8K Television of the Year
It’s true that we’ve spent the last two years telling readers not to buy an 8K television. There has been almost no 8K material to watch, and the difficulties of upscaling other material to 8K has meant that 8K TVs have been arguably inferior to the cheaper 4K equivalent. Times, however, change. The new Xbox and PlayStation consoles do support 8K, so now the TVs have a purpose. Samsung, meanwhile, has been rather clever in reserving a couple of its latest technologies only for its 8K TVs so that if you want the very best Samsung picture on the market, it’ll have to be an 8Ker.
Another trend playing into 8K’s hands is the continuing rise in screen sizes — again Samsung’s promotional bite that “75-inch is the new normal” is a clever one, because the bigger the screen, the more 8K makes sense (indeed below 75-inch, it really doesn’t). Think you can’t fit in a 75-inch TV? Of course you can. Put it on the wall. The $12,999 (pre-discounts) 75-inch Q950T comes with a wall-mounting kit, while also having one of the easiest-to-fit desk stands we’ve had the pleasure of fitting. The TV doesn’t have connections on the back or side — everything (4 HDMI ins and plenty more) attach to a separate box, with a single cable taking signals and power to the TV in Samsung’s simply brilliant ‘One Clear Cable’ solution (though it’s actually grey). When it’s not on, there are Ambient modes to display art, or mimic your wall colour to soften the black slab of screen.
Size is impressive on its own, but this TV’s picture quality brings it alive. Quantum dots deliver vivid and bright colours. The backlighting system is well-controlled to allow impressive black levels. There are both anti-glare and wide-viewing-angle screen layers, while the upscaling of all lesser resolutions is by far the best we’ve seen on an 8K screen, assisted by what Samsung calls ‘8K AI Upscaling’ (though it’s baked-in learning, rather than true AI). DVDs can end up a little fuzzy at this size, but standard and 4K Blu-rays look simply superb. The interface is also smart (too smart, sometimes, with its connection detecting), fast, voice-controllable, and able to stream everything from Freeview to Disney+ to Optus Sport direct to the TV.
It seems that 8K is coming of age, and the 75-inch Samsung Q950T has everything going for it. More info: www.samsung.com.au
It seems 8K is finally come of age, and Samsung’s 75-inch Q950T has everything going for it.