Samsung C34G55T/Odyssey G5 Review 2022: Worth The Money?

Bottom Line

The Samsung C34G55T from the Odyssey G5 line-up is a 34″ 3440×1440 165Hz ultrawide gaming monitor based on a 1000R curved VA panel.

It’s a bit pricier than the 1500R alternatives yet it doesn’t support a wide color gamut, but some users who prefer the steeper screen curvature to color vibrancy might find that to be a worthy trade-off.

Sadly, the pixel response time speed is slower than that of the popular Odyssey G7 models, and more in line with the standard VA panel performance.

Design: (3.5)Display: (4.7)Performance: (4.0)Price/Value: (3.5) 3.9 See Price

The Samsung C34G55T is yet another 34″ 3440×1440 ultrawide curved gaming monitor with a high refresh rate.

What differentiates this model from the majority, however, is the fact that it has a more aggressively 1000R curved VA panel.

Image Quality

The Samsung Odyssey G5 ultrawide monitor uses a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel with a high 2,500:1 static contrast ratio for deep and inky blacks, which makes blacks on IPS panel monitors appear grayish in comparison.

On top of that, there’s no IPS glow, making the viewing experience all the better, especially in dark or dim-lit rooms where the high contrast ratio can really bring out the details in the shadows of the image.

Of course, IPS displays have their advantages too, such as wider viewing angles, more consistent colors and usually faster pixel response time speed.

In fact, the Samsung C34G55T covers only the basic sRGB color space, so while the colors are accurate when viewing sRGB content (which includes most games and web content), some users might be bothered by the lack of some extra color vibrancy and saturation provided by some of the alternative ultrawides at this price range.

This doesn’t make the monitor suited for professional color-critical work, though.

All VA panels have some gamma/saturation shifts. Basically, a certain shade of red, for instance, can appear slightly different in the center of the screen and in a corner of the screen, depending on the angle you’re looking at the screen.

Related:What Is VA Glow, Gamma Shift, And Black Crush?

These minor shifts are not an issue for everyday use or even basic content creation, but when it comes to professional color-critical work, it’s a different story.

Moving on, the Samsung C34G55T has a specified peak brightness of 250-nits, which is plenty under normal lighting conditions. The display also gets a bit brighter, up to 300 – 350-nits, depending on the unit.

HDR10 (High Dynamic Range) is supported, but due to the monitor’s lack of wide color gamut and local dimming, you’ll prefer to have it disabled, which is expected from an ultrawide display at this price range.

While Samsung specifies 8-bit color depth support, the monitor also supports 10-bit depth via dithering (8-bit + 2-bit FRC).

Performance

The Samsung C34G55T monitor has a screen resolution of 3440×1440 and an aspect ratio of 21:9. This makes it a bit more demanding to drive than Quad HD (2560×1440), but the trade-off is definitely worth it as you get a more immersive viewing experience with a wider field of view in supported games.

Most newer games support the 21:9 format natively, and there are plenty of free mods available that can make unsupported games handle the ultrawide resolutions better.

Some competitive games, like Overwatch and StarCraft, however, don’t allow ultrawide resolutions as the extended field of view is considered as an unfair advantage.

Additionally, there are plenty of movies shot at the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which looks amazing on 21:9 monitors.

Such high resolution on the 34″ sized screen of the Samsung C34G55T also hits the pixel density sweet spot of roughly 110 PPI (pixels per inch), meaning that you’ll get plenty of screen real estate, as well as sharp details and text, without any scaling necessary.

Related:What Is Pixel Density And Pixels Per Inch (PPI)?

The extra horizontal screen space makes the monitor particularly great for spreadsheets and audio/video editing.

When it comes to pixel response time performance, the Samsung C34G55T is similar to most VA panel displays. Sadly, this means that there’s some noticeable smearing behind fast-moving objects, especially in darker scenes since pixels take longer to change from dark into bright pixels.

In real use, the amount of smearing or ghosting will be tolerable or even negligible to most gamers, unless you’re extremely sensitive to it. If you mainly play fast-paced competitive games, you should be looking at a monitor with a higher refresh rate anyway.

There are three response time overdrive modes: Standard, Faster and Fastest. At 165Hz, we recommend the ‘Fastest’ mode as it’s most efficient at eliminating ghosting artifacts. You can also use this mode at 60Hz, though some overshoot will become noticeable – in case it bothers you, dial the response time setting down to ‘Faster.’

Input lag, on the other hand, is flawless at just around 4ms of imperceptible delay.

Features

The Samsung C34G55T display supports Motion Blur Reduction (MBR). This feature reduces perceived motion blur by backlight strobing. By doing so, it introduces screen flickering, which is invisible to the human eye, but may cause headaches to those sensitive to it after prolonged use.

MBR also reduces the monitor’s maximum brightness when enabled. To activate it, set the response time option to ‘Fastest (MBR).’ It only works at a fixed refresh rate of 165Hz, so unless you can keep constant 165FPS, some image duplication will be noticeable, but motion will appear smoother overall.

Next, the Samsung C34G55T supports AMD FreeSync with a 60-165Hz VRR (variable refresh rate) range over DisplayPort. This technology allows the monitor to change its refresh rate according to GPU’s frame rate thus preventing screen tearing at basically no input lag penalty up to 165FPS.

Below 60FPS, LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) is activated, which multiplies the frame rate in order to prevent tearing at lower FPS. For instance, at 59FPS, the refresh rate is doubled to 118Hz.

Just like it’s the case with most VA panel monitors, some units are affected by the VRR brightness flickering issue caused by fluctuating frame rates and LFC.

While the monitor is not certified by NVIDIA as ‘G-SYNC Compatible’, you can manually enable it if you have a compatible GeForce graphics card. Note that variable refresh rate is only supported over DisplayPort on this monitor.

Other noteworthy features include Picture by Picture, Black Equalizer (improves visibility in darker scenes by altering the gamma curvature), Virtual Aim Point (crosshair overlays) and various picture modes (FPS, RTS, RPG, etc.).

The backlight of the monitor is flicker-free (unless MBR is enabled) and there’s an integrated low-blue light filter (Eye Saver Mode).

The OSD (On-Screen Display) menu is well-organized and easy to navigate thanks to the directional joystick found beneath the bottom bezel of the monitor.

Design & Connectivity

The design of the Samsung C34G55T consists of ultra-thin bezels at the top and bottom, a matte anti-glare screen coating that prevents reflections, tilt-only (-2°/18°) stand and 75x75mm VESA mount compatibility.

Connectivity options include DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, a headphone jack and a USB 2.0 port for service and firmware updates only. Note that HDMI 2.0 is limited to 100Hz at 3440×1440.

Samsung’s 1000R curved monitors have received mixed responses from users. Some hate it, others love it, and then there are those who just get used to it.

On this 34″ ultrawide monitor, the 1000R curvature is not that much different than 1500R, so it won’t be an issue for most people. In fact, it helps with the immersion and reduces the issues caused by narrow viewing angles of the VA panel technology.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Samsung C34G55T usually goes for ~$370 – $550, which is a bit steep considering that other 1500R ultrawide models, such as MSI MAG342CQR and the KTC H34S18S, can be found for ~$300 – yet they offer a wider color gamut, a more ergonomic design and better performance.

If you don’t want to deal with VRR brightness flickering and slow response time, we recommend getting an IPS variant, such as the Gigabyte M34WQ, which is also available at this price range, but you won’t get as a high contrast ratio.

Visit our comprehensive and always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide for more information.

Conclusion

The Samsung C34G55T is an overall excellent monitor for gaming, watching videos, productivity work and other everyday use. It delivers an immersive image quality with accurate sRGB colors, deep blacks and crisp details. However, the price is a bit high as there are just as good or even better ultrawide displays available at a lower cost.

Specifications

Screen Size	34-inch
Screen Curvature	1000R
Resolution	3440×1440 (UWQHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	21:9 (UltraWide)
Refresh Rate	165Hz
Response Time (GtG)	Not specified
Response Time (MBR)	1ms (MPRT)
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync (60-165Hz)
Ports	DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, USB 2.0 (service-only)
Brightness	250 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	2500:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC)99% sRGB
HDR	HDR10
VESA	Yes (75x75mm)

The Pros:

• High contrast ratio for deep blacks
• High pixel density and ultrawide format resulting in plenty of screen space and crisp details
• Plenty of features including FreeSync and MBR up to 165Hz

The Cons:

• Tilt-only stand
• No wide color gamut
• FreeSync not supported over HDMI
• Minor ghosting in fast-paced games, mostly in darker scenes
• Somewhat expensive

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