If you’re looking for one of the Neo QLED TVs from Samsung this year, you’ll get a solid choice of sizes and prices, stretching across 4K and 8K. And it’s even hitting the budget TV prices, too.
With every new year comes an assortment of new technology across every category. Developments are bound to happen in every area, and while your phone and computer are often the places you see improvements and yearly refreshes, they’re not the only ones.
TVs tend to show improvements, too, and every year at CES, we see new gear aplenty, with those big developments in one of the biggest gadgets in your home seeing launch, too.
While this year’s CES was an online only affair and thus didn’t have the screens ready for more than a web announcement of sorts, much like the other CES 2021 announcements, Samsung is ready with the first batch of TVs for the year, arriving with 4K and 8K screens for a variety of price points, and even a Full HD model for folks who don’t need an ultra high resolution.
So what’s coming, and for how much?
A literally new QLED: Neo OLED
First there’s a new technology making its way to some of Samsung’s TVs, as the metal-coated quantum dot crystals that enhance the colour — “QLED” — become smaller and more tightly packed, essentially allowing for more precise lighting control.
That’s the solution Samsung calls “Neo QLED”, which basically uses Mini LEDs for the backlighting to make for more accurate ultra-fine backlighting, pairing it with the standard quantum dot technology QLED.
Samsung isn’t alone in using Mini LED in TVs this year, but will use it with some specialised controllers that basically allow the backlighting to be smaller and thinner, as well as being more precise overall.
Neo QLED in 8K
The inclusion of Neo QLED can be found in four ranges across 4K and 8K, the latter of which will see the more premium screens.
With 8K TVs being the big thing again this year, it’s the part of the market where all the high tech will be.
For Samsung, the best tech will be found on the QN900A, the most premium Samsung TV of the year ,which not only includes the Neo QLED technology, but also a near-impossibly slim bezel, something that’s so thin, the picture will practically bleed off from the screen to the wall if mounted to it, or into space otherwise, appearing as if it were a picture in between it all.
That’s Samsung’s “Infinity Design”, a concept only appearing on the Neo QLED 8K QN900A, available from $7579 in a 65 inch, but stretching to $10,499 in 75 inches and $13,999 in an 85 inch 8K TV.
If you can forgo the Infinity Design idea and don’t mind a little less power in the HDR capabilities, you can save a bit of money with an 8K Samsung TV, with the 65 inch QN800A costing $5599, the 75 inch at $7579, and the 85 inch QN800A at $10,499.
Neo QLED in 4K, too
Finding 8K content is still a little hard, mind you, and so Samsung’s Neo QLED technology will also venture beyond the world of 8K TVs, landing in a 4K version. There doesn’t appear to be a 4K Infinity Design TV, but Samsung will offer similar HDR performance to the QN800A in a 4K version, coming in the QN90A.
Think of it as the best 4K TV you can find from Samsung this year, because that’s what it kind of is. It’ll start at $2899 for a 50 inch, before costing $3849 for 55 inches, $4899 for 65 inches, or a 75 inch QN90A for $6399.
Just below it is the QN85A, which drops some of the HDR performance, but keeps the Mini LED technology for a slightly less exy Neo QLED TV. As such, it will start a little lower, costing $3379 for a 55 inch, $4429 for a 65 inch, $5249 for a 75 inch, and offer an 85 inch variant at $7579.
QLED for more, yet for less
If you don’t need the Mini LEDs, but are happy with the style of QLED TVs Samsung was offering only all too recently, they’ll be around, too. They’ll come with different names, but they should be close to what was flagship in 2020, but for a little less.
There are three models, and while they all look the same, the differences may well be the type of backlighting and the performance of the panel, with the high-end 2021 Samsung QLED (not Neo QLED) arriving in the Q80A (55 inches for $2679 and 65 inches for $3489), while the Q70A will offer a 55 inch from $2209, all the way up to an 85 inch Q70A for $5829.
And if you’re happy saving a little more on a slightly lower-end screen, but still keeping quantum dots firmly in play, the 55 inch 2021 Samsung QLED Q60A will cost $1729, with a 65 inch, 75 inch, and 85 inch model available, the latter of which will cost just under $5K, with a recommended retail price of $4619 for the Samsung Q60A.
4K for everyone else
While those prices get 4K out to more people, Samsung’s mid-range Crystal UHD 4K TV range gets upgraded, as well.
Last year’s TU8000 sees a jump to the AU8000 in 2021, which sees the design getting a little slimmer overall, while keeping the affordable approach to pricing.
There’s not a lot of information about what has changed between the Samsung TU8000 and the Samsung AU8000, but with the 75 inch TU8000 costing $2199 and the 75 inch AU8000 fetching $2259, it appears Samsung is keeping the familiar pricing, but slimming up the design.
It means folks after a Samsung TV without the colour enhancing quantum dots might be able to turn to the AU8000 series in 2021 as a range that keeps 4K TVs modest, with the range starting at $1017 for the 43 inch AU8000, but costing $1129 for a 50 inch, $1349 for a 55 inch, $1349 for a 65 inch, and $3389 for an 85 inch Samsung AU8000.
Except for one Full HD TV
Almost every TV released by Samsung in 2021 is an Ultra HD TV. All except for one.
Yes, Samsung is releasing a 32 inch Full HD TV thiss year, ideal for people who mightn’t want to spend a lot, and may not need 4K at all.
As such, you’ll find the Samsung T5300 in a 32 inch size only, available for $619 in select stores.
And the rest…
These screens add to the other assortment of TVs and Laser TV (projectors), with the artistic frame, which is a TV made in an art frame found from 32 inches ($919) and stretching all the way to 75 inches ($4079), while the vertical rotating Samsung Sero TV is still out in 43 inches ($2099), as well as the lifestyle TV with a built-in frame-stand, The Serif, from $1499 for 43 inches.
Samsung’s other TVs, the outdoor focused Terrace TV is available from $5999, while the Samsung laser TV in The Premiere is available from the same price in the 7 series, while the 9 series Premiere laser TV is $10,999.
Much of the range is heading to stores throughout March, allowing you to see them for yourself, auditioning the TVs with your own eyes.
