The Samsung Q950T has a nice design with an almost invisible frame and the picture quality looks great, especially with 8K video, which is the hallmark of this TV. Read on the following Samsung Q950TS 8K QLED TV review to know more about this device.
Samsung Q950TS 8K QLED TV Review
1. Design
The Q950TS represents a new design twist that Samsung itself has named the Infinity Display. The name refers to the so-called “infinity pool” – a pool in which the water seems to continue nonstop towards the horizon.
Although TV screens have gradually become thinner over the years, the frames themselves are usually 1-2 cm wide. It is both for protecting the image panel as well as visually framing images.
The Samsung Q950TS has an edge-to-edge image – known as an infinity display. On the Q950TS, they tried to keep the frame down to a minimum: a thin millimeter strip of brushed steel was the only thing surrounding the image panel, just 1.5 cm thick. It’s quite impressive, considering the display is closely coupled with an LCD panel, QLED color filter, and direct LED backlight, not to mention eight individual speaker units.
The sleek, frameless design is great, but also has a practical advantage: the TV itself takes up less space physically. The Q950TS comes in 65, 75, and 85-inch sizes, all of which are less outstanding in appearance than TVs with similar screen sizes.
2. Picture performance
Native 8K content is conspicuous only by its absence. So the fact that the few minutes of USB-mounted 8K stuff this review TV came with looks stunning in its detail levels, the strength of contrasts and effortlessly controlled motion is, frankly, neither here nor there.
What the 75Q950TS needs to do is upscale 4K and Full HD content to the sort of standard that’s going to make a £7,999 price tag seem reasonable.
Happily, the Samsung proves an extraordinarily capable upscaler. No matter if you feed in 4K stuff from Netflix, from Amazon Prime Video, or via an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, it absolutely maximizes the potential of the content.
A lot of this remarkable show of strength is down to the work Samsung has done with AI and machine learning. The Q950TS’ processing was trained on a colossal database of images, against which it is able to cross-reference the pictures it’s being asked to display – this makes it’s upscaling more accurate and convincing, and also constantly build the TV’s relevant knowledge.
There are 480 discrete zones where it can dim the backlight to make blacks in that part of the image look truly black. That’s a lot of dimming zones, and to be able to control each of them individually is notable.
It handles motion, both rapid and leisurely, with complete authority, tracking on-screen movement (in any direction) without alarms. And it generates plausible depth of field too, so big panoramic scenes are deep enough to be credible.
Edges are drawn smoothly, and picture noise is kept to an absolute minimum. Only images of unbroken, uniform color – a big Arizona sky, say, or a football pitch, can make the 75Q950TS betray just how much work its upscaling engine is getting through with small imperfections.
Step down in quality to some bog-standard Full HD via BBC iPlayer or a 1920×1080 Blu-ray disc and the Samsung is, if anything, even more impressive. There’s not absolute confidence in evidence as with 4K material, naturally enough – edges can shimmer, the slow-panning movement lacks a little certainty, and picture noise escalates from a rumor to a mild, but definite, fact.
3. Sound
You have to have some unique thought processes going on if you’re considering dropping a small fortune on a new TV yet not budgeting for an appropriate sound system to accompany it. But Samsung has nevertheless moved to address what was generally characterized as the ‘woeful’ sound of its 2019 8K models, by deploying something it’s calling ‘Object Tracking Sound +’.
Basically, this means an array of eight speaker drivers arranged in what Samsung’s describing as a ‘4.2.2’ arrangement.
In some respects, it’s reasonably successful. Certainly, the eight drivers and their 70 watts of total power produce a big, well-separated sound – and there’s undeniably a degree of motion-tracking along with it. But the sonic signature is quite hard and thin, and so inappropriate for the opulence of the images it’s accompanying it’s almost funny.
In conclusion, this is the detailed Samsung Q950TS 8K QLED TV review that you should consider before deciding to buy.
