After years of waiting, the Samsung MicroLED TV is finally going to be on sale for shoppers to buy. Just don't count on being able to afford it.
Samsung's new MicroLED TVs are the first to use Samsung's new MicroLED display technology, which promises to rival OLED in terms of overall picture quality and even offer superior longevity to OLED panels.
Editor's Note: Samsung has clarified the timing on the newly announced 76-inch MicroLED TV. Instead of being slated for the end of 2021, it is now slated for an unspecified date "in the future".
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According to Samsung, the 110-inch MicroLED TV will be available this April. Specifics on pricing were not available at the time of this writing.
Mike Kadish, director of product marketing for Samsung TV wasn't able to give us any information about pricing, other than to say that "Without giving specifics, I'll tell you this is for our most premium consumers."
Along with a giant screen made up of more than 8-million micrometer-sized LED pixels, Samsung's MicroLED TVs boast some impressive technical specs. The 110-inch screen is the size of four 55-inch screens put together, and Samsung's new MultiView capability will let you use it as such, splitting up the giant screen into simultaneous windowed displays for different inputs and channels running independently.
The MicroLED TV will also boast a 5.1-channel speaker setup and Object Sound Tracking, which identifies objects on screen, and tracks the sound to follow the action, whether it's dialogue from actors or the sound effects of vehicles or other onscreen action.
The giant TV also gets Samsung's top-of-the-line Micro AI processor, which handles video processing, upscaling of lower-resolution material and optimized HDR content.
And while Samsung hasn't confirmed this detail for North American models yet, the South Korean MicroLED TV is covered with a 7-year warranty.
More Samsung MicroLED TVs later this year
But the 110-inch model isn't the only MicroLED TV Samsung will be selling this year. The next size down, the 99-inch MicroLED TV will also arrive this spring, and will begin selling in April or early May of this year.
A third model Samsung MicroLED TV, in a slightly more reasonable 88-inch size, will come this fall.
Finally, in a surprise announcement as part of Samsung's Unbox & Discover event today (March 2), Samsung will also have a 76-inch version of the MicroLED TV, which will be coming later this year.
Samsunt TV's Kadish couldn't give an exact date for when the new 76-inch model would arrive, but he did say "I would think it's safe to assume much later this year."
Editor's Note: Samsung has clarified that the late 2021 timing is not official, and that the 76-inch model will arrive sometime in the future.
Samsung MicroLED TVs get an ultra-premium price
While we don't have pricing details for any of the above models, our conversation with Kadish made it clear that Samsung is positioning the MicroLED TV as an ultra-premium product.
Given what we've seen so far of MicroLED TV pre-order pricing in Korea, where the 110-inch MicroLED TV is available for 170 million won – $152,000 U.S. dollars – that's going to be a pretty premium price indeed.
But there's a silver lining for anyone interested in spending more on a TV than they would on an Aston Martin Vantage. South Korean pre-orders have included such perks as limo-driven consulting sessions, free premium appliances, such as a JBL luxury speaker, a Nujas massage chair, or a Samsung Chef Collection designer refrigerator with Italian-designed doors. One package even includes plane tickets and accommodations for an island getaway, complete with hitting the links with a pro golfer.
Whether the U.S. versions of the MicroLED TV will come with such extravagant pre-order packages has yet to be seen, but there's little doubt that the 110-inch MicroLED TV will still be priced around the $150,000 mark.
