It’s a few years since I first caught a glimpse of Samsung’s premium bezel free design at their headquarters in South Korea – but I still remember that day vividly. We were ushered into a secret showroom and right there in front of me was this screen on the wall which I assumed was a commercial display because there was no black bezel or frame around the screen. Today, that design presents itself in Samsung’s Neo QLED TVs as their “infinity display” – and I still love it.
Just as when Samsung – and others – pushed the boundaries of the smartphone bezel, the TV is the frontier that is broadly untapped in this regard.
Now, I know that there are TVs without big black frames around them. And I’ll call out the elephant in this review – OLED. There are plenty of OLED TVs that look like the glass of the screen is the edge, and it is – but turn it on, there’s 4-5 mm of black around the edge within that glass.
On the Samsung NEO QLED the black line around your “picture” is just thicker than a one dollar coin.
Want proof – ok:
Let me tell you, it’s this feature and this feature primarily that impresses people about the TV when they walk into the room.
The sense that, especially if you mount it on the wall – you’ve got a TV picture just hanging on the wall, seemingly without a frame – is somewhat magical.
But you have to pay for this of course. In the example I’m testing in the EFTM office, we’ve got the 85 inch 8K QN900C Neo QLED version.
There’s a bit to unpack in that naming. QLED we all know – it’s Samsung’s best LED technology, with the quantum dot layer. The NEO refers to the backlight technology which is MiniLED and that, as we’ve come to know is vastly superior to traditional LED backlighting and offers a contrast between black and colour that doesn’t bloom as much but has the brightness you want from a TV.
Then there’s the 8K – yes, this is 8K. At the time of writing, this TV is in retail for around $8,500. A 4K Neo QLED will set you back about $2,000 less but won’t have the Infinity display.
Do I need an 8K TV? No. Does it have a great picture – hell yes, easily one of the best pictures on a TV you can buy today.
Samsung worked out how to upscale poor quality content to 8K and still make it look great.
Primarily I’m watching 1080 content, and it looks sensational – and I’m sitting close to this thing, so I’d notice if it was a poor attempt at upscaling.
Often if you buy a cheap 4K TV the thing that brings it down is watching 1080 content, while watching 4K content makes it seem like the best TV on the market. That’s not the case here – watching ANY content looks great on here.
I watch, almost daily, live Baseball on the MLB app which is installed on the TV. I marvel at how great it looks, despite it likely being 720 at best and streamed content.
This TV is the complete package. The “One connect” box is the brains of your TV but can either be attached to the back of the TV if it’s on a stand, or separately connected to the TV via just a single thin cable. Again, one of Samsung’s best innovations that probably goes unsung in many ways.
Another thing about this TV – other than the 8K display, is the sound capabilities.
If you’ve got a soundbar from Samsung you can pair together the output of the Soundbar and the TV to give you the best bang for your buck – why stop using the advanced speakers in a screen like this just because you wanted the extra oomph of a Soundbar? Not necessary.
But on it’s own, the TV does have sensational sound.
Thanks to the number of speakers behind and around the edge of the TV, you get object tracking sound – which tries to mimick the location of the “object” on screen and bring the sound from that area.
More importantly, thanks to the outward and upward firing speakers on the edges, you get true Dolby Atmos – not just compatibility, actual Atmos sound.
Honestly, its outstanding. But I’d still get a soundbar – if I’m spending this much on a TV, get a bloody soundbar.
Last year Samsung introduced a whole new look version of their Tizen operating system, and I’ll be honest, it was disappointing. Because it’s such a big change. Instead of pressing home and getting a lower third menu on the screen over the top of what you’re watching, this thing takes over the whole screen and maybe plays what you were watching within a small window.
I guess their research showed that if you’re pressing Home you’re wanting out. But there’s still a design flaw in the layout here. To bring up just the sound settings I’ve got to go Home, then across to Settings and only then does the setting bar appear lower third of the screen over my content so I can adjust picture and sound. That should be a single click or at least not take me out of my program.
Likewise getting to an input, it’s all in menu under menu, and really isn’t simple.
That said, for 2023 the power of the TV is vastly improved so the operating system is no longer sluggish and is far more responsive.
What you need to do is accept the frustration for a week or so, and actually setup the home menu with all your apps and inputs configured and saved to your home screen so everything you need – is just a click or two away.
Something Samsung will become known for more and more I think is Samsung TV Plus. This is the live streamed online TV channels Samsung has made available in an EPG even without an antenna. When it first launched, it was lower than YouTube for quality. Today, there’s a Mythbusters channel, and even Sky News Australia – for free. It’s actually a great fall back when you’ve got nothing on, I’ve found myself running Mythbusters for a whole day in the background!
This is far from cheap, but this is for someone who really loves their content, watches a lot of great 4K content and wants the best of picture, sound and design in one single TV.
On design alone Samsung is utterly unmatched because there’s nothing else like this out there.
Bright room – no problem thanks to the subtle anti-glare technology on the screen, plus a wide viewing angle means it suits the largest of rooms, and it’s brightness means it will suit any Aussie home.
It’s simply a matter of can you afford to spend this much on a TV? Otherwise, it’s a no-brainer.
Web: Samsung, Harvey Norman, JB Hi-Fi.
