OLED TV Reviews

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Exceptional contrast
Bright, crosstalk-free 3D
Uniform picture at off-axis seats
Upgradeable One Connect box
Minus
Geometric distortion due to curved panel
Slight tinting from anti-reflective screen coating

THE VERDICT
While the curved screen prevents it from being our dream OLED, the exceptional performance of Samsung’s set points the way toward TV’s future.

Nothing elevates the pulse of an A/V enthusiast more readily than the prospect of new video display tech. I may be showing my age here, but I remember when the first plasma TVs made the rounds for review. Looked at next to today’s models, those sets were bulky (4 or more inches deep) and had poor contrast compared with the tube TVs they replaced. Many were plagued by banding artifacts that made pictures look like a paint-by-number kit.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
One of the brightest TVs you can buy
Deep gaming functionality
Relatively wide viewing angles
Mounts flat on a wall
Excellent cable management
Minus
65" model is pricey
Still no Dolby Vision
Quantum-dot OLED has its own charms

THE VERDICT
This sublime ultra-premium multi-use 4K TV has a modern minimalist design and delivers impressive imagery thanks to the use of mini-LED, quantum dots and advanced picture processing. Its premium performance comes at a price but it delivers the goods when it comes to image fidelity.

For the past ten years we've watched 4K LCD and OLED TVs compete in the wake of plasma's demise. There was the death of 3D. And for a while, we even had curved screens to contend with. At first OLED had a distinct picture quality advantage over LCDs, thanks to its use of emissive pixels that can fully shut off individually and deliver true blacks. However LED-lit LCD keeps evolving and keeping pace while offering a different set of benefits.

Samsung's name for mini-LED FALD LCD panels featuring quantum dots is Neo QLED. And the QN95C is king of the 4K Neo QLEDs.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Superb HDR
Outstanding contrast
Wide viewing angle
Minus
No Dolby Vision
Frustrating menus

THE VERDICT
An appealing price for what is essentially a new and ground-breaking application of OLED is almost as much of a surprise as how much Samsung has upped the ante on what we can expect from an OLED HDTV.

We've become so accustomed to what an OLED TV can do that we risk reciting its benefits in our sleep. Great black levels, check. Viewable with little picture change from as far off center as you might want to sit, double check. Bright enough for modestly lit to very dark rooms (but not a sun porch!), check. High prices? That too. But in the past few years, nothing dramatic has muscled its way into the OLED world, though prices have slowly become less intimidating—until now. Samsung, which for years resisted joining the OLED TV parade, has developed a relatively radical way to build an OLED display with Quantum Dot Technology.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics
Value

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Excellent contrast
Superb color and resolution
Looks good from every angle
Unique panel-based sound system
Minus
No color management system
Some white clipping

THE VERDICT
While it might appear that OLED UHDTVs are popping up everywhere, the most visible supplier to date has been LG. But Sony, by acquiring OLED panels from LG and adding its own electronics, processing, styling, and unique features, has jumped into the fray, landing firmly on both feet with a solid performer.

Sony’s new OLEDs (the 65-incher reviewed here has a 55-inch sibling, and a 77-incher will be available by press time) haven’t yet taken pride of place at the top of Sony’s TV lineup. That honor belongs to the Z9D (Sound & Vision, January 2017 and soundandvision.com), now spruced up with the imminent addition (as I write) of Dolby Vision for 2017. But you might think of the OLEDs as stepping stones to Sony’s future in self-emissive displays—the spectacular, commercially oriented, and wall-sized CLEDIS LED display Sony demonstrated at the 2017 CES comes to mind. But that’s the future. Sony’s OLEDs are now. As of today, Sony’s OLED implementation uses a panel supplied by LG (but with Sony’s own secret processing sauce). At its press-time street price of about $4,000 in the 65-inch version, it was roughly comparable, if not a touch less expensive, than LG’s own like-sized C7P model.