Samsung has seemingly leaked a key detail about its soon-to-be-released 77-inch OLED TV, revealing that it may beat LG in one key area – but not in a good way.
In the US the largest variant of the Samsung S95C OLED TV – one of the many Samsung TVs unveiled at CES 2023 – will reportedly set you back $4,499.99. For comparison, LG’s priciest 77-inch OLED TV – the LG G2 OLED that launched last year – launched at $4,199 / £4,499 (around AU$6,100).
That Samsung price converts to around £3,630 / AU$6,335, which would make the TV a little more expensive than LG’s in Australia, but considerably cheaper in the UK; however, those are unlikely to be the official prices for those regions. Based on previous Samsung pricing strategies in the UK we expect the TV to have a similar if not greater numerical value than its US price – i.e. the $4,500 TV would cost around £4,500 or more despite the exchange rate meaning it ‘should’ cost £900 less. As for Australia, we wouldn’t be shocked if the final price sat closer to AU$7,000, but we’ll have to wait and see what Samsung decides.
This price info is based on a store page spotted and shared by FlatPanelsHD; however, it appears the page has now been made unavailable. This price certainly fits with what we’d expect from Samsung’s new batch of OLED TVs, although as with all leaks we should take this with a pinch of salt until the company makes an official announcement.
There’s no word yet on how much the smaller models will cost, but based on last year’s Samsung S95B OLED TV we’d be surprised if Samsung’s 55-inch TV cost less than $1,799 / £1,999 / around AU$2,700, or if its 65-inch TV cost less than $2,799 / £2,999 / around AU$4,200.
If you do decide to shell out on one of these Samsung TVs it looks like it’ll be money well spent. For gamers, the S95C boasts a 0.1ms response time and a top-tier 144Hz refresh rate (better than the S95B’s mere 120Hz), as well as VRR/ALLM support. You’ll also be able to access a suite of 4K cloud gaming apps like Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Amazon Luna, and Utomik.
The audio setup is getting a boost too. Samsung’s new TV uses a 4.2.2 channel speaker system – a step up over both the S95B’s 2.2.2 and even the 3.1.2 system relied upon by the LG C3 OLED.
And let’s not forget about the screen itself.
Is this the best QD-OLED screen of 2023?
While Samsung refers to its S95C lineup as OLED TVs, that’s selling its screens a tad short as these displays use QD-OLED panels – a hybrid of typical OLED and QLED panels.
OLED panels are self-emissive – read they don’t have a backlight – so it’s possible to turn off individual pixels completely. This allows OLED TVs to excel at displaying well-defined dark scenes – they can create deep blacks, and display an ‘infinite’ contrast ratio between light and dark areas of the screen.
QLED panels, on the other hand, are excellent when it comes to bright and colorful pictures. While its dark contrast isn’t quite as impressive, its Quantum dot filters help to ensure that its colors almost never look washed out.
QD-OLED looks to combine the strengths of both panel types into one, with Samsung saying its latest S95C lineup takes things up a notch with “unrivaled brightness, vivid color mapping, and smart 4K upscaling with AI detail restoration.” To that end, the latest Samsung OLED boasts a brightness that’s 30% higher than 2022’s Samsung S95B; thanks to its new Quantum HDR OLED Plus algorithm, the S95C can apparently reach a whopping 2,000 nits peak brightness.
It’s not all good news, though; unlike some competitors, this TV offers no DTS:X support, and the lineup continues to lack Dolby Vision HDR.
We’ll have to test out the latest Samsung TV to know if it’s worth its apparently heavy price tag, but considering that the Samsung S95B was one of the best TVs of 2022 we’re expecting the S95C to be yet another stand-out device.
If you can’t wait for Samsung’s S95C to launch and need a new display today, check out our picks for the best 4K TV you can buy right now.
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