It was wildly unexpected when the news broke: Samsung Electronics has released an OLED television – one model, in two sizes.
Why unexpected? Because Samsung has spent a decade campaigning one way or another for the benefits of Quantum Dot LED displays, repeatedly demonstrating the lighting precision and colour accuracy merits of increasingly sophisticated LCD-backlit models, and especially their advances in brightness compared with the limited illumination of... OLED.
So why now? Because the Korean technology giant has waited. Because what has arrived with Samsung’s OLED and its new-to-market S95B models is not the usual OLED. Instead, it’s a new kind of Samsung OLED technology, and it's still powered by Quantum Dot. With this ‘QD-OLED’, Sound+Image magazine reckons the S95B is not merely another OLED TV, but one of the best OLED TVs on the market¹.
Totting up the tech
Around this innovative panel, Samsung has delivered a smart TV which incorporates all the built-in processing and easy user interfacing that have made the company’s TVs global best-sellers for so many years.
Samsung QD-OLED features the brand’s latest Neural Quantum Processor 4K, which oversees image processing and upscaling, as well as an Intelligent Mode where smart sensors fine-tune performance. Adaptive Picture optimises content and adjusts screen brightness to match your surroundings.
Active Voice Amplifier analyses noise in your room and aims to keep dialogue clear. And AI upscaling raises all lesser content to full 4K, with impressive results.
Samsung Smart Connectivity identifies connected devices and makes them operable via the TV’s Advanced SolarCell One Remote, which never needs batteries, and accepts voice commands to control the TV (and far more) via Bixby, Alexa or Google Assistant.
The main Tizen interface offers endless entertainment built right in. All the key streaming services and all Australian catch-up services are there, along with a network media player and the ability to screen-mirror from PC, Android or Apple AirPlay². There’s also the bonus of Samsung TV Plus, a free app which brings more than 70 free streaming TV channels³.
Gamers love the colours, speed and sharpness of OLED, and here they benefit further from HDMI 2.1 compatibility for 4K resolution at 120 frames per second, flexible 32:9 and 21:9 aspect ratio capability, and the inclusion of AMD FreeSync Premium Pro technology, which helps prevent screen tearing and stuttering by syncing the frame rate of the TV with the GPU.
You can even stream Xbox games straight to your Samsung TV with the Xbox Game Pass app: all you need is a controller and an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.
Screen star
All this surrounding tech ensures the ultimate performance from the star of the show here – that dazzling OLED panel. So slim that it allows a ‘LaserSlim Design’ with a profile inspired by a laser beam, the TV delivers 4K with High Dynamic Range, including certified HDR10+ Adaptive & HDR10+ gaming.
As a front-emissive display the OLED technology powered by Quantum Dot achieves ultra-wide viewing angles without colour fading, while Samsung’s Motion Rate 200 with 1ms pixel response time ensures smooth and clear motion, with full user adjustment via advanced settings.
There’s even an ‘EyeComfort’ mode which adjusts your screen’s brightness and colour according to local sunset times, to be softer on the eyes towards the close of the day.
While the TV’s own sound system employs SpaceFit to deliver an immersive performance in any room, it can also augment a Samsung Q-Series soundbar to work in tandem with the TV’s speakers – and so deliver Q-Symphony audio performance to a scale that will match the OLED panel’s extraordinary eye-popping visuals.
No batteries and eco-friendly packaging
Disposable batteries are not the best for the environment, but the remote control for 2022 Samsung TVs – including Samsung OLED – doesn’t need them. Instead, it includes a solar panel for convenient charging indoors or outdoors. It’s also made using recycled materials. Meanwhile Samsung’s Eco packaging encourages re-use by coming with DIY instructions to transform the cardboard into a standalone shelf, a table, binder holder, even a cat house.
But wait...
Before rushing to experience Samsung QD-OLED at your local dealer, however, consider this.
The years spent developing LED and other TV technologies have not been wasted. In its QLED and Crystal UHD ranges, and especially with the Quantum Mini LEDs behind its flagship Neo QLED televisions, Samsung has developed picture quality to equal OLED performance in some areas, and even exceed it in others.
After all, Samsung has no hesitation in calling Neo QLED “Samsung’s best TV” (the QN900B model 8K Neo QLED is pictured above).
Besides, Neo QLEDs rise in size beyond OLED’s 55- and 65-inchers, with 85-inch models available, including 8K and lifestyle TVs like The Frame: "TV when it’s on, art when it’s off".
So by all means celebrate the dawn of Samsung OLED Technology powered by Quantum Dot. But should you want to go even bigger, and still stay brilliant, Samsung has all the technologies in place to deliver.
Footnotes:
1. This is the independent opinion of Sound+Image magazine editors, and has not been influenced by Samsung.
2. Screen Mirroring feature is available on Windows 10, Android 6.0 and higher mobile devices that support Mirror Casting and Apple devices supporting Apple AirPlay 2.
3. Internet connection required. Data usage fees may apply.
