Samsung’s newest gaming monitor has a 3D twist

Samsung has reintroduced the world to its 3D gaming monitors that don’t need any glasses. The tech was originally shown at CES but is now becoming a reality.

Gamescom – where the monitor was fully revealed – isn’t just about video games, as hardware manufacturers show off their wares.

The new monitors use a lenticular lens. It can send each of the two overlapped images to each eye. This part is handled by an eye-tracking system, including a built-in camera.

Samsung’s Odyssey 3D monitor uses no glasses but has a nifty trick to deal with depth. The tech is continuously monitoring you and will adjust the view depending on your position.

3D has fallen by the wayside

3D isn’t as popular as it was over a decade ago. Most 3D-capable devices have been left to become e-waste, with most manufacturers backing away from the tech. 

One of the last bastions was Nintendo and the 3DS. Before discontinuing the line entirely in 2020, it launched the 2DS in a few variations.

In 2021, Acer did have a laptop with similar tech. The ConceptD 7 SpatialLabs Edition provided a high-end machine with a glasses-less 3D screen. It didn’t take off and was extremely expensive (around $4000 at launch). 

Acer never followed it up, but now Samsung appears to be throwing its hat in the ring.

A video from XDA demonstrates how it works in the real world, with visuals overlapping during combat in Lies of P.

There’s no price set for the monitor just yet, nor a release date. However, Samsung’s high-end Odyssey gaming monitors tend to lean on the pricier side. With this new tech being embedded into the monitor, we’d suspect it to get very expensive, very quickly.

This isn’t Samsung’s first time experimenting in the monitor space. In 2022, it launched the Arc monitor, a giant panel that rotated vertically to support three outputs.