NEXT-GEN TELEVISION
Samsung would like you to buy an 8K TV this year. But why would you, when their flagship 4K QLED performs like this?
We review the top new 65-inchers: LG’s GX OLED and Samsung’s Q95T
Now pay attention, because the following introduction may confuse you. It certainly confused us. TV model numbers are hard to follow at the best of times. Samsung’s changes from year to year are usually reasonably easy to follow, but this time — well, brace yourself.
Last year’s 4K flagship QLED TV from Samsung was the Q90R. Looking at this year’s line-up, you might think it has been replaced by not one but two models: this Q95T and — in some countries but not Australia — the Q90T. The main difference between these two is the ‘One Connect’ system, which routes all connections down a neat single wires to a separate box. The Q95T has the One Connect system but the Q90T goes without. Happily we have the Q95T.
So far so good for Australia. But Samsung, perhaps trying to push the move to 8K resolution, which we still reckon to be largely unnecessary, claims that the real successor to the Q90R is the 8K Q800T, while the Q95R is a replacement for last year’s Q85R set.
Still following? It seems a nonsense — Samsung had 8K available last year, and the replacement for a 4K QLED flagship is clearly the next 4K QLED flagship — this Q95T. So let’s pass over this hopeful marketing attempt to push us up to 8K, and just enjoy what Samsung’s 2020 4K flagship has to offer.
Because it’s a goodie, although in some ways — notably local dimming zones — it’s a downgrade on last year’s top 4K model. On the other hand, its starting price is much lower than where last year’s Q90R started (it ended up is a whole bag cheaper, if you care to catch the run-outs of 2019 sets still out there, as we suggested two issues ago — don’t say we didn’t give you notice!).
But taken on its own merits, the new Q95 is still an excellent performer in its own right.
Equipment
This is, again, a QLED model with a direct full-array backlight. But the number of dimming zones — which governs the accuracy with which the backlighting can boost certain areas over others — has indeed dropped to something closer to that of last year’s Q85R. And when we say dropped, we might say slashed — we understand the Q95T to have only around a quarter of the number behind the Q90R. That could have a big impact on contrast. But the Q95T gains an anti-glare screen, and also has the wide viewing angle tech that Samsung introduced last year.
In addition there’s also a new version of the Quantum Processor 4K, with new features such as Ultimate Precision Processing, designed to reduce banding in lower resolution content, and upgrades to existing features such as Texture Creation for increased perceived detail.
We’re not much for using the built-in sound of TVs, preferring a decent hi-fi or receiver system, but the Q95 has had its sound system considerably improved over either last year’s Q90R or Q85R. Samsung calls this ‘4.2.2’, which looks like a Dolby Atmos configuration, but it’s not; they just mean it has four midrange drivers, two woofers and two tweeters. The TV itself doesn’t reproduce Atmos soundtracks at all, though thanks to its HDMI eARC (the enhanced version of HDMI’s Audio Return Channel) it can pass Atmos through to a connected sound system which can.
That HDMI eARC is part of the HDMI 2.1 specification. Samsung TVs aren’t officially certified for HDMI 2.1, but they support VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode), 4K at up to 120Hz refresh rates and dynamic metadata (HDR10+ but not Dolby Vision). Indeed we think the only missing part of the HDMI 2.1 specification is support for 8K. And this is a 4K TV, so duh.
There are a healthy four HDMI sockets, two USB-A slots, a composite AV connection, plus Ethernet, an optical audio output and aerial/ cable connections, all made to the One Connect box and sent to the TV through that impossibly thin cable, which also carries power. No TV-adjacent power socket required. Nice.
Gamers can revel in reduced input lag — the figure of 10ms is hard to beat. There are also a number of game-specific picture features ripe for experimentation.
The remote is a stylish stripped-back silver device with a built-in microphone for operation via Bixby, Alexa or Google Assistant.
Performance
This TV is certainly a looker in the flesh, a tad thicker than last year’s flagship but still a picture-frame of a TV when wall-mounted, or looking like a giant iMac on its pedestal stand. It uses Samsung’s excellent Tizen operating system, which has barely changed for 2020: colours tweaked, icons smaller. It’s excellent in its provision of apps, with all five catch-up services plus Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Apple TV (rent or buy, plus AppleTV+), Google Play, Kayo, Foxtel (coming soon) and Stan. There’s also AirPlay 2 on board, which makes it easy to throw video to the TV from an Apple device.
The default settings engage the power-saving features — good for the environment, but not the optimum for picture quality. Turn them off. The Adaptive Picture setting (in the Intelligent Mode menu) adjusts the image to ambient lighting conditions, but since that also reduces the ability to accurately calibrate the set, we switched that off as well.
If you are watching HDR content and using the Standard preset, do experiment with Local Dimming settings — our preference was to switch from Standard to High, even though doing so disables the Active Tone Mapping. ‘High’ produced a slightly punchier picture, and avoids some flicker on bright objects on dark backgrounds, such credits. Some haloing is still evident.
Samsung seems to have worked on its motion processing, and the Custom setting takes the native naturalism of the TV’s handling and adds smoother sharper pans without introducing any shimmer or artificiality. This is a significant improvement on previous models.
The brightest parts of the Q95T’s picture are notably less bright than those of the Q90R, presumably a function of reduced dimming zones, but there’s still plenty of punch, particularly with Local Dimming set to High. Colours have depth and richness to them; the picture is fantastically solid without appearing forced, and the detail allows images to be clear and textured but never exaggerated.
Black levels are excellent, too: almost (but not) as deep as OLED, with more than enough detail to dig up the slimy textures and reflections in the sewers beneath the streets of Derry when we spin the 4K Blu-ray of It. There’s no hint of blooming, leakage or any other inconsistencies to the backlight, either.
With the 1080p Blu-ray of Drive the Q95T continues to deliver, although we reduced the Sharpness setting, switched the Contrast Enhancer to High and reduced Shadow Detail. The result was delightful, again punchy and deep, rich and vibrant. Detail levels were again superb, with every hair and wrinkle of Bryan Cranston face resolved.
Conclusion
This is an improvement on the Q90R in practically every way. It doesn’t go quite as bright, and HDR images sizzle a little less as a result, but its performance is richer, more solid and more natural. It’s a significant step forward in terms of motion processing. We think it’s disappointing that some technologies have been reserved for 8K only, to persuade you to make the resolution leap upwards. We’d say don’t bother. This might not be the flagship 4K set we were expecting, and we would have loved to have seen the best 4K TV Samsung could really make, but the Samsung QA65Q95T is still an excellent performer.