Against this backdrop, Samsung has delivered on gamers’ expectations with the launch of groundbreaking new gaming monitors. Through relentless innovation, Samsung has maintained its position as the number one worldwide leader in the gaming monitor market for three consecutive years.²

To learn more about how Samsung’s gaming monitors have developed over the years, check out the infographic below.

¹ IDC Q2 2021 Gaming Monitor Forecast Report

² IDC Worldwide Gaming Tracker, Q2 2021, 17.1% market share based on revenue (over 100Hz)

“We are proud to partner with T1, the leader in professional esports, helping them in their continued success and global growth as official display partner,” said Hyesung Ha, Senior Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. “Our line-up of Odyssey monitors provides the latest in gaming monitor technology with lightning-fast speed, comfortable curvature and a sleek design, offering professional esports gamers the competitive edge they need to make every split second count.”

T1’s successful League of Legends team is one of the most celebrated professional esports teams in the world and is the only team to have won three League of Legends World Championship titles. In addition, T1 has professional teams and players in competitive gaming segments that include Valorant, Fortnite, Dota 2, PUBG, Super Smash Bros., Hearthstone, Apex Legends, Overwatch, and FIFA Online 4.

The partnership will roll out a series of promotional activities that bring together Samsung and the world-famous T1 League of Legends team. A meet-and-greet fan experience event will be hosted at a later date, allowing fans to interact with players and view the Samsung Odyssey gaming monitors in action. Following the event, Samsung will present highlight videos and “The Locker Room” series featuring the team, which will be uploaded on T1’s YouTube channel. The content promotes the latest achievements of the team and highlights Samsung’s industry-leading monitor technology.

In addition, Samsung Odyssey G9 and G7 will be displayed in the ‘Samsung Player Lounge’ at T1’s new headquarters soon to be opened in Seoul. Whether they are playing games or creating content with the Odyssey monitors, all T1 teams, players, and content creators will have access to the latest gaming monitor technology for increased performance, precision and productivity.

“I am excited for Samsung to sponsor T1, providing our teams with best-in-class monitors,” said Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok. “I look forward to practicing on the new Odyssey model once we move into our new T1 HQ.”

Samsung’s G7 and G9 will be available from June 2020. For more information please visit https://displaysolutions.samsung.com/monitor/odyssey.

^* Source: IDC Quarterly Gaming Tracker – Forecast – Gaming Monitor 2019Q4

From left to right: T1 League of Legends Team: ‘Effort’ Sangho Lee, ‘Teddy’ Jinsung Park, ‘Faker’ Sanghyeok Lee, ‘Canna’ Changdong Kim, ‘Cuzz’ Uchan Mun

From left to right: T1 League of Legends Team: ‘Effort’ Sangho Lee, ‘Teddy’ Jinsung Park, ‘Faker’ Sanghyeok Lee, ‘Canna’ Changdong Kim, ‘Cuzz’ Uchan Mun

From left to right: T1 League of Legends Team: ‘Cuzz’ Uchan Mun, ‘Faker’ Sanghyeok Lee, ‘Canna’ Changdong Kim, ‘Teddy’ Jinsung Park, ‘Effort’ Sangho Lee

From left to right: T1 League of Legends Team: ‘Cuzz’ Uchan Mun, ‘Faker’ Sanghyeok Lee, ‘Canna’ Changdong Kim, ‘Teddy’ Jinsung Park, ‘Effort’ Sangho Lee

About T1 Entertainment & Sports

T1 Entertainment & Sports is a global esports joint venture that owns and operates the ultra-successful T1 League of Legends (LoL) Champions Korea (LCK) team, along with teams and players in competitive gaming segments that include Valorant, Fortnite, Dota 2, PUBG, Super Smash Bros., Hearthstone, Apex Legends, Overwatch, and FIFA Online 4. The T1 LoL LCK team, previously known as SK Telecom T1, has won three LoL World Championships (2013, 2015, 2016).  T1 unites esports enthusiasts around the world through its gaming culture and lifestyle, content creation, entertainment and merchandise. SK Telecom and Comcast Spectacor launched T1 in October 2019 and have global operations based in Seoul, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. For more information on T1, please visit T1.gg.

Now, the company has announced that beginning this year, its Odyssey line of gaming laptops, PCs and VR devices is expanding to include gaming monitors, too. This will establish Odyssey as Samsung’s official product line for gaming gear. Visitors to Samsung’s CES 2020 booth can see firsthand how the company applied the futuristic design cues that the line is known for – and gamers love – to create the all-new Odyssey G7 and G9. Both the (27- or 32-inch) G7 and the (49-inch) G9 come packed with next-level specs including ultrawide, 1000R-curvature screens, a rapid 1ms response time, a 240Hz refresh rate for incredibly smooth FPS (first-person shooter) gameplay, G-Sync compatibility, and much more.

To learn more about the process behind the gaming monitors’ designs, Samsung Newsroom interviewed some of the designers who brought the monitors to life.

From left: Ki-hong Kim, Adam Burgess and Juwon Cho of Samsung Electronics’ Product Design Group, Visual Display Business

A New Chapter for the Odyssey

When discussing the process of refining the Odyssey G7 and G9’s designs, each member of the team, from Samsung’s Visual Display Business, stressed the importance of putting the needs and interests of gamers first. That, at its core, is what the Odyssey line is all about: equipping users with the tools they need to enjoy the best possible gaming experience.

However, as Visual Communication designer Adam Burgess noted, the launch of the Odyssey G7 and G9 not only demonstrates Samsung’s commitment to offering consumers game-changing gaming technologies, “It also creates an opportunity for us to thoughtfully communicate the philosophy of the Odyssey line in a way that feels authentic to our product offerings now and to come.”

That philosophy is realized in a pair of monitors created under design principles that can be summed up with the words “courageous,” “futuristic,” and “confident.” The devices’ simple designs set the tone for Odyssey monitors to follow, and are distinguished by their sharp contrast of black and white elements and use of eye-catching blue accenting. (It should be noted that the “Odyssey” name will also be applied to Samsung gaming monitors that are already on the market.)

“The word ‘Odyssey’ brings to mind the idea of navigation, of a journey,” said Burgess. “As Samsung’s official product line for gaming gear, Odyssey offers consumers next-level gaming experiences, powered by a combination of advanced gaming technologies and purposeful design. Together, these two attributes evoke the image of advancing toward the future.”

Future Focused

The Odyssey G7 and G9’s futuristic designs are products of the team’s careful observation of market trends. Odyssey G9 designer Juwon Cho explained the team’s approach.

“Our market research has shown that Samsung gaming monitors consistently earn good reviews,” said Cho. “However, we received feedback that some consumers would like to see genre-specific gaming elements incorporated into gaming monitor designs. To chart the best course for enhancing our offerings, we first examined some of the popular games and devices that gamers tend to prefer.” When the research showed that many gamers prefer futuristic concepts, the team adopted that term as a key design principle.

For gamers, one of the Odyssey G9’s most appealing – and futuristic – design elements may just be the Infinity Core Lighting on its back. As Cho explained, the key to its design boils down to the same factor that enables the monitor to transform users’ gaming sessions: immersion.

“When designing the lighting, we utilized light and mirrors to create the sensation that you’re being transported to another dimension when you look at it,” said Cho. “Of course, gaming on a 49-inch curved monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio evokes that same immersive sensation, and that alone would be very enticing to many gamers. However, we wanted to create gaming monitors that offered more. That is to say, we wanted them to be monitors that users would be proud to show off.”

As design team member Ki-hong Kim explained, however, immersion wasn’t the only factor that guided the Odyssey G7’s lighting design. “Like all Samsung gaming monitors, the Odyssey G7 features what we like to call Arena Lighting on its back,” said Kim. “We differentiated the design by adding dynamic shapes and lighting to the monitor’s front bezel. It’s all part of creating a monitor that, just like futuristic armor and weapons from sci-fi games, projects a strong image as gaming gear.”

Convenience Is Key

Kim emphasized that the consumer is always key when it comes to product design, and because gamers are always interested in what the professionals are using, “We asked professional gamers to share their detailed opinions and preferences so we could incorporate them into the product.”

For example, many pro gamers consider a gaming monitor’s stand to be a very important design consideration. This is because often times, when gaming, they require a large space to move their mouse, and a wide monitor stand may get in their way. It’s also important that the monitor stand does not prevent them from placing their keyboard in a comfortable position. To address these inconveniences, the team carefully calibrated the angle of the Odyssey G7’s stand to enable users to comfortably position their keyboard and move their mouse freely. Users can also easily swivel, tilt and adjust the height of both the Odyssey G7 and G9 to accommodate their posture and eye level.

Breaking Convention

Continuing his breakdown of the Odyssey G7’s design, Kim described various ways that the team enhanced the gaming monitor to differentiate it from conventional offerings. The G7’s 1000R-curvature screen is a sharp departure from typical gaming monitors, which feature boxy rectangular frames. He also explained how the team optimized the accent lighting to enhance the gaming experience and make the monitor stand out.

“Some members of our team were concerned that incorporating lighting into the front of the display could disturb gameplay,” said Kim. “This led us to come up with a lighting design that directs light downward. The design received positive reviews from users, and with that aspect of the design sorted, we were able to continue developing the product.”

The Odyssey G9’s glossy white design is another departure from convention. After surveying customer opinions, the team elected to utilize the color because feedback indicated that white creates the strongest impression of a futuristic design. Feedback on the monitors themselves has been terrific thus far, as both have already garnered Innovation Awards at this year’s CES – the Odyssey G9 in the Computer Peripheral Device category, and the G7 in the Gaming category.

Getting the Most Out of Your Monitor

In addition to discussing the process of refining the Odyssey G7 and G9’s designs, the designers revealed how they would utilize the monitors to enhance their own gaming experiences.

“Often times, when I play games, I play in a dark environment so I can immerse myself in the game and concentrate better,” said Kim. “The lighting on the front and back of the G7 was designed with consideration for such environments, and helps make the gaming experience that much more immersive.”

Cho added that the Odyssey G9’s immersion-amplifying design has the power to transform how users experience their favorite games. “The G9’s 1000R curvature allows it to fill the user’s entire field of view,” said Cho. “When you play games that support the monitor’s 32:9 screen ratio, especially FPS, flight simulator and racing games, the level of immersion is such that you feel as if you are inside the game itself.”

The market for gaming monitors is estimated to grow from roughly 7.8 million units in 2019 to 12.2 million by 2023.¹ Going forward, Samsung will continue to lead innovation in the market by offering gamers monitor designs that put their needs first.

“Even after a gaming monitor launches, the team will constantly seek out feedback and data to reflect in the designs of future products,” said Cho.

“Our goal,” added Kim, “is to anticipate trends in the rapidly evolving gaming market, and design products that lead those trends – rather than products that are simply different from what’s already out there.”

¹ According to figures from market research firm IDC (2019)

Samsung Newsroom highlighted several of the company’s award-winning innovations when the winners were first announced in November of last year. While that article largely spotlighted winners from within the mobile category, here, we shift our focus to award-winning innovations from across Samsung’s wide-ranging product ecosystem.

Read on to learn more about this year’s honorees in the display, home appliance and memory categories.

Samsung’s CES^® 2020 Innovation Award-winning display and soundbar technologies include QLED 8K TVs’ new Q-Symphony sound feature and the lifestyle TV “The Sero” (both of which snagged Best of Innovation honors), as well as the Q950TS QLED 8K TV, and the company’s latest gaming monitors, the Odyssey G9 and G7.

• Q-Symphony – Samsung’s revolutionary Q-Symphony feature harnesses the power of 2020 QLED 8K TVs and the HQ-Q800T soundbar – combining the former’s built-in speakers with the latter’s impressive audio capabilities – to deliver a truly immersive and powerful sound experience.

• The Sero – Samsung’s versatile lifestyle TV, The Sero, not only provides users with a conventional horizontal TV-viewing experience, but can also be flipped 90 degrees to allow them to enjoy content created in vertical formats.

• Q950TS – Samsung’s 85-inch Q950TS QLED 8K TV is packed with enhancements, including a groundbreaking design and next-level picture, screen and audio technologies. Standout features include the TV’s new Infinity Screen and true-to-life 8K resolution, as well as its innovative AI Quantum Processor 8K and Object Tracking Sound+ (OTS+) technology.

• G9 – A CES^® 2020 Innovation Awards honoree in the Computer Peripherals and Accessories category, the Odyssey G9 features Samsung’s all-new Infinity Core Lighting on its rear. The eye-catching lighting adds a futuristic glow to the gaming monitor’s already-striking white exterior, further setting it apart from other devices on the market.

• G7 – An honoree in the Gaming category, the 32- or 27-inch Odyssey G7 offers users a gaming experience unlike any they’ve seen before, thanks to a first-of-its-kind combination of a 240Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, QHD (Quad High Definition) and a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Winning entries in the Home Appliance category include the latest version of Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator, as well as the company’s new Cube Refrigerator Series.

• Family Hub – The latest edition of Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator features personalized, AI-driven enhancements that help users get the most out of their kitchen. These enhancements enable families to plan meals, share video content and manage their smart home – all from their kitchen.

• 4D-Flex BESPOKE – Samsung’s 4D-Flex BESPOKE refrigerator establishes a completely new category of customized home appliances. From materials to colors and even fridge and freezer functions, users can customize a wide range of the refrigerator’s features to make this innovative product their own.

• Cube Refrigerator Series – Available in a versatile range of colors, including Wine, Beer and Beauty, Samsung’s Cube Refrigerator Series features three new compact models whose stackable design and innovative low-noise cooling technology make them suitable for any room – from the kitchen to the bedroom.

• Portable Slim Double Induction – Samsung’s Portable Slim Double Induction is an innovative cooking solution designed for those who live in smaller households. It features two versatile induction burners that themselves feature nine different power levels to suit any culinary need – not just in the kitchen, but in other rooms as well.

• Samsung Shoe Care System – The Samsung Shoe Care System is a trailblazing innovation in home shoe care that offers users an all-in-one shoe care solution, enabling them to deodorize, dehumidify and dry shoes with a single convenient device.

• WA8500V Front Load Washer – Samsung’s latest front load washer not only offers users a laundry experience that is both personalized and powerful – thanks to its large capacity and wide range of wash cycle options, including Super Speed – it also offers advanced Wi-Fi connectivity and smart voice controls for ultimate usability.

Samsung’s memory solutions were also honored with a number of awards. This year’s winners include the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch, an external storage drive featuring significantly enhanced speed and security; the Samsung SSD 980 PRO, a consumer SSD solution that’s optimized for high-end PCs; and the PM1733 30.72TB PCle Gen4 NVMe SSD, the industry’s fastest and largest capacity storage drive, developed for next-generation datacenters and enterprise server systems.

Many of the innovative products covered in this article are currently on display at this year’s CES, alongside a wide range of products from across Samsung’s mobile ecosystem. These include the category-defining Galaxy Fold – recognized for its innovative materials and technologies – and the Galaxy Note10/Note10+ – the latest power devices in Samsung’s Note series, designed to help users do more of what they love. The Galaxy Note10+ 5G received its CES^® 2020 Best of Innovation award based on the sheer power it offers users with its best-in-class specs, features and network speeds. Similarly, as Samsung’s first 5G flagship phone, the Galaxy S10 5G has been recognized for offering users fast network connectivity, advanced features and high performance. Furthermore, the Galaxy A50 has been acknowledged for bringing users advanced hardware and premium features at a lower price point.