On display at CES 2023, Samsung’s 2023 TV lineup is getting a wide variety of upgrades, including thinner designs, better sound systems, 4K cloud-based gaming, and some interesting health applications that the company is borrowing from its mobile division. Here’s everything you need to know.
MicroLED gets smaller, more affordable
Samsung was an early promoter of microLED display tech, which uses tiny LED lights as individual pixels instead of using them as the backlight on an LCD-based TV (LED TV, mini-LED TV). Unfortunately, microLED TVs have tended to be huge (starting at 110 inches), expensive, and somewhat limited in resolution at smaller sizes.
The company’s new Micro LED CX, at 76 inches, is its smallest yet, and Samsung promises it will also be the most affordable microLED TV ever released.
QD-OLED gets bigger
Samsung’s S95B was one of the first TVs based on QD-OLED technology when it was revealed at CES 2022. But with a maximum screen size of 65 inches, this dazzling 4K display seemed a bit small when compared to QLED and OLED models that can get as large as 98 inches. This year, QD-OLED grows up and out, with a new 77-inch size option for the S95C, and a few other bells and whistles, too.
Neo QLED continues to improve
Just because Samsung is getting serious about microLED and QD-OLED, don’t think it has forgotten about its primary money-makers, the mini-LED Neo QLED TVs. 2023 will see at least two major new models in this category. The QN95C is the company’s flagship 4K TV, and it’s been redesigned to house all of its connections inside the chassis of the TV itself, instead of within a backpack breakout box that the QN95B used.
We’re not yet sure what this means for wall-mounted options, but the stand-mount version should look even sleeker than before. But for a truly flexible mounting option, Samsung has made its entire TV lineup compatible with the Auto Rotating Wall Mount & Stand — the same motorized unit that lets The Sero TV switch from portrait to landscape in seconds.
The QN95C also gets new dimming and 14-bit processing for claimed improvements in brightness and grayscale control, leading to the more accurate rendering of both luminance and details.
All of Samsung’s 2023 Neo QLED models also benefit from the company’s new Auto HDR Remastering AI tech, which can analyze and apply HDR effects to SDR material in real-time, on a scene-by-scene basis, which should make almost everything you watch look a lot better.
Finally, the QN95C takes a page from Sony’s 2022 playbook and comes with a webcam. The camera is primarily used for videoconferencing and workouts, but it also works with Health Monitor, an in-home, smart TV version of the company’s mobile health monitoring app. According to Samsung, the camera can analyze and measure five key vital signs: heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, and stress index, through a technique known as remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), an “intelligent computer vision technology that assesses vital signs by detecting changes in facial skin color caused by heartbeats.”
Samsung’s 8K flagship, and, in its own words “crafted to be the ideal television,” is the QN900C. It picks up where 2022’s QN900B left off, with even better picture quality thanks to a big jump in backlight control. Our reviewer was deeply impressed with the QN900B‘s ability to generate deep blacks and super-bright images, with virtually no light leakage, but that TV only had 36 areas of local dimming control. The QN900C ups that number to an astonishing 1,000 areas.
Like the QN95C, the QN900C gets 14-bit contrast, but it’s the 900C’s brightness that will likely be the scene-stealer: a claimed eyeball-searing 4,000 nits. On the audio side of the equation, Samsung seems to be stretching the 8K moniker past the breaking point: its so-called “8K Sound Remastering” technology is intended to solve “the mismatch between theatrically mastered audio and home listening environments.” No idea what mismatch the company is referring to, but we can’t wait to hear what it does.
Samsung will also be launching the 8K QN800C in 2023, but so far we haven’t received any details on this model — just a few images that make it appear identical to the QN900C.
Smart home built-in, free TV, 4K cloud gaming, and more
Samsung’s 2023 TVs will be smarter than ever, and we mean that literally. The company will be including its SmartThings Zigbee & Matter Thread One-Chip Module on-board, effectively eliminating the need for a SmartThings Hub if you own a new Samsung TV.
Samsung TV Plus, the free, ad-supported TV and on-demand service on Samsung’s smart TVs, now has over 1,800 channels globally.
In 2022, Samsung added the Gaming Hub to its Tizen-powered TVs, bringing impressive cloud-based gaming directly to a TV, no console required. For 2023, Gaming Hub will now recognize when you also have a console connected, like a PlayStation or Xbox, and show those devices to you as options within the Hub. There will also be support for 4K gaming from Nvidia GeForce Now — the first time the higher resolution has been offered.
In addition to the Health Monitor app we mentioned above, Samsung is adding Samsung Telemedicine to its smart TVs, an app that lets folks set up online teleconference appointments with doctors. After the appointment, Samsung says people can rate their experience, schedule a follow-up, or fill a prescription remotely and have it delivered.
With Relumino Mode, Samsung takes its mobile-based low-vision solution and applies it directly to a TV. It uses Samsung-developed artificial intelligence to dynamically outline the edges of on-screen elements and rebalance colors, which helps those with low vision to better see people, objects, and text.
Also returning to Samsung smart TVs is its Art Store, now with a new user interface and a collection of 8K resolution NFTs, and its Chat Together feature which allows real-
time communications while watching live TV, on the TV, Android, and iOS devices.
