In a sneaky announcement, Samsung has casually launched the S95D OLED TV, the follow-up to one of its best TVs. Its mission: combatting bright living rooms.
New anti-glare technology is the big selling point for Samsung’s newest 4K TV, coming hot on the heels of LG’s 2024 TV launch. It uses a new low-reflection coating on the TV panel, designed to minimise reflections, whether it be from indoor lights or the afternoon sun filtering in. OLEDs tend not to be the brightest displays going around, so anything that staves off glare should improve the viewing experience.
To back up its anti-glare claims, Samsung sought out independent testing from Underwriters Laboratories (UL), the folks behind computer benchmarking software like PCMark and 3DMark. UL verified the S95D as “Glare Free” based on a set of international standards. In other words, the Samsung S95D OLED should be pretty good at handling bright rooms.
Brighter and smarter
HDR brightness is another area Samsung iterated on with the S95D. The TV uses a technology called “Quantum HDR OLED Pro”, which is said to be up to 70% brighter than the technology in the S95C.
This brightness boost applies when watching HDR10+ content, which is supported by the S95D. Samsung still doesn’t support Dolby Vision, unlike other brands, although there’s not much difference between Dolby’s tech and HDR10+.
Samsung’s OLEDs, like 2023’s S95C model, approach lighting a bit differently to most. It’s still a self-illuminating technology that lights up pixels individually, but the brand combines its Quantum Dot tech with OLED, producing a hybrid TV of sorts.
According to Samsung, the S95D uses more than eight million pixels made from three subpixels: Quantum Dot red and green, and OLED blue. The brand claims that this combination, alongside its Neural Quantum 4K processor, produces highly accurate colours.
There’s also support for 144Hz variable refresh rate gaming, with HDMI 2.1 ports in tow. Baked into the Samsung Tizen operating system, the S95D OLED also has a dedicated gaming hub. Here, you’ll find quick access to gaming apps, like the Xbox cloud streaming platform.
LG made a big step forward when it announced ongoing operating system updates for TVs new and old. Samsung hasn’t revealed its hand yet in terms of Tizen updates, so we’ll need to wait and see if it adopts a similar strategy.
Samsung S95D OLED release date and price
Hitting Australian retailers starting on 18 March, the S95D starts at $4,640 for the 55-inch model. With 55, 65, and 77-inch versions available, here’s how much each one costs:
The pricing is almost identical to last year’s OLED TVs, while LG made plenty of noise about its reduced prices across many of this year’s models. Being Samsung’s premium OLED TV, the most like-for-like comparison with the S95D would be the LG G4 OLED, which starts at $4,199. Of course, these are just recommended retail prices, so retailers will set their own costs accordingly.
Surely, it won’t be long now until we see the full Samsung TV range first shown at CES 2024. In the meantime, if the S95D lives up to its anti-glare label, it’ll address one of the few shortcomings of OLED TVs, which are otherwise brilliant for all types of content.
Who asked for a matte coating I don’t think anyone wants this terrible idea.