Samsung’s Odyssey Ark had a sneaky presence at CES 2022, but the curved 55-inch TV-meets-gaming monitor is almost ready to launch. It will be out in mid-September for $3,499.99, with reservations for pre-orders starting today. I got to test a prototype of the Odyssey Ark with a batch of PC games. Surprise: Playing with my face ten feet away from a 55-inch 4K display with a 165Hz refresh rate is amazing. But I was equally impressed by the sheer number of features the Ark can offer.
The Ark represents Samsung’s most aggressive play to distinguish itself as a gaming display manufacturer. The 55-inch 1000R curvature is, of course, a way out. It can easily be rotated for use in portrait mode with up to three video sources. The other major way is with some smart TV functionality, namely the Samsung Gaming Hub which enables cloud streaming via Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. Like the Samsung M8 Smart Monitor I reviewed, it runs Samsung’s Tizen operating system, in case you want to use some streaming apps like YouTube or Apple TV Plus.
Given its high cost, you’ll most likely want to do more than just play the Ark. This screen is large enough to accommodate multiple use cases at once with ease. Based on the standard picture-in-picture (PIP) mode offered by many TVs and some monitors, the Ark includes robust display manipulation settings that allow you to go from basic (stacking four windows, two by two) plus niche (set an entry). be 32:9, with a traditional 16:9 entry above). The possibilities, while not infinitely configurable, seem ripe for some interesting use cases if you’re the type who likes to tweak settings. And that’s before turning the Ark sideways into cockpit mode.
To do this, you need to tilt the screen up, raise it to the highest setting that its large, minimalist, height-adjustable stand will allow, and then rotate it 90 degrees counterclockwise. I was worried it would be a two person job, but I was able to do it myself without too much trouble. The best part is that rotating the screen will also automatically rotate the source image. With the Ark oriented like this, you can see up to three screens stacked vertically, or stretch one from top to bottom if your game supports it. In cockpit mode, the Ark looks like a wave about to crash over you. Samsung’s Owen Sexton told me during the demo that the Ark is also wall-mountable and will include a VESA mount.
In cockpit mode, the Ark looks like a wave about to crash over you. The Ark’s mount allows it to be rotated 90 degrees into a “cockpit mode”.
While Samsung’s promotion of the Ark heavily favored displaying it in cockpit mode, I preferred to play in landscape mode with a single source taking up the entire screen. Using the multi-view mode is great, although whether in portrait or landscape mode, the curvature of the screen can cause each portion of the screen to have a slight keying effect, where some corners look skewed. This may break the immersion for gaming, but should be fine for other tasks. If I were using the Ark for work, I’d probably prefer to use it in cockpit mode. Similar to the idea behind the LG DualUp’s 16:18 aspect ratio, it’s easier to quickly view multiple windows by simply moving your head up and down instead of side to side like I have to do it with multiple monitors or an ultrawide.
Samsung includes two remotes with the Ark, one of which is a typical remote for managing basic functions and another more involved option called the Ark dial. It’s a self-contained command center that puts the Ark’s main functions (power, volume, input selection, and game bar) on large buttons. There is a rotary dial and a directional pad to adjust settings faster. There’s even a solar panel to recharge it, so you never have to plug it in.
I should note that no remote control seemed to make it elegant to navigate the monitor’s multiple menus and settings. There’s a definite learning curve to finding the settings you’re looking for, and a lot of my demo was just trying, and sometimes failing, to go where I wanted.
The Ark’s dial pad means you never have to fiddle with an on-screen joystick to adjust settings.
The Arca, like Samsung’s other high-end gaming monitors, is a fusion of its best TV panel technology with features that gamers with deep pockets will likely enjoy, such as HDR, VRR and four HDMI 2.1 ports (all and that, curiously, there is no DisplayPort). It has Samsung’s Quantum Mini LED backlight that it claims is capable of up to 1,500 nits at peak brightness, and the company claims it’s the first 55-inch 4K panel to support a 165Hz refresh rate.
The Ark combines some of Samsung’s best TV panel technologies with gamer-specific features like VRR
This screen has a 1000R curve and it’s strange and fun to see the curve return for a panel that looks so much like a TV. The scoop of the curve isn’t as deep as the Odyssey Neo G9’s 1800R curvature (to each their own, but I think the 1000R is the sweet spot in terms of being able to easily see everything on the screen without peripheral details fall by the wayside) .
In my short time with the Ark, playing games like Doom Eternal and Forza Horizon 5 felt like really good showcases of how bright and fast this display can be. There are no complaints. Its 16:9 aspect ratio meant that the image showed no visual distortion around the edges, as we saw in the 32:9 aspect ratio of the Samsung Odyssey G9 and Neo G9. However, I wasn’t as surprised by the contrast of Microsoft’s flight simulator as I expected. With the Ark’s curve and QLED display, I expected to be more or less absorbed by the immersion. Although, the fact that I didn’t feel that way could be due to a few factors, such as the intense brightness of the room, the visual mode of the Ark not being properly adjusted for gaming, or maybe the tuning of this prototype unit is not correct. not quite finished
The Ark offers an immersive gaming experience without the distortion sometimes seen on ultrawide monitors.
All told, the Ark experience looks polished, but there were other quirks in this prototype. When a Samsung representative was showing me the image resizing features, some tutorial pop-ups wouldn’t go away. The team said this was a known pre-release issue. Also, a small piece of the top bezel didn’t want to stay seated, letting some backlight peek through. When I pressed the bezel, the light leak went away, but returned shortly after I let go. Maybe it’s a problem with the glue or something else. Hopefully, this is not present in shipping units.
The Ark looks like a known quantity on its face, but there’s something about it that seems unique. It packs impressive gaming monitor specs into a design that is, by all accounts aside from the stand, an old-school curved TV. Since it packs some smart features like cloud game streaming and smart TV apps, the Ark could be ideal for someone who wants to do it all, both in terms of size and at its cost of $3,499.99. I’m almost more excited about the idea that it’s a sign that some of these features could make their way to cheaper Samsung gaming displays in the near future.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge