Samsung Odyssey Ark review: When bigger isn't always better

engadget.com:

The idea of sitting in front of a massive 55-inch gaming monitor all day sounds like heaven. Being able to twist it into a towering portrait mode? The stuff of my multi-tasking dreams. That's the pitch behind Samsung's 55-inch 4K Odyssey Ark Monitor. As we saw during our first preview, it's a genuinely unique behemoth of a display, one that can easily immerse you in both Microsoft Flight Simulator and towering Excel spreadsheets.

Sure, you could just plug a 55-inch TV into your PC, but without the Ark's extreme curve, it would be too wide to comfortably use as a monitor. You also won't find any 4K TVs with the Ark's blazing fast 165Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, let alone its surprisingly solid sound system. The Odyssey Ark stands alone. But is it actually worth $3,500? That depends on if you're able to live with its many annoyances (and if you don't think too hard about the price).

Annoyance number one? This thing is a bear to set up. Even with the help of two delivery workers, it took around 20 minutes to get the (very heavy) Ark monitor correctly attached to its (equally heavy) base. The entire unit weighs 91.5 pounds when put together, so be sure to have a sturdy desk at the ready. If that sounds a bit obscene, well, you'd be correct. Samsung's 55-inch QN90B NEO QLED TV weighs almost half as much (48.3 pounds), while LG's 65-inch C2 OLED TV clocks in at 72 pounds. Extreme heft is the unfortunate price you'll have to pay for a rotating monitor stand.

As soon as I sat in front of the Odyssey Ark, I understood why Samsung dared to build it. We've already seen its extra-wide 49-inch gaming monitors in action. And, of course the company that pushed the limits of phone screens would do the same for PCs. Given