Jordan O'BrienSamsung has heralded its Quantum dot technology as its answer to LG’s much-loved OLED, but the technology has never quite lived up to those promises. At CES 2017, the South Korean technology juggernaut is back for another try and this time its preparing to usher in ‘the era of QLED’.
QLED is a technology that has been synonymous with Samsung, despite Sony having released the first model featuring the technology in 2013. Since then Samsung has been the most bullish when it comes to improving QLED, and its latest effort is a refined metal Quantum dot material.
Samsung says that by adding a new metal material to its nano-sized semiconductor Quantum dots, it is able to improve colour accuracy and luminance efficiency. This is something that LCD displays have been okay at, but when compared to the more expensive OLEDs on the market, they pale in comparison.
More people than ever are beginning to upgrade their ailing 1080p TVs with newer models, as more 4K content becomes available. This means Samsung is working harder than ever to impress customers and with its new line-up the company says it has achieved a massive leap in picture quality with its new sets capable of showcasing 100% colour volume from the DCI-P3 colour space.
Samsung’s new TVs are unlikely to be able to compete with OLED in terms of rich blacks, although at least colours will be far richer. That’s predominantly down to a higher peak luminance of between 1,500 and 2,000 – on last year’s sets Samsung capped its SUHD models to 1,000 nits.
While picture quality is something Samsung has worked hard at developing, the new TVs have one killer feature that installers are going to love. That’s because Samsung has eradicated cable clutter when hanging a TV on the wall. To do this the company has a separate breakout box which takes all the inputs and then connects to the TV through a new ‘invisible connection’ fibre optic cable.
In addition to eradicating visual clutter, Samsung has also developed a new ‘no-gap wall mount’. It has been specifically engineered for the QLED range and allows seamless mounting without any hardware sticking from the wall. To do this, Samsung has actually embedded the mount inside the back of the TV. Installers may find this extremely easy to work with, but Samsung is actually targeting DIYers; as once mounted users don’t even need to adjust the TV as it will automatically adjust the TV to sit perfectly straight.