Samsung has added another member to its Odyssey lineup, with the release of the brand new 55-Inch Odyssey Ark curved gaming monitor and it might just be the company’s most advanced addition to date. This new gaming monitor is unlike anything we have ever seen before and has literally everything you need to fully immerse yourself in all the action. The Korean manufacturer is a respected player in the space and has come up with some top-of-the-line products in the past, but, nothing comes close to its latest innovation.
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The gaming monitor was first shown off in all its glory at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) earlier this year and is now finally available to the general public. So what makes this new monitor great, you ask? Well, for starters, the Arc boasts a quantum mini-LED panel with 1000R curvature, which, in layman’s terms, implies that it has the same curvature as a circle with a radius of 1m/3.3ft. While announcing this new monitor, Hyesung Ha, executive vice president of visual display business at Samsung Electronics, remarked, “we are excited to unveil this totally unique, next-generation gaming screen, the Odyssey Ark. This 55-inch 1000R curved gaming screen brings together premium, cinematic picture quality, immersive surround sound and an incredibly flexible interface which gamers increasingly demand.”
The display panel of the Samsung Odyssey Ark utilises a quantum mini-LED panel along with 14-bit processing for local dimming (1,056 zones) and the results are just remarkable. You also get a 4K resolution, HDR10+, and 165Hz refresh rate with one millisecond response time. A higher refresh rate combined with a super low response time helps reduce motion blur and provides a better overall picture quality while gaming. A lower response time also cuts down on lag.
The Samsung Odyssey Ark supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro for variable refresh rate (VRR). This basically helps reduce the frame tearing to provide for more fluid and better-detailed gameplay. There’s even a super unique feature in the Odyssey Ark called the ‘Cockpit Mode,’ which takes advantage of the TV’s height-adjustable stand. Using the cockpit mode, you can rotate your whole TV, either horizontally or vertically, meaning you can do a lot more things other than just gaming. However, the list of features doesn’t end here. The gaming monitor also packs in Samsung Gaming Hub, which is “an all-in-one game streaming discovery platform.” The Samsung Gaming Hub will let players effortlessly access game streaming apps like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
With a majority of gaming monitors, audio and sound usually take a back seat, but that isn’t what’s happening with the Odyssey Ark. The monitor packs in a total of six speakers, one on every corner of the monitor, along with two central woofers. The company has introduced a new Sound Dome Tech feature which promises to wrap players in a dome of sound. Sounds cool, right? There’s even AI Sound Booster and Dolby Atmos to improve the surround sound experience further, enhancing player immersion.
The Samsung Odyssey Ark comes with an Ark Dial, a solar-powered remote control made exclusively for the new gaming monitor. This fancy-looking remote can be used to control a myriad of settings, including Flex Move Screen, MultiView, Quick Settings, and Game Bar. Phew! Pre-orders for Samsung Odyssey Ark have already commenced in the US at Samsung’s online store but are yet to start here in Australia. The gaming monitor is priced at a whopping USD$3,500, which seems justified given the enormous ROI it has to offer.
