Welcome to T3’s Samsung Q950TS review – our in-depth look at Samsung’s latest flagship TV and a showcase of what its QLED 8K screen technology can achieve. We tested the Samsung QE75Q950TS, which is the 75 inch model, although you can also get it in 65 and 85 inch versions in the UK.
The Q950TS is Samsung’s latest attempt to sell you something you didn’t know you wanted. 8K still struggling to find its place in the world – the idea of 33 million pixels of detail (versus 8 million pixels suddenly tiny in 4K) sounds tempting, but there isn’t a battery 8K content to watch, and the flooding is unlikely to happen soon.
• 8K TV explained: what you can see and the best TVs
• The best TVs of all kinds
But Samsung sees a world that doesn’t depend so much on content that is exactly the right format for your screen. While it actually works to help make 8K the default resolution for broadcasters and streaming services as soon as possible, it also aims to make its 8K TVs the best 4K TVs you can buy.
Its AI-based upscaling technology is meant to make Netflix, Amazon Prime Video Disney + and everything you watch much better – more detailed and more realistic – than even the best 4K TVs can handle.
Can this be true?
Samsung Q950TS Review: Price and Specifications
The Q950TS is Samsung’s flagship QLED 8K range for 2020. In the UK, it is available in screen sizes of 65 and 85 inches as well as in the £ 7,999 £ 75 inch variant we are testing here. The 65-inch version costs just £ 5,999, while the 85-inch screen is yours for a staggering £ 11,999.
• Buy the Currys Samsung 65Q950TS for £ 5,999
• Buy the Samsung 65Q950TS from Appliances Direct for £ 5,999
• Buy the Currys Samsung 85Q950TS for £ 11,999
• Buy the Samsung 85Q950TS from Appliances Direct for £ 11,999
In the United States, only the 85-inch version of this specific model will be available, for $ 12,999. However, the United States will get a different version of this TV in other sizes, called Q900TS – we’ll see how they differ in a moment, but the picture quality and the technology inside are exactly the same, what which is the important part. The Q900TS is available in 65 inches for $ 5,499, 75 inches for $ 7,499 or 85 inches for $ 9,999.
• Buy the Samsung 65Q900TS from Best Buy for $ 5,499
• Buy the Samsung Buy 75Q900TS from Best Buy for $ 7,499
• Buy the Best Buy Samsung 85Q900TS for $ 9,999
When it comes to features, the 75Q950TS is as comprehensive as you would expect a flagship TV from a world brand to be.
There’s this huge resolution, of course – information is power, after all, and the more pixels your TV contains, the more its potential for detail, accuracy, precision, and all of the other critical disciplines of creating images is great.
Then there is connectivity. The Samsung has dual band Wi-Fi on board, of course, and when it comes to physical connections, you’re watching four HDMI inputs (one of which is HDMI 2.1 compatible), three USB jacks, an RF antenna, and satellite TV. satellite stations, an ethernet input and a digital optical output. What is particularly nice and practical about them, however, is the fact that Samsung has removed them from the TV.
All of the connectivity and related hardware, including power, is housed in a fairly large enclosure called One Connect, which connects to the screen itself using a single thin umbilical cable. So the 75Q950TS is less of a problem for wall mounting and seems less crowded once it’s up there than any other massive TV you want to mention.
This is where we come to the variant version – the Q900TS, which will be available in certain territories, including the United Kingdom and the United States. It’s exactly the same for quality and image processing, but doesn’t include the external One Connect box – instead, all the ports are on the TV, like with most other devices. This makes the TV a bit thicker, but it will also be cheaper, as you saw in the US versions above – we have seen retailers list £ 6,999 for the 75-inch version and £ 4,999 for the 65 version. inches.
• Buy the Currys Samsung 65Q900TS for £ 4,999
• Buy the Samsung 65Q900TS from Appliances Direct for £ 4,999
• Buy the Currys Samsung 75Q900TS for £ 6,999
• Buy the Samsung 75Q900TS from Appliances Direct for £ 6,999
Each standard Dolby Vision HDR bar is supported here, and Samsung’s ability to control each of its 480 full backlight areas to an individual level means that the Q950TS has the best chance of delivering deep black tones, bright and bright, clean whites even if they share the same scene.
When it comes to sound, Samsung has taken some pretty decisive action to respond to criticism of the audio quality of its 2019 8K TVs. Here it has deployed something called “Object Motion Tracking +” – it’s basically an array of eight loudspeaker drivers arranged roughly in a 4.2.2 configuration. These are two mid-range pilots and two low frequency pilots deployed near the bottom of the screen, two mid-range pilots at the top and a high frequency pilot on each side of the screen halfway up.
With this arrangement, Samsung intends to offer a larger sound presentation than that generally associated with flat-screen TVs, and to offer a certain level of audio tracking of screen movements at the same time.
(Of course, anyone with £ 8,000 for a TV that burns a hole in their pocket should definitely have an audio system to make these pictures a little fair – but Samsung should still be commended for their efforts.)
Samsung Q950TS Review: image performance
As already mentioned, the native 8K content is distinguished only by its absence. So the fact that the few minutes of 8K USB-mounted stuff from this test TV are stunning in its levels of detail, the strength of the contrasts and the effortlessly controlled movement are, frankly, neither here nor there.
What the 75Q950TS needs to do is increase 4K and Full HD content to the kind of standard that will make a reasonable price of € 7,999.
Fortunately, the Samsung turns out to be an extraordinarily powerful upscaler. It doesn’t matter if you feed in 4K from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or via an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, it absolutely maximizes the potential of the content.
Much of this remarkable display of strength is due to the work Samsung has done with AI and machine learning. The processing of the Q950TS was trained on a colossal image database, against which it is able to cross the images that it is asked to display – which makes its scaling more precise and convincing , and also continuously builds relevant knowledge of the TV. On a technological level alone, it is deeply impressive.
This ever-increasing refinement of screen scaling is complemented endlessly by the quality of its backlight. Because it is a full screen, with lighting behind its pixels on the entire screen rather than just around the edges (as some less efficient and cheaper screens deploy), the Samsung is capable to show real dexterity when it comes to the light and shade of the images he produces.
There are 480 discrete areas where it can dim the backlight to make the blacks in this part of the image really black. It’s a lot Dimming zones and being able to control each of them individually is remarkable.
What this means for the viewer is that the screen can generate intense peak brightness levels far beyond what any OLED TV can achieve, keeping the white tones bright, clean and detailed. while avoiding laundering.
This means that the black tones are deep and shiny, but lively with nuances and details. And that means the 75Q950TS can do it even when blacks and whites share the same screen. Combined with a gratifying lack of reflectivity of the screen itself, as well as an excellent quality of off-axis vision, this means that the Samsung looks accomplished from the start.
And in all the other aspects of imaging, the Q950TS simply impresses. It can provide a remarkably wide palette of colors, so no shade of shade is too fine to escape. It serves skin tones and textures with confidence, making the complexion as wet or as strong as possible.
It manages movements, both fast and quiet, with complete authority, monitoring movements on the screen (in all directions) without alarm. And it also generates a plausible depth of field, so that large panoramic scenes are deep enough to be credible.
The edges are drawn smoothly and the image noise is reduced to an absolute minimum. Only images of consistent, uninterrupted color – a large Arizona sky, for example, or a soccer field – can betray the 75Q950TS how advanced its conversion engine is with small imperfections.
Lower the quality to some standard Full HD via BBC iPlayer or a 1920×1080 Blu-ray disc and the Samsung is, if anything, even more impressive. There’s no absolute confidence in the evidence like with 4K hardware, of course – the edges may flicker, the slow panning movement lacks a bit of certainty, and the picture noise goes from rumor to a sweet, but certain fact.
But consider this: the 75Q950TS takes just over 2 million pixels of information and transforms it into an image of more than 33 million pixels. Keep this in mind and the slight sweetness and relative lack of detail in these images is insignificant.
Samsung Q950TS Review: sound quality
This is not an area of total success like image quality. There’s no question that the 75Q950TS looks larger, more spacious, and better separated than the standard flat-screen TV – and it’s also true to say that sound follows the movement around the screen, although somewhat vaguely.
But the most obvious thing about how the Samsung sounds is that it is hard, flat and shiny to the point of being uncomfortable. This uncompromising sound signature is about as inappropriate for the luxury of the images it accompanies as one can imagine.
As we said before, we doubt that those who plan so much for a TV will not find money for a separate speaker system, so that shouldn’t ultimately affect the thing for which you actually got the TV, but this reminds you that yes, you should buy one of the best sound bars, or full surround sound or a Dolby Atmos system.
Samsung Q950TS: design and user-friendliness
The design of the Q950TS is remarkable for several reasons. Of course, everything everyone wants from their expensive new TV is as much screen as they can accommodate and little else – and the Samsung offers.
Its bezel is a surprisingly short width of 2mm, which means that it is – for all intents and purposes – invisible when you are seated at an appropriate distance from the screen.
And the depth of the chassis is almost as remarkable. Because Samsung’s QLED technology requires a backlight, it will never be as thin as the OLED alternatives it wants to spoof.
• OLED vs QLED: the technologies explained
But because Samsung has removed so many electric gobbins from the frame and put them in the One Connect box instead, there is no OLED-style bulge or extrusion here. Instead, the 75Q950TS has a constant depth of 15mm across its entire chassis. So even if it is not thin, it is thinner than a laptop. Which is practically the same thing on this scale.
The control is done via a small heavy remote control comprising only the number of necessary buttons. It feels upscale in hand, and Samsung has somehow managed to make the button presses feel, which is no small task. And it’s also possible to operate the Q950TS using voice control from Amazon Alexa, with Google Assistant in the pipeline as well.
Whichever way you choose to operate the screen, you will gain access to one of the nicest user interfaces in all of TV country. Samsung’s Tizen-based operating system has seen its background color change from white to pale blue for 2020, but in all other respects, Samsung has left a winning formula on its own.
This OS is logical, fast, intuitive, thoughtfully laid out, and easy to customize – and includes every useful TV / streaming catch-up service app (up to Apple TV with AirPlay 2 and Disney + included) as well as a full stack of ‘less prestigious alternatives.
Samsung Q950TS Review: final verdict
There is no doubt that the Samsung Q950TS is a niche choice. It is extremely expensive and it is specified far beyond any broadcast or broadcast standard.
And yet, the 75Q950TS is convincing: it’s tall, but unobtrusive compared to mainstream TV standards, and it makes 4K content more beautiful than most flagship 4K TVs can handle. It’s the best 4K TV on the planet right now – being an 8K TV is also almost a bonus. It is a demonstration of the current state of television.
Samsung Q950TS Review: The Alternative Choices
Samsung q90r
If you want something closer to HDR and the incredible contrast performance of this package, but with 4K, we highly recommend the Samsung Q90R – but keep in mind that this is last year’s model , so the treatment is slightly less advanced (not a lot of problem, because it’s not 8K), and it won’t stay long either! A 2020 version of the Q90R is coming (called the Q90T), but it’s actually not as highly specified as the 2019 model, so if you like the sound, don’t delay!
• Read our full review of the five-star Samsung Q90R
Samsung QE55Q90R (2019) QLED …
Samsung QE65Q90R (2019) QLED …
Samsung QE75Q90R 75 “4K UHD …
Samsung Q800T
Samsung is introducing a second 8K TV this year – the Q800T has the same processor and smart platform, and this colorful and detailed 8LED QLED panel, but the backlight is less bright and has fewer dimming zones. It’s still very high end, but just as high end as the Q950TS for HDR performance. But you’ll still get better upscaling than 4K, so if you want to go big but for a little less money, this is a really strong option.