Samsung Unveils 8K QLED TV, But Can You Tell the Difference?

BERLIN—4K TVs are old hat, according to Samsung. Adoption is even so ongoing equally technologies like HDR and OLED screens go on to develop and expand, only large trade shows like IFA are all about the hereafter. Every bit far as Samsung is concerned, the future is 8K and AI-powered.

Its Q900FN QLED 8K TV is an 85-inch panel using a Samsung Breakthrough dot pixel array to project four times as many pixels as a standard 4K TV and sixteen times as many pixels as a 1080p Idiot box. That's a lot of pixels. Even so with 4K content still not widespread, let alone 4K HDR, it seems 8K is overly ambitious for a consumer TV.

That'south clearly something Samsung acknowledges. Rather than just selling consumers on the crispness, contrast ratio, and 4,000-nit brightness (which are all fantabulous), Samsung is emphasizing 8K AI Upscaling. That'southward generally a marketing buzzword, but it means the Q900FN can have standard-definition content and bump information technology up into a college resolution, making your 1080p streams show up in much higher quality.

Whether that will convince consumers remains to exist seen. We don't have pricing details yet, but Samsung seems serious virtually bringing the panel to market with an October. 25 release expected in the US. We don't want to speculate, but if the cost of large 4K OLED TVs are anything to go past, wait the cost to be hefty. This is a new technology, and there's a toll to pay for being an early adopter.

The real question is: tin can you tell the difference between 4K and 8K?

In all honesty, I couldn't. Standing up shut to the 85-inch monstrosity, I didn't detect pixels, compared with the smaller 55-inch 4K Television receiver at home or in the office. But even looking at the 4K content and the 8K side by side, the main difference seemed to be brightness; the Q900FN is incredibly bright.

No doubt color accurateness is incredible and HDR content looks fantastic. However, if you're expecting your optics to be diddled abroad by the increment in crispness, then you're expecting also much. The Q900FN looks better, though information technology'due south zilch close to the leap betwixt 720p or 1080p or 1080p and 4K. As a layman who owns a 4K HDR Goggle box, the Q900FN is a big, flashy console that probably wouldn't change my life. My colleague Will Greenwald, who tests all our TVs, may have a different opinion.

Whether Samsung tin can modify my mind (and the minds of customers in general) will depend on how assuredly people are sold by all the "extra" features. Much of this hinges on user preference. The Samsung Q900FN QLED 8K Goggle box can also act equally an ambience display for notifications and a nifty smart dwelling house hub for your IoT devices.

Withal for some buyers, maybe what makes the divergence is having a TV that matches your wall or wallpaper. With the bump in resolution, the gorgeous colors and contrast, and glorious effulgence, it just might be enough to convince those eyeing pricey OLEDs to get the Q900FN instead.