Samsung Odyssey 3D Review: This Glasses-Free 3D Monitor Can Impress, But Poor Games Support Kills It

For a moment, it seemed the precise conception of 3D displays was dormant and buried. Then, Samsung came on with a shovel nether 1 limb and precocious eye-tracking exertion nether the other. Which brings america to the Samsung Odyssey 3D, a $2,000 27-inch show with 1 large feature: it does glasses-free 3D for gaming. I wanted to emotion it, but arsenic you’ll spot successful this review, determination conscionable isn’t capable present to warrant the terms for anybody who has a upland of currency to pain and a lingering adoration for the long-dead Nintendo 3DS.

I grew fond of the Odyssey 3D erstwhile I got to usage it concisely past month. Having it successful hand, it’s present evident the show is constrained by issues some niggling and overt. Without the 3D effect, it’s a simple, though comparatively colorful, 4K IPS LCD show with a max 165Hz refresh rate. You tin find a prime show with those specs for nether $500. However, Samsung’s caller show houses a “light tract display” that uses a lenticular lens to nonstop antithetic images to each eye. The eye-tracking makes definite the lens is ever showing the contented to your face, nary substance however you duck and weave successful beforehand of the screen.

All that means is the 3D effect offers astonishing fidelity. If you retrieve the awkward viewing angles connected earlier lenticular-based displays similar the Nintendo 3DS, the tech wrong Samsung’s show fixes the request for straight-on viewing, offering a unsocial gaming acquisition dissimilar immoderate show I’ve utilized before. Still, the issues equine arsenic soon arsenic you plug it into your PC. The screen’s 3D requires peculiar Reality Hub bundle you person to instal yourself. You tin find it either connected the Microsoft Store oregon by digging done the downloads page connected Samsung’s enactment site. This show does not enactment 3D movies, either. You tin get a subtle 2D effect erstwhile watching YouTube oregon different non-copyrighted videos successful afloat screen, but it’s not precisely the benignant of acquisition you ammunition retired $2,000 for.

There are a fewer different large caveats to Samsung’s show that spell beyond its astronomical $2,000 terms tag. You request an Nvidia RTX GPU to enactment the 3D effects. I tested the Odyssey 3D connected a desktop PC with a GeForce RTX 5090, and I spotted nary problems with framerates successful the games I played with the further 3D effects. Then again, galore of these titles aren’t meant to propulsion your GPU to the limit. The bulk of them are cartoonish, kid-friendly games alongside respective much stylized third-person enactment escapade titles. There are lone 14 of them compatible with the Odyssey 3D astatine launch.

Although Samsung’s archetypal database of games it supplied maine included titles similar Psychonauts 2, those are not disposable arsenic of release. The 14 games supported connected the Odyssey 3D: The First Berserker: Khazan, Lies of P, Stray, Dragonball Z: Kakarot, Little Nightmares II, F.I.S.T: Forged In Shadow Torch, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake, Wigmun, Disney Epic Mickey Rebrushed, The Smurfs Dreams, Palworld, and the 3 Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition titles.

Khazan is the lone crippled built from the crushed up with the Odyssey 3D successful mind. Loading into it, you’ll find that the game’s cutscenes usage the eye-trackingto springiness you a beingness successful the scene, arsenic if you were peering done a model into the satellite arsenic objects successful the foreground displacement astir you. In-game, the 3D effect is crisp and—in galore ways—engrossing. The characters and snowflakes popular disconnected screen, though it’s subtle capable you won’t consciousness similar you’re being punched successful the look each clip an arrow flies toward you. The 3D enhances the stylized, cell-shaded visuals, adjacent if an unusual artifact excessively adjacent to the surface would occasionally marque maine consciousness uncomfortable and claustrophobic.

The occupation is that astir radical apt don’t ain the immense bulk of the games supported by the Odyssey 3D, astatine slightest not each successful 1 place. I person entree to Palworld done Xbox Game Pass. Unfortunately, it seems that Samsung did not instrumentality the executable files from Microsoft’s subscription work into account. Reality Hub is expected to observe immoderate of these games connected your PC, but the bundle failed to observe Palworld. When I manually entered the record way for Reality Hub to entree the game, successful this lawsuit the “gamelaunchhelper” file, it would motorboat the Palworld extracurricular of Samsung’s launcher without immoderate 3D effect. I’ve been successful connection with Samsung astir this issue, and it whitethorn alteration successful the future.

I loaded up the side-scrolling beat-em-up F.I.S.T: Forged In Shadow Torch specifically to trial conscionable however overmuch the 3D makes an interaction connected a non-3D enactment game. I pushed the 3D extent and 3D popout settings to their max to get immoderate consciousness of the varying layers successful the game’s comparatively static environment. Even successful its coolest moments, wherever enemies alert astatine the surface oregon you spot the varying extent of foreground and background, it elicits the aforesaid benignant of “wow, that’s neat” feeling of staring into an infinity reflector astatine a carnival. Inevitably, the novelty wears disconnected quickly.

I’ve encountered different unusual glitches, similar the Odyssey 3D asking maine if I wanted to overlay a 3D effect connected a crippled moving successful 2D (this didn’t really adhd a 3D effect). Other times, erstwhile utilizing the subtle 3D effect connected YouTube, clicking distant would extremity the process of Reality Hub moving successful the background, which loaded an mistake connection I needed to click away. But these issues are dwarfed simply by the deficiency of crippled enactment compared to this monitor’s price. It’s ever hard to beryllium the archetypal of its kind, and aboriginal adopters of caller tech volition ever wage more. The lone anticipation is that Samsung adds much supported games successful the future, though that whitethorn not beryllium precise apt considering however niche this show is.

The contented past is whether I tin urge what’s inactive hardly much than a unsmooth conception to anybody now, particularly considering you tin bargain 2 high-quality 4K QD-OLED monitors for the terms of 1 Odyssey 3D. I would emotion to spot this show tech go much available, with broader enactment for much games and antithetic options for solution astatine a cheaper price. I conscionable anticipation the Odyssey 3D doesn’t get dumped into a shallow sedate similar each the past attempts astatine 3D screens.