Samsung has launched its second generation Odyssey Ark monitor, boasting 55 inches of 4K 165Hz real estate. That's a whole lot of screen but it comes with a whole lot of price tag, unfortunately. At $3000, you'd want this to be something very special.
At first glance, there's nothing that immediately stands out, especially when you compare it to the original Odyssey Ark that swallowed us up last year. The screen is still 55-inches in size, with a 4K resolution and a maximum refresh rate of 165Hz. Samsung has continued to use a VA panel with a 1000R curvature and mini LEDs are still used to backlight the liquid crystals.
The remote controller called the Ark Dial, is included as before, allowing you to adjust all of the various settings without the need to fiddle about underneath the panel. That screen is still rated for HDR10+, it also has a matte finish to reduce glare, and the Multi View feature is still the primary selling point.
This is where you can have four separate sources displayed at the same time, equivalent to four 27.5-inch 1080p displays next to each other. Or you can rotate the whole thing by 90 degrees and enjoy the sense of being imprisoned by the monitor.
And if 55-inches of 4K right in front of your face is a bit too much, a quick touch of a button will shrink the display down to 27-inches. Not the actual panel, of course, just the amount of pixels being used on the screen.
So has anything actually changed? Well, the original model sported four HDMI 2.1 connections but the updated version now has two HDMI 2.2, one HDMI 2.0, and one DisplayPort 1.4 ports. That's a bit more flexibility regarding what devices you can hook up to it, at least.
Best gaming monitor: Pixel-perfect panels for your PC.
Best high refresh rate monitor: Screaming quick.
Best 4K monitor for gaming: When only high-res will do.
Best 4K TV for gaming: Big-screen 4K gaming.
Oh, and there's now a built-in KVM switch to let you use a single keyboard and mouse set to control multiple devices.
As far as I can tell, that's it. This means unless you absolutely wanted this particular monitor but it had to come with a DisplayPort connection, then I can't see any reason for buying this when the previous model is, for all intents and purposes, the same thing.
Especially when you can get one for $1800 on Newegg at the moment.
Personally, it's not for me. If I had that kind of money to throw at a new gaming monitor, it would go on the Asus ROG Swift PG42UQ. Sure, it's a lot smaller and there's always the ever-present risk of OLED burn-in, but it's less than half the price of the Odyssey Ark.
