s hard to say no. 

Overall, I feel Samsung has produced a decent entry-level monitor here – offering good gaming performance and decent levels of immersion when considering the price. Out of the box, the Samsung showcases a 165Hz refresh rate, OK colors, and FreeSync support – enabling the panel to produce a tear-free visual experience when gaming.

However, that’s where the positives end. The G5 continues to feature fairly limited input options, terrible build quality, and some major flaws in performance when it comes to competitive titles. Smearing, ghosting, and haloing are all visible at some stage when playing games, reducing the overall immersion the panel offers.

That said, when considering the price (and some of the competing alternatives), it’s hard to be too harsh on the Samsung Odyssey G5. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a budget-friendly curved gaming monitor, this could be exactly what you’re looking for.

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