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HDR Performance

Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.

The Odyssey G7 accepts both HDR10 and HDR10+ signals. The latter is significant because it includes dynamic tone mapping metadata, much like Dolby Vision. You’ll need specifically encoded content to take advantage of this standard, which is found in many Samsung displays. For HDR10, you get a dynamic tone mapping option that works very well.

HDR Brightness and Contrast

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Samsung Odyssey G7 S40FG75 — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Samsung rates the Odyssey G7 for HDR600, but I only measured 548 nits. Is this a failure? No, VESA’s criteria state that a display must exceed 600 nits from an 8% window pattern. I use 25% because that’s the smallest window available from my pattern generator. The Odyssey G7 would easily top 600 nits with a smaller window. And it’s the brightest monitor of the bunch, thanks to its edge-zone dimming backlight. That puts it on top in the black level and contrast tests, with a final ratio of 9,011.2:1, excellent performance. This gives the HDR image a lot of depth and makes it clearly superior to SDR.

Grayscale, EOTF and Color

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Measuring the Odyssey G7’s HDR color showed me some of the best results I’ve seen to date. Grayscale tracking is visually perfect and rides well below the 3dE threshold. I’ve tested only a tiny handful of monitors that are this close to the reference. Luminance tracking is also nearly perfect, with just slight darkness observed at zero and 20% brightness. These are tiny errors that you won’t spot in content. The Odyssey G7 clearly renders every detail throughout the brightness range and transitions to tone mapping at 65% which is correct for the measured white and black levels.

In the color tests, it doesn’t fully cover DCI-P3, but it looks very colorful thanks to a bit of oversaturation in the low- and mid-tone areas. Hue tracking is on point, which keeps color looking natural and vivid with no loss of detail. In the BT.2020 test, the Odyssey G7 runs out of color at 82% red, 65% green, and 95% blue. This is typical coverage for the ultra-wide monitors I’ve tested.

Test Takeaway: The Odyssey G7 has some of the most accurate HDR color I’ve seen to date. It also has plenty of dynamic range, triple that of its SDR mode. When compared to other ultra-wides, its HDR rendering is superior in every way, and made even better when Dynamic Tone Mapping is active. This is something you won’t find elsewhere. And you also won’t find many monitors that support HDR10+. The Odyssey G7 stands out from other LCD HDR monitors in general.

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Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.