As announced at CES 2023, Samsung continues to develop its Neo QLED range while expanding its product offering. OLED televisions. We were able to take a look at some of these references during an event organized by Samsung. In particular, the brand’s latest smartphones and connected objects, the brand new Galaxy Book 3 Ultrabut also a pair of televisions that will soon arrive on the market.
The Samsung showroom thus allowed us to approach the next flagships of the brand in terms of televisions. We were able to see the new QD-OLED television, namely the Samsung S95C, as well as two Neo QLED references with an 85-inch 8K television (the QN900C), and a more modest 4K television with the QN90C also equipped with Mini-LED backlight.
S95C: Samsung refines its OLED recipe
Let’s start with the highlight of the show, which is none other than the Korean manufacturer’s second-generation QD-OLED TV. This year, Samsung is expanding its range with a total of six references against only two last year. This is explained first of all by the addition of a new diagonal of 77 inches to the existing ones (55 and 65 inches) as well as a division of the offer through two ranges with the OLED S90C and the ‘OLED S95C.
To sum up, the OLED S90C takes up the elements of last year’s model (the S95B) and remains delivered without a OneConnect box. The S95C will be well equipped with the famous box which allows you to have only one cable to connect to the television and therefore to benefit from a slightly thinner television and an installation that could not be cleaner and easier.
Credits: Matthieu Legouge for Clubic
Despite everything, one thing seems obvious after observing the S95C in preview: Samsung seems to have worked on various points to make the S95C the top model par excellence and to make it even more efficient. We must nevertheless take this statement with a grain of salt, for the simple reason that we have not been able to see the S90C next to the S95C, but the image of the latter is likely to make people jealous for at least two reasons. First, next to the Neo QLED TVs with MiniLED backlighting, the S95C looked just as bright as the latter.
Of course, it depends a lot on the image mode chosen and the adjustments that have been made upstream, but it is clear that the increase in brightness is on the program. While high brightness is only useful in certain cases, such as daytime TV viewing in a sunny room or bringing out maximum detail in highlights in HDR, it seems clear that the S95C will be very good. good student on both counts. This is to be added to another element, very impactful for viewing content in most situations: the management of reflections.
The reflectance of OLED panels has always been, until recent improvements, a major weak point for this TV display technology. For once, the S95C was placed with its back to the bay window in the Samsung showroom, which does not help to get a clear idea of the slab’s coating capabilities. It nevertheless still seems to be a big step above what Samsung produced last year with its S95B; we look forward to verifying this with our usual test conditions in a room bathed in light with a window that is generally found to be poorly placed when it comes to testing OLED televisions (see for example our tests of the LG A2 or Sony BRAVIA XR-55A83K).
All in all, our first impression of the S95C is excellent. Samsung’s QD-OLED television gains a OneConnect box, benefits from a slim and premium design and, above all, displays an image unmatched by the best LCD televisions on the market: the image benefits from a wide richness in terms of colors, of an explosive luminosity and above all of an unequaled depth with intense blacks. If our impressions about the anti-reflective filter are confirmed, then the S95C would easily place itself as one of the best televisions of the year. We’ll talk about it again in a few months when we’ve been able to test it, and obviously compare it to the competition with LG Display’s META panels. In the meantime, Samsung has unveiled the price and availability of its OLED flagship; it will take €2,499 for the 55-inch model, €3,299 for the 65-inch one, and no less than €4,799 for the most generous 77-inch diagonal.
Neo QLED TVs: a generation without blooming?
Difficult to answer the question of blooming having seen the televisions in action for a few tens of minutes at most, nevertheless Samsung continues to push its MiniLED backlighting to its limits by increasing the number of diodes and, consequently, the number of zones local dimming. Still, the manufacturer also continues not to release information related to the backlight, so we don’t know the precise number of diodes or local dimming zones.
The two screens we saw in action represent the best Samsung has to offer when it comes to Neo QLED. First with the QN900C and its 8K definition which proves to be more appropriate in order to make the most of an 85-inch diagonal as is the case here, as well as with the QN90C which is positioned as a 4K MiniLED television top of the line. Apart from the promised developments in terms of image processing and interface, it is above all the multiplication of local dimming zones that seems to be the order of the day on these premium televisions. The goal? Eliminate as best as possible the blooming effects that are generally encountered when a luminous object is diffused against a dark background.
Last year, we could see that the blooming was not yet completely eradicated on the model that Samsung had sent to us, namely the Neo QLED QN90B. We still perceive “a slight blooming of objects that appear against uniform backgrounds […] bordering on the perceptible in most cases”. Naturally, we expect better this year, but aside from the highly detailed image and rich colorimetry of these models, we haven’t been able to tell if Samsung has really been able to eradicate this phenomenon with its new Neo QLED range. Again, only our test protocols will clarify our judgment when we can get our hands on one of these models. To be continued !
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