Now that the advent of its own Quantum Dot OLED technology has reawakened appreciation for OLED screens in Samsung’s once LCD-only heart, details of the South Korean brand’s 2024 OLED range suggest that it is now hell-bent on taking as many OLED sales away from its arch rival, LG, as it can.
A recent report from market analyst Omdia revealed that Samsung’s OLED TVs already sold more than a million units in 2023, achieving a sales share (by revenue) of nearly 23%. But Samsung is out to build on this already impressive start by adding more screen sizes and a whole new entry level tier to its OLED range for 2024.
The three new OLED series will comprise the flagship S95Ds, the mid-range S90Ds, and the all-new S85Ds. The S90D and especially S95D series enjoy significant improvements over their predecessors, while the S85Ds are Samsung’s first concerted attempt to attract a more ‘mass market’ OLED customer.
While Samsung describes all of its new OLED models simply as Samsung OLED TVs, though, as with last year’s Samsung OLED ranging the situation is actually more confusing than this ‘umbrella’ naming would imply.
The S95Ds
There will be three S95D screen sizes, 55, 65 and 77 inches, all of which will use Samsung’s latest Quantum Dot OLED panel designs. While we’re still waiting for full international pricing to emerge, we do have Euro pricing for all three models of €2799 for the 55-inch, €3699 for the 65-inch, and €5199 for the 77-inch.
Using simple currency conversion, these Euro figures translate very roughly into £2399/$2599, £3169/$4,000 and £4449/$5642 – though to reiterate this point, final official UK and US pricing will certainly not be exactly the same as these converted prices. I’ve just provided them here to give you a ball park idea for each screen size.
One thing to note from the confirmed European prices, though, is that they’re quite substantially higher than the launch prices of 2023’s S95C models. The 55-inch model is €300 more expensive, while the 65 and 77-inch models are up by €400. That seems more than just a result of natural inflation – so let’s look at what’s new about the S95Ds that might justify such a price hike.
Arguably the single biggest change from the S95Cs is the introduction of a heavy duty anti-glare filter. Demonstrations prove that this really does do a remarkable job of ‘soaking up’ ambient room reflections, even from very strong light sources such as windows or lamps.
From what I have seen there is a mild trade off for this in the shape of slightly raised black levels in bright room conditions, and what feels like a touch of blooming around stand out bright image areas. But overall the extra directness of the connection you feel with the reflection-free images seems from early viewing to be potentially seriously interesting.
The S95Ds also achieve a significant brightness boost from their predecessors. Panel manufacturer Samsung Display has suggested its latest QD OLED panels can peak at 3,000 nits, but TV manufacturer Samsung Electronics is suggesting a rise of around 20% over last year’s S95Cs.
That would mean we were looking at peak brightness levels of somewhere around 1700 nits – a huge, once unimaginable figure for an OLED technology that also eats substantially into the ‘but we go brighter!’ argument that’s in part sustained the premium end of the LCD TV market for so long. From what I’ve seen of the S95Ds so far, these extra brightness claims seem entirely plausible.
Delivering the new brightness – and extra contrast that comes with it – is a new HDR OLED Pro feature that sees an AI element in Samsung’s latest Neo Quantum 4 AI Gen 2 processor using deep learning to detect and enhance which parts of the picture need to be either darker or brighter, and diverting power around the screen accordingly so that bright highlights can look brighter while dark areas look suitably inky.
This NQ4 AI Gen 2 processor continues to draw on the accumulated knowledge of no less than 20 AI neural networks when working out how best to present whatever source material it is presented with, focusing in particular on the management of noise, detail enhancement, edge refinement and texture clarity. (Note that the neural network count drops to four for Cloud Gaming sources.) The new processor also adds, though, new features beyond the HDR OLED Pro system.
Improved perceptional colour mapping uses AI to analyse and portray more natural colours, with the results being validated by colour experts Pantone – including earning a specfic skin tone validation ‘tick’. Samsung seems to be hinting in its information on this feature, too, at the way its QD OLED technology uses a ‘pure’ RGB system to create its colour palette, rather than having to use a white element, as traditional WRGB OLEDs do, that has at least the theoretical potential to make bright colours look pale.
A new AI Auto Game mode can detect not just when the TV is receiving a game source, but what genre of game it is, selecting a picture and sound set up that’s been designed to get the best results from that genre (RPG, FPS, Sports and RTS options are available). The S95Ds can also now use image analysis to auto detect where a particular game’s mini-map might be should you want to magnify or move it, rather than you having to manually select the mini-map area as you did before.
Having mentioned gaming, gamers may also be pleased to find that the Hue Sync feature, which enables Samsung TVs to sync up with a Hue lighting system to create a more ambient environment, has now being added to the Game Bar home screen that can be called up when you’re using the S95D as a gaming monitor rather than a TV.
The S95D is also the only series in Samsung’s 2024 OLED range to support the FreeSync Premium Pro variable refresh rate system.
The S95D refines its design from last year’s S95C, too. The frame around the screen is still ultra-slim, but the rear has shifted to a remarkably trim one-depth appearance that features an attractive brushed finish and still, despite the ultra-thin panel, sports a row of eight mid-range drivers facing backwards just above the screen’s bottom edge.
The screen can be so slim because it ships – in the US as well as the UK – with one of Samsung’s external One Connect boxes, which contains all the TV’s processing power and connections and feeds everything, including power, into the screen via a single light-coloured cable.
As with previous One Connect designs, the neck of the S95D’s desktop stand can be used to hold the One Connect box if you wish.
Samsung’s Tizen-based smart system has received a couple of welcome updates too. First a new ‘Sub Tab’ row of ‘For You’, ‘Live’ and ‘Apps’ jumping off points has been overlaid across the bottom of the advertising section that runs along the top third or so of the home screen. For You calls up recommended media, game and art content based on analysis of your viewing preferences, Live calls up a menu current broadcasts and EPG contents, and Apps calls up recommended apps.
The For You tab has the potential to be a quite a game changer in making Samsung’s menus feel more like they’re working for you, containing as it does sections containing direct links to recently watched shows and recommendations based on your viewing habits taken from right across Samsung’s TV Plus ‘streamed TV’ services, VOD apps and even its Game hub.
An App Launcher shelf, meanwhile, now puts icon links to all your apps in a single scrollable shelf for people who prefer to find things the ‘old-fashioned’ way, complete with the facility to organise the app running order to suit you.
Despite its exceptionally thin design, finally, the S95Ds will offer comfortably the most premium audio systems in Samsung’s 2024 OLED range, serving up 70W from a 4.2.2-channel arrangement that supports Dolby Atmos soundtracks. There’s also a ‘full bore’ version of Samsung’s Object Tracking Sound system, where speakers positioned all around the TV’s bodywork (including two ‘height’ speakers towards the screen’s top) help to create a more detailed sound where effects appear to be coming from the correct part of the screen.
S90D
If you’re looking for a much wider array of screen sizes, this is the range for you. The S90Ds will be available in the same 55, 65, 77 and 83-inch sizes we saw last year, but there will now also be additional 48 and 42-inch options (though the 42-inch version will apparently not be available in Europe or the UK).
As with last year’s S90C range, though, you need to be careful about which size you buy if you want to still get Samsung’s QD OLED technology.
The only QD OLED S90D models are the 55, 65 and 77-inch models. The two new smaller sizes together with the 83-inch model use WRGB OLED technology, and so won’t give you the same colour (or, possibly, brightness) advantages as the QD OLED screens. For me this mixing of different OLED technologies within a single range really isn’t helpful to consumers – or, actually to Samsung, it seems to me, given that I would have thought it would be keen to extol the advantages of its own Quantum Dot OLED panels. But the simple fact is that Samsung Display doesn’t currently make QD OLED panels outside of 55, 65 and 77-inch screen sizes.
Also, I guess we had similar things going on in 2023 with LG’s G3 series, where the biggest screen size didn’t use LG’s new brightness boosting MLA technology when the 77, 65 and 55-inch models did. Note that it’s not clear at this point if the 83-inch S90D will feature MLA WRGB technology now that MLA tech has been announced as possible at this size level.
There’s some confusion, too, about how Samsung has gone about reducing the S90D’s brightness compared with the S95D flagship. The shift down from HDR OLED Pro technology to ‘HDR OLED+’ makes it clear that there is indeed going to be a brightness reduction for the S90D, though, and if it tracks the difference we saw between the S95C and S90C QD OLED models we would be talking about a peak brightness on the S90Ds of between 1300-1400 nits.
I must reiterate, though, that I’m only speculating with that number; I won’t be able to say for sure how much dimmer they are than the S95Ds until I can measure them for myself.
For better or worse the S90Ds also lose the OLED Glare Free filters, while their sound system drops down to a 40W 2.1-channel system with a resulting less-accurate ‘lite’ version of the Object Tracking Sound system. You do still get Dolby Atmos decoding, though.
The AMD VRR support reduces to FreeSync Premium from FreeSync Premium Pro, and finally when it comes to differences between the S90Ds and the flagship S95Ds, the design switches from the S95D’s ultra slim, futuristic, so-called Infinity One look to something called Laser Slim.
This is actually very reminiscent of last year’s S90C design, featuring as it does an ultra thin rear for the top half or so of the screen’s area, before sticking out more over the bottom half so there’s room to accommodate speakers, processing and connections. The new ‘blade’ stand improves over the S90C’s stand, though, by deploying a solid neck rather than ‘open’ neck.
While Samsung couldn’t reveal pricing for every S90D size at a recent European event in Frankfurt, it did put a number on the three QD OLED models: €2,299 for the 55-inch, €3,099 for the 65-inch, and €4,399 for the 77-inch. Which, using simple, not-to-be-taken-as-gospel currency conversion works out at £1969/$2495, £2,649/$3365 and £3765/$4775.
S85D
We’re into less complicated territory with the newly added S85D series, thanks to the fact that I’m pretty sure – without Samsung categorically stating it! – that it comprises all WRGB panels, with no input from Samsung’s own QD OLED production lines. This would certainly tally with recent news that Samsung has done a new deal to bring in more OLED panels from LG Display.
Also, Samsung couldn’t put a price on any of the S85Ds at its recent European event, just as it couldn’t put a price on the WRGB models in its S90D range despite being able to price the S90D QD OLED sets.
The ‘entry level’ S85D range will go back to offering just three sizes: 55, 65 and 77 inches. The move with these models to ‘HDR OLED’ technology from the S90D’s HDR OLED+ system indicates a further drop in brightness and contrast, which we’d expect given the apparent switch to WRGB panels. Panels which, almost certainly given the S85D series’ relatively entry level positioning, won’t be benefitting from the brightness enhancing Micro Lens Array technology now used in many high-end WRGB OLED TVs.
It’s not clear at this stage if the S85Ds will be using the so-called ‘EX’ mid range panels from LG Display, or basic, less bright entry-level panels. It’s possible the EX panels will be used for the non QD OLED screens in the S90D models, meaning the S85D may be the more basic panels. Again, though, I may not be able to confirm this conjecture until I can test one for myself – or, perhaps, when I’m able to get pricing details.
Apart from the duller, more basic OLED panels at their heart, the S85Ds also only support gaming up to 120Hz rather than the 144Hz supported by the S90Ds and S95Ds; only get a two-channel 20W OTS Lite sound system; and switch to a so-called Contour Design. Like the S90D, this design adopts a two-depth rear panel that’s thin over the top half (though not quite as thin as the S90D), and a bit chunkier over the bottom half to accommodate speakers, connections, processing and so on.
The Contour Design switches to sitting the still narrow-bezelled screen on a pair of feet, rather than using a centrally attached stand.
Note that despite the entry level nature of the S85Ds, they still retain FreeSync Premium support, the NQ4 AI Gen2 processor (making them very much Samsung’s own work), and Pantone colour validation.
The latest information from Samsung on its new OLED range states that we should see them arriving in stores between April and May. If anything changes – including updates on official US and UK pricing – I’ll either update this story or publish another accordingly. And naturally I’ll be looking to bring you reviews of key models from the new ranges as soon as I can get my hands on them.
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