Not long after Samsung’s 2022 TV slate was launched at CES, Australians are about to see them in the physical stores they might be returning to, plus online, as well.
There’s little doubt the living room has changed over the past decade, but there’s a good chance you and your family still assembles around a big screen when it’s time to watch a movie or even a TV show.
Even though you can watch films and programs on anything — phones, tablets, computers, hell you could don a VR headset and do it that way — the TV is typically the place to be, thanks in part to its often large size and solid picture quality.
And this year, Samsung appears to be pushing for some of the best picture quality you can find, as the electronics giant unleashes its 2022 screens upon Australia and indeed the rest of the world.
Following its TV announcements at CES back in January, Samsung Australia is readying its next generation of TV technologies, which included the metal-coated colour-enhancing quantum dot crystals of QLED, plus its Quantum Mini-LED backlight component which uses lots of little backlit LEDs to improve the way light and colour come together on its screens.
In 2022, Samsung’s Neo QLED screens use that technology, as well as a new generation of its “Neo Quantum Processor” to analyse the shape of light, connecting it with algorithms to improve the image processing to deliver better depth and clarity than Samsung’s screens have had prior.
Samsung’s 2022 range of Neo QLED will arrive in both 4K and 8K Ultra HD versions — because some people may want one over the other — with more models in the 4K option, but also quite a few in the 8K world dependent on how much you want to spend.
In the world of 4K Neo QLED, it’ll start with a 55 inch QN85 series for $2699, stretching to 85 inches in that model for $6299, while the more premium QN90B will start at $1899 for 43 inches and push all the way to 85 inches at $6999. At the premium end of the Neo QLED 4K world, there’s the QN95B, which runs from $3299 for a 55 inch to $5499 for a 75 inch, offering little difference in design, frame, and picture quality improvements throughout each.
Moving up a level, Samsung will also offer the 8K variants from $4699 in the QN800B, stretching to $8499 for an 85 inch 8K Neo QLED, while the highest end 8K model will be the QN900B, starting at $5799 for 65 inches before hitting $7999 for 75 inches and $11,999 for the 85 inch 8K Neo QLED.
Those Neo QLED screens will also include support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X spatial and 3D soundtracks, decoding and rendering the sound using Object Tracking Sound, essentially tracking sound across the space of a TV and turning that into a more dynamic soundtrack of sorts. That’ll work provided you use the TV as a sound system, though we suspect if you use a Samsung soundbar, the two will likely work together for an evolution of Samsung’s Q-Symphony, a technology that has helped the two work together in the past.
They won’t be the only options for Samsung, mind you, with a standard quantum-dot variant for sale in the QLED range, starting at $1499 for 55 inches, but able to reach $3999 for an 85 inch Q60B, $4499 for an 85 inch Q70B, or even 85 inches for $5599 in the Q80B, big 4K TVs without the special backlighting of the “Neo” models.
There will also be standard 4K TVs that skip over the quantum dots entirely, part of Samsung’s “Crystal UHD” line. Over the past few years, we’ve seen these as the RU or TU models, and this year, it’s the BU8000, with an 85 inch model costing $2999 at the highest point, before shedding the dollars through 75, 65, 55, 50, and 43 inch models.
And Samsung is even dabbling in more of its “lifestyle” TVs this year, offering various sizes for its art-inspired “The Frame” up to 85 inches in 2022, several options in the curiously framed “The Serif” TV, the rotating TV in one 43 inch size for “The Sero”, all of which now supporting an anti-glare matte finish. You can also find the pint-sized projector launched by Samsung at CES, the $1299 “The Freestyle”.
“The innovations Samsung brings to its range in 2022 allows Australians to have not just a TV, but a customisable and personalised screen that can be used to showcase and purchase art, experience content, work, play and connect with their favourite people,” said Jeremy Senior, Vice President of Consumer Electronics at Samsung in Australia.
Many of the new TVs will also come with Samsung’s new “Smart Hub” experience, which basically appears to be an update to its Smart TV interface on its 2022 TVs, while also supporting a variety of channels for free streaming with an internet connection on Samsung TV Plus, something pretty much everyone has these days.
There’s also something we’re keen to see in real life called “Smart Calibration”, which sounds a little like Apple’s colour calibrating technology found by using both the Apple TV and iPhone, but using what Samsung says is “a compatible smartphone camera”.
As to whether this means any phone, we’re not sure, but our guess is it’ll start with Samsung Galaxy phones, and then expand to others later.
Beyond this, folks keen on checking out the new screens can expect to quite shortly, with Samsung beating most of the other TV companies to a 2022 TV launch in Australia, with the range heading to stores online and in real life this week.
