Samsung Odyssey Ark

A magnificent monitor for mad money

- GUY COCKER

IF THERE’S A COST of living crisis going on, Samsung and Nvidia haven’t gotten the memo. This 4K Odyssey Ark costs $3,500, and the RTX 4080 or 4090 realistically needed to drive it are over $1,200. But if you want to experience the best of PC gaming, they’re perfect bedfellows. The Ark is packed with features, it transforms from landscape to portrait, displays three different sources at once, and boasts TV-like smart apps. But none of those features is a reason to buy it—the reason is that it’s just a great gaming monitor.

The Odyssey Ark is a colossal 55inch display, with a 4K panel and 1000R curvature—a pretty deep bend on a monitor this size. It takes at least two people to unbox it, screw it into the stand and lift it onto a desk, but it’s pretty easy to put together overall. It glides between landscape and portrait (or ‘Cockpit’) modes with little effort, although we’d have liked it to be automated at this price.

Like Samsung’s premium TV offerings, connectivity is managed through a separate One Connect box, with power, networking, and AV all running through one cable to the TV. As someone who has reviewed a fair share of TVs and monitors over the years, I love this feature. It helps that the One Connect box has four HDMI 2.1 inputs to support loads of devices, although DisplayPort is an odd omission for a PC monitor.