ESSENTIAL VIEWING
Samsung’s next-gen TV takes QD-OLED to new heights and delivers some of the best 4K HDR images we’ve ever seen
From £2,699, samsung.com
Samsung’s Quantum Dot (QD) OLED technology, has always promised brighter images and purer colours than traditional OLED. But this is the next level, producing a 40% increase in peak brightness. Wowzers.
Its second-generation Quantum Dot OLED (QD OLED) panel still combines a blue OLED with Quantum Dot layers to create the extra red and green sub-pixels, but cranks up the brightness by up to 40% over the S95B to deliver more impactful HDR. Samsung claims it offers a peak brightness of 1,400 nits – which is positively incandescent for an OLED panel.
And the measurements match the marketing claims, hitting 1,400 nits (on a 10% window; 274 nits on a full-field image). That’s exceptional for any OLED TV. The Samsung S95C impresses with its noticeably brighter QD-OLED panel and the use of Quantum Dots also generates colours that are purer, richer and more subtle.
When you combine the S95C’s improved brightness with OLED’s self-emissive pixels – which deliver inky blacks, detailed shadows, greater precision and incredibly wide viewing angles – you have a TV that can hold its own against any display technology. This is only enhanced further with the addition of a wide colour gamut that covers 100% of the DCI-P3 industry standard for HDR.
Of course, all these strengths are useless if they can’t be delivered in an accurate manner that meets the industry standards for video distribution. Thankfully there are no worries here, and in the Filmmaker Mode the S95C delivers a reference level of accuracy in HDR (and in standard SDR, too). The tone mapping is also spot on, too, unlike the earlier S95B model. The S95C supports HDR10, hybrid log-gamma (HLG) and HDR10+ (Adaptive and Gaming), but sadly Samsung still doesn’t offer Dolby Vision.
Another improvement is its new screen filter that rejects ambient light without adversely affecting the black levels and contrast performance. The tone mapping has also been improved to ensure the blacks aren’t crushed and the highli
