Samsung's Odyssey range may be impressive, but it's not exactly known for being cheap. I update our best cheap gaming monitor deals post every week, and I'm used to seeing Acer, LG, and Gigabyte at the cheapest rung, but I almost never see Samsung as the cheapest option in our Ultrawide section. Well, things have changed.
Right now, you can get the 34-inch curved ultrawide Samsung LC34G55TWWNXZA for $300 at Amazon, which is $100 lower than its MSRP. Though that long name isn't winning any awards, the screen itself offers a lot for the price.
A 21:9 aspect ratio with a QHD screen, you are getting 1440p resolution here. For most gaming setups, that resolution is near perfect. You need a pretty beefy rig to actually justify 4K, and even then, you have to decide if the performance hit is worth the resolution upgrade. My central monitor is 1440p and, hooked up to my RTX 4070 Super rig, I'm not looking for much more.
That 1000R curve is quite tight, and combined with the 34-inch panel, it's quite an up-close viewing experience. This isn't the type of screen you bust out if you have a backseat gamer ready to point out where you've missed loot or taken the wrong turn.
The 165 Hz refresh rate and 1 ms response time make this plenty snappy, and it would want to be as you'll likely be quite immersed in a screen that almost literally wraps around you. The 250 nits brightness is not great, so you won't want to play with this monitor facing the sun, though its 2,500:1 contrast ratio and HDR10 support are certainly impressive.
Historically, we've been fans of Samsung's Odyssey range for some time. Though we found the G8 OLED finicky and expensive, the Neo G9 G95NC got 90% from us, the OLED G9 got 90%, the G7 got 85%, the G9 got 84%, and the Neo G9 got 81%. They have also historically been very expensive, so this screen coming all the way down to $300 makes it a solid find for anyone with a hankering to play ultrawide.
Ultrawide can come with its complications. Some games, like Elden Ring, have limited widescreen support, and others have none. You can brute force it thanks to programs like Flawless Widescreen, but if you're a big fan of older games, get ready to fine-tune settings upon first boot up.
If you can work through this problem, ultrawide monitors are highly praised for giving more information on screen, which can help immerse in games like Cyberpunk 2077 or add a competitive advantage to strategy games. It's not a bad alternative to a dual monitor, either.
1. Best overall:
MSI MPG 321URX
2. Best 4K:
LG Ultragear 27GR93U
3. Best budget 4K:
Gigabyte M28U
4. Best 1440p:
Xiaomi G Pro 27i
5. Best budget 1440p:
Pixio PXC277 Advanced
6. Best budget 1080p:
AOC Gaming C27G4ZXE
7. Best Ultrawide:
Asus ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM
8. Best 32:9:
Samsung Odyssey OLED G9
9. Best budget ultrawide:
ASRock Phantom PG34WQ15R2B
10. Best WOLED:
LG Ultragear 32GS95UE
11. Best 1440p OLED:
MSI MPG 271QRX
12. Best budget OLED ultrawide:
Alienware 34 QD-OLED
13. Best dual-mode:
Alienware AW2725QF
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