Samsung Odyssey Ark is 55-inch 4K monitor with a massive 1000R curvature. It got some scaling tricks under its belt and will be sold later this year.
Samsung makes some terrific ultrawide wildly curved monitors under its Odyssey gaming brand, but its latest showing at CES 2022 — called Odyssey Ark — may take things a tad too far with a rotating display that can be titled into portrait mode to look like a giant pixel-dense spoon. The likes of Sony Ericcson and Nokia made some cool phones with a twisting display back in the day when smartphone design was not all about slabs of glass and debates over notch vs punch hole. But just like Mariah Carey and her return to the top of music charts every Christmas, some gadget trends keep coming back.
The LG Wing brought back the twisting display trend a year ago, and also added a secondary display into the mix. Unfortunately, the company had to soon bring down the shutters before it could revive more cool design ideas. Thankfully, the idea didn’t die with LG’s smartphone business and moved to the TV world. Samsung launched the Sero TV that could switch back and forth between portrait and landscape orientation. TCL was quick to follow suit. The humble TV’s computing cousin, the computer monitor, has been used in portrait orientation for a while using fancy mounts to see more of Twitter or lines of colorful code.
Samsung apparently thought the idea of a massively curved gaming monitor married to a portrait orientation has never been attempted. And what better occasion to show it off in flesh than the world’s largest circus of unhinged gadget ideas? Well, the result is Samsung Odyssey Ark, a monstrous curved gaming monitor that can flip 90-degrees on its side, ready to show off in portrait mode. And in doing so, it also becomes an expensive, Samsung-branded, pixel-dense spoon to serve some content that wants to tower over the user’s head.
Not Just Eye Candy
The screen real estate on offer here is a massive 55-inches, larger than the TVs in most people’s homes. The curvature, on the other hand, is 1000R, which is the same as that of the space ship-aping Odyssey G9 gaming monitor many gamers dream of putting on their battle station. The resolution is not too shabby either at 4K, while the aspect ratio is a traditional 16:9 format. Samsung will be shipping a wireless wheel controller to quickly adjust the content orientation. For gaming enthusiasts worried about the scaling and orientation hell scenarios in their minds, Samsung has created something called Multiview options and an ambient game screen to adjust the dimensions of a game’s active window.
The idea essentially sounds like a version of Snap View layouts in Windows 11 to quickly adjust multiple windows on the screen, except it springs into action when Samsung’s monitor is rotated from landscape to portrait orientation. So, a 55-inch view of Call Of Duty in landscape mode quickly adjusts to a 24-inch window at the bottom without any scaling drama, while the remaining screen room at the top can be used for live streaming on Twitch, streaming music, etc. And to really send home the message about its gaming chops, the wild Samsung monitor does come with some lighting hardware too. There is no word on its pricing, but it will hit the shelves later this year. And of course, Samsung will dish all that curved pixel goodness at a hefty asking price.
Next: LG’s New UltraFine Monitor Is A Proper Rival To Apple’s Pro Display XDR
Source: Samsung
Forget Smart Locks – CES Just Brought Us A Smart Door
About The Author
Nadeem Sarwar (485 Articles Published)
Nadeem has been writing about consumer technology for over three years now, having worked with names such as NDTV and Pocketnow in the past. Aside from covering the latest news, he also has experience testing out the latest phones and laptops. When he’s not writing, you can find him failing at Doom eternal.