I Stand by What I Said. Samsung G9 Non-Sponsored Review

[James]

Buy Samsung Odyssey G9

On Amazon (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/F9xX1k

On B&H (PAID LINK): https://geni.us/trLc9ny

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

 

The Samsung Odyssey G9, also known as the LC49G95T, is a 49” super ultrawide monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate, a 1,000nit VESA displayHDR certified screen, and quantum dot for great colors. And it’s GSYNC compatible! It’s everything…but can the VA panel keep up without smearing the blacks??

 

 

 

 

[PizzaJonny]

I have the g7, the local dimming mode is very bad implemented than the previous model the c27hg70, 10 bit colors on this monitor force me to wait 3/4 seconds of black screen between a game and the desktop, on black screen moving my cursor i see a lot of ghosting, well at least 240hz qhd works well.

Hope something will be fixed with some new firmware update, i currently have the last version (should be 1.05, I don't remember...)

[iskander]

I dislike it being explicitly called "non-sponsored".

 

It is a sponsored video, as you also recognized in the beginning of the video. "Just not by Samsung". I don't agree with this because it implies that the video not being sponsored by Samsung makes an editorial difference, which again implies that your videos sponsored by Samsung give the reviewed Samsung product a better rating. This is contrary to what you've said in the past, and I don't believe it to be the case, so I'd be interested to know why it was included in the title in this specific video.

 

Thanks!

[SolarNova]

2 hours ago, James said:

Buy Samsung Odyssey G9

~snip~

 

The Samsung Odyssey G9, also known as the LC49G95T, is a 49” super ultrawide monitor with a 240Hz refresh rate, a 1,000nit VESA displayHDR certified screen, and quantum dot for great colors. And it’s GSYNC compatible! It’s everything…but can the VA panel keep up without smearing the blacks??

 

Be writing this as i watch.

 

1st Issue. the 1ms and other advertised response time specs are NOT 'averages' , they are 'minimums'.  This is why they are so misleading, doesnt help that , like you, people spread incorrect information on this 'spec'. Going to be calling u out on this more and more as u do more Monitor 'reviews' because its something that you should know.

 

I wouldnt call that screen 'uniform' either, it looks rather bad tbh, though in fairness its somewhat difficult to be sure in such a vid. Still it being a curved VA panel, and being Samsung, bad uniformity was almost a given.

 

Hopefully Samsung bring out a firmware update with a tuned down overdrive, i would hate to use that display with adaptive sync with that level of un-adjustable overdrive. To much overshoot.

 

A nice display for sure but, imo, not worth the price. Maybe if it was using high density FALD and ofc didnt have the overdrive and uniformity issues it would be worth it.

[Sorenson]

19 minutes ago, iskander said:

I dislike it being explicitly called "non-sponsored".

 

It is a sponsored video, as you also recognized in the beginning of the video. "Just not by Samsung". I don't agree with this because it implies that the video not being sponsored by Samsung makes an editorial difference, which again implies that your videos sponsored by Samsung give the reviewed Samsung product a better rating. This is contrary to what you've said in the past, and I don't believe it to be the case, so I'd be interested to know why it was included in the title in this specific video.

 

Thanks!

It means it’s actually a review. If it was “sponsored” it would be an unboxing or showcase. Every LTT video has multiple sponsors. That is why we get to watch them for free. 

[Spinningdorito]

1 hour ago, PizzaJonny said:

10 bit colors on this monitor force me to wait 3/4 seconds of black screen between a game and the desktop

That's a windows problem, not a monitor problem. It should only occur when you're playing a fullscreen SDR game with HDR enabled in windows. You will also see it happen if you get an Xbox app notification popup or adjust volume in an HDR game as the notifications and volume slider swap your display to SDR temporarily. 

 

The latest major update(2004) for windows actually fixes this problem by not swapping back to SDR mode for full screen SDR apps. Which I sort of find annoying as I can't adjust picture settings on my pg35vq when it's in HDR mode, and the windows 10 brightness setting for SDR apps in HDR mode makes my SDR games too bright.

[soldier_ph]

Well if they fix the issue with the HDR flickering then this will be my first Gaming Monitor for the Battlestation I'll be building later this year.

[iskander]

3 hours ago, Sorenson said:

It means it’s actually a review. If it was “sponsored” it would be an unboxing or showcase. Every LTT video has multiple sponsors. That is why we get to watch them for free. 

Then... Why specify non-sponsored review instead of calling it a review, like any other review on the channel? Also, "sponsored" means that something has a sponsor, which means that all of LTTs videos are sponsored. Nothing wrong with that, unfortunately, your post doesn't really address my criticism.

[Sorenson]

54 minutes ago, iskander said:

Then... Why specify non-sponsored review instead of calling it a review, like any other review on the channel? Also, "sponsored" means that something has a sponsor, which means that all of LTTs videos are sponsored. Nothing wrong with that, unfortunately, your post doesn't really address my criticism.

Having a sponsor does not equal sponsored review. A sponsored review is someone paying you to review a product. It was just a throw away aside Linus made most likely assuming that his audience would know the difference between a sponsored add spot and sponsored video content. 

[LAwLz]

12 hours ago, iskander said:

I dislike it being explicitly called "non-sponsored".

 

It is a sponsored video, as you also recognized in the beginning of the video. "Just not by Samsung". I don't agree with this because it implies that the video not being sponsored by Samsung makes an editorial difference, which again implies that your videos sponsored by Samsung give the reviewed Samsung product a better rating. This is contrary to what you've said in the past, and I don't believe it to be the case, so I'd be interested to know why it was included in the title in this specific video.

 

Thanks!

I agree.

I haven't watched Linus' videos in a long time (to me they just turned into commercials several years ago) but the reason why I clicked on this thread and the video is because I genuinely though "oh, Linus admits to doing sponsored "reviews" these days? I thought he said he didn't do that".

So if this video is a review and explicitly says it is not sponsored, does that mean reviews which doesn't explicitly says "not sponsored" could potentially be sponsored?

 

 

 

 

  

7 hours ago, Sorenson said:

Having a sponsor does not equal sponsored review. A sponsored review is someone paying you to review a product. It was just a throw away aside Linus made most likely assuming that his audience would know the difference between a sponsored add spot and sponsored video content. 

I think you're misunderstanding what iskander is saying.

I think both him and I understand the differences between having Origin sponsor a Samsung review, having Samsung sponsor a Samsung review and not having a sponsor at all.

The problem here is that when you go out of your way and explicitly state "this review is not sponsored (by Samsung)" it implies that other reviews in the past (or future) might have what you call "sponsored reviews" where the company whose product is supposedly being reviewed is also giving Linus fat stacks of cash behind the scenes.

 

Think of it as going to a restaurant and your waiter all of a sudden goes "I did not poison this particular bowl of soup". Your first though would probably be "wait, you didn't poison this one but does that mean you poisoned some other bowls of soup?".

[DalekDoc]

I was really really looking forward to this review (pre ordered this monitor on Amazon.. got defective unit, waiting in replacement from Samsung) but I am I the only one who was really disappointed with the brevity and superficial nature of it...

I don't mean to rant but this is an observation in general about recent reviews.. this review in particular just felt very rushed..there was no talk about the hdr experience apart from the zones, the color coverage, response times, etc were on the screen for barely a second. There was no further details about the flicker.. in one section they said it was always there then they said only with hdr. Did they contact Samsung about it? They didn't mention there's no Nvidia supported driver..

 

Anyway.. this is turning into a rant... But I used to tune into ltt videos to get a detailed and insightful review without too much details or being >30 mins. Recently their reviews are superficial, brief and more of a first impression feel rather than a product review.. 

[Zberg]

1 hour ago, DalekDoc said:

Anyway.. this is turning into a rant... But I used to tune into ltt videos to get a detailed and insightful review without too much details or being >30 mins. Recently their reviews are superficial, brief and more of a first impression feel rather than a product review.. 

I can kind of see this.  I still like the reviews and them not being crazy long and in depth, but I feel like they may be skewing toward the superficial side on some things.

 

I usually watch on here then go to either GN (CPU/GPU/Mobo) or hardware unboxed (monitors only really) or badseed/BT for peripherals so I can get the real deep dive.

[Sorenson]

11 hours ago, LAwLz said:

video is because I genuinely though "oh, Linus admits to doing sponsored "reviews" these days? I thought he said he didn't do that".

 

 

The problem here is that when you go out of your way and explicitly state "this review is not sponsored (by Samsung)" it implies that other reviews in the past (or future) might have what you call "sponsored reviews" where the company whose product is supposedly being reviewed is also giving Linus fat stacks of cash behind the scenes.

 

Think of it as going to a restaurant and your waiter all of a sudden goes "I did not poison this particular bowl of soup". Your first though would probably be "wait, you didn't poison this one but does that mean you poisoned some other bowls of soup?".

First off you have what is called confirmation Bias. You believe one thing, so you look only for information that confirms it. 
 

Linus has gone over his review philosophy several times in the past, mostly on the WAN show, and has emphatically stated that he does not do “sponsored reviews.”

 

The reason he said that (in a non nitpicking context) was the short circuit video was a sponsored unboxing. The LTT video was a non-Samsung sponsored review, so it is Linus’ honest opinion. 
 

Also, I’m not going to argue against your straw-man fallacy poison soup argument. You can believe what ever you want. Me engaging with you is probably a waste of time, since logic won’t overcome emotion. 

[Dennip]

18 hours ago, DalekDoc said:

I was really really looking forward to this review (pre ordered this monitor on Amazon.. got defective unit, waiting in replacement from Samsung) but I am I the only one who was really disappointed with the brevity and superficial nature of it...

I don't mean to rant but this is an observation in general about recent reviews.. this review in particular just felt very rushed..there was no talk about the hdr experience apart from the zones, the color coverage, response times, etc were on the screen for barely a second. There was no further details about the flicker.. in one section they said it was always there then they said only with hdr. Did they contact Samsung about it? They didn't mention there's no Nvidia supported driver..

 

Anyway.. this is turning into a rant... But I used to tune into ltt videos to get a detailed and insightful review without too much details or being >30 mins. Recently their reviews are superficial, brief and more of a first impression feel rather than a product review.. 

Agreed on all points, i was really waiting on this review since the first impressions on short circuit, but it felt very rushed and incomplete. I dont mind the sponsor spots, or the LTT store stufff etc, but at least make the review detailed and insightful but more and more videos feel like they're moving away from that.

[LAwLz]

20 hours ago, Sorenson said:

First off you have what is called confirmation Bias. You believe one thing, so you look only for information that confirms it. 
 

Linus has gone over his review philosophy several times in the past, mostly on the WAN show, and has emphatically stated that he does not do “sponsored reviews.”

 

The reason he said that (in a non nitpicking context) was the short circuit video was a sponsored unboxing. The LTT video was a non-Samsung sponsored review, so it is Linus’ honest opinion. 
 

Also, I’m not going to argue against your straw-man fallacy poison soup argument. You can believe what ever you want. Me engaging with you is probably a waste of time, since logic won’t overcome emotion. 

Why are you so defensive and bombarding me with personal attacks?

 

My poison soup analogy was not a strawman argument by the way. It was an analogy. The only one acting very emotionally here is you.

I am not even the one who made the original argument! I was just elaborating what someone else said because you dismissed his criticism without addressing it. Something you are doing with my post as well.

 

 

Here is how the conversation went:

Person1: I don't like the title because it unnecessarily implies bad things.

You: No they don't and you're wrong.

Person1: But you didn't address my criticism.

You: Yes I did.

Me: I don't think you did. Here is what I think person 1 meant and I agree with his point. Think of it like this...

You: I won't argue with you because you are acting very emotional and you are biased and there is nothing wrong with Linus' video or title!

 

See how ridiculous this whole conversation is? Wouldn't you be suspicious if a waiter told you "I didn't poison this bowl of soup"? That is what Linus is doing when he all of a sudden goes and explicitly states that "this particular review is not sponsored". Besides, the title is objectively wrong. The review is sponsored. It's just that it's not sponsored by Samsung. But since LTT (as far as I know) never have "sponsored reviews" where the sponsor is the same as the manufacturer, it feels weird that they all of a sudden point that out (with incomplete wording in the title).

 

I completely understand what they mean. The short circuit video was sponsored by Samsung, and that's fine I guess. Then when they made their second video, which was their review they wanted to clarify that "I agreed with everything I said in the short circuit video so I will say that again, even though I am not sponsored by Samsung in this review video". It's just that the way they went about giving that info out to their viewers is unnecessary, clumsy and bad.

Not even include that "not sponsored" part in the title at all?

Reasons for why I think the way they did this is bad:

1) They have never (as far as I know) labeled a video a review and had that video be sponsored by the manufacturer of the product. it is weird to all of a sudden point something out that you have never done before (see: poison soup analogy). If you make thousands of videos and you only explicitly say "this review was not sponsored by the manufacturer of the product" in one video then it implies that the same is not true for some of your other videos, even if that isn't the case. It's unnecessary to point something out in one particular video if it is always the case.

 

2) Not everyone watches Short Circuit so making references to other videos that have far less views seems unnecessary too. LTT gets about twice as many views as SC so at best they could only have estimated that half of their viewers would get the reference.

 

3) The title isn't even right. It is objectively wrong. The video is sponsored. The video is a review. Therefore, the review is sponsored. If you say "this review isn't sponsored" in the title and then it turns out the video is sponsored, you're just flat out lying. You can't just make up new meaning of words like "well when I say sponsored review I mean a review that is sponsored by the same company". Words have meanings, and you can't just change them to suit your agenda. Is it a review? Is it sponsored? Then it is a sponsored review.

 

4) The sponsor is indirectly Samsung because if you look at the Origin PC sponsor spot you will see that they heavily promote Samsung. So the video is sponsored by Samsung, indirectly, though Origin PC. Linus even mentions Samsung in the sponsor spot. This is what the sponsor link in the description looks like when you click it:

Quote

Check out ORIGIN PC gaming laptops and desktops today at https://bit.ly/2Oc08w0

 

[Sorenson]

@LAwLz You know I did get a little more personal than i should have, and for that i’m sorry. I still disagree with you though, this time just more respectfully. 

[IamGenZod]

Anyone know of a place I can purchase the monitor? The B&H link says discontinued and no matches on the amazon link.

[Rune]

5 hours ago, IamGenZod said:

Anyone know of a place I can purchase the monitor? The B&H link says discontinued and no matches on the amazon link.

Believe the g9 was recalled/stopped being sold due to a lack of QA.

Edit: At least from what I have seen online.

 

Can't seem to find official source. Oh well.

[Dreamscapist]

I've gone through pile of reviews on the monitor but I cannot seem to find answer to one of the features in the display which seems to be ignored by every review so far.

 

There is option to split the screen, which also is displayed on their website to have it in 3 parts with apparently game on fullscreen on left, youtube window in middle and samsungs website at right.

 

On easy settings you can see vertical split like 1/4 - 2/4 - 1/4 which would be nice for games that do not support the resolution and creates blackbars so you could use that area for discord, obs, websites, etc..

 

There is also option to adjust grid, would this allow to create custom monitor splits that would actually work like separate monitors?

 

I've tried out multiple software solutions for 4k display and as soon you launch something on fullscreen it blows up to smitheriins.

 

Would appreciate anyone with the monitor to test out this feature and let me know.

 

Thanks in advance.

[LAwLz]

1 hour ago, Dreamscapist said:

I've gone through pile of reviews on the monitor but I cannot seem to find answer to one of the features in the display which seems to be ignored by every review so far.

 

There is option to split the screen, which also is displayed on their website to have it in 3 parts with apparently game on fullscreen on left, youtube window in middle and samsungs website at right.

 

On easy settings you can see vertical split like 1/4 - 2/4 - 1/4 which would be nice for games that do not support the resolution and creates blackbars so you could use that area for discord, obs, websites, etc..

 

There is also option to adjust grid, would this allow to create custom monitor splits that would actually work like separate monitors?

 

I've tried out multiple software solutions for 4k display and as soon you launch something on fullscreen it blows up to smitheriins.

 

Would appreciate anyone with the monitor to test out this feature and let me know.

 

Thanks in advance.

I have this monitor and I have tried the program shown in the images.

Sadly, it's terrible. I could just barely get it to work half of the time. Full-screen apps didn't really work with it, and windowed programs sometimes worked really well but sometimes didn't work either. Getting everything arranged the way you wanted was really challenging.

 

If you want to split this monitor up I recommend plugging in two display cables and then using the monitors built in splitting mode. That way it will appear in Windows as two separate 2560x1440 screens and it will behave just like if you had two screens plugged in. Then it's like having two 27" 2560x1440 monitors with no bezel between them. The only drawback with that is that you can't have anything fullscreen in the middle, and Windows aero might be annoying in the middle of the screen.