From Prototype to Reality: Samsung’s Stunning 3D Gaming Monitor Takes Center Stage!

Rewind nearly exactly a year to this date. I found myself in an incomplete demo space testing a Samsung prototype gaming display. The corporation had set up Lies of P— one of my preferred games from the previous year — and I was progressing through a midgame Mad Clown Puppet mini-boss encounter. However, it wasn’t merely conventional gameplay. It was glasses-free 3D, and it functioned sufficiently well that I could tackle a challenging game like Lies of P amid construction disturbances and glaring lights without breaking a sweat.

At CES 2025, Samsung is transforming that prototype into a tangible product with the Odyssey 3D.

Glasses-free 3D displays have been present for a handful of years, yet the Odyssey 3D distinguishes itself from displays like the Acer Predator SpatialLabs View 27 by how it manages the 3D visuals. Most glasses-free 3D technologies necessitate some form of integration. For instance, with SpatialLabs, the 3D effect can only be utilized on compatible games. Conversely, Samsung’s Odyssey 3D utilizes light field display (LFD) technology to generate 3D imagery from 2D content.

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Samsung achieves this with a lenticular lens on the front of the monitor. This divides the image directed to each eye, letting them receive slightly varied angles to emulate the 3D effect. There’s also an integrated stereo camera and continuous view mapping, which tracks your eye movements to maintain the 3D illusion seamlessly.

The prototype I experimented with a year ago was already very remarkable — so remarkable that I forgot I was participating in a CES demonstration at all. Hopefully, an additional year of development has improved the technology even further.

Initially, Samsung referred to this as the 2D/3D monitor, and that was no error. It can not only replicate 3D on 2D content, but the display also operates in conventional 2D mode. It boasts impressive specifications as well. It’s a 27-inch screen featuring an ultra-crisp 4K resolution, along with a 165Hz refresh rate and a 1ms gray-to-gray response time.

At this moment, Samsung is keeping some specifics confidential. We are unaware of which ports the monitor will include, nor when it will be released. Crucially, Samsung has yet to disclose the price of the Odyssey 3D. I anticipate it will be quite costly, but we will need to wait for Samsung to provide more information.