Samsung announces QLED TV at CES 2017

CES is the place major electronics manufacturers announce revolutionary new technology. The annual show which draws thousands kicked off today with an announcement from Samsung about a new category of TV; QLED.

Samsung announces QLED TV

“Samsung’s QLED TVs deliver today’s most remarkable picture, with stunning brightness, the deepest black levels, and most of all, pure and rich colors, thanks to our new Quantum dot technology,” explained Hyun Suk Kim, President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.

The company revealed two new TVs in this line; 65 inch Q8 Curved and Q9 Flat.

What’s a ‘Q’ TV?

While we’re still awaiting more detail and specifics on the new technology, the QTV or QLED monikers denote Samsung’s new TVs which uses a new metal ‘Quantum dot’ material that allows for enhanced color performance which would provide a more realistic picture. Of course they’re 4K too.

“The new lineup offers dramatically improved color performance, displaying DCI-P3 color space accurately and – in another world first for Samsung, QLED TVs are capable of reproducing 100 percent color volume,” explains a press release. “This means they can express all colors at any level of brightness – with even the subtlest differences visible at the QLED’s peak luminance – between 1,500 and 2,000 nits.”

So essentially what you’re getting from this TV is a hyper-real viewing experience. How? Essentially Samsung has found a way to prevent very bright video scenes from washing out the colour in parts of the screen (and darks from becoming a viewing abyss), allowing Samsung QLED TV to express deep blacks and rich detail “regardless of how light or dark the scene is, and or whether the content is being played in a brightly lit or darkened room.”

QLED TVs address design & decor problems too

Samsung touted the new QLED TVs’ ability to solve other in-home issues that might be of annoyance to viewers, like hanging cable clutter, and ugly bulky wall mounts.

A new, futuristic sounding ‘Invisible Connection’ cable, allows all peripheral devices to be gathered and connected to the TV with a single ‘invisible cable’. While specifics weren’t provided immediately, you can bet the Best Buy blogging team is anxious to get hands-on with it to see how much of a game changer this might be.

Additionally, Samsung announced a ‘No-gap wall-mount’, which the company claims makes it quick and easy to affix the QLED TV flush against the wall so it appears more like artwork than a TV.

Speaking of artistic, there’s also a brand new display option available in the form of a  ‘Studio Stand’, which resembles an easel (and the QLED TV a painting), or the sleek ‘Gravity Stand’, which when attached to the TV, resembles a contemporary sculpture. Though photos of the Gravity Stand were not immediately available, you can bet we’re curious, since these would be two advancements in TV placement and display technology not seen since wall mounts first came on the scene many, many years ago.

Smart QLED TVs – Samsung Smart Hub + app

Samsung will continue to run its proprietary Tizen/Smart Hub operating system on these TVs, allowing streaming, surfing, and a host of smart functions. The Samsung Smart Remote is also sticking around and consumers can control most connected TV devices from a single source, with one device, or you can now use the Smart View app. The app (controlled via smartphones or tablets) now provides a wide-ranging overview of all available content on the app’s home screen. You can also allow alerts which will let you know via your phone when your favorite content becomes available.

This new Samsung lineup looks impressive, both from a technology standpoint, and in how TVs are presented; no longer are they being seen as blacked-out idiot boxes relegated to a corner, but as the chic, world-accessing, hyper-realistic content portals that they’ve evolved to be.

Watch for more on the blog as further details become available, and of course we’ll do our best to get hands on with one of these devices as soon as it’s possible.

Check out the existing Samsung lineup at Best Buy.

-Reporting for Best Buy CES 2017