Review: Samsung Odyssey Z – Samsung's Next-Gen Gaming Notebook

See now the analysis of the top of the line of gaming notebooks from Samsung, the Odyssey Z!

In recent years, we have had several notebook launches aimed at the gamer audience and Samsung did not stay out. In 2017, it brought the first generation of gaming notebook with the Odyssey 2017, bringing the GeForce GTX 1050TI graphics card with 4GB memory.

In 2018, made a graphics card upgrade with the second generation gaming notebook Odyssey 2018 with GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card with 6GB of memory, in addition to including more RAM to make the notebook even more powerful.

Both generations of Odyssey underwent analysis here at showmetech and we've included negatives that remained unresolved in the previous two generations. Well, at least so far.

Finishing and Design

Unlike the 2017 and 2018 models, the the new generation Odissey arrives with a completely renewed design. This time, we definitely got our hands on a uniquely finished piece, with a much, much thinner body for the hardware present in the model.

O Odyssey Z it has an all metal construction and is absurdly solid! We had no problems holding the notebook with one hand, and we also didn't notice deformations when typing or using the touchpad in everyday life, which happened in previous generations.

I confess that I found the look very strange in the photos shortly after its official release, but the feeling was transformed into adoration. O Odyssey Z It's beautiful, its lid has a mixed finish of brushed and polished steel, playing with the reflections generated by its design.

On site Samsung We have a gamer explanation for this finish.

"Mythical metallic armor - O Odyssey Z was inspired by the scales of a legendary ice dragon. With metal details, it's the perfect shield for your next battles.”

The predominant color here is not the Black of the previous generations, but the Silver. And this color is present on its bottom and also on the inside.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Speaking of the interior, we have one more change in the design of the Odyssey.

O Odyssey Z took the red backlit keyboard for the height of the touchpad, the lower part of its structure, keeping the upper part, closer to the screen, completely free. The goal is finally improve the cooling part of the notebook.

I had no problems with the keyboard, just the same complaint as always, if it is sold in Brazil, the keyboard has to be ABNT2, but it is not.

I confess that I found it strange and it also took me a while to get used to accessing the touchpad in the new place, he always took his hand downwards and not to the right.

For those who are left-handed, use the touchpad in this position it will be bizarre to say the least.

But here we come to an important point. O  Odyssey Z It's a gaming laptop. So I ask: who uses the touchpad to play games? Of course we will all plug a gaming mouse into one of the USB ports and that's it!

Connectivity

As usual, the sides of the Odyssey Z bring to connections to peripherals.

On the left side, there is an entrance to Network cable, an outlet HDMI, a USB 2.0 port, a door USB Type-C/Thunderbolt3, a connector for headphone and microphone and input for the power cable.

And on the right side, two USB 3.0 ports.

A Type-C/Thunderbolt3 port present in Samsung Odyssey Z can be used, as well as Samsung Style S51 Pro e Samsung Style S51 Pen, to connect a second monitor with adapter (not included).

Adding this functionality to the HDMI portgift. It is possible to have two secondary monitors connected to the notebook.

Audio

The speakers of Samsung Odyssey Z they serve well, although they are a little stuffy at the bottom of the notebook, yes, appearances are deceiving, at the top, the grooves that at first appear to be sound outputs, are part of the cooling system do Odyssey Z.

O sound is clear and loud, but leave something to be desired in the bass, this has already become standard in notebooks. Want an immersive experience? Always use headphones.

Fabric

A FullHD IPS screen (1920X1080) 15.6”, is anti-reflective and HDR, with great viewing angle. I found the edges of the screen to be quite large.

But I understand that it would not be possible to reduce it, after all, the whole body would also be reduced, and it is already to be applauded what Samsung did with the Odyssey Z, after all it is very thin for the set it presents, mainly the graphic set.

Maybe with smaller bezels, we could have a 17” panel and not a 15.6” panel. But surely that would also change the price.

Performance and Hardware

Here the performance is raw! O Odyssey Z arrives with processor Intel Core i7 8750H eighth generation, with six cores high performance.

The performance gain is more than 25% when compared to a seventh generation i7 processor. Allied to the 24GB of RAM (DDR4) and video card GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB of RAM (DDR5), it is possible to run almost any game available on the market.

And, we remember the maxim, “If it runs heavy games, it runs anything!”. But remember, so that the Odyssey Z delivered all its power, it is necessary that it is connected to its energy source.

In addition, there are dedicated keys to reduce the notebook's performance and also boost the performance of the Odyssey Z.

My biggest complaint from previous versions was the overheating in the version of Odyssey 2017 (GTX1050) and Odyssey 2018 (GTX1060).

But the Odyssey Z arrives with an improved cooling system, called Z AeroFlow, the notebook maintains the ideal temperature for you to always have powerful performance.

This time we have a long life guarantee for the model that I can say didn't heat up as much as its predecessors and even demanding a lot from the notebook in rendering videos using Adobe Premiere, there were no bottlenecks.

About editing videos, I had a little problem, which made me consult the Google oracle, as I was finding the performance not so good when rendering videos, but I found that we must make some settings in the Adobe Premiere, so that it uses the full power of the dedicated graphics card. This content will probably become a post here on the site. So stay tuned!

During the tests with games, I tried to keep the same titles that I ran in previous versions of the Samsung gamer family just to have a fair comparison.

So Grid AutoSport, Injustice, League of Legends, Overwatch, The Crew, PUBG ran smooth, all at frame rate higher than 70fps, includes in the list the GTA and Assassin's Creed Origins that kept max frame rate settings higher than 40fps.

Still about the games and also other applications, we have in Odyssey Z um 2GB m512 SSD, plenty of space, but if not enough, andthere is an additional slot for another m2 SSD of the same capacity, enabling up to 1TB SSD m2!

Battery Life

O Odyssey Z follows the same pattern as every gaming notebook, the main point is performance, then we have battery life as our Achilles heel.

Without running games, just browsing and writing texts, we had autonomy of approx. 4 hours and 30 minutes, away from the outlet.

To play and edit videos, call your Odyssey Z plugged in, this ensures maximum performance and keeps your battery charged at all times. Playing PUBG, for example, I had to put the Odyssey Z plugged in with less than 2 hours of gameplay.

Final thoughts and price

In general the Odyssey Z it was a pleasant surprise, from the design and construction, to its day-to-day performance.

The big problem is the price. If we are going to put at the tip of the pencil what can we buy with the same value as the Odyssey Z, whether of its own Samsung or another manufacturer, with the same configurations, we came to the conclusion that it is possible to buy 2 notebooks with the same specifications, with the exception of the RAM memory, which would be 16GB and not the 24GB present in the Odyssey Z.

I don't know to what extent, it is worth paying to have a product with a unique design and a functional cooling system. But not having, for example, a 4K screen and a video card GeForce GTX 1070 ou GTX 1080, higher than the one present in the Odyssey 2018 (Yes the Odyssey Z has the same video card).

Of course, we cannot fail to list the gaming notebooks Odyssey generation of the brand and their respective prices, as well as the notebooks of the Style that deliver performance for everyday life and have lower prices.

• • Odyssey Z - R $ 13.999,00
  • Odyssey 2018 (GTX 1060) - R $ 7.850,00
  • Odyssey 2017 (GTX 1050) - R $ 4.679,00
  • Style S51 Pro - R $ 8.499,00
  • Style S51 Pen - R $ 7.999,00

Stay tuned here on the website showmetech because we are going to receive a gaming notebook from 2 AM and we will be able to inform and compare the models in performance and autonomy. After all, the most important thing is to take an impartial opinion with tests carried out on a daily basis for you, the reader.

Specifications