The world’s first QD-OLED TV might not be a game-changer, but it is still brilliant
Here it is; arguably the biggest development in OLED TV technology since LG launched the first 55in OLED TV roughly ten years ago. QD-OLED, which is (broadly speaking) designed to blend the best qualities of both OLED and QLED, is finally here in the form of Sony’s A95K.
OLED has become the premium TV technology of choice thanks to its perfect blacks, pixel-level contrast control, near-perfect viewing angles, super-thin designs and increasingly aggressive pricing, and QD-OLED is expected to overcome its main limitation – brightness.
If you are therefore expecting the A95K to be vastly brighter than the current OLED norm, you might be slightly disappointed. In fact, it’s fair to say that the first QD-OLED TV isn’t a huge leap in quality over the best standard OLED TVs you can currently buy. It is better, though, and that makes it a truly exceptional TV.
The 55in A95K we are reviewing (XR-55A95K to give its full title) is priced at £2699 at launch. That makes it significantly more expensive than Samsung’s 55in S95B (£2399), with which it shares a panel. Samsung’s Display division is, as it happens, currently the only manufacturer of QD-OLED TV panels, just as LG Display manufactures all the panels used in standard OLED TVs.
Sony has designed the A95K to be as minimalist as possible. With the stand in its default position behind the TV, all you see from the front is the screen surrounded on three sides by a 7-8mm bezel and on the bottom by a thicker lip that houses elements such as the IR receiver and far-field microphones, and which displays a very subtle Sony logo. In this position, the set has a slight lean backwards that should compensate for it standing lower on your furniture than would a TV with a more typical stand.
Alternatively, the stand can be positioned in front of the screen so that the TV can be positioned more or less flush against a wall. To these eyes that’s actually the more striking of the two positioning options, but which will suit you will depend on your room and furniture. Wall-mounting is of course also an option, with the stand detaching entirely.
Interesting design
At 4.3cm the A95K is just a smidge thinner than the LG C2 (4.5cm) but a fair bit thicker than the G2 (2.5cm). Because the plastic chassis section at the back covers more of the set’s rear than is typical of an OLED, it could possibly be mistaken for a backlit TV, with only a small section of OLED super-slimnes
