The Samsung Odyssey Ark has a decent Mini LED local dimming feature with 1,056 dimming zones. It performs best with Local Dimming set to ‘High’. There’s some blooming around bright objects, but it isn’t overly distracting, either. It preserves details well, and disabling the local dimming causes the image to lose more details, so this is where using local dimming helps improve the picture quality. There aren’t any uniformity issues, and subtitles look good. Fast-moving objects also transition well between the dimming zones, and the algorithm keeps up well.
The local dimming looks best when viewing the screen from directly in front. This is where there’s minimal blooming and black crush, but there’s more blooming when looking at it from the sides. While you need to be at a wide angle to notice any difference, it’s best to sit in front to see the optimal image.
Like some other Samsung monitors, there’s some flicker in dark scenes at low refresh rates with VRR enabled. However, it’s hard to notice and isn’t as bad as other models. If this bothers you, there’s a VRR Control setting to try to reduce this issue, but it also increases the input lag.
