LG and MSI are taking on Samsung’s Odyssey G9 with giant curved OLED gaming monitors

My request has been granted: Samsung’s jaw-dropping lineup of ultra-wide, ultra-curved, ultra-fast gaming monitors is about to have much-needed competition. LG and MSI are both angling for your dollars, and unlike Samsung, they’re doing it with OLED panels.

On December 12th, LG will introduce the first 240Hz OLED gaming monitors we’ve ever seen, and it won’t just be the $999.99 27-inch flatscreen we told you about last week. The company will also open preorders for the $1,699.99 LG-45GR95QE, a 45-inch curved OLED beast. It’s a 21:9 monitor at 3440 x 1440 resolution, so not quite as wide or high-res as the 49-inch Samsung Odyssey G9, but it could make up for that in other ways.

Image: LG

First off, it’s an OLED, with the incredible colors and inky blacks that the organically backlit pixel technology brings. (Both the Odyssey G9 and Neo G9 could struggle with local dimming in the dark regions of games, so here’s hoping.) Second, that unprecedented-for-OLED 240Hz, plus the natural speed of OLED, could offer incredible response times (LG’s promising 0.03 ms latency). Lastly, it’s even more curved than Samsung’s monitors at 800R curvature instead of 1000R, if you like that sort of thing. I found the G9’s curve most useful for augmenting my peripheral vision, and it could be improved by that!

But if a 21:9 OLED isn’t what you’re looking for, MSI might have another answer: a QD-OLED monitor that looks like it could be as wide as Samsung’s. At CES 2023, the company will reveal “Project 491C,” yet another 240Hz OLED panel but with a quantum dot (QD) layer that’ll probably provide even more vibrant colors and a brighter picture.

Alienware was one of the very first to bring a QD-OLED screen to market with its 34-inch, $1,299.99 AW3423DW, and it was a smash right out of the gate. We said it “sets a new standard for gaming displays.”

Samsung isn’t sitting still, of course. While its 55-inch Odyssey Ark turned out a little half-baked, the company’s already teasing the “first 8K ultrawide” monitor as a direct successor to the Odyssey Neo. And it knows plenty about QD-OLED panels, too, if it wants to go that route. Samsung Display provided the screen that’s in the Alienware, and it wouldn’t be surprising if MSI’s using a Samsung panel too.

Oh, and if you are still interested in the original Samsung Odyssey G9, it’s currently on sale for $899.99 for Cyber Week, and I hear there’s even a trick to get it for $756.