In order to avoid sharing the spotlight at this year's CES 2019 conference, Samsung has just announced updated versions of its The Frame and Serif TV series that will see a massive upgrade in picture performance thanks to its QLED technology.
The new screens will make their debut at the show and, according to Samsung, will reside in the large lifestyle TV exhibition zone of Samsung’s booth.
- What's so important about QLED TV?
Samsung’s two lifestyle TV series may have turned heads last year with their stunning design, but their picture performance left something to be desired. Thankfully the swap from a standard LED-LCD to QLED (basically a proprietary version of Quantum Dot) will see significant increases in contrast, color accuracy and black levels.
In addition to their upgraded visuals, Samsung says that its 2019 versions of the TVs will include its Bixby voice assistant and, in the case of the Serif TV, Ambient Mode that appeared on other QLED screens this past year.
Also new for the 2019 version of the Serif TV is wider availability: Instead of selling at select furniture stores, Serif TVs will be available at electronics stores.
Color us surprised
Why is Samsung dropping the news about The Frame early this year? It's likely because CES will be too crowded with 8K TVs this year, at least if IFA was any indication.
Getting out ahead of the show means that Samsung can emphasize a minor change like the upgrade to QLED on its lifestyle TVs without having to shout over LG and Sony, both of whom are likely to have bombshell announcements in early January.
Samsung didn't announce pricing or a possible release window for either screen ahead of the show, but it's likely that we'll see them with the regular influx of screens in the March-April time period.
- Here's what we thought of The Frame (2018)
