Even in a year more packed than usual with innovations and next-level performance, one story has loomed large above most else in the world of TV technology. This is the news that Samsung is returning to the OLED fray after more than a decade of focusing exclusively on LED and, more recently, Mini and Micro LED screens.

Initially, the announcement of Samsung’s S95B range of 55-inch and 65-inch OLED models came as quite a shock. After all, the brand has spent the past few years emphasising OLED’s limitations to explain its own LED love-in. The surprise at the company suddenly revisiting OLED gives way to understanding though, when closer examination of the S95B range reveals that even though Samsung still calls them OLED TVs, they have something quite new under the bonnet…

OLED With a Difference

Samsung’s return to the OLED TV fray sees it adapting for the home market a proprietary technology that’s been around for a few years now, in the company’s commercial display division. Called Quantum Dot OLED, it delivers two really significant design differences to the WRGB OLED technology we’ve become used to seeing in the OLED market for so many years.

First, as its name suggests, it uses layers of Quantum Dots (QD) to generate the red and green colour elements. These are nanocrystals capable of outputting exceptionally pure colours free of cross-interference from other tones, and which transmit light much more efficiently than the non-QD colour filters used in other types of OLED screen.

Second, instead of Quantum Dot OLED’s organic luminous elements outputting a white light – as happens with WRGB OLED TVs, hence the W part of their WRGB description – they output a blue light. This then shines through the red and green Quantum Dot filters to create the RGB colour palette that lies at the heart of any display technology.

The relatively transmissive nature of QD colour filters means QD OLED screens can potentially deliver more brightness than WRGB OLEDs, while removing white light from the colour path. Together with Quantum Dots' extra colour purity, this should let the screen produce a very rich, pure, wide and accurate colour range. After all, in the context of an RGB colour engine, the white light source used by WRGB OLEDs can dilute colours, especially in bright areas. A white source light was only used in WRGB OLED TVs because it gives them a relatively inexpensive way of increasing brightness.

Tellingly, Samsung’s previous OLED TV all those years ago, took an uncompromising (i.e. expensive) pure RGB approach. So once the rest of the OLED world pivoted to WRGB, Samsung decided to go the LED route instead. Now though, the brand’s expertise with Quantum Dots developed for its LED TVs has given it a way to re-enter the OLED world on its own terms, staying true to its pure RGB approach without compromising on brightness.

Introducing the Samsung S95B Range

Samsung’s debut Quantum Dot OLED range comprises two models, the 65-inch QE65S95B and the 55-inch QE55S95B. As reviews across the world have confirmed, these TVs deliver spectacularly on the new technology’s promise, combining exceptional brightness and contrast with a range of colour that we just haven’t seen from a TV before.

While their 4K resolution Quantum Dot OLED screen designs and the resulting picture quality are obviously their star attraction, the S95Bs have plenty of other things going for them too. For starters, they look incredible. The so-called ‘LaserSlim’ bodywork is so thin that it’s almost impossible to imagine how such slim screens could possibly produce any pictures at all, never mind spectacular ones like the S95Bs produce.

Meanwhile, those pictures are bolstered by Samsung’s powerful, AI-enhanced Neo Quantum Processor 4K video processing engine, which draws on the accumulated know-how of multiple neural networks to constantly figure out how best to handle different image sources.

The S95B range’s connections include four HDMIs, all built to the latest specification, meaning gamers can enjoy gaming in 4K resolution, high dynamic range and high frame rates up to 144Hz – all at the same time. Gamers also benefit from variable refresh rate support, compatibility with the ultra-wide aspect ratios available with some PC games, and automatic low latency mode switching. The TVs can recognise when a compatible console or PC is playing a game or video source and adjust their picture settings accordingly.

The S95B’s smart system is built around an ultra-intelligent Tizen interface capable of learning the sort of TV shows and films you like to watch, and then finding and recommending similar content. This intelligence can work across multiple user profiles too, and there is also a choice of excellent voice recognition systems that can be used to access most of the TV’s functions and features (1). Perhaps the single best thing about the smart system is the enormous array of online content it carries, including all the most popular video streaming services and apps (2).

Super Sonics

Despite the incredibly slim design, S95B series TVs manage to partner their incredible pictures with surprisingly involving sound courtesy of Samsung’s object tracking sound (OTS) technology. As its name suggests, this combines clever audio processing with sympathetic speaker design and placement to help the TV produce sound from exactly the correct onscreen place. So, for example, if a speed boat circles around in the picture, you can hear the sound it makes circle around on the screen too. It really is startling how much this sort of audio precision draws you in more deeply to the onscreen action (3).

If you still find yourself wanting more from the S95B’s sound, Q-Symphony technology is on hand to enable the speakers in the TV to join forces with those in Samsung’s latest soundbars, giving you a larger, clearer, more accurately positioned soundstage than either the TV or the soundbar could manage by itself.

True Progress

While OLED TVs have understandably earned themselves a huge fanbase of devoted home cinema fans over the years, each generation of improvements has typically tended to be more evolutionary than revolutionary. This is because these incremental enhancements have been built more on processing than on major hardware advances.

Now though, by bringing together the key hardware strengths of the previously separate OLED and LCD TV worlds, the Samsung S95B range is a quantum leap forwards in TV technology.

For more information visit Samsung

(1) Not all languages, accents, dialects and expressions recognised. Supported languages may differ between Bixby, Alexa and Google Assistant. Control and functionality varies depending on voice assistant. Internet required. Data and subscription charges may apply. Services are subject to change without notice at any time. (2) Available apps are subject to change. Subscriptions and internet connection required. (3) The quality of sound effects may vary depending on the source content, installation and environmental characteristics (e.g. ceiling).