It’s been a decade since Samsung made a pure OLED TV, with it focusing on its QLED tech and Neo QLED TV panels. But Samsung is roaring back with its first ever QD-OLED TVs.
Coming in a 55-inch size for $2,399 and 65-inch for $3,499, the Samsung S95B OLED TVs will tap into the company’s Neural Quantum Processor 4K, which happens to be the the same flagship-grade processing tech that Samsung uses in its Neo QLED TVs. As such, you can expect high-end image processing in the new OLED TV.
There are some other enticing extras such as an OLED brightness booster and perceptional color mapping, which aims to deliver brighter, more accurate highlights and more realistic, lifelike colors. And it’ll need to in order to get a spot on our best OLED TVs list and beat impressive sets like the LG OLED evo in the new Gallery Series, which goes up to 97 freaking inches.
Samsung S95B: Samsung's first QD-OLED TV
The real kicker here, which Samsung doesn't make clear in its marketing materials, is the S95B uses a QD-OLED panel.
The QD bit stands for quantum dot, which is a form of filtering layer made up of light-emitting dots in front of an OLED panel and blue backlight. The QD layer enables for more accurate colors and better brightness, the latter of which standard OLED TVs can struggle with, while not compromising on the true blacks OLED screens are known for.
For a full breakdown on the tech, check out our What is QD-OLED? article. But in a nutshell, QD-OLED promises to deliver the pixel-perfect illumination of OLED panels with the brightness and life-like color of LCD panels, as well as beat the already impressive QLED tech when it comes to better backlight control.
While Samsung has used quantunm dots in its TVs for years, it's a little behind the curve when it comes to applying the tech to OLED TVs. Sony's A95K uses a QD-OLED panel, ironically made by Samsung Display, and impressed our colleagues over at What HiFi? , so Samsung has competition.
But Samsung is confident it's on to a winner with the S95B, noting its new OLED panel “goes beyond just panel technology." That may sound like hyperbole but for the company to return to OLED TVs must mean it feels like it’s got a panel that’s worth adding to its comprehensive TV range. After all, Samsung does make some killer OLED phone screens, such as that on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. And the Alienware 34 QD-OLED, which uses a Samsung Display panel, pretty much blew us away.
The TV to beat in 2022?
There's a lot of promise here, with the S95B potentially shaping up to be the TV to beat in 2022. The question is whether people will balk at the price given how impressive OLED TVs are now more affordable than ever — just check out our round up of the best OLED TV deals.
Moving beyond the QD-OLED panel, the S95B's audio processing should be pretty comprehensive too, with support for Object Tracking Sound and Q-Symphony with Dolby Atmos.
The Tizen smart platform will take care of smart TV features, which is welcome news as it’s had a bit of an overhaul for 2022. But seeing is believing, so we’ll need to test this TV ourselves before we can see if all these improvements and Samsung's OLED claims bear fruit. If you want to jump the gun, then the S95B is available for pre-order right now on Amazon.
While OLED tech keeps improving on TVs, it looks like we've got a while to wait before it arrives on MacBooks and iPads.
