Look, I know I said you should avoid this monitor if you valued your sanity. But I also said that underneath it all, the Samsung Odyssey G8 OLED G80SD is a fantastic monitor. And now you can have it for $999 from Newegg, fully $300 off its $1,299 launch price.
In my original review of this 32-inch, 240 Hz, 4K beauty, I had two main issues. One was the utterly infuriating user interface, which prioritised SmartTV functionality at every turn and then compounded the frustration with a plethora of separate but overlapping OSD menus.
The other was a price that was hard to justify compared with much cheaper competition like the MSI MPG 321URX. Well, that second issue is mostly mitigated by this Newegg deal. So, what about the SmartTV gunk and stupid OSD?
Well, it is absolutely, mind-numbingly frustrating. But once you've got your head around the interface and set the thing up, well, you don't have to touch the interface much or use the SmartTV gubbins at all if you don't want.
I still don't think it makes sense to have a PC monitor that forces you to set itself up as a Smart TV before you can use it as a PC monitor. But it's a one-time annoyance and after that what you're left with, then, is what I thought might well be, "the punchiest example of a 4K QD-OLED monitor yet, perhaps thanks to what Samsung calls its Dynamic Cooling System, which incorporates pulsating heat pipes'. It's basically a phase-change heat pipe system built into the rear of the panel. Samsung says it's five times better than the graphite sheets competing brands are using."
For sure you get that stunning, contrasty OLED experience combined with crispy 4K visuals and pixel density that sorts out all those font rendering issues that lower-res OLED panels suffer from.
Unless you prefer an ultrawide panel, then, this is pretty much peak PC gaming display technology. Indeed, even if you do prefer one of those crazy 32:9 aspect monitors, none of them are available with good pixel density.
Anyway, it's great to see this Samsung already receiving a significant haircut and at this new far lower price, I'd suck up that silly interface in return for one, if not the, finest 4K QD-OLED experience out there.
Incidentally, it's also on offer on Amazon for the same price. So, if it sells out at Newegg, head over to Amazon.
