Samsung just announced its new Odyssey monitors at Gamescom 2026, and I immediately wondered: which one should I actually buy? We have four new gaming monitors to consider — the OLED G9, OLED G8, OLED G7, and the G6 — and it’s tempting to assume they’re all different versions of the same screen.
They’re not.
Samsung built four different monitors for four different buyers: the G9 is for someone who wants an enormous screen, the G8 for anyone who wants an all-rounder, the G7 for immersion junkies, and the G6 exists for the speed demons among us.
I won’t tell you that the monitor with the most impressive specs wins. I will tell you which one makes sense for how you play.
If I had to pick one Samsung Odyssey monitor for the most high-end setup, it’s the OLED G8. I’d go G9 if ultrawide is non-negotiable, G7 if you live for RPGs and open-world games, and G6 if competitive FPS games are your main hobby. The rest of this article is me proving that verdict, because “biggest number wins” is a trap here. You’ll see why later.
Be sure to verify these against one of Samsung’s official pages before you buy. Samsung hasn’t announced official pricing or exact release windows for any of these yet, only that they’re coming.
This is the first real fork in the road, because Samsung is clearly promoting the refresh rate as the headline feature. The G6 is the speed demon — 1,100Hz, but only in Dual Mode at HD resolution. It drops to a still-absurd 600Hz at native QHD. However, 1,100Hz isn’t sustainable for basically anyone: no consumer GPU pushes 1,100 real frames per second, so you’ll have to rely on AI frame generation to even see it.
The G8, on the other hand, gives you 360Hz at full 4K, or 520Hz QHD and 680Hz FHD for faster play. Then, it has OLED’s near-instant pixel response.
Verdict for competitive players: G6 wins on paper for pure refresh-rate bragging rights, but G8 is the more reasonable choice if you play competitive titles alongside literally anything else.
This is where OLED earns its keep. The G8 has 4K resolution with Samsung’s fifth-gen QD-OLED panel, Penta Tandem tech, RGB Stripe subpixels (less text fringing), and VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 600.
The G9 uses the same panel generation on a 49-inch DQHD screen. It can claim brightness up to 1,300 nits — though past-gen G9 reviewers noted peak HDR brightness has sometimes been GPU-dependent, so I wouldn’t take that number as a given until reviews are out.3
The G7 runs the same OLED specs. But on a 42-inch screen, contrast and color are more important than resolution. The G6 is the outlier. It offers an IPS instead of OLED, so contrast isn’t infinite, but OLED’s glare sensitivity or burn-in anxiety aren’t concerns.
Verdict for image quality: G8 and G9 both deliver premium OLED experiences — the difference is screen size. G6 doesn’t even compete here, and that’s fine given what it’s built for.
