FIRST TEST SAMSUNG QE65S95D
The Korean giant is aiming to scorch past its TV rivals with the S95D, aQD-OLED set that makes big claims about brightness and colour
Like a particularly heated game of Hungry Hippos, there’s a four-way battle going on to be top of the telly pops –and Samsung has a pretty hefty appetite.
While Sony, LG and Philips have been fighting it out for the No1 spot, this new QD-OLED, which combines self-emissive blue OLEDs and quantum-dot filters for better brightness and colour, has a plan to sneak in and overtake them all.
It’s the Goldilocks-esque 65in version that’s on test here, but it also comes in 55in and 77in sizes, so you can scale up or down depending on how big your lounge is. They all come packing Samsung’s latest QD-OLED panel, which can hit 1700 nits of brightness and covers a massive 123% of the DCI-P3 colour standard. There’s also an upgraded NQ4 AI Gen2 processor inside that uses 20 individual neural networks and deep-learning algorithms to dig out all the details in every image, while also giving them the kind of depth you’d normally have to visit the bottom of the Mariana Trench for.
Gamers will be glad to see it supports 4K@120Hz, VRR and ALLM, but there’s also anew AI Auto Game Mode that tweaks the settings depending on the kind of game you’re playing.
So… do the usual suspects need to up their game to keep Samsung off the golden throne?
1 House of the Tizen fun
To set up your new S95D you use the Samsung SmartThings app, which also lets you choose either Bixby or Alexa as the onboard voice assistant. The Tizen OS is nicely intuitive, with all the usual streaming apps and HDR formats, although Dolby Vision is absent.
2 You sexy zing
To get the best out of this telly you need to engage Filmmaker mode. Watching The Flash on 4K disc, you get detailed images, wonderfully saturated colours and smooth motion. Upscaling is superb: Full HD could almost pass as 4K, and even SD is watchable.
3 Baby I don’t glare
Samsung has given the QD-OLED screen a glare-busting coating that diffuses light in multiple directions. It works brilliantly: you can aim a torch at the screen, like a hard-nosed detective interrogating a suspect, and barely get abeam bouncing back.
4 Killing in the game
The S95D is a cracking TV for gaming fans. As well as having four HDMI 2.1 ports it supports Freesync Premium and Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro 144Hz, and has a low-latency Game mode. As a result, gameplay is detailed, smooth and responsive.
5 Thump around
Considering the S95D’s slimline dimensions it’s a miracle that it sounds as good
