While mooching around Samsung’s Gamescom booth, waiting for their 990 Pro SSD reveal, I took the opportunity to play with an altogether more unusual addition to their hardware catalogue. The Samsung Odyssey Ark, for the unfamiliar, is a kind of all-in-one entertainment screen: a mammoth 55in Mini LED panel that can act as a desktop gaming monitor or living room TV, complete with honking great speakers and built-in support for all the big game streaming services so you can play on it without a PC or console. Unlike other monitors of this magnitude, it can also rotate into portrait mode, leaving the top curve towering over you like an unsympathetic Victorian headmaster.
I actually enjoy a touch of design madness creeping into the occasional piece of PC gear, regardless of whether it can hang with the best gaming monitors that sensible people might buy. What I experienced with the Odyssey Ark, however, was a device that too often veered onto the wrong side of senseless – when it was even working properly.