Samsung CES 2023: New OLED TVs and monitors, projectors and everything else announced today
Samsung reminds us why it makes so much of our display tech
➡️ The Shortcut Skinny: OLED the way!
💪 New Samsung QD-OLED with 144Hz, bigger size option, better speakers
💰 Samsung Micro LED now in smaller sizes, probably still so, so pricey
👁️ New 8K Samsung TV to be super bright with more local dimming zones
♻️ The Frame (2023) has optional rotating frame for portrait/landscape art display
📽️ New Freestyle projector has modular screens, Premiere laser projector is 8K
↩️ Samsung releasing a gigantic, 8K-ish curved gaming monitor
⬛️ The company also announced a QD-OLED curved gaming monitor
🖌️ Samsung targets creatives with new 27” 5K monitor
Samsung brought out the big (screen) guns at CES, and it sounds like there are some impressive – and incredibly expensive – things in store from the company with some of the best gaming monitors around. The company followed up last year’s well-received OLED TV with a new model, showed off an unreasonably large curved Mini LED gaming monitor (and a small-only-by-comparison-but-still-huge OLED one), and threw down the gauntlet for Apple’s precious creator class with a new professional 5K monitor. It also showed off an unreasonably large gaming monitor.
We’ve got the first details below, and will be updating with our in-person impressions from an on-the-ground expert soon.
Samsung Televisions
• Samsung OLED 4K TV (S95C)
The follow-up to last year’s S95B is a new QD-OLED TV, the Samsung OLED 4K TV S95C, that ups the ante with a larger, 77-inch screen option – the previous version came in only 55- and- 65-inch sizes. Its panel is still very thin, at under half an inch thick, but the actual guts of the TV now live in the stand, rather than in a lump that expanded last year’s model’s depth to 1.6 inches.
The Samsung S95C now has a 144Hz refresh rate, 0.1ms response time (ideal for gaming and animated content), and Samsung continues to be the only brand with built-in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate cloud gaming support – you supply the controller. The sound has been updated with built-in 70-watt 4.2.2 Dolby Atmos top speakers.
• Samsung Neo QLED models
Samsung announced key 4K and 8K updates to its Neo QLED lineup: the QN95C and the QN900C, respectively. For the Samsung Neo QLED 4K TV (QN95C), the company says its new flagship QLED 4K will be brighter than before, with new dimming capabilities for better contrast. Like the S95C, the internals have been moved to the stand, accentuating its thinness when viewed from the side.
The Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV (QN900C) gets a huge increase in local dimming zones, with around 1,000 zones versus just 36 in the previous model. Together with the now 4,000-nit brightness, high contrast scenes viewed in HDR10+ could look incredible. I’d be concerned about more blooming around bright objects with that level of shine.
• Samsung Micro LED
Micro LED is a step closer to being a feasible reality for the mass public with the new Samsung Micro LED CX, in sizes ranging from 50 inches up to 140 inches. The smaller sizes are worth tempered celebration, as Samsung says it will be the “most affordable Micro LED screen,” although that doesn’t mean you can buy one all willy-nilly – the Samsung Micro LEDs available now start well over $100,000.
The new Samsung Micro LED CX features a 240Hz refresh rate, 4,000 nits peak brightness, 2-nanosecond response time, a 4K resolution and the 76-inch-and-under models are the first that don’t require professional installation, so there’s that.
• The Frame
The Frame TV, which is designed to look like an art frame, rather than a piece of electronics, has gotten new wood finishes and an available automatically-rotating mount that shifts based on whether it’s displaying portrait- or- landscape-aligned artwork. Samsung has also updated its Art Store, where you can go pick up artwork for The Frame and, apparently, NFTs. Should they call them NFTVs? I would.
• The Freestyle
The 2023 version of The Freestyle, Samsung’s can-shaped portable projector is now modular, allowing you to pair them to create larger pictures, using a feature it calls “Edge Blending.” The Freestyle also gets access to the Samsung Gaming Hub, with over 1,000 cloud games, including those on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
• The Premiere
Finally, Samsung introduced a new 8K version of its short-throw laser projector, The Premiere. Capable of putting a 150-inch 8K image up onto any wall from just millimeters away, The Premiere continues to be one of the more intriguing offerings in Samsung’s lineup, if pricey (the 4K version starts at $3,499.99). It’s likely the 8K version won’t change that.
• Soundbars
Samsung announced a couple new soundbars to go with its TVs – the HW-G60C and HW-Q990C. HW-G60C first has integrated microphones for gaming voice chat or video calls, supports AirPlay 2 and Chromecast, and offers RGB lighting. The HW-Q990C, Samsung says, will use AI smarts to tune audio to your room or dynamically adjust the mix of a movie or game to enhance dialogue or set what it feels is a complementary “sound field mode” for a given genre.
Samsung monitors
• Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 (G95NC)
Samsung’s Odyssey monitors are seeing big upgrades this year, starting with the Odyssey Neo G9. The Neo G9 is a huge 57-inch 32:9 monitor with a 7,680 x 2,160 resolution – essentially the top half of an 8K TV. It uses Mini LED backlighting, so I’d expect high contrast and good-to-great HDR performance, hopefully with minimal blooming, but we’ll leave it to our on-the-ground team to fill us in there. Other details include a matte finish, 240Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, and support for the new DisplayPort 2.1 standard.
Samsung says it’ll debut later this year.
• Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC)
Also coming next year, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 is the first QD-OLED gaming monitor, and gets the same broad 32:9 aspect ratio spread out over a 49-inch 1800R curvature panel. Being QD-OLED, you can expect this monitor to be brighter than what normal OLEDs are capable of, and more durable, as one of the tech’s benefits is less burn-in, making it the right choice for OLED gaming, given the static screen elements often seen in games. Like the Neo G9, this will have a 240Hz refresh rate.
• ViewFinity S9 5K
It looks like Samsung is coming for Apple with its new 5K display, the ViewFinity S9, coming early this year. This new display, which offers a 5,120 x 2,880 resolution, 99% DCI-P3 color gamut, and promises very accurate colors, presents one more choice for creatives. It’ll have a detachable 4K camera and a calibration feature that uses your smartphone camera or the SmartThingsApp to tune the monitor’s color and brightness, a rotating mount, and smart TV features, to boot.