Samsung Odyssey Ark curved monitor aims to expand your gaming horizons
Samsung may not instantly make the cut as a gaming brand but its Odyssey lineup has some of the best monitors for gamers. Its 49-inch Odyssey Neo G9 justifies a $2499 price tag with a breathtakingly wide view and an immersive curvature. But the company isn't stopping just there and has now showcased a bigger and curvier gaming monitor called Odyssey Ark at CES 2022. This is (get ready to stretch your neck and let your jaw drop!) a 55-inch monitor with a curved 4K panel. But despite its size, the most impressive aspect is that it can be used in both horizontal and vertical orientations.
Switching between vertical and horizontal configurations is possible because of the Odyssey Ark's height-adjustable stand. But unlike the Odyssey Neo G9, which offers an ultrawide 32:9 view, the Ark sticks to the rather standard 16:9 aspect ratio, and that makes it optimal to be used in any way a user prefers. Samsung says the "new vertical cockpit-style rotating display" can offer an extraordinary experience while gaming and multi-tasking, and we can hardly doubt that.
Key details saved for the launch
Sadly, Samsung is merely teasing the Odyssey Ark at the moment and has saved the rest of the details for later, perhaps for the launch later this year. The company only reveals the monitor pivots and tilts to meet a user's requirements but it has yet to share key details including the refresh rate, I/O features, figures of the panel brightness, HDMI version, etc.
What Samsung does tell us is that the Odyssey Ark comes with a wireless dial to switch between the different inputs and change the display settings. The dial also allows users to control the magnificent colored lighting at (presumably) the bottom of the display that can be seen in these glorious images shared by Tim Schofield on Twitter (as shown below).
Here is a first look at the INSANE Odyssey Ark from @Samsung! This is a curved 55" 4K Monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio... Can do some serious gaming/multitasking on this! #ces #samsung pic.twitter.com/Y82hbeY9gg
— Tim Schofield (@qbking77) January 5, 2022
The Ark could have an equally massive price
It goes without saying that owning the Samsung Odyssey Ark will be a pricey affair. Samsung hasn't revealed the pricing either but we can expect it to breach the $2500-mark at least. Even then, it will only be a fraction of the price of Apple's bewilderingly expensive XDR Pro Display.
Given its size, the Ark can also be a great TV and sit well among Samsung's premium and picturesque TVs also launched at CES 2022. While I may not be among the lucky ones to be able to afford this glorious piece of tech, I can certainly imagine more than one horizontally-oriented Ark's stacked side-by-side and running Microsoft Flight Simulator. It could also be an excellent companion for modern consoles including the PS5 or the Xbox or Alienware's local gaming server revealed at CES earlier this week.
For the rest of the peasants like us, Samsung has also unveiled a whole new range of (relatively) more affordable yet powerful gaming monitors at CES 2022 (like the Osyssey Neo G8 in the image above.)